THE HOLLOW VALE BECKONS
The Hollow Vale didn't appear on any current maps, only in faded parchments buried beneath Silvercrest's library. It was spoken of in the same tone as curses, a place where time withered and wolves vanished. The Moon never rose there. The stars dimmed. And the air was so still it choked.
But it called to Luna.
Three days after returning from the Realm of Ancients, Luna and her chosen warriors set out for the Vale.
Kael walked to her left, silent and sharp-eyed.
Asher on her right, loyal but watchful.
Rae scouted ahead. Nyla brought the fire. Brin, calm and determined, carried the lunar ward stones.
The deeper they traveled, the more the landscape changed.
Trees grew bent, twisted toward the ground like they mourned something. Rivers ran black and slow. Birds didn't sing.
By the second day, their wolves grew restless. Luna's own wolf paced behind her ribs.
Something was wrong.
Even the land remembered pain.
When they reached the Vale's edge, the fog thickened, stretching like fingers toward them. Luna stepped forward, pressing her hand against the veil.
A ripple passed through her.
Her wolf whimpered.
"This place knows us," she said.
Kael unsheathed his blade. "It's watching."
They entered.
The Hollow Vale felt like stepping into a dream left to rot. The air was heavy. Shadows shifted without cause. And the trees… they bled.
Literally.
Brin knelt by one and gasped. "This isn't sap. It's blood."
Rae crouched nearby. "Or something pretending to be."
They traveled for hours. No direction felt right. The path curved back on itself. Night and day blurred.
Eventually, they reached a clearing where the trees opened like a wound.
At its center stood a spire of obsidian. Black, cold, humming with power.
"The source," Luna whispered.
Suddenly, the fog parted.
Morrigan stood at the base of the spire, draped in red.
Alive.
"Welcome home," she said.
Kael stepped in front of Luna.
Morrigan raised a hand. "I come in peace."
"You tried to kill her," Asher growled.
"I tried to make her stronger."
Luna stepped forward. "Why did you bring me here?"
Morrigan's eyes glinted. "Because the Hollow Vale doesn't lie. And you're not whole."
Luna frowned. "I remember who I am."
"But not what you are."
Morrigan touched the spire. "This is the Heart of the Hollow. The last piece of the Moon's broken power. The part the Goddess left behind."
Luna felt it. A pull. Ancient. Familiar.
"She abandoned this?" she asked.
"She feared it," Morrigan said. "As you do."
"I fear what you did with it."
Morrigan laughed. "Then take it. Use it better."
Luna stepped closer. The spire pulsed beneath her skin.
Kael warned, "Luna_"
"I need to know," she said.
She reached out.
The moment her hand touched the stone, her mind shattered.
Visions.
Not dreams. Memories.
She stood on a battlefield, soaked in blood.
Not hers. Not Asher's.
Kael's.
She watched herself plunge a blade into his heart.
"No!" she screamed.
But the vision shifted.
Another time. Another life.
She and Morrigan stood side by side, laughing under a silver sky.
They were sisters. Once.
The spire showed her everything.
Every life she'd lived.
Every time she had failed.
Every time she had chosen wrong.
When she awoke, she was on the ground.
Her friends circled her.
She gasped. "I saw... I've been here before."
Rae knelt. "What happened?"
Luna sat up, shaking. "The Hollow Vale… it's a loop. A wound in time. It doesn't just twist the land. It twists us."
Morrigan stepped closer. "And still, I wait for you to see. We are the same."
Luna rose. Her eyes burned white.
"No. You gave in. I won't."
Morrigan snarled. "Then die pure."
She attacked.
The battle was chaos.
Morrigan moved like smoke. Her blades sang with black fire.
Kael and Asher fought in tandem. Brin shielded the others with healing light. Rae's arrows tracked her movements. Nyla lit the ground with fire.
Luna stood still, gathering power.
When Morrigan lunged, Luna caught her blade barehanded.
Blood spilled.
Light ignited.
She pushed back.
Hard.
The spire cracked.
Energy surged.
Morrigan screamed as her power unraveled. "You don't understand what you're doing!"
"I understand now," Luna said. "I am the wound. And the weapon. And the healer."
She raised both hands.
Moonlight and shadow danced between her fingers.
She brought them together.
Balance.
A shockwave erupted.
The Hollow Vale groaned.
Then… silence.
When the smoke cleared, Morrigan was gone.
The spire crumbled.
The Vale began to heal.
Flowers bloomed. Light returned. Wolves howled in distant woods.
Luna fell to her knees, exhausted.
Asher caught her.
"You did it."
"No," she whispered. "We did."
Behind them, Solana appeared.
"This was never just your war," she said. "But it was your choice that ended it."
Luna stood.
"I'm not the Luna who hates fur anymore," she said. "I'm the Luna who became the storm."
The pack bowed.
She didn't stop them.
She just turned to her friends.
And said, "Let's go home."