Eldermoor is waking.

The streets fill with people as you walk toward the square—merchants opening their stalls, children running errands, workers heading to their trades. The smell of fresh bread drifts from a bakery. Somewhere, a dog barks. The ordinary sounds of an ordinary morning in a city that has known three hundred years of peace.

But today, the ordinary feels like a thin shell over something deeper.

People notice your group as you pass. Four gem-born children in ceremonial purple, walking toward the square. Some smile and wave. Others bow their heads in respect. A few make signs of blessing—touching their hearts, then gesturing toward the distant glow of the gem that rises above the rooftops.

You’ve walked these streets your whole life. But today they feel different. Sharper. More real.

As if you’re seeing them for the last time.

The four of you walk in silence. Whatever was said in the common room—or not said—hangs between you. Sera keeps glancing at you, questions in her eyes. Tommin’s forced cheerfulness has faded into something quieter. Lira walks slightly apart, her gaze distant.

You reach the market square—the halfway point to the ceremony grounds.

The square is busy with morning commerce. Vendors call out their wares. A juggler performs for coins. Children chase each other between the stalls, laughing.

And there, in the center of everything, rising above the chaos like a lighthouse above stormy seas:

The Purple Gem.

Even from here, you can feel it. That hum in your bones that every gem-born knows. The sense of connection, of belonging, of being part of something vast and ancient and alive.

But today, the hum feels different. Weaker. Flickering, like a candle in wind.

“Does the light seem dimmer to you?” Sera asks quietly.

You look. The gem’s radiance, usually a steady violet glow visible from anywhere in the city, pulses unevenly. Fading, then brightening, then fading again.

Like a heartbeat slowing.

“It’s the ceremony,” Tommin says. “It always gets brighter during the ritual. It’s probably just… saving its strength.”

No one answers.