The Pieces in the Library

Seraphina’s POVThe sunlight was warm, almost mocking. After the hours of pounding claws and shrieking things outside the inn’s door, the town felt almost… ordinary.Birds chirped from the crooked gutters, and a thin breeze rustled through the banners strung between the houses. A farmer passed us on the street, tipping his straw hat in greeting. His donkey cart rattled over the cobblestones as though nothing in the world had ever been wrong.But the four of us knew better.The inn door behind us hung crooked now, its frame splintered where the creatures had battered against it through the night. The pale shimmer that had held them back was weaker, thinner. I didn’t need to touch the wood to know: one more night like last, and the barrier would break.We didn’t say it aloud. We didn’t need to.Instead, Thalia tightened her cloak around her shoulders and led the way down the street. “The library,” she said. Her voice was brisk, determined. “We waste no time today.”Nyra nodded, eyes nar

Last Updated : 2025-08-20

Reset on Our Terms (1)

Seraphina’s POVMorning came without mercy.The town looked gentle beneath it—lanterns snuffed, shutters propped open, the square rinsed in gold—but the gentleness felt like a lie we’d already read to the end. Inside the inn room, our victory was simple and unadorned: four of us upright, four of us breathing. We’d held through the night. No one had fallen. No loops had snapped shut around us.Relief arrived—and passed. Because the door told the rest of the story.The iron-banded wood sagged on its hinges, hairline fractures spidering out from each gouge where claws had raked at the barrier’s skin. Splinters sprouted along the grain like a field of pale weeds. A new crack had appeared through the center panel, thin as a thread but deep, and when the light slid across it I could see it widen, the way a wound opens when the muscles beneath it flex.Thalia lifted the latch with two fingers. Even that light touch made the whole frame creak.“We won’t get another night out of this,” she sai

Last Updated : 2025-09-03

Reset on Our Terms (2)

Seraphina’s POV“Hidden door?”“More like hidden consent.” He stood, eyes scanning the transept. “These tiles are telling a story. You see it?”“Time that welcomes you in,” I said. “And time that snaps its teeth.”He huffed a humorless breath. “Pretty much.”We moved up the aisle. Behind the altar, a small door sat flush to the wall, its wood painted to match the paneling. It would have vanished if you didn’t know to look for uneven varnish—someone had repainted often. The handle was smooth from use. Elias tried it. It didn’t turn.“Locked,” he said.“Of course it is.”He bent, studying the bronze plate around the keyhole. It was notched at four points, tiny glints of star-metal winking from the corners. Star-iron, mined from the mountains, hammered thin, fitted clean. Too small for a blade to get purchase. Too precise for a pick.“Special key,” he said, straightening. “Not a rod. Something shaped.”“Like a sunwheel,” I said, thinking of the floor. “Or a medallion.”“Or a bookplate,”

Last Updated : 2025-09-04

All Chapters of The Last Moonbane: Chapter 111 - Chapter 113

The Pieces in the Library

Reset on Our Terms (1)

Reset on Our Terms (2)