The wind that swept across Ravenholt before dawn carried a strange and bitter cold.
It crept through the narrow streets and between the wooden houses like a silent warning from the distant mountains.
Most villagers had returned to their homes after staring uneasily at the two moons shining above the valley.
Yet sleep did not come easily that night.
Even the animals in the barns grew restless, shifting and stamping against the frozen ground as if sensing a danger no human eyes could yet see.
Caelan remained outside the chapel long after Brother Aldren had returned to his books.
The sword rested against his shoulder, its faint blue glow barely visible beneath the cloth wrapping.
He watched the sky in silence.
The Pale Moon drifted slowly westward.
The Blue Moon followed behind it, climbing higher above the clouds.
For a long moment the heavens appeared calm.
Then something changed.
Far beyond the eastern mountains, a dim red glow began to rise along the horizon.
At first it looked like distant fire.
But the color deepened slowly, spreading upward through the sky until the shape of a third moon revealed itself.
The Red Moon.
Caelan felt the breath leave his lungs as he watched it rise.
Three moons now stood above Aethera.
For the first time in centuries they shared the same sky.
Behind him the chapel door opened suddenly.
Brother Aldren stepped outside, his lantern shaking slightly in his hands.
He had seen the red light through the chapel window.
When his eyes lifted toward the heavens, the old monk froze in place.
"The Red Moon…" he whispered.
"It should not have risen so soon."
Caelan looked toward him.
"You said the alignment would weaken the ancient seals."
Aldren nodded slowly, unable to take his eyes from the sky.
"Yes."
"Then what happens when the moons fully align?"
The monk hesitated before answering.
"The prisons of the demons will begin to fail."
A long silence followed those words.
The wind moved across the valley again, colder than before.
Far away beyond the northern forests the mountains of Velkar stood like jagged teeth against the night sky.
Deep beneath those mountains, inside a cavern older than any kingdom, the chains of ancient stone trembled once more.
The creature imprisoned there slowly lifted its massive head.
For centuries its body had remained frozen in magical sleep.
But the weakening runes surrounding the prison had begun to crack like dry earth.
Fragments of glowing stone fell from the cavern walls.
A low rumble rolled through the darkness.
The creature's voice echoed again, deeper and clearer than before.
"The sky has remembered…"
Its burning eye turned upward as if it could somehow see through the miles of rock above it.
"The three watchers return."
The chains around its limbs tightened as the ancient magic struggled to hold the prison together.
But the power that had once sealed the demon had grown old.
Time had weakened it.
And the rising moons were now breaking what remained.
Back in Ravenholt the third moon climbed higher above the mountains.
Its red light mixed with the pale and blue glow of the other two until the valley was bathed in a strange and unnatural color.
Caelan felt the sword at his back grow warmer.
For the first time since he had received it, the blade vibrated faintly as though reacting to something far away.
He slowly unwrapped the cloth again.
The runes along the sword burned brighter than before, glowing like lines of cold fire.
Brother Aldren stepped closer, staring at the blade with growing concern.
"The artifact is awakening," the monk said quietly.
"Awakening?"
"Yes."
Aldren looked back toward the mountains.
"The relics were created to fight the demons. When the ancient darkness rises, the artifacts respond."
Caelan gripped the sword tightly.
"Then the stories are true."
The monk did not answer.
Instead he pointed toward the sky.
The three moons were moving slowly toward one another across the heavens.
Not yet perfectly aligned.
But close enough to awaken forces long buried beneath the world.
A sudden tremor passed through the ground beneath Ravenholt.
It was slight, almost gentle, but enough to send ripples across the frozen puddles along the road.
Several villagers stepped outside their homes again, frightened by the strange movement beneath their feet.
The tremor lasted only a few seconds before fading into silence.
Yet both Caelan and Aldren knew it had not been an ordinary earthquake.
It had come from the north.
From the direction of the mountains.
Aldren's voice grew heavy with dread.
"The first prison…"
Caelan looked toward him sharply.
"You think a demon is awakening?"
The old monk closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, the fear in his expression had turned into grim certainty.
"Yes."
Above them the Red Moon climbed higher beside the other two.
Across the lands of Aethera, ancient seals were beginning to fracture.
The long silence that had protected the world for a thousand years was finally ending.
And somewhere deep beneath the Velkar Mountains, the first of the twenty-one ancient demons had begun to break its chains.