Chapter 36 The Vision
Twenty years after Selene’s trial, I woke with a scream trapped in my throat.
The vision had been so vivid. So real. I saw myself old and dying, surrounded by family in a garden bathed in golden light. Saw myself letting go peacefully, my work complete.
But beneath that peaceful ending, I felt something else. Something the vision was trying to warn me about.
“Sera?” Kael bolted upright beside me, his hand immediately on my arm. “What is wrong?”
“A vision. Or a dream. I do not know.” I pressed my hands against my face, trying to hold onto the details before they faded. “I saw my death. But also something after. Something that has not happened yet.”
Through the bond, Kael’s alarm spiked. “Your death? Sera, you are only forty-two years old. You have decades left.”
“I know. That is not what scared me.” I turned to face him in the darkness. “In the vision, I was old. At peace. But there was a warning woven through it. About our grandchildren. About something they will face.”
“What something?”
“I could not see clearly. But it felt urgent. Important. Like I was being shown my death so I could prepare them for what comes after.”
Before Kael could respond, a knock shattered the quiet. Maya entered, her face pale.
“Luna Sera, you need to come to Selene’s room. Now.”
We rushed through the corridors. Marcus was already there, barely fifteen years old and confused. Inside Selene’s room, she floated three feet above her bed, unconscious, surrounded by silver and void light swirling like a storm.
“How long has she been like this?” I demanded.
“Ten minutes. Maybe more.” Maya twisted her hands. “I heard her cry out. When I came in, she was already floating. I cannot wake her.”
Through my bond with Selene, I reached out. Found her consciousness somewhere else. Somewhere between life and death, past and future.
“She is having a vision too,” I whispered. “The same one I had. Or connected to it.”
Mora burst in, Elder Thaddeus close behind. The old healer immediately began assessing Selene while the ancient wolf studied the swirling energies with narrowed eyes.
“This is Shadow Queen power,” Elder Thaddeus said. “But amplified. As if something is pulling at her. Demanding her attention.”
“Can you wake her?” Kael asked.
“I can try. But if she is truly walking between worlds, forcing her back could damage her.”
Through the bond, I felt Selene stirring. Felt her consciousness reaching toward mine.
“Mother,” her voice came through our connection. “Mother, do you see it?”
“See what?”
“The future. Our future. It is branching. Splitting into paths I cannot follow. But one path keeps showing me the same thing.”
“What thing?”
“Your death. But you are not afraid. You are ready. You are smiling. And you are telling me something. Warning me about something.”
The silver and void light intensified. Selene’s body convulsed.
“She is fighting something,” Mora said urgently. “Something is trying to force her to see more than she is ready for.”
“Selene, come back!” I screamed through the bond. “Whatever you are seeing, it can wait! Come back now!”
“I cannot! It will not let me go until I see everything!” Her mental voice was panicked. “Mother, there is something in the future. Something that will threaten Marcus’s children. Your grandchildren. The gods are gone but something else is coming. Something worse.”
“What is it?”
“I cannot see! The vision keeps fragmenting. Showing me pieces but not the whole. I see a girl with your name. I see her standing at a crossroads. I see her choosing between light and darkness. I see”
Selene’s scream tore through both the room and the bond. The light around her exploded outward, throwing everyone backwards.
When the brightness faded, she lay on the bed, gasping and crying.
“Selene!” I rushed to her side. “What did you see?”
“Everything.” Tears streamed down her face. “I saw your entire life. Your death. The years after. Marcus’s children. His daughter who will carry your name and your gift.” She grabbed my hands desperately. “Mother, she is going to be like me. Shadow Queen's power. But stronger. And something knows it. Something has been waiting for her to be born.”
Through the bond, I felt her terror. Whatever she had seen in that vision had shaken her to her core.
“What thing?” Kael demanded. “What has been waiting?”
“The gods had enemies. Beings they kept them imprisoned. Locked away in places between life and death where even gods could not go.” Selene sat up, her whole body trembling. “But I walk those places. And when I broke free from divine chains, when I opened the door between worlds to save Father, I did not just let ghosts through. I let something else notice. Something that has been waiting for a chance to escape.”
Elder Thaddeus went pale. “The Void Lords. You are speaking of the Void Lords.”
“What are Void Lords?” Marcus asked, his young voice frightened.
“Beings that existed before the gods,” Elder Thaddeus said slowly. “Entities of pure entropy. The gods imprisoned them aeons ago because they could not be killed. Only contained.” He looked at Selene with dawning horror. “You are saying they know about your niece? About a child who is not even born yet?”
“They do not just know. They are planning.” Selene’s storm grey eyes held ancient knowledge. “They cannot escape their prison alone. But if they had a Shadow Queen? A being who could walk between worlds freely? They could use her as a doorway. Force her to tear open the barriers the gods built.”
