Chapter 17 - The Lunar Eclipse
The night of the lunar eclipse arrived with an eerie, unnatural silence. The full moon was slowly swallowed by a heavy shadow, turning from a brilliant silver orb into a dark, bruised copper disk.
Inside the Inner Citadel, the atmospheric magic began to fluctuate wildly. The gentle, steady rain that usually blessed the valley ceased abruptly, replaced by a dense, cold fog that rolled in through the citadel gates like creeping smoke.
Mira woke instantly from a deep sleep, her sapphire eyes flying open. She sat up in bed, clutching her left wrist as the silver Rainkeeper mark throbbed with a sharp, burning pulse.
Beside her, Evander was already awake, his armor laid out neatly across the chair. He stood up, pulling his heavy leather gauntlets onto his hands out of habit, though his curse was gone.
"You felt it too," Mira said, throwing off her blankets and swinging her feet to the floor.
"The atmospheric core is being artificially disrupted," Evander said, his voice grim as he strapped his broadsword to his waist. "That isn't a natural weather shift. Someone is channeling external elemental magic from outside the valley."
Before Evander could reach the chamber doors, Captain Soren burst into the royal quarters without knocking, his chest heaving as if he had run up every flight of stairs in the citadel.
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"Sire! Lady Mira!" Soren shouted urgently. "The eastern watchtowers have just sent an emergency signal! A rogue battalion of temple loyalists led by General Kaelen has broken through the Whispering Gorge! They are bypassing the outer defenses and heading straight for the central courtyard!"
Mira’s breath caught. "They aren't coming to conquer the city. They’re coming for the dragon."
