Time didn't flow in the Vale of Mourning.
It spiraled.
When Selene woke the next morning, the sun hadn't moved. The stars remained frozen. And the third moon hung larger in the sky—closer, as if it breathed.
The world had not changed.
But she had.
---
Kael noticed first. He reached to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear—only to pause as his fingers brushed her skin.
"Selene… your pulse…"
It beat three times in one breath.
Fast. Then slow. Then still.
Like three hearts trying to remember which one was hers.
She looked into his eyes, afraid to ask what she already knew.
"I'm not just marked," she whispered. "I've been rewritten."
---
Naeria placed a mirror shard under starlight, whispering old incantations. The symbols in the glass danced. But one refused to shift.
The one shaped like a hollow circle.
"No matter what I do," Naeria muttered, "this mark won't change."
"It's not meant to," Rowan said. "It's not magic—it's identity."
Selene exhaled. "Then I am the Hollow Star."
---
That night, her dreams came violently.
She stood in a void between time. Cities burned. Trees grew backward. People screamed in forgotten languages.
And in the center of it all:
A throne of shadow, cradled by the third moon's light.
Someone sat upon it.
She thought it would be her.
But it wasn't.
It was Theron.
---
She jerked awake with a gasp, drenched in sweat.
Her mark pulsed against her chest.
The air around her shimmered—not with heat, but with possibility.
She stepped outside.
And found Theron staring up at the sky, wide-eyed, unblinking.
"Elira's asleep," he murmured, "but she's whispering."
"To who?" Selene asked gently.
Theron didn't answer.
He pointed to the sky.
The third moon blinked.
---
Across the camp, Elira slept in a glowing circle of runes she'd drawn in her sleep.
Her body shimmered between light and shadow, starlight leaking from her eyes.
When Naeria tried to enter the circle, she was thrown back by a silent pulse of power.
Rowan rushed to her side.
"She's not possessed," Naeria gasped. "She's... becoming."
---
Selene knelt at the circle's edge, tears stinging her eyes.
"Elira," she whispered. "I'm here."
Her daughter's voice replied—not aloud, but inside her skull:
> "The stars remember. The flames forget. But the Void… rewrites."
Selene bowed her head.
The prophecy hadn't just bent.
It was folding the children into new shapes.
---
That night, the stars fell from the sky.
Not literally.
But when Selene looked up—there were fewer than before.
Whole constellations gone.
As if time had peeled them away.
And yet, the third moon remained.
Closer. Always closer.
---
They left the Vale before dawn.
It didn't feel like walking anymore.
The trees around them shimmered between versions of themselves—blooming, dying, fossilized.
Theron walked without speaking.
Elira's eyes no longer blinked; they burned with silent constellations.
And Selene?
She saw herself in every shadow now.
Not reflections.
Echoes.
---
As they descended into the lowlands, they came upon a ruined village.
It hadn't been there before.
Kael slowed. "This place wasn't on the map."
Rowan dismounted and knelt by the stones. "This place wasn't even built yet."
Selene knelt beside him.
The village was both ancient and unborn—a ghost of something that might exist one day.
Naeria touched a burnt tree. "Time is unraveling."
---
Inside the largest ruin, they found carvings—fresh and old all at once.
Selene approached one and froze.
It was a mural.
Of her.
Wreathed in violet fire.
Eyes hollow.
Children standing behind her—Elira on one side, starlight bleeding from her chest. Theron on the other, shadow licking at his feet.
And above them all—
The third moon.
Watching.
---
Selene staggered back. "No…"
Kael caught her. "What is it?"
She pointed. "This is a warning. Not a memory. Not a prophecy. A message from the future."
Naeria whispered, "Or from another version of you. One who made the wrong choice."
---
That night, they camped in silence.
Theron stood at the fire's edge, hand hovering over the flames.
He no longer seemed afraid of them.
Elira sat beside him, eyes fixed on the moon.
Selene sat with her back against Kael, her mark still pulsing.
And then—
The world trembled.
---
A crack split the sky.
A single, jagged tear.
From it poured whispers.
Not loud. Not angry.
Curious.
"What is that?" Rowan shouted, sword out.
Naeria dropped to her knees. "The Hollow Gate. It's opening."
---
Selene stood.
The crack expanded.
And from it, a figure stepped out.
No face.
No shadow.
Just lightless form.
Not flame.
Not moon.
Void.
It bowed.
"Mirror Queen," it said to Selene. "Your future has arrived."
---