[First Era – Year 6 of the Divinity War; Deep space, aboard a Severed vessel]

  Moraithe took a deep breath through his snogbreather golem, the creature adjusted the position of a tentacle across his jaw, suckers detaching and quickly reattaching. The bundle of unfinished arrows floated before him, sealed to Saffrael’s revenescent, now awaiting their second entanglement. He had prepared countless weapons over the years, but these were different—these were made to protect life and hide all traces of that fact.

  Only one entanglement could possibly work as the second entanglement on his arrows. Only the fires of the First Star could burn hot enough to cleanse the battlefield of all signs of remains, burning the entire village to ash and glass.

  It had taken him a couple of years to prepare to place a runic key upon the First Star, ever since he had regained a fragment of memory from that place. Nowhere in the universe burned more fiercely. It was difficult to understand how such a fierce all-consuming fire had been born by love. But that is how true stars are born.

  They had started as a community of people seeking to help one another. And that concern for neighbors had grown into a fierce desire to help each other, in time it had refined into a primal force, and begun to shine. Light was born, born from altruistic love, from the desire to help others see truth and from truth grow in power and might.

  When they saw their shining they did not hide that light, they let it shine forth, and so was born the First Star, blazing light across the universe. Those under the star's light began to grow faster than all others. The light fueled their knowledge of truth, their growth. And soon it became a vital force in the universe.

  Other worlds followed their lead and more stars were born, but none as bright as the First Star. Some, like Throm’tor, had even made counterfeits, false stars that would grow old and burn out.

  Moraithe’s journey to the First Star had been short in every sense of the word. For the light of the star would burn out all lies and impurities, and those who based any of their lives or rooted their identities upon such things would be burnt to cinders as they neared that light. Only the pure could approach such a place. And after a couple of years of training, he had finally been able to reach the star.

  It had only taken him so little time to prepare for reaching the First Star because he had once called it home, not so long ago. It mattered not that he had forgotten. He had not spent so long away that he had grown so very impure, nor come to love or believe so many lies.

  There he had placed his runic key before the world could burn him up. He still remembered the intense feeling upon the First Star as his mind retraced the moment …

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  Moraithe approached the corona of the First Star, his heart beating wildly as he gazed into the overwhelming brilliance before him. There was no comparison to the sheer intensity of the light that poured from the star, the blinding brilliance so powerful it felt like it could sear the very soul of anyone who dared approach.

  He could not linger. The light was too fierce, the star's radiance too pure for him to remain for long. One wrong step, one miscalculation, and he would be consumed.

  He had trained for this day for years, refining himself—mind, will, and body—honing himself to withstand the overwhelming light. For this was no ordinary journey. The star was not simply a place one could approach with physical fortitude. It required purity—clarity of heart and purpose. Many had failed before him. The star was sacred, the first of its kind, and its radiance was a gift, but also a test.

  He felt the weight of his training, the years of preparation, come to bear upon him. With a deep breath, he focused on the runic key, steadying his mind and drawing upon his reservoir of self-assurance.

  There he inscribed the runic key upon the First Star—carved with the finest precision, the sigils glowing faintly in the blinding light. It was the culmination of years of painstaking work, an anchor he could bind with his entanglements forever, and he drank in the entropy it required. But bathed in that light something strange occurred. Light revealed truth, truth led to order, and such order in his soul obliterated the entropy within moments.

  It had been like nothing else he’d ever experienced.

  The sensations of that place faded from his thoughts as he reached out to that runic key. Now, arrows in hand, he prepared the bindings of the entanglement, taking the entropy but leaving the connection untriggered. Once triggered it would leave nothing but scorched earth in its wake.

  Preparing an untriggered entanglement was delicate, like threading a needle with the finest silk, but Moraithe’s skill had grown, honed over many years. Each arrow held the entanglement, a burning promise of death. Yet, around that entanglement he wrapped others, cocooning it in conditions that must be met before they could trigger the flames of the First Star. The moment the arrow left the bowstring, it would trigger a chain of entanglements, one after the other.

  His mind went over the steps. The first condition was simple—the arrow must be fired. No power could be unleashed unless that basic premise was satisfied. But the second, the more critical one, it must strike, then the revenescent entanglement would be triggered, sucking the living into the revenescent. But the last condition involved far more calculation. The village must be empty of life, gone into the revenescent. Only when the area was clear could the entanglement ignite, turning the arrow into a vessel for the star’s fury.

  Moraithe bottled the entropy up in his mind as he sealed the last knot of the conditional entanglements, a low hum vibrating in his head as the entropy settled into place.

  This kind of conditional entanglement had changed everything, allowing him to shoot arrows without struggling to get the timing exact. An entanglement could be set to trigger at the moment of impact, or even within a certain proximity of the target. This way proper preparation could make up for such intense concentration, always at a premium during battle.

  He examined each arrow for imperfections and quietly nodded in satisfaction. His preparations were complete, all that remained was to loose the arrows and hope the plan went smoothly.