Chapter 76 – The Seer of Ashvale

Chapter 76 – The Seer of Ashvale

SCARLETT

The air around Ashvale felt wrong. Every step I took along the cracked path sent a tremor through the ground, as if the forest itself recognized me or warned me away. The once-mighty trees leaned inward, their silvered bark glowing faintly, and from their hollow trunks drifted whispers that carried my name.

Scarlett.
A hundred voices at once, like the echo of ghosts caught between breaths.

I drew my cloak tighter around me and pressed forward. The mist had thickened, curling around my boots and clinging to my ankles like something alive. In the distance, the ruins of Ashvale shimmered in the moonlight shattered towers covered in vines that pulsed with faint light, the same pale hue as the mark on my wrist.

Kael’s last words echoed in my mind, fragments of them stitched into my heart like an old wound that refused to close. Find the Seer. Only she can tell you what you are becoming.

I hadn’t seen him since that night. I didn’t know if he was alive, dead, or trapped somewhere between. Every time I tried to reach through the bond, all I found was static a pulsing void that made my temples ache and my chest tighten.

And John…
Even now, the bond flared whenever his rage surfaced. His darkness was spreading faster than I’d feared; I could feel it. Packs bowing to him, their loyalty twisted by whatever power he’d claimed. Every flare of anger through the tether sent a shiver through me, as though the world was cracking just a little more.

By the time I reached the heart of Ashvale, the mist had thickened so much I could barely see two feet ahead. Yet, somehow, my feet knew where to go. My body moved with certainty I didn’t understand, as if something ancient inside me was guiding the way.

Then the air shifted heavy, charged. I froze.
A figure stood ahead, cloaked in the glow of the moonlight, motionless as a statue.

“Scarlett Hilary,” she said before I could speak. Her voice was both frail and infinite like a thousand years whispering through the same breath. “You’ve finally come.”

I hesitated, scanning her silhouette. The woman was tall, draped in a gown of pale threads that shimmered faintly. But her skin gods, her skin had begun to turn to stone, crawling up her throat and across one half of her face. Only her left eye remained free, and in it burned a molten gold light that pierced through the gloom.

“The Seer of Ashvale,” I breathed.

She inclined her head. “What remains of her.”

My heart hammered in my chest. I stepped closer, unsure whether to bow or speak first. “I’ve come for answers. About the bond. About John. About… What's happening to me.”

The Seer’s cracked lips curved faintly. “You carry more than a bond, child. You carry balance itself and imbalance, too.”

Her words struck deep, confusing and terrifying at once.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered.

“You will.”
She turned and gestured for me to follow her through the ruins. “But understand this first: everything you’ve been taught about the Moon Goddess is a fraction of a greater truth.”

We walked in silence for a long while. The ruins glowed faintly under the fractured moon above, its light bleeding through the fog in shifting patterns. The Seer’s steps made no sound. When she finally stopped, we stood before a circular pool of liquid silver glowing softly, as if reflecting a different moon altogether.

“This,” she said, “is the Mirror of Veins. The blood of the first Goddess runs through it. Look, Scarlett, and see yourself.”

I hesitated but obeyed, kneeling beside the pool. The surface rippled, distorting my reflection until it wasn’t just me anymore.

At first, I saw my own eyes glowing faintly, gold bleeding into the blue. Then I saw John’s face behind mine, his jaw tight, his eyes shadowed. And beyond him, Kael fading, flickering like a dying flame.

The Seer’s voice came from behind me.
“You are no longer bound to one soul. You are bound to two light and shadow, flame and void. What happens to one happens to the other… and through them, to you.”

I looked up sharply. “You mean if one of them dies—”

“Part of you dies, too.”

My stomach knotted. I wanted to argue, to deny it, but I couldn’t. I’d already felt it every time John gave in to his fury, every time Kael’s energy weakened. It was like my heart was being pulled in opposite directions until it nearly tore apart.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I whispered. “I just wanted peace.”

The Seer crouched beside me, the stone on her skin glinting under the silvery light. “No one asks to be chosen, Scarlett. The Moon doesn’t seek permission she seeks purpose.”

Her hand hovered over my mark, which glowed faintly.
“The light in your veins is awakening, but so is his darkness. The world will not survive both.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded, the words cracking with fear.

The Seer’s gaze softened, sorrow deep in her eyes. “You are the hinge upon which two destinies swing. Either you destroy him, or you join him. There is no path that saves you both.”

The world tilted. I stepped back, shaking my head. “There has to be another way.”

“There is always another way,” she said quietly, “but not always a merciful one.”

She reached into the pool, and when her fingers emerged, silver light dripped from them like blood. She touched my forehead with it, and the moment she did, a thousand images burst behind my eyes—
Fire.
Screams.
A throne made of bone and shadow.
John standing upon it, his eyes hollow, the mark of the Goddess inverted on his chest.

And me standing opposite him, my palms glowing white-hot, my body bathed in lunar fire.

I gasped, stumbling backward as the vision shattered. The Seer caught my arm before I fell.

“That is the future as it stands,” she whispered. “One of you will end the other. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

Her gaze flickered to the ruins behind her. “Unless the Third Moon rises and chooses for you.”

My pulse thundered in my ears. “The Third Moon? I’ve heard legends—”

“Not legend,” the Seer interrupted softly. “Prophecy. The Third Moon appears only when the balance of realms falters. It will rise soon and when it does, your choice will echo through eternity.”

The pool began to tremble, the light rippling like disturbed water. The Seer stiffened, turning toward the mist.

“He’s coming,” she murmured.

My breath caught. “Who—?”

“Your shadow.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “John has found you.”

The ground shuddered, the silver vines around the ruins trembling violently. Through the mist came the sound of heavy steps slow, deliberate, echoing with power.

I felt it before I saw him: the bond flaring to life like a wound being torn open. His rage, his longing, his darkness all flooding through me at once.

The Seer’s golden eye flashed. “Run.”

But it was too late. The mist split open like a curtain of smoke, and through it stepped John his eyes burning with black fire, his voice low and dangerous.

“Found you,” he said.

The Seer’s pool exploded in a burst of silver light, and the ruins plunged into chaos.

And just before everything went white, I heard her final words echo in my head soft, desper
ate, certain.

> The Third Moon has already been chosen, Scarlett. You just haven’t realized who it favored yet.