The Lantern Keeper's Enigma

The coach slows to a crawl as fog swallows the village of Eldermoor whole. Eilis Thornbury has come to this remote moorland settlement seeking refuge, but the lanterns flickering along the single street feel less like welcome than warning. Locals speak in hushed, careful tones; doors close before questions can be asked. When a traveler staying at the same inn vanishes into the murk without a trace, Eilis is left with more questions than answers, and the uneasy suspicion that the lantern keeper, who tends each flame along the moor road with quiet devotion, knows far more than he is saying. Each night the fog thickens, another light dims, and Eilis finds herself drawn deeper into a tangle of village secrets stretching back decades. A whispered legend about the lanterns, a symbol scratched into doorframes, a child who insists the keeper talks to the dead, every clue draws her closer to the moors and the things that wait within them. As the disappearances continue and suspicion turns on her, Eilis must decide how far she is willing to follow the light before it leads her somewhere she cannot return from.