The symbol glowing across the Blood Moon did not fade.
It expanded.
Lines rippled outward like cracks in glass, forming an enormous sigil that pulsed with ancient magic. The forest held its breath beneath the alien light.
Elara stared upward, her pulse hammering. "What is that symbol? What does it mean?"
The Ghostborn raised one pale eyebrow. "It means fate has gotten impatient again. The Second Seal is awake."
Kael, still kneeling, forced himself to stand. His body trembled from the storm of shadow-light he'd released, but his voice was steady when he said:
"The Second Seal didn't just awaken. It reacted to her."
Elara's stomach twisted.
"What does that mean?"
The Ghostborn smirked.
"It means, little healer, that you are much more than even your visions showed."
Marcellus stepped forward, sword still drawn, expression cold but unsettled. "This is no longer a local problem. This sigil can be seen across the entire realm."
Tamsin nodded fearfully. "Villages will see it. Kingdoms will see it. They'll think it's a sign of war."
"They're not wrong," Elias whispered.
Before Elara could ask more questions, she staggered. Not from exhaustion—something else. A pulling sensation in her chest, like an invisible thread tugging her toward the moonlit forest.
Kael caught her elbow instantly. "Elara—what is it?"
She pressed her hand to her sternum.
"I… I feel something. Calling me."
Marcellus stiffened. "The Devourer."
"No." Elara shook her head. "Not that. This feels… familiar."
Tamsin whispered, trembling, "Familiar how?"
Elara's throat tightened. "Like… like someone I knew. Like blood. Like a voice I've heard before."
The Ghostborn clapped softly.
"At last! She feels it! Took you long enough, dear."
Kael growled. "Ghostborn. Speak plainly."
"Oh very well," he sighed. "The Second Seal was entrusted not just to the Healer bloodline but to a second lineage—one lost to history. Elara carries both."
Elias blinked. "Both? As in… two origins?"
Elara's heart stopped.
Kael's fingers tightened around her arm. "What are you saying?"
The Ghostborn floated his hand lazily toward the sigil glowing on the Blood Moon. "The First Seal belonged to the First Healer. But the Second—ah, that one belonged to someone else entirely."
Elara whispered, "Who?"
The Ghostborn smiled with wicked delight.
"The Shadowborn Maiden."
Everyone froze.
Even the Hollowborn corpses around the clearing seemed to shiver.
Kael's eyes widened. "Impossible. That bloodline is gone. Wiped out centuries ago."
"Not wiped out," the Ghostborn corrected, tapping Elara's nose lightly. "Hidden."
Elara stumbled backward.
"No… you're saying—"
"Yes!" he chimed. "Your mother wasn't just a Healer. She was half Healer and half Shadowborn."
Elara's vision swayed.
"My mother… lied to me?"
"Not lied," he shrugged. "Protected you. If anyone had known your true bloodline, you would have been hunted long before the Hollowborn ever crawled out of their burrows."
Kael stepped closer, voice trembling.
"Elara. This means… everything you've done—the lattices, the bond, the Hollowstar reacting to you—none of it is coincidence."
Her breath hitched.
"So all this time… my power wasn't just healing magic."
"No," the Ghostborn said softly.
"It is creation magic. Stabilization magic. The only force capable of rewriting seals rather than simply repairing them."
Marcellus's face twisted. "She… she can rewrite the seals?"
Elara stared at her hands—still glowing faintly blue and gold.
Rewrite seals.
Rewrite fate.
The world tilted.
But before she could process the enormity of it—
A violent rumble shook the ground.
Elias shouted, "Hollowborn—another wave!"
Marcellus cursed. "They are converging on her. The sigil is acting like a beacon."
A new swarm poured from the trees—bigger, faster, hungrier. Some had twisted horns. Others glowed with sickly purple veins, mutating under the Blood Moon's influence.
"Kael!" Elara cried.
"I see them."
He stepped forward, shadows gathering around his fists.
But this time… something was wrong.
His shadows sputtered, flickering like dying flame.
He staggered.
Elara rushed to his side. "Kael—what is it? What's happening?!"
He gritted his teeth. "The curse… is adapting. The Hollowborn's hunger—it's affecting me. They recognize my blood."
Marcellus shouted, "He's weakening! Pull him back!"
But the Hollowborn were already charging.
Elias and Tamsin sprinted forward, spells and blades flying.
The Ghostborn watched with mild amusement.
Elara grabbed Kael's hand. "Kael, stay with me. Focus on the bond."
He tried. She felt him try.
But the Blood Moon pulsed—and Kael dropped to his knees.
A guttural sound escaped his throat.
Something inside him was tearing.
"Elara…" he choked. "Run. Please. I can't hold—"
"No!" she yelled, grabbing his face. "I will NOT—"
The ground split open behind them.
Something massive clawed its way from beneath the soil—a creature larger than the others, almost human-shaped but hollow along the chest, ribs opening and closing like a grotesque mouth.
A Hollowborn Titan.
Marcellus paled. "That… that shouldn't exist!"
The Titan shrieked, the sound cracking the air.
Kael roared in pain, clutching his head, shadows thrashing uncontrollably.
Elara felt something snap inside her.
Fear?
Yes.
But also something deeper.
Resolve.
She stood, stepping in front of Kael.
"ELARA!" Kael gasped. "DON'T—"
She raised her hands.
Her magic flared so violently that the entire clearing lit up—white-gold at the center, edged with deep midnight blue.
The Hollowborn Titan stumbled.
The swarm recoiled.
Even the Blood Moon pulsed in response.
Tamsin whispered, "What… what is she doing?"
Elias stared. "She's… awakening."
The Ghostborn sighed happily. "At last! The Third Gift."
Elara barely heard them.
Because inside her chest, something unlocked—
A memory that was never hers.
A voice that was.
"Creation is not light or dark. It is both.
You are both."
Her mother's voice.
Her eyes filled with tears.
She understood now.
She wasn't a weapon.
She wasn't a mistake.
She was the bridge.
The Healer's light.
The Shadowborn's darkness.
The blood of two ancient forces meant to be enemies—and in her, made whole.
She stepped forward, glowing brighter than the moon.
Her voice shook the air.
"ENOUGH."
Her magic erupted outward in a spiraling column of blue-white fire. The Hollowborn shrieked as they were thrown backward, pinned to the ground as if gravity itself had doubled.
The Titan thrashed, unable to rise.
Kael stared at her, breathless.
"Elara…"
In her chest, the new power hummed—heavy, beautiful, terrifying.
She lifted her hand toward the Titan.
Golden-blue runes spiraled down her arm.
The Titan froze.
The Ghostborn's eyes gleamed.
"She's rewriting it."
Marcellus whispered, "Gods save us…"
The Titan's hollow ribs snapped closed. The purple veins darkened. With one final shudder, the monstrous creature collapsed into dust.
Silence fell.
The smaller Hollowborn fled into the shadows like mice escaping a burning house.
Elara lowered her hand, trembling.
Kael crawled to her, pulling her into his arms.
"Elara," he whispered fiercely against her hair, "don't ever do that alone again."
She sagged into him, drained but standing.
"I can rewrite them," she said softly. "I can change the Hollowborn. I can reshape the seals."
His grip tightened.
"And the cost?"
She didn't answer.
Because she didn't know.
And because the Ghostborn was smiling—a smile that promised danger.
"Well done, little healer," he said. "You awakened your mother's legacy."
Elara looked at him, exhausted and afraid.
"What legacy?"
He bowed deeply.
"You," he whispered,
"are the Sealbearer of the Lost Moon.
And every creature in the realm will come for you now."