Chapter 138 Lily's Coming of Age
Elara's POV
Lily screamed in her sleep for three days straight.
I sat by her bedside, holding her burning hand, watching power surge through her body. White light. Rainbow colors. Sometimes darkness that quickly turned bright again.
"It's her birthday," I whispered as dawn broke on the third day. "She's sixteen today."
Drakon squeezed my shoulder. "The healers say the transformation is almost complete."
"Transformation into what?"
Before he could answer, Lily's eyes opened. Pure white. Glowing like stars.
She sat up. "I need to see everyone. Now."
"Lily, you should rest..."
"There's no time." She stood, steady despite three days unconscious. "Something's coming. The Void knows what I am now. It's afraid. And afraid things are dangerous."
Within an hour, the throne room filled with people. Our council. The mages from the academy. Warriors. Even common citizens who'd heard rumors about Lily's transformation.
Lily stood before them all. My little sister. Except she didn't look little anymore. She stood taller. Stronger. Power radiated from her skin.
"I absorbed void corruption," she announced. "Converted it into light. I don't fully understand what I am now, but I know what I can do." She raised her hand. Light formed into a shield. Then a sword. Then wings. "I can create. Shape reality with thought. Opposite of what the Void does."
Gasps echoed through the room.
"You're like Elara," Faye said. "A bridge between different types of magic."
"More than that." Lily's white eyes found mine. "Sister, when you combine magics, you mix them. I convert them. Turn one type into another. Void into light. Darkness into creation."
"That's impossible," a mage whispered.
"So was a seamstress becoming queen," Lily said with a small smile. "Impossible happens in this family."
Despite everything, I laughed. She was right.
"I want to help protect the kingdom," Lily continued. "I want to train. Learn to control this power. Use it to fight the Void."
"You're sixteen years old," I protested. "You should be celebrating your birthday, not fighting ancient evils."
"I'm sixteen years old with power that scares the Void itself." Lily's expression turned serious. "We don't get to choose when we're needed, Elara. You taught me that. You were forced into this life. Now I'm choosing it."
Pride and fear warred in my chest. She was so brave. So determined. Just like when she was small and insisted on helping me sew, even though she kept pricking her fingers.
"Then we throw you a celebration first," Drakon declared. "You turn sixteen once. We honor that before anything else."
Lily's serious expression cracked into a real smile. "Really?"
"Really."
By evening, the castle transformed. People hung decorations. Musicians practiced. Cooks prepared a feast. Everyone wanted to celebrate the girl who'd driven off Queen Morgana.
But I noticed something strange. Mother Moonstone kept pulling me aside, starting to say something, then stopping.
"What is it?" I finally asked. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I just..." She looked at Lily across the room, laughing with friends. "I need to tell you both something. About our family. About why Lily has this power."
"What do you mean?"
"Not here. After the celebration. It's time you knew the truth."
The celebration was beautiful. Lily danced and laughed and looked like a normal sixteen-year-old girl, despite the power crackling beneath her skin.
But midnight approached, and I felt something shift. Like the world holding its breath.
"Do you feel that?" Drakon asked quietly.
I nodded. "Something's coming."
At exactly midnight, Lily stopped mid-dance. Her eyes went white again.
"It's here," she whispered.
The castle shook. Windows shattered. People screamed.
A massive portal opened in the center of the throne room. Dark. Empty. Void.
And something stepped through.
Not Morgana. Something bigger. Older. More terrible.
It looked almost human. Almost. But its edges were wrong. Like it was only pretending to have a shape.
"I am the Void Walker," it said in a voice that hurt to hear. "The consciousness of emptiness. And I have come for the girl who dares convert my essence into light."
It pointed at Lily.
"She is an abomination. A violation of natural law. Emptiness cannot become fullness. Nothing cannot become something. She must be destroyed."
Lily stepped forward, unafraid. "Try it."
"No!" I threw myself between them. "You want her, you go through me."
The Void Walker laughed. "Touching. The seamstress queen protecting her sister. But you cannot stop me. I am the absence of all things. You cannot fight what doesn't exist."
"Then I'll create existence stronger than your emptiness," Lily said. "That's what I do now."
She raised her hands. Light exploded from her palms.
The Void Walker absorbed it. "Child's play. You've had this power for three days. I've existed since before time began."
It reached for Lily.
Drakon shifted and attacked. Fire washed over the Void Walker. It did nothing.
Guards charged. Their weapons passed through the creature like air.
Mages threw spells. They vanished into the void.
Nothing worked.
"You see?" The Void Walker grabbed Lily's throat. "You cannot win. You are finite. I am infinite."
Lily gasped for air. Light flickered around her, trying to fight back.
Then Mother Moonstone did something shocking.
She stepped forward, raising her hands. And magic poured from them. Not ice magic. Not light magic. Something older.
Ancient runes appeared in the air. Glowing symbols I'd never seen.
The Void Walker released Lily, staggering back. "That magic... that seal... impossible! The Moonstone bloodline was destroyed centuries ago!"
"Clearly not," Mother said calmly. "You made a mistake, Void Walker. You came here thinking Lily was alone. But she's not. She comes from a line of ancient magic users. Seal Keepers. The very people who imprisoned you the first time."
My jaw dropped. "What?"
"Our family didn't become commoners by accident, Elara." Mother's hands blazed brighter. "We were nobility. Magic nobility. Guardians of the ancient seals keeping the Void locked away. But we were betrayed. Hunted. Forced into hiding."
The Void Walker snarled. "And now you reveal yourselves. Foolish."
"No. Necessary." Mother looked at me and Lily. "My daughters, it's time you learned who you really are. What you really are. And why the Void fears our family above all others."
The ancient runes expanded, forming a barrier around the Void Walker.
"This won't hold me long," it hissed.
"Long enough." Mother turned to us. "Girls, we need to talk. About your heritage. Your true power. And the prophecy that says a Moonstone will either save the world or doom it to eternal void."
She looked directly at Lily.
"And the prophecy says it happens on a Moonstone's sixteenth birthday."