She was standing in the moonwell grove. Not the corrupted version. Not the healed one. But something older. The trees were taller than mountains. The ground glowed with argent veins. The air tasted like moonlight turned to water.
The moonwell pulsed before her —no longer a pool, no longer a spring, but a living heart. It flickered. Not with malice, nor hunger.
It was filled…with fear.
Poppy’s breath hitched. “You’re alive.”
A ripple answered—soft, desperate. The moonwell’s voice wasn’t a voice at all. It was a feeling. A pressure. A plea. A trembling hand reaching for hers.
“Help.”It pressed the word into her ribs.
Poppy stepped closer. “I don’t know how.”
Another ripple. Shaking. Fading… danger, shard, wake, wrong. The light dimmed. Silver bled to gray.
Poppy reached out instinctively. “It hurt you? The fragment?”
The moonwell flared weakly. “Protect. Child. Line.”
Poppy froze. “What?”
The moonwell’s pulse turned frantic, urgent, begging. Before she could ask more, a shadow slid beneath the surface. Not the fragment. Not corruption. Something older.
Something like the outline of an eclipse.
The moonwell’s light surged in terror. “Not it. Not me.”
“RUN!”
The dream shattered.
Poppy jerked awake with a gasp. Mingxi was already up, blades drawn, eyes blazing silver. He seized her shoulders.
“What happened? What did you see?”
She grabbed his wrists. “It wasn’t the fragment.”
“What wasn’t?”
“It wasn’t calling me.” Her breath trembled. “It wasn’t reaching for me.”
Mingxi froze. “Then who—”
“The moonwell,” she whispered.
“It’s begging us for help.”
Chapter 100
For the first time since the moonwell crisis began, Mingxi’s face went completely still. It was clear he was not afraid, not angry, but he realized something far, far worse was coming.
Mingxi held Poppy close until her breathing steadied, one hand gliding through her hair, the other cupping the back of her neck.
“Tell me everything,” he murmured.
She did. Every flicker, every pulse, every trembling plea the moonwell had pushed into her chest. When she described the shadow, Mingxi went rigid.
“Describe it again,” he whispered.
