Still, there was nothing. Only a castle that was slowly cracking as a fault line crept across the black stones, as Darai broke through it piece by piece.

“Take me, then,” Nor said. “I will go in his place.”

Darai howled with laughter. “Your pathetic power would be of no use to me, Nor. I’m surprised by how much you believed my praises toward you all these years. You were never as powerful as Klaren, and never even close to what Valen is now.”

He reached into the pod and touched Valen’s cheek again. “Exonia bred true in you, my boy,” Darai marveled.

A third needle pierced Valen’s skin.

He could no longer feel the pain, for he had become it. He saw red fill his vision as blood trickled into his eyes from above. Cold was beginning to take over his body, freezing him inch by inch. He knew death would try to come soon, as Darai promised, but the pod would keep him alive. Barely, so that he would never be able to fight back as his power was used forever.

Andi’s eyes were locked on Valen, her hands clenched into fists, wrists bound in their cuffs. Yet still, she did not move, did not even try to fight the soldiers that guarded her. They may as well have not been there at all.

Would she truly give over her title so easily?

“The entire galaxy will watch as I remove your head from your neck,” Darai said to Nor. “But on the bright side, you’ll finally be reunited with Zahn on the other side.”

She could not die. Not his sister, not his family. Rage filled Valen at the thought, bubbling up from his very soul. He had to fight. He had to save Nor, if it was the very last thing he did in this life.

Another needle, this time injected into his arm. His blood turned cold as something filled his veins.

“The upload is beginning, sir,” Aclisia said. “And we’re beginning cryosis.”

Valen felt it happen. A shift from within.

Deep in his mind, something rumbled. Valen slipped back inside, desperately seeking his power, but the doors to his castle were locked, the Solis symbol changed to something else.

The godstar of death, split in two.

It was cold here now, and flecks of snow drifted from the sky as his castle began to fall.

A single obsidinite stone slipped from its place atop one of the turrets. It careened to the ground, tumbling edge over edge until it landed with a soft thunk atop the dead grass, beside a pile of bones. Snow piled over it.

Another stone fell.

Then another, until it was like a black rain, quickly covered over by frozen white.