Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.32.1: Bound and Taken

Note: Underlined parts are Kathula tail sign language.

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Pinti struggled against the invisible ropes as Xohr came to stand before her. His marking glowed. Hers warmed in response. He walked around her, grazing his paw across each candle flame as he went, turning them blue.

"Kathula must perish as fate has spoken. Must be sacrificed. What is sacrificed is what makes us Kathula."

Sacrifice? Pinti bristled. He couldn't possibly mean to sacrifice me!

Once he finished turning all candles blue, the circle glowed white. Sigils rose from the floor. One by one they whisked around her until she was surrounded in a white blur of light.

"Lunar magick, or your Lunality. You believe Kathula magick and Lunar magick are different. But Kathula magick is only a weakened form of your Lunality. It is the core of your magick, the very thing that makes us magical." He gave a low chuckle and brushed away her bangs. "Did you know you always had it? You were just made to forget."

Pinti bristled at what she just heard. They were made to forget they had Lunar magick? If they had known, they could have saved themselves from Edglings!

"When a Kathula desires the scepter as strongly as you have, the scepter is revealed. You should have forgotten forever. Never looked for it!" Xohr growled and shook his head. "But now you, the one who made the scepter appear, you're in the pad of my paw." He raised his arms and the ceiling melted away like candle wax to reveal a large cream-yellow moon.

Daero lay by the fireplace, struggling against invisible rope with purple lightning sparking across his back. Fight against him, Pinti! he signed. Don't let him take your magick!

A sheen of blue light rained down from the moon, mixing with the sigils that flew around her. Pinti struggled against the invisible rope again, feeling it dig into her fur, trying to find some loose parts, but it was useless. She could only move her tail. A sigil she didn't recognize floated up to her eyes and danced around her forehead.

Xohr muttered some words and the glowing sigils and circle dulled, dispersing into dust. The fragments from the sigils fell to the floor and vanished.

"Hng!" Daero shouted, writhing on the ground, making purple or blue sparks fly from his paws. Unable to speak properly, it seemed he couldn't cast any spells.

Xohr's paw grazed over her Lunar marking, poking and prodding slightly, but never entering in full. "Such strong Shamala Lunality," he muttered, "Who was your father or mother? Seems, the old way is best. I shall lock you up in the dungeon while I prepare myself."

Pinti squirmed, trying to find a position where the ropes weren't digging in so much. "Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"Why are you doing this?" he mocked her. "It is the duty of Cheripian. We," He lifted his arms to the moon, "were given this scepter which has all the magick of all magical races and the ultimate power of the moon! Such magick is strong enough to change the entire world! My mother came to the decision that for the sake of this world, the scepter must be hidden. It should only be used one in a hundred years. And Kathula who are tied to it by magick, shall forget it. But then you come along when we are fated to die! Why?" He paced the room. "So, I must make sure you never get the scepter. First your magick shall be returned to the moon. Then, you shall slowly perish here and watch with me, the extinction of your race."

He's insane! Pinti gritted her teeth. Maybe he had a duty, like she did, but this wasn't the right choice. Fate wasn't set in stone. They could change their own fate like Daero did.