154Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAh1GTYM8S
The sky above Lunareth shimmered like a vast, celestial ocean, its constellations alive with quiet murmurs. Beneath its ethereal glow, Elysia wandered through the Lunaflora Fields, where the ground pulsed with soft, bioluminescent hues—petals of pale blue and violet bending under her fingertips as she brushed past them.
The air was thick with the scent of midnight blooms and the faint hum of stardust drifting through the atmosphere. Yet, despite the beauty, an ache settled in her chest—a familiar weight, heavy and constant.
Tonight was the Celestial Bonding Ceremony.
Somewhere beyond these hills, beneath the grand arch of the Astralis Sanctum, every Celestara her age would meet their fated counterpart—the one written in the stars for them. Their Luminis, the soul entwined with theirs by cosmic design.
But not her.
Elysia had no destined bond.
She had known it since childhood, when the Elders first searched for her counterpart among the constellations and found nothing but empty sky. A girl with no Luminis was an anomaly—a mistake, though no one dared to say it aloud.
She closed her eyes, tilting her head toward the heavens. If the stars truly governed fate, why had they forsaken her?
A whisper of wind brushed against her cheek, carrying with it the distant chime of the ceremony’s bells. She should go back. She had promised to attend, to stand beside her family as an observer, watching others receive the love that had been denied to her.
But the thought of it made her stomach twist.
Instead, she turned toward the distant cliffs—toward the place where the sky met the unknown.
Let them bind their fates in golden light. Tonight, I will wander into the dark.154Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9EdMNfJ5BV
The further she walked, the quieter the world became. The Astralis Sanctum, with all its glowing arches and sacred vows, faded behind her. The moon-cast hills rolled into shadow, giving way to the vast expanse of the Celestial Rift—a place where Lunareth’s magic grew thin, where the air crackled with the presence of something unwritten.
She had never dared come this far before.
A strange, otherworldly energy pulsed beneath her skin as she stepped onto the edge of the cliffs. Below, a chasm stretched into infinity, swirling with fragmented light—broken remnants of collapsed stars, their echoes whispering through the void.
A sudden gust of wind whipped around her, sending strands of silver hair across her face. And then—
A voice.
Not spoken. Not heard. Felt.
"You do not belong to the stars."
Elysia gasped, her breath stolen by the sensation. The words curled around her like a thread of shadow, weightless yet binding. She spun toward the source, her heart pounding.
And then she saw him.
A boy stood at the cliff’s edge.
He was barely more than a silhouette against the fractured light, his presence flickering, as if the universe itself struggled to hold him in place. Midnight-dark hair swept over his forehead, and his eyes—deep, endless—glowed with something unreadable.
The moment their gazes met, the stars above shuddered.
And in the space between them, a ribbon of golden light spiraled into existence—thin, delicate, trembling. A bond. But not one written in the stars.
Something else.
Something forbidden.
Elysia took a step forward, her voice barely a whisper.
"Who are you?"
The boy tilted his head, his lips parting as if to answer. But before he could speak, the golden thread between them pulsed—bright and unrelenting.
And the sky above them fractured.
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