The air thickened as Seraphina stepped into thecentreof the room, her presence commanding in a way that had nothing to do with the silk of her gown or the regal tilt of her chin. Shadows danced across the walls, their movements restless, as if the Manor itself sensed what was about to happen.Cillian approached.
"It's time for the truth."
I thought of the invisible music, the one moment when I had silenced the voices. If I were capable of doing this once, perhaps I couldcontrol this, too. But the whisper inside me hissed,
Do not believe what you see.
"Shut up," I snarled inside my own head. Clenching my jaw, I refused to let them win.
“Let’s see what Namarelle wants to show me,” I said, approaching the Orb
***
The brothers placed their hands on the orb first. One by one. Torin, Cillian, then Fionn. I glanced at all three and followed apprehensively. Namarelle’s blue talons brushed against mine, and suddenly any fear or hesitation vanished. It was gone in aninstant, swallowed whole. A heady euphoria washed over me, leaving me warm and lightheaded. I felt myself lift, my body becoming weightless.
As I gazed down, I saw myself drifting higher above the room, and I realised I was leaving my physical body. The air thinned. The edges of the world warped. Then the Sternlit Halle was gone, replaced by a flickering chamber.
The floor beneath my bare feet was no longer polished wood but freezing stone. Overhead, a single, sickly light flickered. Silver moons, planets, and symbols were carved into the walls, glinting like cold metal. The air was thicker. I was not on earth.
Namarelle’s voice rang through my skull.
“Elora” She whispered. “You are not in your own past.
Four boys, no older than seven to twelve, huddled together, black, blond, and copper hair matted with sweat and dust, their small bodies trembling from exhaustion and fear. One stood at the front, shielding the others, while the three pressed in behind him as if he’d stepped forward to take the brunt of whatever waited for them.
His small body was battered, with yellowing bruises on his ribs, with open wounds as if he had been frantically beaten.
He stared down at his hands as if trying to understand the crimson smeared all over them.
Tear tracks cut through the dirt on his cheeks, but as he looked up, it was his eyes that shattered me. They were light blue, cold and piercing, with a scar that ran down his eyebrow. I would know those eyes and scars anywhere.
“Fionn,” I whispered, the name catching in my throat.
His small frame shook so violently I could hear his teeth chatter as he tried to stifle his cries. My chest tightened until I couldn’t breathe and a sick feeling of dread settled into my gut.
Two Ecliptuari loomed over him with mythic weapons, their towering silhouettes casting long shadows over the boys, making their masked faces unreadable.
“Look at her, Fionn,” a male voice spoke through the mask.
“The soul is marked, and because you are Elysium, you are the hand that must detach the soul from the body. Your strength will become Elora’s salvation. Her sacrifice is your burden.”
Fionn looked over to the body lying at the centre of a silver etched star, its faint glow mirroring the symbol on his wrist.
Those piercing blue eyes were drowned in a young boy’s terror.
He clutched his hands to his chest as if trying to hide the tremor in his fingers.
“I… I didn’t want to,” he whispered, his voice cracking under the weight of pain no child should ever carry.
The Ecliptuari’s hand blurred as he backhanded Fionn for his hesitation. Fionn didn't fall. He simply spat blood onto the freezing floor and stepped back in front of Cillian.
The Ecliptuari moved forward his grip tightened on his shoulder.
“This is how you are made, Starling. We break the boy so the Hunter can rise.”
Behind him, another boy bearing the scar, Cillian stepped forward, not hiding, not shrinking. His hair hung in dusty strands, but his expression was still, nothing like the charming smile I was used to. He placed a hand on Fionn’s back, not in comfort, but in solidarity.
“We won’t fail the Prophecy, nor you, Sire,” Cillian said quietly.
