The Helios Sector was a graveyard of light. At its center sat a dying star, a bloated red giant that pulsed like a failing heart. It spat out long tongues of solar fire, but even that light seemed to be swallowed by the darkness surrounding it.
"I'm picking up the signature," Elis whispered. She had turned off all non-essential lights on the bridge. The only glow came from the tactical displays reflecting in Kael's violet eyes. "The Aurelian Wing is tethered to the 'Solar Needle'—an ancient Starborn refueling station right in the sun's corona."
Kael peered at the screen. Nestled in the fiery atmosphere of the star was a long, thin spire of white metal. And wrapped around it, held by massive gravitational chains, was a serpentine ship that mirrored Ignis's design.
"MY SISTER," Ignis rumbled, his voice so low it was a mere vibration in the deck plates. "SHE IS COLD. HER SOUL HAS BEEN CAGED."
"And there's the 'problem' I mentioned," Elis said, pointing to the dark shapes circling the station.
They weren't ships. They were entities of pure, solid shadow, nearly three hundred meters long, drifting through the solar flares as if the heat meant nothing.
"Star-Eaters," Valerius growled, sharpening his blade with a rhythmic shing-shing. "Remnants of the Void. They don't fight for territory or resources, Kael. They fight for 'Essence.' They eat the light of stars—and the souls of Starborn."
"If we fly in there with engines roaring, we're dinner," Kael noted, feeling a chill despite the proximity to the sun. "How do we get past them?"
"We don't fly," Elis said. "We drift. I've programmed a cold-start maneuver. We shut down everything—life support, engines, gravity—and let the sun's gravity pull us in like a piece of space junk. We'll have approximately twelve minutes of oxygen before things get... breathless."
"Twelve minutes to reach the station, board the sister ship, and wake her up?" Kael asked. "That's impossible."
"For a human, yes," Valerius said, standing up and handing Kael a specialized rebreather. "But for a Starborn? You can hold your breath for an hour if you channel your energy into your lungs. Tier 2.0 training starts now, kid."
The Celestial Vanguard went dark.
The hum of the ship died. The lights flickered and vanished. Silence, heavy and absolute, settled over them. Kael felt the ship lurch as the main thrusters cut out. They were now a falling rock in a sea of fire.
Through the viewscreen, a Star-Eater drifted past. It looked like a tattered cloak of smoke, its "eyes" two points of absolute nothingness. Kael held his breath, his heart hammering. The shadow-creature paused, its head-equivalent turning toward them.
It smells us, the voice in Kael's head hissed. It smells the Spark.
"Don't react," Valerius's voice came through the low-power comms. "Be the metal. Be the cold."
Kael closed his eyes. He focused on his Tier 2.0 resonance, pulling the blue light inward, wrapping it around his heart like a shield. He made his presence "small," mimicking the dead silence of the void.
The Star-Eater let out a silent, psychic shriek and drifted away.
"We're in the 'Goldilocks' zone," Elis whispered. "Three minutes to impact. We need to jump."
Kael and Valerius stood in the airlock. They didn't have a boarding craft—that would be too loud. Instead, they had two pressurized thruster-packs and a prayer.
The airlock opened.
Space didn't feel cold here; it felt like standing in front of an open oven. The sun loomed massive, a wall of orange fire. Kael pushed off, soaring through the silence toward the Solar Needle.
As they drifted closer to the Aurelian Wing, Kael saw something the scanners had missed. On the deck of the serpentine ship stood a figure.
It was a girl, no older than Kael, with hair that shimmered like liquid silver. She was barefoot, wearing a tattered white gown that billowed in the solar wind. She wasn't wearing a suit. She wasn't breathing.
She looked up, her eyes glowing with the same violet light as Kael's.
"Kael!" Elis yelled in his ear. "I'm picking up a second Starborn signature! It's the girl! She's the Dragon-Bond—the human anchor for the Aurelian Wing!"
"She's been trapped here for five hundred years," Valerius realized, his voice thick with rare pity.
Suddenly, the girl pointed at the shadows behind them.
The Star-Eaters had stopped drifting. They had turned. Five of them were converging on Kael and Valerius, their shadowy maws opening to reveal rows of starlight teeth.
"Change of plans!" Kael shouted, kicking his thrusters into overdrive. "We're not sneaking anymore!"
He reached out his hand toward the girl. "Elis! Wake up the ship! Tell her we're family!"
The girl's voice echoed in Kael's mind, clear as a bell: The lock is not of iron. It is of sorrow. Break the chain, Starborn!
Kael didn't draw a weapon. He drew his soul. He accelerated, a streak of blue light flying straight into the maw of the leading Star-Eater.
"I AM KAEL ARDENT!" he roared into the psychic void. "AND THIS STAR IS TAKEN!"
His body exploded into a supernova of blue runes.