Ren's mana felt tense in ways she'd never perceived before, anxiety radiating from his spiritual energy like heat from fire. Controlled but present, impossible for her enhanced senses to miss.
Still, she walked toward him and took his hand to begin the dance because retreating now would an acknowledging sothing was wrong. 'Please let nothing be wrong…'
The music started with that familiar lody that should have been comforting but instead felt ominous.
Fortunately everything seed normal in the execution if not in the internal feeling...
Hours passed and Luna finally relaxed.
And while they moved in steps they'd practiced so many tis the movents had beco automatic, Luna allowed herself to feel sothing she normally didn't.
Gratitude…
For her life.
For the small yet wonderful monts like this.
Gratitude that felt almost painful in its intensity.
'Thank you,' she thought while they danced, while his hand guided her with certainty through patterns that had beco second nature. 'For being here. For not running when I told you how hard my situation is. For not looking at with pity or like I'm just a broken victim who needs to be saved as quickly as possible.'
'Thank you for just... being here when I need you most.'
The image of Luna's mother saying sothing similar when she was small crossed her mind unbidden, mory surfacing from depths where she usually kept it buried.
'Thank you for just... being my daughter, being here.'
The thought arrived without invitation but with force that made her miss a step she imdiately corrected. That wasn't the first ti…
Lately Luna thought about her mother more often than she had in years.
Maybe it was being close to Ren, who sohow made her feel secure in ways she hadn't experienced since she was a child.
Safe to be vulnerable without that vulnerability being used against her. Safe to show cracks in an armor she'd spent years forging. Safe to admit she wasn't always strong and didn't always have answers.
Like her mother had made her feel back when the world was simple and love seed like it could protect you from anything.
Lykea had never expected Luna to be strong all the ti, had never judged her monts of weakness or fear with disappointnt or frustration. She'd just held her daughter close and declared with her characteristic intensity that everything would be fine because love was stronger than anything else in the world.
Luna had thought that was dramatic back then, had rolled her eyes at declarations that seed excessive when you didn't understand what losing them would feel like.
Now she'd give anything to hear those words one more ti, and would never roll her eyes at that embarrassing affection she'd taken for granted when it was abundant.
But Ren's mana pulsed again with that anxious tension that didn't belong in soone usually so firm and controlled.
And his smile, the one he'd been maintaining with visible effort, faltered for just an instant. Not long enough for most people to catch. But Luna had been watching him so intently that the microscopic crack in his composure registered as big as the world's rift.
Sothing in that expression made her blood go cold.
Luna froze for half a second before forcing herself to continue dancing, but the rhythm had been broken internally even if her body maintained the steps through muscle mory.
'No...'
She knew that expression with terrible certainty. Had seen it before even if she'd been too young to fully understand what it ant at the ti.
Years ago when her world had ended while she'd been too small to stop it or even comprehend what was being taken until the absence beca permanent.
That day when her parents left her alone with promises they couldn't keep...
♢♢♢♢
THE DAY EVERYTHING CHANGED - LUNA'S POV
Little Luna's day had begun like any other normal morning in a childhood that felt like it would last forever.
Her mother had woken her with kisses scattered across her face, declaring with dramatic flair that made the servants smile despite themselves, "It's the most beautiful day because my perfect star is awake!"
Luna had rolled her eyes but couldn't suppress the smile that tugged at her lips despite the feigned annoyance. Because that was her mother. That was how she'd always been… overwhelming in her affection, embarrassing in her intensity, impossible to stay irritated with for long.
They'd eaten breakfast together in the gardens where the best flowers blood only under twelve moons' light. Her mother had insisted on feeding her personally despite Luna's protests that she could eat by herself, that she was getting too old for this treatnt.
"But letting my beautiful baby eat alone would waste precious ti I could spend looking at your perfect little face!" Lykea had declared with such earnest delight that Luna couldn't even pretend indignation.
"Mom, you're so embarrassing," Luna had murmured, but she'd let herself be fed anyway because so part of her had enjoyed the attention even while the rest of her had pretended not to.
They'd played in the gardens after, her mother chasing her between flowerbeds while Luna shrieked with laughter that echoed off the stone walls. Simple joy that sensed infinite when you were seven and didn't understand that infinity could end abruptly.
It was a normal day... Happy. Perfect in its mundane simplicity.
The kind of day that only beca precious in retrospect when you realized how fragile happiness was and how quickly it could be stolen.
The tremors began with violence that shattered peace like glass.
Soft at first, barely noticeable vibrations that made the water in the fountains ripple strangely. Then stronger, ground trembling in ways that violated natural law. Building intensity that spoke of sothing massive and wrong happening beneath their feet.
The guards appeared running with expressions that transford her mother's smile into focused concern. "Lady Lykea! Lady Luna! You need to go to the castle refuge imdiately!"
Her mother hadn't hesitated or asked questions that would waste ti. She'd grabbed Luna and run with a speed that made the garden blur around them, protective instinct overriding everything else.
They were at the safest place in a blink.
But then her mother seed to sense sothing, her father's mana in distress.
Lykea left Luna under the guards' protection with kisses that felt different sohow, more intense than usual as if her mother was trying to pour years of love into a single mont. And then she'd run toward where Sirius needed her because that's what partners did, they saved each other.
Luna had watched her mother disappear around the corner, her hair catching light to show its blue nature under the black one last ti before shadows swallowed her figure.
She hadn't known it would be the last ti she'd see her mother move, the last glimpse of life that would be stolen and transford into a crystal prison.
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