The memories of Aiseline seeped into Carlisle's nerves like poison. He saw Leina from thousands of years ago— a human archaeologist in uniform, trembling as he caressed the face of a spirit-guarding tomb keeper. Beneath Aiseline's skin, starlight flowed, and her fingers traced Leina's Adam's apple. "You know the cost of touching me."
"The Empire says you're an abomination," Leina tore off the double-headed eagle emblem from his chest, "but my soul already belongs to you."
Their kiss caused tremors in the planet's core, and the first crystalline vein of Blackstone Star spread beneath their feet. Carlisle was forced to feel every bit of Leina's pain: the Empire's special agent's explosive dart pierced Aiseline's shoulder, and Leina blocked the second shot with his body, his blood seeping into the earth, awakening the slumbering divine corpse.
"This is the cost of love…" Aiseline's blood-tears laughed softly in the memory, as she thrust the sealing dagger into Leina's heart. "Now, it's your turn."
Carlisle woke with intense pain, discovering that a star-shaped crystal had formed where his heart should be—exactly where Leina's fatal wound was.