ASHES OF THE SUNDERED STAR

Lira: The Sky Tombs' Prison

The dead whispered in Veythra's Sky Tombs.

Lira woke suspended in a cage of starlight, her wrists bound by chains that hummed with ancient magic. Below her, floating mausoleums drifted through the clouds, their stone doors sealed with runes. Above, the fractured moon loomed, its cracks glowing faintly red—the parasite's lingering stain.

"Awake at last," said a voice.

The Starweaver Council surrounded her, their ivory masks carved into hollow-eyed serpents. Their leader, High Oracle Selvas, floated forward, her robes stitched with constellations. "You have much to answer for, Weaver."

Lira tugged at her bonds. The shard was gone, but its echo throbbed in her chest. "Where am I?"

"Where you belong." Selvas gestured to the tombs. "You carry Nyrisia's taint. We will purge it—or repurpose it."

Memories flickered, false and true: A childhood in the Temple of Whispered Stars. A meteorite shard cutting her palm. Tyrus's claw tearing through a portal. Kael's hammer sealing her in darkness.

"You lied," Lira hissed. "The Council knew about the parasite. You used Weavers as experiments."

Selvas's mask cracked, revealing a glimpse of scarred flesh. "We saved this world. Nyrisia's madness would have destroyed us all."

"No." Lira laughed bitterly. "You feared her power. Just like you fear mine."

The Oracle's staff struck the ground. Chains tightened, crushing Lira's ribs. "Extract the shard's remnants. Let the tombs claim her."

The Council chanted. The cage descended into a tomb, its door sealing with a roar.

Alone in the dark, Lira pressed her palm to the floor. "Show me," she begged the shard's ghost.

The walls lit up.

Vision:

Nyrisia stands atop the Obsidian Spire, her light dimming as the parasite burrows into her spine. The Starweaver Council watches, chanting. One holds the meteorite shard—not a key, but a lock. "Bind her," they say. "Let the Void take the blame."

The spire collapses. Nyrisia falls.

Lira's scream echoed through the tomb. "You used her!"

The Council's lies coiled in her gut. The shard hadn't been Nyrisia's prison—it was the Council's weapon. And now they wanted it back.

The tomb shuddered. Something scratched at the door.

Kael: The Wastes' Judgment

The witchhounds bayed at his heels.

Kael ran, Soulbrand strapped to his back, its weight a constant reproach. The Order of Ember had tracked him to the Ashen Wastes, their hounds bred to hunt Voidspawn—and traitors.

Traitor. The word clung like ash. He'd saved Eldyra, but the cost…

Tyrus's sacrifice. Lira's disappearance. The parasite's laugh in the dark.

A bolt of searing light struck the ground beside him. Kael dove behind a boulder as riders crested the dune—Solaris knights in gilded armor, led by Ser Varyn's successor, a zealot named Jarel.

"Surrender, Vyrion!" Jarel thundered. "Face the Order's justice!"

Kael gripped Soulbrand. The hammer's voice had been silent for weeks, but now it whispered: "Strike the dune. Bury them."

"No," he muttered. "I'm done killing."

"Then die," the hammer replied.

The hounds closed in. Kael swung, not at the knights, but at the ground. Sand erupted, blinding the hounds. He ran—

—and fell.

The dune collapsed into a sinkhole, dragging him into darkness.

The Crypt of the First Knight

Kael woke in a chamber of black glass. Murals depicted Nyrisia's knights in battle, their faces familiar. His face.

At the room's center stood a statue of Vyrion, Soulbrand raised high. The real hammer shuddered on Kael's back, drawn to the stone.

"You're learning," said a voice.

Kael spun. A ghostly figure leaned against the wall—Tyrus, translucent and smirking. "Miss me, Sunshine?"

"You're dead."

"And you're hallucinating. Same difference." Tyrus nodded to the statue. "He wants to talk."

The statue's eyes glowed. "Kael Vyrion. You wield my hammer but reject my legacy. Why?"

"Your legacy is lies," Kael said. "The Order betrayed Nyrisia. They used her."

"And you think you can do better?" The statue stepped down, stone grinding. "The parasite returns. It feeds on your doubt. Will you let it win?"

