Chapter 470: Where the Moon Was Laid to Rest

Chapter 469: Where the Moon Was Laid to Rest

Orion and Sophia simply stared at Eldric.

Neither of them spoke for a long moment.

The words he had just spoken felt heavy in the room, settling into the silence like something that could not be brushed away.

A shrine that was a grave?

Sophia’s brows pulled together slowly as she tried to make sense of it.

Orion was the first to break the silence.

He let out a breath that sounded half like a laugh and half like frustration.

"You know," he said quietly, "I am very close to telling you that you’re speaking complete bullshit."

Eldric did not react to his words, not even a little bit. He just stared at Orion, who dragged a hand through his hair.

"But..." Orion’s voice dropped, "...you’re not lying."

And that was what didn’t settle well with Orion. Everything Eldric said seemed so far-fetched, but he wasn’t lying. Every word he spoke was the truth.

Eldric inclined his head.

"I know everything I said sounds like some story I created. A myth or something from a children’s tale."

He folded his hands loosely over his lap.

"But it is not. The shrine is both," he said calmly. "A grave. And a place of worship."

He lifted his gaze to Sophia.

"There is a reason the structure still stands to this day."

Sophia felt something tighten in her chest.

"And there is a reason the shrine calls to you."

Her breath hitched.

"...And to you as well," Eldric added quietly, looking at Orion.

Orion made a face at that.

"Isn’t that something?" he asked. "I’ve never heard that shrine call to me."

Eldric smiled faintly.

"That is because you are very adamant about one thing."

Orion’s eyes narrowed at Eldric’s words.

"You are adamant in your belief that the Moon Goddess does not exist."

Eldric continued gently.

"She sees you the same way she sees Sophia. As someone extremely close to her heart."

Orion scoffed quietly.

"That’s impossible."

Eldric’s expression did not change.

"You want nothing to do with her," he said to Orion softly. "You have made that very clear. You refuse to believe that she has a hand in almost everything that happens."

Orion did not deny it.

"But that does not stop her," Eldric continued. "The goddess will do anything to ensure that her children are protected."

Orion let out a low, humorless breath. It was laughable how Eldric spoke like the goddess really cared about them, and he doubted it. It just couldn’t be possible. If the goddess really saw us as her children and would do anything to protect them, then why did she let the enclave destroy their pack, their family? He didn’t understand it. He couldn’t comprehend it.

He turned his face slightly away.

Sophia watched him quietly. She too knew Orion had doubts regarding the goddess. She took his hand in hers, and he turned back, staring at her with a small frown on his face as he swallowed.

"There’s something I don’t understand," Sophia said to Eldric.

"Why the shrine?" Sophia asked quietly. "Why choose that place as her grave? And... why build it like that?"

Eldric’s eyes softened.

"For those of us who still believed in her," he said slowly, "we could not bury her the way Dolion wanted. The goddess was not just another body," Eldric continued. "She was not just another loss."

He inhaled.

"She was... everything. And she deserved a place befitting of who she was."

Eldric’s voice remained calm, but something underneath it trembled faintly.

"And more than that..."

He paused.

"We could not risk leaving her where Dolion could reach her."

Sophia frowned.

"You thought he would disturb her grave?" she asked him.

"Yes."

The answer came immediately.

"If she had been buried anywhere near our settlements... anywhere close to the pack... he would have found her."

That made Orion become alert.

Eldric’s gaze darkened.

"He would have taken her remains."

Sophia’s stomach twisted.

"To use whatever magic still lingered in her body," Eldric said quietly.

Silence fell again.

"So we guarded her with our lives. We carried her with us while we searched," he said. "We moved through lands that were no longer safe. Lands already beginning to rot from his magic."

His eyes lowered slightly.

"We searched for a place far from the pack. A place Dolion would never think to look. A place so isolated that even reaching it would take days."

Eldric continued.

"When we finally found the place just outside what would later become your pack territory, we believed it was the only place left that could hide her."

"And that was when you started building it," Orion murmured. Even as he was listening to Eldric’s tale, he could not forget what Sam, Helios, and Jeffrey had told the elders about the ruins they found.

Eldric nodded.

"We built everything from scratch. It took months," Eldric said quietly. "Longer than it should have, because we had no tools to work with."

His fingers tightened slightly in his lap.

"And as time went on..."

He stopped. The pause felt heavy with unsaid words—things that troubled him.

"...most of the people who started building it..."

His voice dropped.

"...died."

"Some were hunted," Eldric said. "Some were found by Dolion’s followers. Some simply collapsed from exhaustion and never rose again."

"But even with that, we didn’t rest. The rest of us kept on building. We could not stop, and we vowed to never stop until it was finished."

His gaze lifted to the window briefly, as though the past was waiting somewhere beyond it.

"When it was finally finished..."

Eldric swallowed.

"We buried her, just beneath the altar. Exactly where the moonlight touches the stone," he told them.

Eldric fell silent.

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the soft crackle of the hearth.

Then he lowered his gaze.

To his hands that trembled faintly. A sad smile touched his lips.

"That was the day she left."

Sophia and even Orion frowned at that.

"What do you mean... left?" Sophia asked him.

Her voice was quiet.

"The Moon Goddess was already dead before you buried her, wasn’t she?"

Eldric nodded.

"Yes."

"If she was already dead, what then do you mean by she left?" Orion asked him