The path to the Oracle was forbiddenbcarved through a forest so old, even the trees whispered in warnings rather than welcome. No living soul had walked it in centuries. But Raina was no longer just a living soul.
She moved like mist through the moonlight, guided not by sight, but by the pull inside her bones. The bond sealed with Lucien had changed her rewritten her. Now, the forest recognized her not as a trespasser, but as a reckoning.
Branches parted. Shadows fled.
Behind her, war brewed like a storm refusing to break. Villages whispered her name in fear and awe. The sky refused to be day. But here, time folded. The air grew still. The land held its breath.
The Oracle's temple rose ahead half-swallowed by ivy, crumbling with forgotten gods. Its stairway was built from the bones of pilgrims who had come seeking truth and lost themselves in the price of it.
She did not falter.
At the threshold, fire erupted breath without body, a dragon forged from memory and myth. Its eyes burned, empty sockets filled with ancient light.
"I seek the truth," Raina said.
The dragon opened its mouth and disintegrated into smoke.
Darkness swallowed her.
She stumbled forward, breath hitching. The air reeked of time and sacrifice.
Mirrors rose on all sides not reflecting her, but versions of her. In one, she lay dying. In another, she ruled with bloodied hands. In yet another, she cradled a child with eyes like hers… and Lucien's. The images rippled, twisted, became ash.
At the temple's heart sat the Oracle.
They had no face. No form. Only shifting light and eyes that mirrored the cosmos.
"You've come," the Oracle whispered, their voice vibrating beneath Raina's skin.
"I need to save him," she said. "I need to save us."
The Oracle tilted their head. "Do you understand what that means?"
Raina's fingers curled into fists. "I'm done being a pawn."
"Then you must pay," the Oracle said. "In blood… memory… or love."
She swallowed. "What will it cost to protect our bond?"
The Oracle raised a hand. Symbols ignited on her skin language she couldn't read, but her soul understood. Her body rose off the ground. Her mind splintered.
Visions slammed into her.
Lucien bound, screaming, a child abandoned to shadow.
Herself walking into war, heart hardened to stone.
Their daughter golden-eyed and laughing reduced to smoke in a world devoured by flame.
She screamed.
And then silence.
She awoke on the edge of the forest, the temple gone. Her wrist throbbed. The crescent mark was no longer just a moon. It had bloomed into an eclipse.
Lucien was waiting.
He caught her before she collapsed into the grass. "What did you see?"
She shook her head. "We're running out of time."
That night, she dreamed of the child again.
Not burning.
Not broken.
Just standing beneath a silver sky, calling her name.
She awoke with a decision already pulsing in her veins.
The next morning, Raina rode to the council chamber alone. Her armor glinted beneath her cloak. Her eyes burned gold.
Maeva and Elias were waiting inside. Tension crackled like lightning against stone.
"You went to the Oracle," Elias said.
She nodded.
Maeva's mouth tightened. "And what did it say?"
"That the war ahead isn't about armies," Raina said. "It's about choices."
Elias stepped closer. "And your choice?"
"I'll go to the border alone."
Maeva's eyes narrowed. "You'd walk into Aeris's domain with no army?"
"No," Raina said. "I'll walk in with truth. That's stronger than any sword."
Elias laughed bitterly. "Truth doesn't win wars."
"It does," Raina whispered. "When it's bled for."
Lucien found her later, sharpening her blade under a blood-hued sky.
"I won't let you do this alone," he said.
"I'm not doing it alone," she replied. "I'm doing it for us."
He knelt beside her, their foreheads touching. "You've changed."
"So have you," she said. "And I don't want either of us to go back."
He pulled her into his arms. "Then promise me something."
"Anything."
"When it's done… we write our own ending. No gods. No curses. Just us."
She smiled faintly. "Deal."
That night, as the moon hung swollen and red over the horizon, Raina rode into the valley of ghosts where Aeris had once ruled, where blood had once painted the stars.
She dismounted at the circle of stone and waited.
The ground trembled.
Aeris stepped forward, wrapped in shadow and venom, eyes burning with fury.
"You bring no army," Aeris said. "Only foolish hope."
"I bring choice," Raina replied. "And warning."
Aeris sneered. "You think you're different? You think love will save you?"
"No," Raina said. "But it will destroy you."
Aeris raised a hand.
Magic flared.
But before it struck, the mark on Raina's wrist burned white-hot. The sky split.
Lucien landed beside her, blade drawn, aura blazing.
"You didn't think I'd let her come alone, did you?" he said.
Aeris's smile faltered.
The Oracle's voice echoed in Raina's mind.
You have been marked. You have been chosen. What you do next… will write the end of this story.
Raina lifted her blade.
"So let's begin."