13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfilXqBZQ74
The moon felt heavier with each passing hour.
Ever since the vault incident, Tsuki had sensed something shifting — in the tides, in her dreams, in the very air that wrapped around the Moon Palace like a veil. Suisei, unusually quiet, admitted to breaking a seal. Her voice trembled. Tsuki didn’t scold her. She was too focused on the growing shadow curling through the halls like smoke without fire.
Kanji, her mentor, summoned her in secret.
The Lunar Scholar had grown paler in recent days, as if the weight of knowing too much had finally caught up to him. His private library, hidden behind an illusion in the south wing, was lit with soft lunar lanterns. In its center lay a scroll wrapped in starlace — old, sealed with symbols even Tsuki could barely read.
“It’s time you knew,” Kanji said solemnly. “This prophecy was buried. Forbidden. The court feared what it foretold.”
Tsuki unrolled the scroll carefully, the ancient ink still glowing faintly with residual power. The writing was in moon calligraphy — Kanji’s own specialty. But these words were not his.
They were older.
**"When light is split, not slain —13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO2KNZQ7YGc
A mirror born beneath eclipse shall reign.One soul, two fates: to fall… or to forgive.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXuVC0l2yYM
The celestial crown shall pass not by blood,13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3BoZE3M9Iq
but by choice — between ruin or rebirth."**
A chill traced her spine.
“Split light… mirror born…” Tsuki whispered. “This speaks of a twin. A shadow twin.”
Kanji nodded grimly. “Born during the eclipse that followed your arrival into the world. You were not alone, Princess. The kingdom feared the darkness in her — so they erased her. Sealed her essence deep beneath the palace.”
“…Getsu.”
The name settled like frost on her tongue.
“I thought she was a myth,” Tsuki murmured. “A bedtime tale to teach obedience.”
“To you, perhaps. But to the elders… she is a wound the Moon has never healed. The dark prophecy they feared would someday awaken.”
Tsuki’s heart pounded in her chest. “And if she has returned?”
Kanji hesitated, then said softly, “Then the heavens will test you both. Not with battle, but with choice. Only one may wear the Crown of Light — the mantle of cosmic unity.”
Outside the chamber, the wind howled through the moon towers — a sound that almost resembled a whisper.
A name.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuG0BhnTadX
A warning.
Getsu.
And somewhere in the shadows of the palace, a figure traced the cracks in the walls with ghost-pale fingers.
"I was never the curse," she whispered. "I was the price."
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