All Chapters of Echoes of Moonfire: Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

~Serik Pain had a rhythm. A slow, guttural kind that hummed in my bones and kept perfect time with the dripping of water from somewhere above. It was the only clock I had. The beat of ache and drip. Ache and drip. I’d stopped counting the minutes. Stopped trying to guess if it was day or night. Down here, in the deepest part of Veyrith’s prison, there was no difference. Just cold stone, stale blood, and the taste of metal behind my teeth. I sat against the wall, chained at the wrists, shirt torn open, and dried blood sticking like glue to my skin. The pendant was gone. My only leverage. The one thread I had been holding onto. Gone. I was trying not to panic, but my thoughts had started looping. What would he do with the pendant? What would he become? I had read the stories of Veyrith, but none of them said anything about what he could do with an artifact created to destroy him and his kind. The sound of a door opening sliced through the silence. My entire body tensed. Boots.

~Serik The cold bit through my robes the moment I stepped out of the Temple of Time. Not a breeze, but a living thing—a predator that gnawed bone-deep. The temple door shut behind me with the sound of finality. No locks. No visible seams. Just smooth white stone, carved into the mountainside like it had always been there, like it would outlast the stars. Snow drifted in silent spirals through the air, falling so slowly it felt suspended. "This path leads you to the old villages," Nyssara had said, standing at the edge of the portal room, her hands folded in the sleeves of her robe. "I don't know where Lira is because I'm still not that good with my powers yet but I believe the village is a good place to start." "Why do you think that? Shouldn't I be checking palaces because that's where royalty usually are?" I asked. "From what my powers have shown me over the years, greatness rarely comes from greatness. So chances are there that Lira is a nobody in this time." Nyssara sai

~Omniscient The stillness in the chamber was unnerving as Lyric prepared to launch a barrage of attacks on Halric and Nilo for even thinking of attacking her. They moved back, bracing for the impact. Lyric's lips parted to release the incantation—and then suddenly, her body froze. Her eyes widened. She couldn't move. Not a flick of a finger. Not even a blink. A tremor passed through her lips as she tried to speak, to scream, to summon her will again—but it was like the magic had turned against her. The glow in the circle dimmed. The wind that had once whipped around her fell still. Her feet lifted off the stone floor as if some unseen force plucked her from the ground like a doll. She hovered. Her eyes darted wildly. Then, without warning, she was slammed down. Hard. The crack of impact echoed off the temple walls like thunder. Dust flared. A faint hiss of residual magic curled up around her before dying completely. She lay still. Halric and Nilo, both caught in mid-movemen

~Eira The moment I vanished from the crumbling temple, the sting of the stone floor and the bitter chill of its cursed air faded behind me. The next second, I stood beneath the heavy curve of an archway wrapped in honeysuckle and moss, the cold gone, replaced by the warmth of spring. Our home sat nestled in a hollow glen surrounded by trees so ancient their roots wove together beneath the ground like an unbroken net. Morning light filtered down in gold flecks through branches above, and the hum of bees drifted lazily through the air. Smoke curled from the stone chimney of our cottage, mixing with the scent of bread and lavender. I exhaled slowly, releasing tension I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying. The sanctuary still stood. Untouched. Safe. The cottage was built from forest stones and thick timbers, every inch shaped by our hands. Ivy climbed up the walls in lazy loops. A small, weathered bench sat beneath the front window, cushions sun-bleached and torn from little claws an

~Halric The snow had stopped falling hours ago, but the wind never stopped screaming. I pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders, breath coming in shallow puffs of frost as we trudged through the white wasteland. Every step was a fight. The snow was knee-deep in some places, frozen to ice in others, and Nilo had been carrying Selene on his back for the last stretch with grim determination. She hadn’t stirred in hours. Her weight, slight as it was, had begun to sap the last of his strength. The only sound that broke the monotony was the crunch of boots and the rasp of Nilo’s breath. No birds. No wind in the trees. Just that dreadful silence that made the world feel like it had been forgotten. “We’ll make it,” I said quietly, more to myself than to him. Nilo didn’t answer. His head was bowed, eyes fixed on the path ahead, one foot in front of the other like it was the only thing keeping him from crumbling. Snow clung to the folds of his coat, to Selene’s hair. Her face was p