It looked nothing like she expected. Not a stone. Not a fragment. Not any physical thing at all. It was a tear in the world. A jagged vein of shadow-light, twisting like smoke trapped inside crystal. It pulsed with a rhythm that did not belong to this realm—too slow, too cold, too hollow.
Poppy’s stomach clenched. “I’ve seen that… before.”
Mingxi tightened his hold. “In your dream.”
“No.” Her voice trembled. “At the moonwell… on the night of the battle.”
Caelan swore under his breath. “It’s rooted deep. If we misalign the pull—”
“It will rip the well apart,” Lirrane finished bluntly.
Yunlian’s tone sharpened. “Poppy. Look at me.”
Poppy forced her gaze away from the shard.
“The moonwell is giving you its heart,” Yunlian said gently. “But the shard will strike again. When it does, you must not pull back.”
Poppy swallowed. “I won’t.”
Mingxi shifted to stand just behind her, hands on her arms, his breath warm along her temple.
“You are not alone,” he whispered. “I’ll hold you through every moment.”
Poppy nodded once. She extended her hand over the glowing water, and the shard reacted instantly. A spike of shadow shot upward, stabbingtoward her like a spear. Mingxi’s foxfire slammed into it—flames meeting shadow in a violent eruption of heat and cold.
The blast cracked the ground beneath them.
Caelan yelled, “Pressure spike!”
Lirrane gritted her teeth. “Councilor Shen, if you burn my eyebrows off—”
“Not now!” Caelan snapped.
The shard pulled again—harder than before—trying to latch onto Poppy’s qi. She felt the cold curl around her chest, like fingers trying to drag her into the spiral.
Her breath hitched. “Mingxi—”
He didn’t hesitate. Didn't waver. His arms closed around her, anchoring her to the circle, to him, to the living world.
“I’m here,” he whispered against her hair. “I’m here, Poppy. Feel me. Stay with me.”
The moonwell pulsed in answer. Weak—but clear.
Yunlian raised her voice. “Poppy. Reach. Now.”
Poppy inhaled—and reached toward the moonwell’s faint cold glow, not with her hand, but with the thread of magic inside her chest.
The moonwell reached back.
Chapter 108
Their connection snapped into place like a lock turning, and the basin erupted with light. Light exploded from the basin—not warm or gentle, but sharp, fractured, desperate.
Poppy flinched as the moonwell’s pulse surged through her chest, hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. Mingxi held her upright, anchoring her with his entire body, foxfire wrapping her like a shield.
Caelan staggered back a step. “It’s begun… the core is unsealing!”
Lirrane dug her heels into the earth, tidal force rippling in a steady rhythm beneath her palms. “Steady. Steady. Gods, it’s like pulling apart a whirlpool with bare hands!”
