A Gift of Moonlight

**A Gift of Moonlight**

Celina was six years old when her brother took her to the Graveyard. Not that it had a name to begin with, but they found it fitting for such a decrepit building that wheezed dust and moaned ash, forgotten by those who once cared for it. The only hint of its existence was found in the abandoned alleyways of Brunus, far from the busy streets and open waters.

"It's a secret, Celina." Elion told her. "You can't ever tell anyone."

"Not even Klaret?"

She pouted. He smiled gently and rested his hand on her head.

"No, not even her."

The Graveyard was a place he discovered not long ago, stumbling across it in a game of Huntsmen and Grimm. It lay hidden betwixt and between the alleys and passageways scattered throughout the old town of the city. The time they found was rare. The two siblings weren't allowed out of the manor often; their parents weren't so much as overprotective as they were strict. There was little point in running around when they could instead be studying, preparing for the future to come. In a family such as theirs with a great legacy, Celina and Elion were made aware of their inheritance, and were expected to receive it readily. Occasionally, however, they'd have a day or two without the tight reins of a schedule guiding them forward.

Nodding to one another, they pressed our hands on those cold stone doors and pushed together. To their surprise, the doors gave way smoothly and without so much as a creak, only thudding gently upon opening to the darkness. Wary of whatever lay ahead, the two took their first steps inside.

From the floor to the ceilings, countless books lay sleeping on ancient shelves and untouched cobwebs visible only through the beams of light creeping in through boarded windows. The wooden floors squeaked under their soft weight. Elion tugged at the scruff of Celina's collar and brushed a layer of webs away from her face before setting her loose.

"It's a library!" whispered Celina.

From inside, the chamber seemed to expand endlessly into the darkness. The tomes and novels stretched onwards out of sight to where dust inhabited the ancient air. Besides the two of them, nothing else moved. Wordlessly, Elion brushed his finger across the closest shelf, wiping it on his shirt.

"It doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while. You could open a shop with all this dust."

Celina whacked him with her bag as he laughed at his own joke.

"How about you take one?" asked Elion. "For safekeeping."

Though even the notion of thievery stood far left of Celina's moral compass, the weight of a new book pushed her to passionately nod. Elion conjured a blazing orb scrubbing away the blanket of shadows covering the way. Wordlessly, Celina held her hand out and summoned her own smaller orb of a gentle white. The two siblings trailed apart in search of their own treasures.

While Elion continued down the long aisles into the cover of dust, Celina moved slowly. She slid her hand over the spines, feeling every bump and crevice of the bindings. The dust stuck to her fingertips leaving a trail. Strangely, the books felt warm, not as if they had slept alone for ages. It was almost as if they had a silent heartbeat. One binding stood out to her in particular. The moment she passed it, Celina felt something take a hold of her hand. She gently picked it of the shelf as it slid out without a bit of resistance.

"A Gift of Moonlight..." she whispered, eyes running over the purple covers. The book's faded golden binding seemed to glow as she drew her fingers across, dusting off the years of wear and grime.

"Have you found one yet?" Elion's voice sounded distant. Raising her head, she found myself deep within the Graveyard's catacombs, unable to recall walking in so deeply. Celina tucked the book under my arm and tried backtracking. She stumbled around the halls for a while before her eyes caught Elion's bright hair next to the stone doors.

She proudly held out her selection with both hands.

"Don't you want one, too?"

He motioned to an equally dusty novel by his side that she'd somehow missed. It's orange binding emanated a gentle light in his arm.

*The Story of the Seasons,*she read.

Smiling, he took her hand and they waded back through the old towns returning to the manor. For the next few weeks, Celina found herself enamoured by her book. Between the usual hours of tutoring and lessons etched into her daily schedule, she spent every private waking moment scouring the pages. Though some of the dated language and long words left her filling in blanks, she clung to the tales of a man named Artume and his tribe that worshiped an untouched moon. She read of promises, of love, of regrets, and of tragedy that tore her little heart in two. At night, she quietly dreamed that they might still be out in the world somewhere and she would find them.
Celina and Elion never found the Graveyard again. It had simply vanished. No matter how long they wandered those dim alleys, the mysterious stone doors never reappeared and the memory buried itself deeply away. On some days, she thought it had been a dream. Other nights, she lay awake in bed recalling the musty shelves and endless aisles. As far as she knew, her little purple tome was the only thing that proved the Graveyard had ever existed. One day, maybe she would return down those twisting alleys and passageways and find the