The tunnels beneath the Dusk Hollows were never quiet, no matter how late the hour.Water dripped endlessly through pipes overhead, echoing like distant footsteps.Lanterns dangled from rusted chains, their blue flames flickering as if the air itself breathed.
Seong-min sat against a cracked wall, hands wrapped in bandages that bled through with shifting colors—dark silver spirals that pulsed like veins beneath his skin.
He pressed his palm to his chest, feeling that thing inside him stir again.
That voice.
That hunger.
Voice:You bleed power. Why seal it?
He gritted his teeth.
Seong-min: "Because it's not yours."
The voice laughed, soft and cold.
Voice:Not yet.
Halmeoni worked at a table cluttered with lunar talismans.Each one carved with ridges of moonstone, bound by silver threads, humming softly.The room smelled of incense and iron, and of something older—a scent like wet earth after a tide.
Yuna stood nearby, her fingers clutched around the ribbon she always wore at her wrist.It pulsed faintly, the color shifting between pale ivory and light blue.
She looked at Seong-min, worry hidden behind her breath.
Yuna: "Did it hurt again?"
He didn't answer at first.He couldn't lie to her, but he didn't know how to tell the truth.
He nodded once.
Her eyes softened.Not with pity.With anger.
Not toward him.Toward what was done to him.
Halmeoni placed the final talisman in a circle on the floor.The silver cords connected them, glimmering like thin streams of water.
Halmeoni: "Yuna, come."
Yuna took one step, then paused.Her voice trembled, but her resolve did not.
Yuna: "If I do this… it will change me, won't it?"
Halmeoni answered without looking up.
Halmeoni: "Child, you were born changed. This only teaches you how to live with it."
Yuna's throat tightened.
Seong-min stood abruptly.
Seong-min: "Wait—don't force her into something she doesn't want."
Halmeoni finally lifted her gaze.Her old eyes were calm, but hard enough to shatter stone.
Halmeoni: "Do you believe the Lightkeepers will spare her if she stays ignorant?"
He felt the truth stab deeper than any blade.
Halmeoni turned back to Yuna.
Halmeoni: "Your lineage cannot remain sleeping. If it does, Light will make you a weapon. Eclipse will devour you. Choice is your only shield."
Yuna stepped forward, breath uneven.
Yuna: "Then I choose to awaken."
Seong-min reached out—
Seong-min: "Yuna—"
She caught his hand.
Warm.Steady.
Yuna: "If we're going to survive, we have to stop being afraid of what we are."
Her words lit something inside him.Not the shadow.Something stubborn, something human.
He nodded.
She let go of his hand, stepping into the talisman circle.
Halmeoni raised a bowl of milky liquid.Moonwater, infused with crushed silverleaf and salt.
She poured it over Yuna's ribbon.
The moment the first drop touched it—The ribbon flared.
A blinding light erupted, not warm like sunlight, but cold like winter stars.The tunnel walls shook, silver veins rippling through the stone.
Yuna gasped.
Her eyes widened.
And then she screamed.
Not in pain—In release.
The ribbon disintegrated into threads of light that wrapped around her arms, spiraled up her throat, weaving patterns across her body like constellations carved from flesh.
Her hair lifted, weightless, turning streaked with pale sky blue.Her eyes flooded with light—not color, not reflection—light.
Seong-min's shadow surged in response, rising from the floor like liquid darkness, trembling violently.
The voice inside him roared.
Voice:Do you see her? The moon obeys no one. TAKE HER. Bind her light to your shadow—
Seong-min: "SHUT UP!"
He slammed his fist into the wall.Stone cracked.
Halmeoni didn't flinch.
Halmeoni: "Do not fear it, boy. Let it kneel."
The shadow spread beneath him, tendrils slithering like smoke.
It wasn't attacking.
It was bowing.
Kneeling.
To Yuna.
Her light swirled around her like a storm, breathless, feral, radiant in its chaos.The talismans cracked—moonstone splitting with silver sparks.
Yuna collapsed to her knees, panting, hands trembling.
The light dimmed slightly, leaving blue-white markings across her arms like lunar veins.
Seong-min stumbled toward her.
Seong-min: "Are you… are you okay?"
She looked up at him, eyes still shining, voice soft and shaken.
Yuna: "I'm not a vessel anymore… am I?"
Halmeoni smiled.
Not kindly.
With pride.With defiance.
Halmeoni: "You are no vessel. You are inheritance. And now inheritance must choose."
Yuna touched the markings on her arms—marks that pulsed faintly, as if the moon beat beneath her skin.
Yuna: "Choose what?"
Halmeoni walked past them, placing her hand against the tunnel wall.The stone split apart, revealing a deeper chamber carved in spiraling runes that glowed like ice.
A stairway descended into darkness.
Halmeoni: "Choose whether you will rise with the moon…"
She spoke the last part without turning back.
Halmeoni: "Or let the sun chain you."
Seong-min stared into the newly opened path.He felt the shadow stir again, but now…it whispered differently.
Voice (soft):Follow her.
Not command.
Not hunger.
Obedience.
Yuna slowly stood, voice trembling with awe and fear.
Yuna: "What's down there?"
Halmeoni answered, the words carrying the weight of centuries.
Halmeoni: "Where the first lunar bearer carved her oath. Where light was rejected. Where moon chose rebellion."
Seong-min's pulse raced.
Yuna stepped forward first.
Seong-min followed, shadows trailing behind him like loyal beasts.
Halmeoni last, closing the stone behind them.
The echo of sealing rock sounded like judgment.
Ahead, cold blue fire lit the stairway.The deeper they went, the more the air hummed.
Yuna touched the wall.It vibrated, alive.
Yuna: "It feels like it's breathing."
Seong-min exhaled slowly.
Seong-min: "No… it feels like it's waiting."
At the bottom of the stairs, a vast hall opened, carved from moonstone.Pillars twisted like frozen waves, and at the center…a throne of shattered silver.
Not for a ruler.For a sacrifice.
Yuna's veins glowed in answer.
Seong-min's shadow bowed lower.
The air whispered, ancient and inevitable.
Voice of the Hall:Kneel, bearers of eclipse and tide.
Yuna's legs buckled.Seong-min caught her.
Her whisper trembled against his shoulder.
Yuna: "Why… us?"
The hall answered without mercy.
Because you are the threat.
Then the blue flame surged.
And the moon finally opened its eyes.
To be continued...