A Moon Fragment (Grade 3)

A Grade 3 moon fragment fits in the palm of your hand. It is roughly the size and weight of a fist, its surface smooth to the touch where it was once jagged � the edges have been worn down by handling, by water, by the slow pressure of being passed from hand to hand. It is warm, always, as if recently held, even when it has been sitting in a crate for weeks. In darkness, it glows. A faint, steady silver-blue light that illuminates the veins in your fingers when you hold it up. The Tide-Weavers grade fragments by size and purity. Grade 1 is dust. Grade 2 is a fingernail clipping. Grade 3 is the standard � the size of a fist, pure enough to power a minor ritual or fuel a lamp for a month, small enough to carry in a pocket. A Grade 3 fragment will buy you a room in Ashenveil for a week, or a passage south, or a weapon, or a hour of an Arch-Seer's time. It is the closest thing Northern Velkaris has to coin. The cost of handling a Grade 3 fragment is measurable. Every hour of unprotected contact accelerates soul erosion. The Tide-Weavers have developed tools for safe handling � lead-lined gloves, crystal tongs, storage boxes of treated stone � but the safeguards are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. The refugees of Ashenveil carry fragments in their bare hands because they have no choice. The Dominion distributes fragments to the faithful as a test of faith � those who can endure the erosion are closer to Yssara. The children of Greyvast survivors were born clutching fragments, and their eyes are silver, and they will be dead by forty. The Hollowed sense fragments. A Grade 3 fragment carried openly will draw every Hollowed within a mile toward the carrier. The Tide-Weavers have learned to navigate this � they move fragments in sealed stone containers, at night, through routes that avoid known drift-patterns. But the risk is never zero. Every fragment is a beacon. Every carrier is a target. And yet the trade continues because the alternative � a Northern Velkaris without moon fragments � is a Northern Velkaris without magic, without currency, without heat, without light. The fragments are killing them. They cannot survive without them.