“Then we make sure Marcus’s daughter never develops Shadow Queen powers,” Kael said. “We suppress it somehow. Keep her safe.”
“You cannot suppress it,” Selene said. “It is in the bloodline now. My power. Mother’s First Wolf heritage. It will manifest in her whether we want it to or not.”
“When?” I asked, my mind racing. “When will she be born?”
“Twenty years. Maybe twenty-five. I could not see exactly.” Selene looked at me with desperate eyes. “But Mother, in every vision, you were already gone. You died peacefully, surrounded by love, before she ever faced danger. You will not be here to help her.”
The words hit like physical blows. I had always assumed I would live to meet all my grandchildren. To help protect them. To guide them.
But the visions said otherwise.
“Then we prepare her another way,” I said firmly, pushing down my own fear. “We leave warnings. Instructions. Knowledge she can use when her time comes.”
“How do you prepare someone for beings that existed before gods?” Marcus asked. “How does a child fight that?”
“The same way I fought gods,” Selene said quietly. “With love. With stubbornness. Refusing to be what they expect.” She looked at each of us. “We have twenty years. Maybe more. We use that time to build defences. To strengthen the pack. To leave behind everything she will need to survive.”
“And we live fully until then,” I added. “We do not spend twenty years in fear of what might come. We spend them building the strongest foundation we can. So when the time comes, she has everything she needs.”
Through the bond with Kael, I felt his resolve hardening. Through my bond with Selene, I felt her determination.
We had faced gods and won. We could prepare for this too.
“What do we tell people?” Maya asked where she had picked herself up off the floor. “The pack will have questions about what just happened.”
“We tell them the truth,” I decided. “Those visions have shown us a future threat. That we are preparing. That we will not let fear control us but we will also not ignore warnings.”
Elder Thaddeus nodded slowly. “I will begin researching the Void Lords. Everything the ancient texts say about them. Their weaknesses. Their limitations. Knowledge is our first weapon.”
“I will train,” Selene said. “Push my powers further. Learn everything I can about walking between worlds. If these Void Lords plan to use someone like me, I need to understand exactly what they will attempt.”
“And I will strengthen the kingdom,” Kael said. “Build alliances. Prepare defences. Make sure that when this threat comes, we are ready.”
“What about me?” Marcus asked. “What can I do?”
I looked at my son, barely fifteen, already understanding that his future children would face cosmic danger.
“You live,” I said gently. “You grow. You find someone you love and build a family with them. And when your daughter is born, you love her so fiercely that nothing in existence can break her. You give her the same foundation we gave your sister.”
Through the bond, Selene’s gratitude flowed warm and strong.
“We have time,” I said to all of them. “We use it wisely. And we trust that love is stronger than any Void Lord. Stronger than entropy. Stronger than fear.”
“But what if it is not enough?” Marcus whispered. “What if we do everything right and she still faces something we cannot prepare her for?”
“Then she will do what I did,” Selene said firmly. “What Mother did. What Father did. She will choose anyway. She will fight anyway. She will love anyway.” Her eyes blazed with determination. “And she will survive. Because that is what our family does. We survive the impossible.”
The sun began to rise outside, golden light spilling through the windows.
We had been given a warning. A chance to prepare. That was more than most people received.
“Twenty years,” I said, making it a vow. “We have twenty years to build something strong enough to withstand entropy itself. We do not waste a single day.”
Through the bonds, I felt agreement from both Kael and Selene.
We would prepare. We would plan. We would build defences.
But we would also live. Love. Celebrate every moment we had together.
Because that was what made us strong. Not just preparation. But joy. Connection. The refusal to let future threats steal present happiness.
The mark on my palm, which had been dormant for years, suddenly pulsed. Not with heat. With cold.
I looked down and saw new symbols forming. A countdown, but different from before.
Not counting down to my death.
Counting down to something else. Something that would begin long after I was gone.
Twenty years, seven months, fourteen days.
Until a girl named Sera was born.
Until the Void Lords would make their move.
Until everything we had built would be tested once more.
I closed my fingers around the mark, hiding it.
Not because I was afraid to share it.
But because some knowledge was too heavy to carry alone, yet too important to ignore.
I would bear this weight. Would watch the countdown. Would use every day to prepare.
And when my time came, when I finally died in that garden surrounded by love, I would go knowing I had done everything possible to protect the grandchildren I would never meet.
Through the bond, Selene’s hand found mine. She had seen the mark. Had felt my resolve.
“Together,” she whispered. “We face this together.”
“Together,” I agreed.
And somewhere beyond, I swear I felt the Void Lords laughing.
Waiting patiently for the door to open.
For the Shadow Queen who would either save the world or destroy it.
For the beginning of the end.
Or the end of the beginning.
Only time would tell.
And time, unfortunately, was the one thing we could not control.