Chapter 5: Moonlit Grotto

Seer Nera listened in the Moonlit Grotto while the crystal chorus rang in broken chords. Moon-crystals sang when the guardians were whole; now their voices splintered into warnings and false directions, sharp enough to drive careful folk into panic.

The Crystal Matriarch did not prophecy defeat from her nest in the northern dark. Her suffering scattered the chorus into painful echoes — cries of a network trying to speak through corruption. Nera gathered the truest notes while the traveler silenced the brood that fed the Matriarch's rage.

When the crystals fell still, Stormwatch's old stair stood clear at last — the last barrier before the wounded sky. Nera understood then what the miners and scouts had only guessed: the guardians were not separate tragedies. They were one body, one duty, broken in many places. The traveler brought that promise back toward Stormwatch like a chord that might yet be mended.