Bound by Seasons

Intro 🌬 Part 3 🌪 For countless years, the cycle of the seasons had held: Spring bloomed, Summer burned, Autumn faded, and Winter froze—each in balance, each in turn. After the ancient darkness was vanquished, peace returned to the world, and the Guardians stood united once more. The world thrived under their care. But balance is fragile. And sometimes, even unity cannot hold back what lies forgotten. It began with a vision. Vale saw her first—a woman cloaked in mist, standing alone on a windswept hill beneath the silver light of the moon. Her long black hair swirled in the wind, and her gray eyes shimmered with sorrow as she stared over the restless sea. She did not speak. She simply waited. Vale said nothing at first. Dreams were not uncommon among the Guardians, especially after great shifts in the world. But these dreams were different—night after night, the vision returned, unyielding. Deep within, Vale felt a name rising: Nyra. She was not one of the four Guardians, and yet not apart from them. Nyra—the forgotten. The Guardian of the Fifth Season. A time between time. Not light, not dark. Not life, not death. A stillness where all things paused and breathed. The Shadow Season. Her presence stirred something long buried within Vale. The others dismissed it. But Vale knew better. As the seasons began to blur, and time stuttered, the signs grew impossible to ignore. Something ancient, something lost, was awakening. The Guardians had buried Nyra’s memory, fearing what they did not understand. But the cycle had never been whole without her. She was not a threat; she was the balance between extremes—the pause between endings and beginnings. Now, as winds stir with an unnatural chill, Nyra waits beneath the moonlight, forgotten but awakening. The Fifth Season has returned.