The City of Stars wasn't a city in the traditional sense.
It didn't sit on a map, nor did it obey the laws of stone and street. It was a gathering of belief — of awakened souls whose veins had started humming with unfamiliar songs. Carved high into the cliffs of the Skyreach Mountains, it shimmered with threads of flame, dust, wind, and something new: silver-gold starlight, born from the Eighth Cycle.
And today, for the first time, the Children of that Cycle were coming together.
Not as victims.
Not as accidents.
But as bearers.
---
Isen stood atop one of the high platforms, the wind lifting her hair in soft gusts. She was no longer just the girl lost in flames and stolen memories. She had become something entirely new — something even the old Cyclebearers couldn't define.