Kael's hand trembled. "I'm not a knight."

"No," Vyrion said. "You are something worse."

The ghostly Tyrus laughed. "Told you he was dramatic."

Tyrus: The Warlord's Gambit

Rebirth tasted like rot.

Tyrus woke in a pit of corpses, his claw regrown and twitching. The parasite's voice coiled in his mind, sweet as poison. "Rise, my king. Your kingdom awaits."

He stood. Umbralis' ruins stretched before him, Voidspawn kneeling in the ashes. They'd rebuilt the Obsidian Spire—blacker, crueler, its pinnacle crowned with a pulsating heart of shadow.

A woman approached, her face hidden by a hood. "Welcome back, High Priest."

He knew that voice. "Selene?"

She lowered the hood. Her eyes were voids, her smile jagged. "Not quite."

The parasite wore her corpse like a second skin. "Our followers await your command."

Tyrus flexed his claw. Memories surged—Lira's starlight, Kael's grudging loyalty, the shard's burn. "What if I say no?"

The parasite sighed. "Then I'll peel your friends apart while you watch."

Images flooded his mind: Lira trapped in the Sky Tombs, Kael bleeding in the crypt, the Starweaver Council's knives.

Tyrus smiled. "Let's play."

Convergence: The Shattered Sanctum

Lira's Escape

The tomb's door exploded inward.

Lira stumbled into the Sky Tombs' central chamber, her hands raw from clawing through stone. The Council's guards lunged, but her borrowed magic—Nyrisia's magic—erupted in a wave of light.

"You will not cage me again," she hissed.

The High Oracle descended, mask shattered, her true face a map of burns. "Foolish girl. You are the lock. The key. The* door."

Lira's shard-scar burned. The chamber's floor split, revealing a vault of liquid shadow. "What is that?"

"The Council's first sin," Selvas said. "The parasite's heart."

Kael's Choice

The crypt collapsed.

Kael climbed into daylight, Soulbrand blazing. Vyrion's ghost followed. "The spire returns. You must destroy it."

"How?"

"Sacrifice the hammer. Sacrifice yourself."

Kael looked east, where Umbralis' new spire pierced the clouds. "No."

He ran toward the horizon.

Tyrus's Deception

The Eclipsed Veil's cultists bowed as Tyrus entered the spire's throne room. The parasite, wearing Selene's corpse, draped a cloak of shadows over his shoulders. "Now. Claim your crown."

Tyrus sat. The throne's spikes pierced his flesh, binding him to the spire. "Lovely."

The parasite whispered, "Bring me the Sundered Star."

Tyrus closed his eyes, focusing on Lira's face. His claw twitched, etching a hidden rune into the throne. "Hang on, witch. I'm coming."

Climax: The Heart of the Storm

The Sky Tombs shuddered.

Lira stood at the edge of the shadow-vault, the Council's guards dead at her feet. Selvas lunged, but Lira grabbed her throat. "Open it."

"You'll doom us all!"

"We already are."

Lira threw her into the vault. The shadows consumed the Oracle, swelling into a monstrous form—the parasite's true body, a tangle of eyes and teeth.

"Free!" it roared.

Lira reached into the vault, retrieving the shard's core—a pulsing black star. "Not today."

She plunged it into her chest.

Kael's Arrival

Kael burst into the chamber, Soulbrand shattering the door. "Lira!"

She floated above the vault, her veins blackening, eyes bleeding starlight. "Stay back!"

The parasite laughed. "She is mine now."

Kael swung the hammer. "Like hell."

Tyrus's Betrayal

The throne's rune activated.

Tyrus's claw tore through the parasite's hold, severing its link to Selene's corpse. "You really should've killed me."

The spire crumbled. The cultists screamed.

Tyrus ran.

Epilogue: The Three Fates

Lira collapsed, the black star sealed within her. Kael carried her from the tombs, the Council's lies ash on the wind.

Tyrus emerged in the wastes, his claw reduced to a stump. The parasite's voice lingered, weaker now. "This isn't over."

Kael looked to the horizon, where a new shadow stirred. "No. It's just beginning."