The smoke from the pyre still clung to Brother Rael's robes long after the ceremony was done.He walked through the marble corridors of the Sunward Basilica with ash in his hair,his sandals leaving dark prints across the pale floor.
The bodies had been burned at dawn.Novices who dared question the Covenant.Children, really—barely trained, barely old enough to understand the oaths they were forced to recite.
Rael whispered a prayer under his breath.Not for the dead.For himself.
Rael: "Forgive my weakness. Forgive my trembling hand."
He should have pushed the torch into the fire himself.Instead, he watched another Lightkeeper light the kindling beneath the bound students.He stood still like a statue carved from doubt.
That was enough to make him unclean.
He passed through the Gate of the Haloed Sun, the seventh archway, marked by a mural depicting ancient Lightkeepers thrusting spears through figures with spiraling shadows.The mural had always unsettled him—not because of the violence, but because the shadows on the victims looked like wings, not corruption.
He tried not to look.
He always failed.
The Sanctum of Revelation lay ahead.The High Ascendant would be waiting.
He paused only once, to watch the golden candles flicker in their glass holders.The flame didn't behave like ordinary fire.It bent, as if bowing toward something unseen.It was said only true Light acknowledged the divine.
Rael no longer believed that.
The doors parted with a groan.
Inside, the High Ascendant Amara stood before a wall of relics: broken sun-discs, cracked crystalline feathers, and jars sealed with wax containing blackened droplets of something pulsing faintly.
Amara wore no crown today.Only a veil of golden threads.
High Ascendant Amara: "Brother Rael. Kneel."
He obeyed.The cold floor pressed against his bones.
Amara: "Those who question are purged. Those who doubt are purified. You watched the flames. You did not speak. That is enough."
She placed her palm on his bowed head.Her touch was warm—scalding, almost.Not comforting.Consuming.
Amara: "You will lead the hunt in Seoul. The Shadow-born grows stronger."
Rael's breath hitched.
Rael: "The boy... Seong-min?"
She lifted his chin, forcing him to look up.
Amara: "Do not speak the name. Names give shape. Shape gives will."
Her fingers tightened.
Amara: "He has no name under Light."
Rael swallowed, his throat burning.
Rael: "Is the girl to be sanctified?"
A faint smile cracked Amara's lips.
Amara: "She will not be sanctified. She will be seized. The lunar vessel cannot be wasted. Power must be weaponized."
He stared, horrified.
Rael: "We are to… enslave her?"
Amara's gaze hardened, like molten metal cooling.
Amara: "We do not enslave. We consecrate. Shadow corrupts. Light consumes. Both are prisons. Only purpose sets them free."
Those words struck Rael deeper than the flames ever could.
Only purpose sets them free.
He wondered, then…Were they freeing the sinners?Or imprisoning them with holy chains?
The torches in the Sanctum flickered wildly.The golden light wavered as if pushed by invisible fingers.
A rumble echoed outside.Not thunder.Something heavier.
A Lightkeeper rushed into the chamber, armor clattering.
Sentinel: "High Ascendant! A report from the Eclipse Watch!"
She didn't turn.
Amara: "Speak."
The Sentinel knelt so quickly his knee cracked against the stone.
Sentinel: "The Dusk Hollows have awakened something. The source of lunar inheritance is unstable."
Rael's heart pounded.
Rael: "Lunar inheritance… unstable? What do you mean unstable?"
The Sentinel hesitated.
Sentinel: "We believe the girl's lineage is not merely a vessel. The Moon-blood—"
Amara's voice sliced through his words.
Amara: "DO NOT SPEAK THAT TERM."
The entire chamber quaked with the force of it.Even the relics rattled.
The Sentinel bit his tongue. Literally.Blood formed at the corner of his lips.
Amara slowly turned.
Amara: "Lunar lineage is not blood. It is lawlessness. Her existence breaks doctrine. She must be bound."
Bound.
Not blessed.
Rael felt the air tighten, as if the room itself were holding its breath.
Rael: "What of the boy?"
Silence layered itself over the chamber like frost.
Then:
Amara: "He is the weapon. She is the key. Together, they are apocalypse."
She raised her hand, palm glowing white-hot.
Amara: "And we are salvation."
Her light filled the room.Too bright.Blinding.Holy.Terrifying.
Rael turned his face away, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.
Were they tears of faith?Or pain?
Even he did not know anymore.
After the meeting, Rael stood alone beneath the towering sun mural.The ashes from the novices still clung to his skin.The smell of their burning clung to his robes.
He closed his eyes and whispered.
Rael: "Children of Depth… Child of Dawn… forgive us."
A breeze brushed past him, though there was no open window.
The candles dimmed.
The shadows stretched.
And for the first time in years, Brother Rael felt something answer his prayer.
Not Light.
Something colder.
A whisper brushed against his ear, soft as moonlight across water.
Voice: "You are not wrong."
Rael froze.
The voice lingered, impossibly close.
Voice: "You are simply late."
He spun around.No one stood there.Only the mural of suffering figures—those winged shadows impaled by sun-spears.
He stared at them differently now.Wings still looked like freedom.Not corruption.
He touched the mural.The carved feathers beneath his fingertips felt warm.
Warm like life.
Something pulsed through the stone.A heartbeat.
Rael snatched his hand back.
A flicker of fear.A flicker of hope.
The ashes on his skin suddenly felt heavier.
Rael: "What have we burned…?"
The question hung unanswered.
But the heartbeat kept pulsing.
Steady.
Alive.
Waiting.
To be continued...