The night was thick with silence when the sudden shock of ice cold water ripped Liora from her sleep.
She gasped, convulsing upright in the sheets, her breath a sharp shiver in her throat. The warmth of the bed was instantly stolen from her skin. Her thin nightdress clung to her body, soaked, outlining the swell of her eight month belly. Droplets ran down her cheeks and chest, stinging as if the water itself had turned to shards of frost.
Her eyes darted open and there Vanya was.
The other Luna stood at the side of her bed, candlelight etching cruel shadows on her sharp cheekbones. Her mouth curled in a victorious smirk, her eyes burning with the venom of long nursed hatred. In her hand, the wooden bucket dripped its last remnants onto the marble floor.
"Vanya," Liora croaked, shivering, clutching instinctively at her swollen belly. "What are you doing?"
"What I have waited to do," Vanya hissed, her voice like steel wrapped in velvet. She turned to the guards waiting by the door. "Take her."
Before Liora could scramble from the bed, two guards lunged forward. Their hands were iron shackles on her arms, wrenching her upright. She cried out in pain as her body protested the sudden motion. The baby inside her shifted, and terror shot through her veins.
"Stop! Stop…what are you doing?!" Liora's voice was raw with panic. "I'm carrying his heir! You cannot touch me…"
But her protests were smothered by the harsh tug of the guards dragging her from the bed. Her bare feet skidded across the floor, leaving damp prints in their wake. She fought against their hold, but their grip only tightened, bruising her arms as they hauled her through the palace corridors.
The heavy doors swung open, and a rush of night air slammed into her chest.
The courtyard blazed with torches. Warriors, servants, and common pack members had gathered in a wide circle, their faces pale ovals against the dark. Word had spread. Something was about to happen, something public.
And in the center of it all, rising like a cruel monument, stood the ancient Tree of Shame. Its roots clawed up through the flagstones, its trunk thick and gnarled, its branches twisting into the night sky like skeletal fingers. It was the place where traitors and enemies were punished before the eyes of the kingdom.
"No…no, please!" Liora screamed, thrashing against the guards' grip as the tree loomed closer. "I am your Luna! Gonzalo will not allow this!"
Vanya walked behind them, her every step measured and graceful, like a queen overseeing her triumph. Her voice rang sharp across the courtyard. "Bind her to the tree."
The crowd shifted uneasily. Some gasped, others whispered. But no one dared to intervene. The authority of the Luna was unquestioned, and tonight, Vanya held that power like a dagger at their throats.
The guards yanked Liora against the rough bark. Her bare back scraped against it as they wound coarse ropes around her arms, pinning them above her head. Her belly pressed outward, exposed and vulnerable. She writhed, tears burning her eyes.
"You cannot do this!" she sobbed, her voice cracking. "Gonzalo will never forgive you—he will kill you for this!"
Vanya stepped forward, her figure illuminated in the torchlight. She held a long cane in her hand, polished wood that gleamed with menace. She tilted her head, regarding Liora with mock sympathy.
"Oh, my dear," she purred, lifting the cane to trace it down Liora's cheek. "Tonight, I am the voice of karma and karma says you must pay."
The cane whipped through the air and landed across Liora's thigh.
The crack split the night.
Liora screamed, her cry cutting through the courtyard like a blade. Her knees buckled, but the ropes held her upright, forcing her to endure. The sting spread like fire through her body, and her unborn child kicked violently within her, reacting to her agony.
"No!" she cried, gasping for breath. "Please—please, think of the baby!"
"Shut up!" Vanya snarled, and the cane came down again.
This time it struck across her arm, leaving an angry red welt. Then again across her back, the bark tearing into her flesh with each blow. Each crack of the cane echoed, each scream of Liora's punctuated the night like thunder.
The crowd stood frozen, caught between fear and pity. Some looked away, unable to watch the pregnant Luna suffer. Others whispered that perhaps she deserved it, that the Moon Goddess was punishing her.
Liora's tears streamed freely, her throat raw from screaming. "Gonzalo!" she cried out desperately, her voice breaking. "Gonzalo—where are you? Please!"
But the night gave no answer.
Vanya's eyes glittered with dark satisfaction. "Call for him all you like," she said coldly. "He will not come. He is mine, and you are nothing."
Another blow. Another scream.
The ropes bit into Liora's wrists as she struggled, her body trembling, her face pale with exhaustion and pain. Blood mingled with her tears, streaking down her skin. She could feel the life inside her fluttering, unsettled, as if the baby itself cried with her.
Still, between sobs, she forced words past her lips: "Gonzalo… will not forgive you… for this."
Her voice was hoarse, but her eyes held the last embers of defiance. "He… will never forgive you."
The crowd murmured at her words, unease spreading like wildfire. For even in her suffering, there was truth in them. Gonzalo's wrath was legendary.
Vanya's hand trembled slightly on the cane, but she masked it with another cruel smile. "We shall see."
And the flogging continued, each strike a declaration of dominance, each scream a scar on the night that no one would forget.
Liora's cries for Gonzalo echoed until her voice was little more than a whisper, a broken plea carried by the wind.
The tree stood witness, ancient and unmoving, as Luna Vanya delivered her punishment before the eyes of all.
And when at last Liora sagged against the ropes, her body broken but her spirit flickering still, the night swallowed her final words.
"Gonzalo…will never forgive you."