Eclipsed by Fate: The Covenant Reforged
light. The memory of fire still danced behind her eyes, the sacred twirling blaze that had flared during the interrupted mating ritual, wild and uncontained
ried her forward through the twilight haze li
edge of comprehension. With each turn she took, the streets twisted tighter, spiraling inward, as though guiding her somewhere hidden. Lanterns flickered from open
but there was a thickness to it, like the atmosphere after a spell has been cast. The wind carried whispers, at first indistinguishable from the ru
wind speaking
turned her head s
ulsed in harmony with something deeper, something primal. It was not language in the way she understood it, but she co
eath her palm with a gentle hum. It was as if the city itself rememb
ls warped by time and kissed by vines. At the center stood a worn pedestal, as ancient as the city itself, its surface smoothed by centuries of rain and
led around her like a breath, curling through her hair,
esitant but compelled. And when she finally made contact, the carvings reacted. A dull pulse echoed t
softly, embers s
consuming. A glacier cracks open to release a buried city. Water folding back like silk to reveal a temple hidden beneath th
he voices
eaning bloomed in Elowen's mind
hey strain at their chains. Only the marke
her. She sank to the ground, her breath caught in her throat, her heart gal
to speak. But she had no words. Only questions. Who were the guardians the whispers had spoken of? Why did the elements feel fra
silence with another s
like a cyclone of memory. Elowen's hair whipped around her face, a
visions; cle
ifted as a tidal wave bowed before them. A circle of guardians, hands joined, chanting beneath a blood-red moon. And finall
city was crumbling under the weight of its forgotten history. Befo
e wind
ce re
ing awakened. Her breath came slowly, but steadily. She looked back at the pedestal. The faint glow of the runes wa
welcoming. The moon above emerged from behind a veil of clouds, casting pale si
he path ahead was unclear, shrouded in the same mystery as the court
message clung to her bones like
ughout Nocturnis and beyond. And she would have to find them. Because something was coming.
ed, as if no vision had ever occurred, as if it were merely a ruin. But she knew better. She had hear
t it was no longer the silence of slum
ne. Her heart pulsed with a new rhythm. Every shadow that flickered across a wall, every gust of wind that to
wasn't
anym
owen had learned to listen. Her spine stiffened. Her breath hitched. She didn't sto
fall. Delibe
trying to hid
a symbol glinting from their chest, a crescent moon broken into fragments, etched in obsidi
ent
Bound
uardians. Or executioners.
aid, voice low and rough like smoke over i
de. "There's no safe
head. "You should not
t ask pe
pa
why we're watc
merged. Silent. Cloaked. Surrounding her
the silver coin now hidden in her cloak's
er. "The flame is awake again. An
it," the female Sentin
en asked, voice calm
ered a small bow. "That de
in perfect silence and vanished into the dark, no fo
still a mo
ept wa
ime, s
just bein
being
dg
he would need to decide who she w