The Weight of Silence
The Elysian Dawn drifted in the corpse-light of the dying star system, its hull groaning like a wounded beast. Sparks fizzed from fractured conduits, casting jagged shadows over Kairos as he slumped in the pilot's chair. The Starbreaker's activation had scorched the ship's core, leaving the air thick with the stench of burnt ozone and dread.
Anara slammed a fist against the flickering navigation console. "Engines are at 30%. Shields? Gone. Weapons? A single plasma cannon and Li Na's charm." She shot a glare at Li Na, who was methodically cleaning her daggers with a scrap of void-crystal cloth.
"Charm's kept you alive this long," Li Na said, her scars dim in the low light. "Focus on the dead gods knocking at our door."
Cassian sat apart, shackled to a support beam with sun-forged chains. His eyes, once void-dark, now flickered between clarity and something colder. "I can hear them," he murmured. "The vanished ones. They're singing… a dirge for dead stars."
[The ship's sensors blared. A fleet emerged from the black hole's wake—silent, sleek, and vast.]
The Dirge of Giants
The vanished gods' armada was a nightmare of living geometry. Ships folded and unfolded like fractal origami, their hulls shimmering with iridescent scales that drank the light. They moved in perfect silence, swallowing entire planets as they advanced.
"They're consuming the system," Anara whispered, watching a gas giant crumple into a singularity. "Not conquering. Erasing."
Veyra-7's hologram sputtered. "Analysis: Their tech is Precursor, but refined. Evolved. They're not gods. They're… upgrades."
Kai's mark pulsed, the frostbite on his wrist throbbing in time with the armada's rhythm. [Synchronization: 15%.] "They're here for the Veil. Or what's left of it."
"Or the fool who keeps tempting fate," Li Na said, eyeing Cassian.
The Cage of Regret
Anara cornered Kai in the armory, her voice a venomous whisper. "We can't keep him. Every second he's aboard, the mark on you spreads. The Dawn's falling apart. We're not martyrs, Kai."
"We're not executioners either," Kai said, loading a plasma cartridge with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. "He's my brother."
"Your brother died in the Frostspire!" Anara's fist crumpled a storage crate. "That thing out there is a relic. Just like the Veil. Just like you."
The ship shuddered. Alarms wailed.
"Proximity alert," Veyra-7 droned. "One of their scouts found us. Congratulations, meatbags—you're famous."
The First Blood
The scout was a blade-shaped vessel, its surface crawling with liquid metal. It fired no weapons. It simply touched the Dawn's hull.
The metal where it made contact dissolved, reality itself unraveling.
"Get us out!" Li Na barked.
"Engines are dead!" Anara yelled back.
Kai gripped the mark on his wrist. [Synchronization: 20%. New Ability: Voidwalk.] "Hold on."
He pushed.
The Dawn lurched sideways, sliding through a tear in space. The scout followed, relentless.
"They're adapting!" Veyra-7 warned.
[The tear snapped shut, shearing the scout in half. The Dawn crashed into the debris field of a dead Precursor station.]
The Grave of Ancestors
The station was a tomb of frozen corpses—Precursor scientists, their faces twisted in terror, their hands clawing at long-dead consoles. Li Na decrypted a terminal, her breath fogging the air.
"They were studying the vanished gods. Trying to… communicate."
Anara snorted. "How'd that work out?"
"They failed," Li Na said. "But they left a gift."
A hologram flickered—a star map leading to a vault labeled Aegis of the Vanished. "A shield. One that could repel them."
"Where?" Kai asked.
"Isvalla's prison," Li Na said. "The Storm's Eye."
[Cassian laughed, low and broken. "Of course. Always another tomb."]
The Storm's Embrace
The Storm's Eye had calmed to a spiral of shimmering dust, its heart now a cradle of dead stars. Isvalla's voice lingered here, a ghost in the static.
"You returned," she whispered, her presence brushing Kai's mind. "To beg? To die?"
"To bargain," Kai said, stepping onto the derelict platform where she'd once been chained. "The Aegis. Where is it?"
"Buried with my regrets," Isvalla said. "But you'll need my help to claim it. And I require… a vessel."
Anara aimed her pistol at the empty air. "You're not possessing him."
"Not him," Isvalla crooned. "Her."
Li Na's scars ignited. "No."
"Yes," Cassian said, emerging from the shadows, his eyes fully void-dark again. "The god is patient. And hungry."