---
The light didn't hurt.
That was the first thing he noticed.
It should have.
It should have seared his skin, scoured his bones, blinded his soul.
But it didn't.
Instead, it welcomed him—like it had been waiting for a very long time.
---
He stood alone beneath a broken sky, crimson light bleeding into every corner of this place that wasn't a place.
There was no wind. No sun. No breath but his own.
Yet something moved beside him.
Not a person. Not a beast.
But presence.
Warm. Cold. Alive. Ancient.
"You feel it now."
The voice again—soft as silk drawn across skin, yet echoing like thunder in the back of his skull.
"The bond."
"You were always closer to me than you ever were to the heavens."
---
He turned.
And she was there.
Not walking.
Not arriving.
Just there, as if she'd always been standing just outside the corner of his vision, waiting for him to finally notice.
Her hair fell like shadow-woven silver, brushing the ground like silk drowning in memory.
Eyes the same red as the sky, but deeper—like falling into an ocean made of dying stars.
Skin pale and perfect, marred only by glowing runes that spiraled up her arms and neck, flickering softly like candlelight on old paper.
She wasn't beautiful.
She was inevitable.
"Who…" he whispered, stepping back without meaning to, "...are you?"
"You know."
"I don't."
She tilted her head.
"You've known me since before you were born."
"You're not answering."
"I don't need to. You've already decided what I am."
"Then say it."
"Fine," she said, stepping toward him, not walking, just closing distance like a thought.
Her smile could have melted the moon.
"I am the one who does not belong."
"The one they sealed beneath time."
"The truth they buried before writing their lies."
"I am Aestra."
"The Crimson Moon."
"And you… are mine."
---
Yun Che didn't speak.
Because something inside him—something raw and primal—believed her.
No, not just that.
It had always believed her.
He didn't remember it, but his bones did. His blood did.
Like her voice was the lullaby that rocked him to sleep before the stars were born.
"Why me?" he asked, barely able to hold his own gaze against hers.
"Because you were broken."
"Everyone is broken."
"No," she whispered. "Most people are cracked. You were shattered."
She took another step.
"And do you know the best thing about shattered things?"
"They can't go back to what they were."
"They can only become something new."
---
His breath hitched.
For a moment, he wanted to collapse.
To scream.
To claw at his chest and demand the heavens tell him why.
But the heavens weren't listening.
They never were.
Only she was.
And in her gaze, he didn't see pity.
He didn't see judgment.
He saw reflection.
---
"What… happens now?" he asked.
Aestra reached out a hand—fingers long, trembling with power she didn't try to hide.
"Now?" she said.
"Now we become one."
"Now we unmake the stars."
"Now we build a truth so loud the heavens won't be able to forget it."
---
His hand moved. Slowly.
Not because he trusted her.
Not because he understood.
But because it was the only thing left to do.
When their fingers touched—
The moon screamed.
And the bond was sealed.
---
End of Chapter 2 — The Crimson Bond
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