The first night I arrived at the abandoned coastal town of Lavenshore I felt the moon watching me. Not in a poetic sense and not in a symbolic sense. I mean it literally watched me as if it had a mind that existed beyond the sky and a memory that whispered my name. I had accepted the research position to catalog the remnants of forgotten settlements along the northern cliffs. It was supposed to be a solitary assignment. A long quiet retreat where I could bury myself in work and escape the noise of the city and the noise of a heart that had been exhausted by too many disappointments.…

The first time Aria touched the Crystal Veil she felt the world stop as if time itself inhaled. The veil shimmered across the depths of the ancient canyon a curtain of pale light that moved like living breath. No one from her mountain village dared approach it. Legends warned that the veil was a boundary between the mortal realm and a forgotten plane of spirits where those who entered never returned. Yet Aria felt an undeniable pull each time she looked upon its luminous surface as though something on the other side whispered her name with quiet longing. She stepped closer boots scraping on the stone path carved centuries earlier…

The marsh was never meant for human footsteps yet Selene walked its winding paths as if the still waters whispered directions only she could hear. Every villager warned her never to go near the Sapphire Marsh after sunset yet she felt an invisible pull stronger than fear stronger than caution stronger even than the stories carved into childhood. The marsh shimmered blue at night glowing with an otherworldly light that seemed to breathe with the pulse of forgotten spirits. Selene had always felt watched there not by danger but by something ancient and patient. Something that waited. She stood at the edge of the marsh her lantern swinging softly in…

The first night Elira stepped into the abandoned orchard she felt the world grow still as if every breath of wind had paused to watch her. Moonlight spilled across the rows of ancient trees their branches twisted like old secrets. She had been warned never to wander outside the village boundaries after dusk but the pull of the orchard was stronger than fear. Something in her dreams kept calling her a faint voice made of silver light and longing. She followed it because she had always been the kind of person who moved toward mysteries rather than away from them. Elira knelt beside a fallen apple that glowed with a…

The night fog rolled across Evershade Valley like a pale living creature settling into every hollow and curve of the darkened earth. It moved with a slow breathlike rhythm swirling softly above the silent fields. Most villagers locked their doors before the fog reached the main road for they believed the spirits of the valley wandered inside it searching for the one soul destined to reopen the forgotten gate. But Arien Hale had never been frightened by fog nor spirits. He was a historian a wanderer of old myths and someone who believed every legend began from a grain of truth. And so on this particular moonless night as the…

The first time Lyra noticed the crimson lantern floating above the lake of Aramoor she felt a strange pull deep within her chest. It was not fear though any sensible person would have turned around. It was not curiosity either though the sight was impossible to ignore. It was something older. A whispering echo. A forgotten promise. The lantern pulsed like a living heart suspended above the black water glittering softly beneath the full moon. No wind touched it. No ripple disturbed the reflection below. It simply hovered glowing faintly as if calling to someone. As if calling to her. Lyra had grown up hearing stories about Aramoor. Stories of…

The night Serastra appeared in the northern sky was the night every boundary between the living and the forgotten trembled. No star map had ever recorded such a celestial bloom yet there it was a liquid silver vortex rippling like the breath of a sleeping mythical beast. For the small coastal town of Ilverin its arrival awakened a destiny no one could predict except the one girl whose dreams had been haunted since childhood. Her name was Elira Wyn and she had always known she was different. Elira was born with an unusual pulse of energy humming quietly beneath her skin. It flared strongest whenever the moonlight touched her and…

The city of Asterfall was known for its dreams. Some said the dreams wandered the streets at night like drifting mist. Others claimed that the dreams entered the minds of anyone who dared to walk alone after midnight. The rest dismissed the stories as nothing more than fanciful tales. Yet everyone agreed on one thing. The clocks of Asterfall never worked. Every clock tower every street clock every pocket watch brought into the city would stop the moment it crossed the city border. No one could explain it. People stopped trying to fix them long ago. I grew up in Asterfall and I stopped questioning the clocks by the time…