Table of Contents
CH. 1 | CH. 2 | CH. 3 | CH. 4 (below)
CHAPTER FOUR
The ceremonial grounds lay deep within the Moon, an amphitheater that felt less built than summoned from the rock itself. The walls breathed with veins of circuitry and molten light, their glow spilling across the tiers as rebels filed into the rising stone benches above. Hundreds of faces. Everyone turned to him. Their anticipation a tide he could not out-swim.
High overhead, massive stone figures floated in suspension, tethered by strands of braided light so thin they were almost unnoticeable. They pulsed faintly with resonance so deep it thrummed in his teeth, a vibration older than language, probably grown from the Moon itself.
Ashfall stood upon a dais, dark hair spilling loose over his shoulders, his voice carrying across the murmurs with authority. “We need to know if this man is worthy of our trust,” he said, golden eyes raking the crowd before falling on Valen, “and we will find out the way we always have.”
His hands rose, and the hall erupted in a wild cheer. Ashfall basked in it for a heartbeat, then the sound cut off as the floor groaned open. In the center of the arena: stone split in a slow spiral, revealing a shaft of shadowed depth.
From it … something stirred.
The psychic weight hit first, a pressure blooming in his mind.
It emerged from the opening in the floor with a grace that mocked its great size. A fusion of predator and deity, its body was covered in scales the color of midnight blue seas, their edges kissed with frost-silver. It bore white feathered wings with streaks of that same blue. Once unfurled, they spread so far the amphitheater felt too small to hold them. Its blue-scaled legs bent feline, with more paws than feet, that ended in stark white talons curved into crescents. Every motion spoke of elegance shaped by necessity as the Nhyrkahl flew above the crowd.
Cael felt a truth skin into him: that all other beasts were lesser echoes of this first design.
