Fatigue clung to Dawn's body like an unseen weight, slowing his steps. He had ventured deep into the forest, farther than any student before him, yet the towering tree—the heart of his mission—remained elusive. His limbs ached, his breaths came slow and measured, but something in his chest pulled at him, urging him forward.
The journey had been grueling. The air had thickened as he delved deeper into the heart of the forest, and with each step, the canopy above him grew denser. The sounds of the forest were muffled, swallowed by the massive trees, whose trunks seemed to twist upward into infinity. Birds and creatures of the woods had long since faded into the distance, and for the last several hours, the silence had been overwhelming.
Dawn wasn't sure if it was the stillness or the weight of his own thoughts that was beginning to wear him down. He thought about the Celestial Marking ceremony, the pressure that followed, the tests ahead. He was walking a path that no one had walked before him, and yet, there was no guide, no mentor to see him through it. The task had been clear: find the ancient tree, bring back the fruits that held the power to fuel his training and prove his worth. But the deeper he ventured into the forest, the more he questioned whether this was something he could really do alone.
He glanced upward, hoping to glimpse the sky beyond the thick canopy. Nothing. Only endless leaves, sealing the heavens away like a veil of green. The forest stretched far beyond his sight, a labyrinth of wood and shadow. He had been walking for hours, and yet, he felt as though he had barely made any progress.
With a quiet sigh, he leaned against the trunk of a massive tree, resting his head against the bark. The rough texture pressed into his skin, grounding him in a moment of stillness. He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his breath to slow, his mind to clear. Yet even as the physical exhaustion seemed to take hold, something in his chest pulled at him. It was an undeniable sensation, like a tug at his very core—a call that resonated deeply within his soul.
Dawn wasn't sure what it was, but it was enough to stir him back to life. He opened his eyes.
Then—
A flicker of light.
Not from the moon, nor the stars.
Something else.
Dawn's breath caught.
A fractured glow pulsed between the leaves above—shimmering, shifting, calling. It was faint at first, no brighter than a firefly's glow, but it beckoned him. The light felt alive, more than just a simple flash. It held a presence, something powerful and ancient, a force that was beyond anything he had ever felt before.
His instincts sharpened. This was no ordinary light.
Grasping a low-hanging branch, he pulled himself up, his muscles protesting but obeying. He didn't hesitate; the call from above was too compelling, too strong to ignore. Climbing was second nature to him, a skill honed through years of training, both physical and mental. His movements were swift yet cautious, weaving through the branches as he ascended higher, chasing the glimmering light.
The air grew lighter. Not thinner, but strange—unreal. The space around him felt weightless, as if he were stepping beyond the boundaries of the world. The familiar weight of his body felt less solid, more ethereal. The trees around him seemed to stretch and twist as though they, too, were caught in a timeless dance, moving just slightly out of sync with his movements.
Then, he saw it.
A crack in the sky.
His breath stalled.
Not a metaphorical crack. Not an illusion. A real, jagged fracture floating above the treetops, pulsing faintly, like the embers of a dying star. The air itself seemed to tremble around it, as though the very fabric of reality had been torn, just enough to reveal what lay beyond.
A piece of the heavens—broken.
Dawn reached out instinctively, drawn to the fracture in the sky. His fingers trembled as they extended toward the light, and as they brushed the edge of the fracture, something inside him stirred. His Vast Sky Pattern reacted—faint markings on his skin glowing with a soft, shimmering light, like the gentle pulsing of stars.
A sharp pulse ran through his body, the markings on his skin glowing faintly, recognizing something long forgotten. The air around the fracture trembled, and for a moment, Dawn felt the distant touch of something far greater than him. It wasn't just the light of the fracture—it was a presence, an intelligence, something ancient and familiar.
Was this… a remnant of a sky that no longer existed?
Had it always been here, hidden beyond mortal sight?
His fingers brushed the edge of the fracture—
And the world shifted.
A pull. A force beyond comprehension. The Vast Sky Pattern surged, answering something buried deep within the broken sky itself. It was a response, a calling that had waited for this moment. Dawn's body felt as though it were unraveling, coming apart at the seams. The fracture in the sky was more than just a tear—it was a doorway, a portal, a threshold that separated what was from what could be. And as his fingers made contact, the world began to collapse inward around him, drawn toward the fracture.
The light swallowed him whole.
Everything around him warped, the forest fading into nothing. The air twisted and stretched, the colors of the trees melting into streams of energy. He was no longer climbing a tree. He was falling—no, rising—no, becoming.
Dawn felt the pull in every part of his being. His body tingled with energy, his mind spun, and the light of the fracture seemed to consume him. The Vast Sky Pattern glowed brighter, its chaotic patterns shifting, becoming more fluid, more intense. It was like a living thing, resonating with the energy of the fracture, the two forces entwining.
And then, as quickly as it had started, the world snapped back into focus.
The light around him dimmed, and Dawn found himself standing in a place that was both alien and familiar, a place that didn't belong to the world he had just left.
He was no longer in the forest.
He was somewhere else.
---
Elsewhere—A Shard of the Moon
Far beyond the forest, beneath an endless night sky, another transformation was unfolding.
Luna Ashborne stood alone on a desolate peak, her silver hair flowing like liquid starlight, catching the faintest shimmer of the moon's glow. The wind whispered through the high mountains, carrying the scent of cold stone and distant storm clouds. In her hand, she held a fragment—small, but impossibly heavy.
A shard of the Moon.
It had called to her, just as the fracture had called to Dawn.
The moment her fingers closed around it, the power within surged to life. A whisper, ancient and distant, echoed in her mind, a voice that didn't belong to any living being. It spoke of forgotten truths, of celestial bonds that stretched across time and space. Luna's breath caught in her throat, her heart racing as she felt the connection deepen, the pull of the shard sinking into her very blood.
Something stirred in her blood.
Light enveloped her, the pale glow of the moon merging with her very being. The shard began to dissolve in her grasp, flowing into her skin like liquid starlight, merging with her essence. Luna's eyes glowed with an inner light, silver and intense, as the ancient energy coursed through her veins.
She exhaled sharply, her vision blurring. Reality twisted. The mountains, the sky, the wind—all of it fell away.
Like Dawn, she was stepping beyond.
Like Dawn, she was becoming.
The change was both physical and spiritual, a transformation that was as ancient as the sky itself. The very fabric of her being seemed to dissolve and reform, reshaped by the power of the shard. It was no longer just the moon's light that enveloped her—it was the essence of the moon itself, a force that had always been a part of her but had never fully manifested until now.
She felt herself slipping into something vast, something unfathomable.
The moon was no longer just a celestial body. It was a part of her.
---
Within the broken sky, Dawn felt himself unravel and reassemble all at once.
His mind stretched, his senses reaching beyond the confines of his body. His awareness expanded, flung out into the vastness of the cosmos. The Vast Sky Pattern was no longer just a marking on his skin—it was a bridge, a key, a forgotten truth awakening. It connected him to something ancient, something far beyond the world of mortals. The fracture in the sky was not just a tear—it was a conduit, an opening to a power that had once been. And now it was reaching out to him, drawing him closer.
Somewhere far away, beneath the watchful eye of the Moon, Luna Ashborne's transformation echoed his own.
Two paths.
Two fates.
Two awakenings.
And as the light consumed them both, the world prepared to shift.
The sky was no longer broken.
It was being remade.