Reign of the Forsaken Moon - Chapter 73: Chapter 73

The frost cracked beneath heavy paws.
From the distant North, the exiled army crept steadily toward Windrest—black banners of bone and blood trailing through the winter air. The Seer of the Frozen Pact rode at the helm of the procession, cloaked in glacial mist, her eyes glowing with ageless rage.
Behind her marched thousands—spectral wolves, cursed half-beasts, and forsaken clans once thought extinct. She had not risen for vengeance alone.
She had risen for conquest.
And Seraphina felt her coming like a second heartbeat beneath her skin.
Rally the Moonfire
In the Grand Courtyard of Windrest, preparations surged like wildfire.
Soldiers trained through the night. Guardians enchanted the outer walls with flame runes. Archers practiced firing silver arrows in waves. The air stank of iron and purpose.
Seraphina stood atop the highest balcony of Moonspire Keep, her eyes scanning the horizon.
The Blood Eclipse had passed. But its mark had changed her forever.
Her soul no longer burned in fragments—Ashen, Sira, and Serai had fused into her fully, turning her into a walking storm of intuition, fury, and clarity.
But with that unity came a cost.
The flame inside her flickered unpredictably.
Sometimes it whispered names of the dead.
Sometimes… it screamed.
A Price of Power
“Your power,” Serai murmured, standing beside her, “is breaking the laws of nature. You’ve defied death, fate, and prophecy.”
“Do you regret it?” Seraphina asked.
“No,” Serai said. “But it will exact a toll.”
“What kind of toll?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Behind them, Sira and Ashen—now fully integrated into Seraphina’s being—could still manifest as flickering echoes in moments of stress or emotion. They stood like sisters, visible only to those sensitive to soul-magic.
And they were worried.
Darian's Worry
That evening, Darian entered their shared chamber to find Seraphina standing barefoot on a balcony, her hands glowing.
He wrapped a cloak around her.
“You haven’t rested.”
“I can’t. She’s coming. And she knows me—knows everything about what I was before.”
“She won’t take anything from you again,” Darian said firmly.
But Seraphina’s eyes searched his.
“Darian… do you feel different?”
“What do you mean?”
“Since the eclipse. Since the merge.”
He hesitated.
“I feel… like I’m losing parts of myself around you.”
A pause.
Her breath caught. “I’m afraid I’ll become too much. Too powerful. That even you won’t recognize me.”
He pulled her close.
“I don’t need to recognize all of you. I just need you to stay.”
Secrets in the Stone
Kael summoned Seraphina to the Deep Vaults beneath the palace.
There, hidden behind silver-enchanted walls, lay an ancient map—etched not in ink, but living starlight.
“It’s the Path of the Forgotten,” Kael said. “A leyline route used by the first Lunas to trap the Seer during the Great Frost War. You broke her prison when the Veil shattered.”
Seraphina traced the glowing line.
“She’s following the path of cursed echoes. If we meet her at the apex—here,” she pointed, “we can intercept before she reaches Windrest.”
“But the apex lies in the Valley of Howls,” Kael warned. “No magic works there.”
A no-magic battlefield.
Perfect for a confrontation forged in steel and will.
Seraphina smiled grimly. “Then we’ll meet her on her terms.”
The Echo Stirring
That night, as Seraphina lay beside Darian, a dark dream overtook her.
She stood in a corridor of mirrors.
In each, she saw a version of herself—dying, crying, burning, betraying.
But at the end of the hall stood one reflection she didn’t recognize.
A woman cloaked in snow, her eyes Seraphina’s… but wrong. Cold. Empty.
“You think you control your power,” the reflection whispered. “But what if you’re just my shadow?”
Seraphina reached out—only for the mirror to crack.
And she woke screaming.
A Confession
The next morning, she stood at the edge of the war map, staring southward.
Darian joined her, his expression tight.
“There’s something you need to know,” he said.
“I can feel it,” Seraphina said quietly. “There’s something inside me that’s not mine.”
He nodded. “I felt it last night. When I touched your flame… it spoke to me.”
“What did it say?”
Darian hesitated.
“It said: She’s not done with me yet.”
Seraphina’s hands clenched.
“Who’s ‘she’?”
But in her heart, she already knew.
The Seer hadn’t just returned to conquer.
She had come to reclaim what she’d left behind inside Seraphina long ago.