Chapter 160

THIRD PERSON’S POV Hooves pounded down the roads as messengers rode hard from the capital. In every village square, in every border outpost, the same headline resounded—“The Pregnant Luna Who Howled Against Death.” In the alley of a mountain town in the High Hollow Peaks, a group of young girls gathered with sticks clutched in their small fists. Their faces were smudged with ash as they fought and pretended to be warriors. They mimicked sword forms they’d only seen drawn in charcoal on the backs of news scrolls—stances taken from the Lunar Guard, now passed down to them. “Again!” one shouted, stepping forward and swinging her stick in a wide arc. “Strike from the side! Like Luna Eliza!” A younger girl stumbled and fell. She clutched her scraped knee and blinked back tears. “Don’t cry,” the older one said, helping her up. “Eliza fought with a baby in her belly. We can handle a little fall.” Even in local places where the news of the world hardly reached, the news had arrived on the back