Lucy couldn't sleep.
The Glyph of Aeon still shimmered faintly on her wrist, though she had tried washing it twice. It wasn't a tattoo. It wasn't a scar. It was something deeper — like her skin remembered something her mind didn't.
Every time she blinked, she saw flashes. The frozen rain. The battlefield of thrones. The spiral sun that hovered over three cities. They weren't dreams. They weren't visions. They felt… like echoes.
And something else now stirred deep in her gut — a quiet hum, low but constant, like a heartbeat beneath the world.
---
Elsewhere in the capital, Kitty stood alone on the sky balcony just above the West Wing.
The stars were especially clear tonight, and she found herself staring at a single cluster shaped like wings. She didn't know why, but it always calmed her. Something about the sky made her feel more like herself — even when nothing made sense.
Her pendant glowed faintly against her chest — the same one her mother had given her before disappearing during the Crystal Quakes five years ago.
She remembered her mother's last words clearly.
"Your wings will find you when the sky begins to bleed.
At the time, Kitty thought it was poetry.
Now… it felt like prophecy.
She closed her eyes.
And the moment she did, something pulsed in her chest — not painful, not forceful. But ancient. Heavy.
A vision cracked open like glass behind her mind.
---
She stood in a city of light.
But the light wasn't warm. It was golden, piercing, almost blinding. The entire city floated above clouds — like a fortress carved from sunlight. But it wasn't Odessyus.
At the center was a tower — tall and narrow, with a spire that spiraled up into the heavens. And above it hovered a massive pair of golden wings, flapping slowly without sound.
Each beat shook the clouds.
Each beat sent glyphs raining down like falling stars.
And in the tower's shadow stood a little girl.
Alone.
She had no eyes, no mouth. But Kitty knew, somehow, that girl was her.
---
Kitty jolted awake — or thought she did. But she was still on the balcony. Still standing.
Her hands trembled.
And then… the glyph burned across her shoulder blade.
She fell to one knee, clutching it. It wasn't a normal burn. It didn't scar her skin — it glowed beneath it. A symbol of golden wings slowly spreading wide, reaching toward the spine.
Tom rushed out the moment he heard the cry. "Kitty?"
She tried to speak, but her voice caught in her throat.
Frank, already on edge from Lucy's episode earlier, arrived just behind him. "It's happening," he said. "Her seal's cracking."
Susan and Marcus joined moments later. The group surrounded her as she tried to stand, supported by Lucy, who had felt the pulse from her room.
"What did you see?" Lucy asked quietly.
Kitty shook her head. "I… I think I saw where it comes from."
"What does?" Susan asked.
Kitty looked up.
"The wings."
---
The next morning, Neolin stood before the full group of Sigil Bearers in the inner chamber. Even the king's children had joined. The training glyphs had been dimmed. All attention was focused on the markings now glowing on Lucy's wrist and Kitty's back.
"Two signs," Neolin said. "Two awakenings from different ends of the ancient spectrum."
He held up an ancient codex — a weathered scroll said to be passed down since the last Dawn Age.
"This scroll names the Seven Forbidden Glyphs. One of them is Aeon — the spiral that controls time, memory, and existence. The other is Solamyr — the Wings of Judgment, said to control the sky and bend star-fire."
Peter frowned. "So you're saying Lucy and Kitty… both carry Forbidden Glyphs?"
"No," Neolin said calmly. "I'm saying they carry the first two."
A sharp intake of breath filled the room.
Jack muttered, "That's impossible."
Frank narrowed his eyes. "Or deliberate."
Tom looked at Neolin. "Who would've given it to them? They were kids. Just like us."
"The Forbidden Glyphs aren't given," Neolin said. "They are born into those whose souls echo a future the world tries to bury."
Kitty looked down. "So… we were marked since birth."
Neolin nodded. "Most likely. The glyphs simply waited for the Blood Moon's signal to begin resonating."
Lucy clenched her fists. "I didn't ask for this."
"No one ever does," Frank said. "But if it chose you… you can't run from it. You'll only run into it."
Marcus sat quietly, observing. "If there are seven of these… and two are already here…"
Neolin finished for him.
"Then the others will surface soon."
---
That night, lightning struck near the southern cliffs of Odessyus — an unusual occurrence for that season. The clouds twisted unnaturally fast, forming a strange spiral in the sky that glowed with dull violet.
In a distant forest far beyond the borders of the capital, a tree cracked open down the middle. And from within stepped a figure made of nothing but bones and burnt feathers, carrying a staff of broken dreams.
He looked to the east — toward the city, toward the stars.
And he smiled.
"The Wings awaken. The Spiral stirs. Soon… the Crown of Silence will return."
---
Back in the city, Lucy and Kitty sat on the balcony together, both silent for a long time.
Finally, Lucy said, "Do you think we were chosen to be… heroes?"
Kitty looked up at the sky, where stars began to blink in strange patterns.
"No," she said softly. "I think we were chosen to be remembered."
And somewhere in the sealed archives below the training chamber, the scroll that contained the Seven Glyphs added a new line on its own.
Two glyphs glowing.
Five still dark.
But not for long.