Nathan recovered slowly. But when he woke, he woke with memories he shouldn't have.
"The Hollow did something to me," he said, sitting beside Elara at the Tower garden. "It showed me images… from the beginning."
"What do you mean?"
"The First Circle. They weren't just humans with power. They were fragments of something bigger. A whole."
Elara frowned. "Fragments of what?"
"A goddess. A celestial being. Shattered into bloodlines when the Veil was created."
He pulled a scroll from under his coat—one he'd taken from the Hollow.
"She was called the Moonmother. And her death birthed the Veil… and the Heralds."
Elara stared at the diagram. Her glyph pulsed in response. "So the glyph isn't a spell."
"It's a memory," Nathan said. "A divine memory, passed down. And yours is waking up."
She stood, heart pounding. "Does Aldric know?"
"I don't think he knows everything. But I think he knows more than he's said."
Far below the city, the Herald stirred in its cage.
And one word echoed from its prison:
"Elara…"