The torchlight flickered across the dust-caked vault walls, throwing distorted shadows as Magnolia stepped inside. Her breath caught. The air felt older than time, thick with magic and memory, humming through the stone like a buried song.
"This place... it remembers," Celeste murmured from behind, her boots crunching softly over the ancient floor. "Everything we've forgotten, it still holds."
Magnolia turned, her pulse echoing in her ears. The vault smelled of old herbs, wax, and something sharper, blood, maybe, or fear. Set into the far wall was an altar, shaped like a crescent moon. Upon it lay a blackened book wrapped in iron thorns, pulsing faintly beneath layers of time.
"That's it," Celeste whispered. "The Luna Codex."
Beckett's brows knotted. "Sealed with blood magic. That's not just a lock, it's a vow. Only one of their line can open it."
