The cold wind that passed through the branches of the Tree of Lights seemed to carry something restless within it. The leaves rustled like frightened whispers, as if the forest itself had understood that what they had seen in the vision had not been just a memory, but a warning.
Sofia leaned against the trunk of the giant tree, still dizzy. Nicolae rubbed his temples, breathing heavily. eVlad and Alexandra remained motionless, their whitish eyes fixed on nothing, as if they were listening to something the others could not hear.
Dragoș was the only one who seemed to be fighting something invisible.
He walked slowly, carefully, keeping his right arm close to his body. From under his sleeve, a blue light could be seen gathering and spreading like irregular breathing.
Sofia looked at him uneasily.
— Dragoș… what do you have in your hand?
He hesitated, as if his own skin resisted it, then dropped the material.
A shiver spread through the air.
There was a strange design on his arm—a dark crescent moon, its edges still burned, as if it had been violently imprinted.
Vivid blue lines were woven around it, like filaments trying to ignite but failing.
The moon seemed broken.
Incomplete.
No one dared to touch the sign.
— It appeared… a few hours ago, Dragoș whispered, his voice slightly tense. Unexpectedly. I don't know why… but it's starting to… move on its own.
The blue lights on his arm flickered like a small bolt of lightning and stopped.
Nicolae took a step back.
— It's the sign of the Moon… but it's… incomplete. Broken. I've never seen a sign like that.
Vlad and Alexandra jumped at these words. Alexandra whispered her first clear word since they had been touched by the shadow force:
— The roots of the Moon… seek… their beginning…
Sofia felt her medallion warm up.
It didn't glow.
It didn't pulse.
It just… woke up a little.
Like a heart that still hasn't decided to beat.
— Your sign is reacting to something, she murmured to Dragoş. But it's not fully awake. It's like… half of it is missing.
— I feel it, Dragoş said through gritted teeth. As if something inside me was trying to remember who it was.
Then everything went dark for a moment.
Not like a dream.
Not like a vision.
But like a reflection of the world.
The forest closed its eyes.
And Dragoş saw—or felt, or experienced—something else.
A tunnel of shadows.
An ancient warrior with the same dark crescent on his arm, but complete, perfect, burning like a living night.
Shadows attacked him from all sides, and he cut them with the cold light of the Moon.
And somewhere, behind everyone, a horned colossus, with spiraling red eyes, was coming towards him with his hands ready to tear everything apart.
Raul.
A roar tore the world in two, and the image disappeared.
Dragoș fell to his knees.
Sofia caught him immediately.
— What did you see?
He was breathing heavily, like after a marathon.
— On… the one before me, he managed to say. My ancestor. The last complete bearer of the Moon. I see him dying. I see him fighting. And… I feel how… his mark is breaking into pieces.
Pieces that have reached me.
Nicolae stiffened.
— That means your sign is not awakened… it is being sought. Something is trying to complete it.
Vlad and Alexandra suddenly raised their heads simultaneously. Vlad grabbed the air, like a frightened animal.
— I smell… something broken… something stolen… a… a…
Alexandra completed, in a broken voice:
— The one who kept the balance.
Sofia felt a shiver run down her spine.
— Miraculous.
The word remained suspended in the air like a broken bell.
Suddenly, Sofia's medallion twitched — once, briefly, like an alarm signal.
She hadn't woken up, but she had recognized something.
The forest sighs.
The branches crackle.
And from somewhere, in the depths, a strange sound resounded:
a long, metallic whine, like the cry of a wounded animal mixed with bent iron.
Nicolae covered his ears.
— What was that?!
Vlad and Alexandra bent down.
Vlad, trembling:
— It's him.
Alexandra, hissing:
— Raul… finds him…
Dragoș stood up suddenly, his eyes now bright, dark blue.
— Miral is in the forest. He's not dead. But he doesn't have long. My mark… he feels it. It's being pulled towards him. It's like a broken thread of light trying to repair itself.
Sofia gripped the medallion tightly.
Her heart raced instinctively — not emotionally, but energetically.
— If Raul reaches Miral before us… everything we saw in the tree will repeat itself. And worse.
Dragoș raised the arm with the broken mark.
The blue filaments quivered like caged beasts.
— We're not letting him get there first.
He took a step in the direction the sign was "pulling" him.
Vlad and Alexandra joined together like two luminous-dark arrows.
Nicolae clenched his fist.
Sofia took a deep breath.
The road opened.
The forest parted like an animal allowing them to pass.
And they all set off after Miral.
The forest knew.
Raul knew.
And the sign of the Moon — incomplete, trembling, broken — would be the piece that would decide everything.