Scene 1: The Shattersea
The Shattersea was not a place people visited willingly. The stars here didn't shine; they fractured. Light bent in strange ways, and ships that entered the zone rarely returned the same. Some didn't return at all.
Kael Renn wasn't here to sightsee. He was here to get paid.
"Cora, bring us in closer," Kael said, his voice steady but tense.
His ship, the Emberwake, responded in her usual sarcastic tone. "Approaching an unstable anomaly in a volatile sector. Of course. Shall I prepare your will while I'm at it?"
Kael smirked. "Just prep the grav-lock and keep scanners running. We're close."
The ship hummed as it drifted through a belt of cosmic dust and shattered debris. Kael's eyes flicked over the dashboard. There it was—a faint signal, old and flickering. The distress call looped in an alien language, one long dead.
"That's the Ark," he whispered.
The Epoch Ark appeared like a shadow behind a veil. A massive, ancient vessel—half cathedral, half warship. Its hull was scorched and bent. Power readings were faint but real.
Kael docked with caution. As the airlock sealed behind him, he stepped into the darkness of the forgotten ship.
Scene 2: The Discovery
The inside of the Ark was silent. No hum of engines. No flickering lights. Just the creak of his boots on the floor and the distant sound of metal groaning.
"Cora, oxygen levels?"
"Thin but breathable. Your lungs will hate me later."
He pushed forward.
Corridors lined with rusted panels led to a central chamber. The moment Kael entered, something shifted. The lights pulsed faintly. A low hum began to build, like a heartbeat echoing through metal walls.
In the center of the room hovered a crystal. It glowed blue, like a piece of ocean trapped in glass. Energy rippled around it.
Kael stepped closer. He reached out—
And the world exploded in light.
Scene 3: The Vision
He was falling.
Through stars, planets, memories that weren't his. He saw a throne made of shadow. A hand reaching out, holding six stones. And then—
A flash of white.
He stood on a battlefield that hadn't happened yet. A woman with silver hair, a burning warrior, a boy with glass eyes—they were fighting a creature made of nothing. All of them had stones. All of them were losing.
"You are the first," a voice said.
Kael turned, but saw no one.
"The Stone of Realms has chosen you. The others will follow. The void is waking."
Then he screamed.
Scene 4: The Awakening
Kael woke up gasping inside his ship.
"Kael!" Cora shouted. "What happened? You vanished from sensors! Your vitals flatlined!"
He looked at his chest. A glowing symbol pulsed under his skin—deep blue and circular.
"I touched the crystal. It... it went inside me."
Cora was silent. Then: "You need to leave. Now. I'm picking up movement."
Kael blinked. "What kind?"
"Three ships. All armed. All heading for the Ark. And Kael... they're broadcasting your name."
Scene 5: Lord Scarn's Arrival
The Emberwake jerked as Kael launched it away from the Ark. Weapons fire lit up the stars behind them.
"Shields up!" Kael shouted.
"Already done," Cora replied. "But we can't outrun them. Not forever. Unless—"
The transmission feed crackled to life. A monstrous face appeared—half burned, half encased in steaming metal. Red eyes glared beneath a bone-forged helm.
**"I am Lord Scarn, Harrow-General of the Endborn. By command of Veyr Maldrake, surrender the Stone."
Kael growled, "Tell your Endborn to come get it himself."
Scarn grinned. "He will."
Kael acted fast. Using the Space Stone, he folded distance and teleported onto Scarn's ship in mid-flight.
A brutal fight broke out between Kael and Scarn in the core of the enemy vessel—punches, blade clashes, raw energy. Kael was outmatched, until the Stone flared with power, warping gravity just enough for Kael to slam Scarn into a reactor conduit.
Scarn, broken and dying, grabbed Kael's collar.
**"He already knows your name... Maldrake was one of us. Once. Now he's the end of everything."
Scarn died with a twisted smile.
Kael warped back to the Emberwake, breathless. "Cora, get us out of here."
The ship vanished in a ripple of space.
Scene 6: Far Across the Stars...
In the Grove of Sen'dar, an old woman opened her eyes. "The first has awakened."
In the Chronoguard's chambers, a stasis crystal cracked. A girl opened her eyes backward in time.
In a dream city, a painter screamed.
And in a hidden fortress orbiting a black star, a cloaked figure stood in silence, watching a projection of Kael.
Veyr Maldrake, the Endborn, touched the edge of the hologram.
"One awakened. Six to go."
His voice was neither cold nor warm. It was old.
"The chapter turns... and the void remembers."
End of Chapter 1: The Stone of Realms