"The sun governs the day. The moon governs the mind. To sever one is blindness. To sever the other is madness."
— From the Lunar Tracts of the Forgotten Wellspring Sect
🌙 Far North – Nocturne Expanse
The moon had been absent for seven nights.
Not clouded. Not eclipsed.
Just gone.
The stars blinked in and out like candlewicks in a storm, and cultivators across the world began to report a strange affliction:
Dreams that never ended
Memories looping backward
Visions of a silver figure standing at the edge of a crater, whispering their name
And above them—only darkness where the moon should be.
🏕️ Current – Hollow Camp, East Ridge
Jin Mu-Won stood by a crag overlooking a valley flooded in unnatural night.
Behind him, Lin Xue lit a lantern with inverted flame—cold, glowing silver. Su Ren read from an ancient scroll recovered from the broken Heavenfall Engine. Ash-Eye meditated nearby, now beginning to grow spectral wings in his sleep.
"The moon vanished from the sky the same night the Sky-Burying Sect fell," Lin Xue said.
"That's not coincidence."
"No," Jin replied.
"It's a message."
"From who?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed toward the east.
Where a crater glowed faintly, rimmed by frost, and from which no sound emerged.
📜 Lore Entry – The Wellspring Sect
Once the masters of mind cultivation, the Wellspring Sect believed the moon to be a reflection of the soul—a vessel that housed the thoughts the heavens deemed too dangerous to voice.
They were destroyed during the Third Pact Era after refusing to surrender a relic called the Lunar Vein, said to be the crystallized consciousness of the First Mourner.
When their shrine fell, the moon dimmed for three days.
Now, it had been seven.
🌀 Descent – Crater of Echoes
The team made their way down into the silent basin, each step pulling harder on their thoughts. The air didn't press on the body—it looped the mind.
Su Ren's fingers trembled.
Lin Xue winced.
Ash-Eye opened his eyes and whispered:
"I just dreamed I died."
"We all did," Jin replied.
"That's what this place feeds on."
At the center of the crater: a silver throne, empty but pulsing. Behind it: a fractured moonstone mirror, reflecting not their faces—but who they once were.
And in the air, a voice—soft, childlike, echoing across dimensions:
"Why did you forget me…?"
👤 The Moon Child – Echo Core Projection
A girl of perhaps ten stood atop the throne.
Eyes silver. Hair like moonlight. Barefoot. Face expressionless—but tears streaked down her cheeks.
"I kept your dreams safe," she said, voice echoing within them instead of to them.
"But now they're breaking. And the sky won't listen."
Lin Xue took a step back.
"That's not a spirit. That's—"
"—an Echo Core," Jin finished.
"One of the last from the Mourner's Crown."
The child pointed at Jin.
"You… were the only one who remembered."
"Then let me help you."
She shook her head.
"Only if you pass the trial. Or I'll have to erase your name like all the others."
⚔️ Trial of the Mind – Lunar Refraction Combat Zone Activated
The crater inverted.
Each member was pulled into a fragment of their worst memory.
Jin:
Staring at himself as a child, failing to protect someone whose name he no longer remembered.
A flame too cold to save.
A scream with no sound.
A burial with no mourners.
Su Ren:
The night her sect voted to bind her to the oath altar, stripping her name and future.
Ash-Eye:
The moment he released his first fire… and burned a village that trusted him.
Lin Xue:
The courtyard after Jin's "death," standing with blood on her hands and an empty mask in her grasp.
🧠Jin's Response – Mourner's Reversal
But Jin didn't fight the vision.
He embraced it.
He stepped toward the child version of himself, knelt, and whispered:
"I remember you now. You weren't weak. You were just alone."
He reached into his chest—and drew out a small flame.
Not hot.
Not loud.
Just steady.
He placed it in the child's hands.
"Now you're not."
The vision cracked—light pouring through the illusion.
And the others followed suit.
💫 Trial Passed – Moon Returns to the Sky
The throne glowed.
The child smiled softly, then faded into starlight.
And above them—
The moon reappeared, full and bright, silver light piercing through every cloud.
Their minds cleared.
Their thoughts settled.
And the crater began to bloom with glowing white flowers—memory-lilies.
📜 Echo Reward – Lunar Vein Fragment
[You have gained: Lunar Vein – Wellspring Sect Core Fragment]
Enhances dream-based resistance, prevents name manipulation, and improves clarity under mind-affecting qi.
Emotional resonance with Mourner's Crown at 31%
Mourner's Crown Awakening: 31%
Hidden Trait Detected: Lunar Aspect Subtype Unlocked – "Still Flame in Dreamspace"
🌌 World Response
The moon's return stuns spiritual observatories across the Eastern Alliance.
Sleepwalkers wake across five provinces.
In the capital of the Nine Pacts, a man with three eyes opens a sealed case and reads aloud:
"The Moon Child lives again. The Hollow is winning."
🧠Status Update
Jin Mu-Won: Dreamfire Affinity recognized. Access to mind-stabilization fields unlocked.
Lin Xue: Lunar Affinity awakenings detected—future role: Twin Flame Bonded
Su Ren: Resisting past vows through mirrored resolve
Ash-Eye Dagan: Internal flame stabilizing; spectral wings nearing full emergence
As the four climbed from the crater, moonlight followed them.
And behind, in the throne now empty, a single word carved itself into stone:
"Remembered."