1 1: New Moon, New Role
The vines had fallen silent, and the black ones had faded away. The silver ones throbbed softly beneath the surface, reminiscent of veins beneath mending skin. The final confrontation had concluded, but Mia couldn't yet deem it peace. She grasped the Hollow Crown in her hands, feeling its coldness and stillness. She no longer dreaded it, but what now caused her fear was how right it had felt when she adorned it on her head.
An image remained in her thoughts - a woman with silver eyes, positioned at the brink of flames, summoning her name. Not Mia, but something more ancient. Something lost to time. "My daughter." Days went by, and the forest started to recover. They cleared the ashes, restored the protective wards, and sent out shifts of scouts to watch for any sign that the Hollow would flare up again. However, Mia still felt a stirring inside of her, a recollection of something that had not yet happened.
That evening, Mia went back to her room and opened the wooden box that her foster mother had given her. She found the pendant, which appeared to be hers, that she had found years earlier inside. A surge of energy swept through her as she pressed it up against the Hollow Crown. She wore me before you," a voice murmured. When Mia saw her mother, younger and pregnant, sprinting through a flaming forest, she gasped as the pendant glowed. The Council Contests Her Right The following day, the council met again to talk about the future.
Calmly, Mia lifted her voice to ask what he meant. Thessan looked into her eyes and stated, "We're still unsure of your mother's identity and the source of your magic." Despite your request that we follow you, your authority exceeds our legal system. "."
The Council Contests Her Right The following day, the council met again to talk about the future. Elder Thessan said, clearing his throat, "Luna, we respect your leadership. Although not from this pack, the Crown possesses ancient magic. It originates from a different lineage, one that may even be cursed. Mia calmly raised her voice to inquire about his meaning. "We're still unsure of your mother's identity and the source of your magic," Thessan said, looking directly into her eyes. Although you ask us to follow you, your power surpasses our legal framework. Mia stood erect, her voice firm, "A New Quest Begins.". "You're accurate. I am not fully aware of my ancestry. But I will. She turned to face the Elders, the warriors, and the council and introduced herself as Luna. I deserved it. I'll find the part of me you don't understand, though, if that's what you fear. I am going to shed light on it. She gathered her closest allies that evening, including Lexen, Kaian, Syracuse, and the Ashblood envoy.
I'm going west," she said. "To find the Hollowed Vale, the place my mother once fled from. The place where my bloodline began." Kaian stepped forward, saying, "Then we go with you." Mia nodded, looking up at the night sky. The moon was new again, dark and clean, watching her. "I wore the crown," she said. "Now I'll earn the name."
As they traveled west, the forest changed. The green trees gave way to blue-shadowed trees, thicker and older. The scent of bark turned resinous and bitter. The birds here didn't sing, and the wind carried only silence. Mia led the group along the old trade route, now abandoned and half-swallowed by moss and memory. She wore her mother's pendant beneath her collar, and Kaian carried the Hollow Crown in a bone-wrapped pack.
"The Hollowed Vale," Syracuse murmured, consulting a torn scroll. "Once a sanctuary. Then, a prison. Now... forgotten." Mia said, "Not forgotten. Just waiting." That night, they camped near stone spires carved with spirals, symbols that matched the ones Mia had seen on the silver seed. She approached them alone and laid a hand on one. Her vision blurred, and she saw a vision of her mother, pregnant and running, with blood on her hands.
Meanwhile, Back Home, Elder Thessan stood before a group of young wolves in the training hollow, his voice measured but his words cutting. "Leadership must be bound in blood. Not mystery. Not magic." A young warrior named Vexil nodded, saying, "Then we take it back." Not by violence, but by tradition.
Later that night, Lexen sat with Syracuse beside the campfire in the Vale. "Do you trust her?" Lexen asked quietly. Syracuse passed him a folded page, torn from a scroll they had unearthed earlier that day. Lexen read the root-script slowly, his jaw clenched. "This symbol - her pendant - it's the sigil of the First Memorykeepers." Syracuse confirmed, "Her bloodline. But it's more than that. The Memorykeepers didn't just preserve truth. They carried it. In their bones. Their children were born with it."
Mia awoke before dawn, called by something deep within the Vale. She followed it to a hollow tree, still living but blackened with age. The pendant thrummed against her chest. A form emerged from the center of the tree - shadow and silver-light. "Daughter of two bloodlines," it said. "Born from forgetting. Chosen to remember." Mia stepped forward, asking, "Who was she? My mother?" The figure replied, "A Memorykeeper who loved a wolf born of storm. She broke every rule to give you life."
The spirit pressed a glowing sigil into Mia's palm, saying, "You must awaken the second name." And with that, it vanished. Mia was left with more questions and a newfound understanding of her destiny.