Chapter 88: Forbidden Scrolls
The corridor to Celeste’s sanctum was rarely walked. Magnolia had passed it before, always told never to enter, never to question what lay behind the iron-laced door carved with ancient glyphs. But today, something pulled at her. A whisper in her blood. A tug deep within her marrow. She didn’t knock.
The door creaked open, revealing a chamber cloaked in dust and moonlight. The air was thick with the scent of herbs, smoke, and time. Scrolls lined the curved walls, not parchment, but old wolfhide, tanned and inked in silver and black. Moonstones pulsed softly from the floor. A brazier burned silently at the far end, casting restless shadows.
Magnolia stepped in slowly, her fingers brushing a carved obsidian table. She knew instinctively this was not a place for the uninvited. Yet she moved forward.
"You shouldn’t be here."
Celeste’s voice was neither warm nor furious. It was flat. Tired. The elder stood behind the brazier, the fire outlining her sharp cheekbones and the white streak that split her dark hair. She wore a robe the color of midnight, embroidered with silver runes.
"I didn’t mean to intrude," Magnolia said, her voice steady, though her heart thundered.
"Yet here you are."
Magnolia turned toward the wall of scrolls. One in particular glowed faintly. She didn’t ask permission. She stepped closer.
"Don’t touch it," Celeste warned.
"What is it?"
Celeste took a slow breath. "Luna War Scripts. Written during the First Fracture. They were bound in the flesh of fallen Seers and inked with blood from Luna herself."