The first blast came without warning.
A beam of molten skyfire ripped past the Zephyr Wasp's flank, missing the left wing by a breath. The hull groaned under the shockwave, and Myrrha jerked the controls sideways, sending the ship into a tight spiral. Lightning lit the stormclouds around them, throwing everything into strobes of violet and gold.
"Six ships," she muttered through clenched teeth. "No callsigns. No demands. Just straight to murder."
The boy beside her — still barefoot, still unsettlingly calm — tapped the sensor grid. "They don't speak. They don't stop. They don't care."
"About what?"
"Anything but protocol."
Myrrha cut the engines and let the updraft drag them into a stall, cloaking them in vapor. "Then let's give them something to break."
Another beam pierced the clouds ahead, grazing their tail rudder. Warning klaxons howled across the bridge.
The boy tilted his head, as if listening to something only he could hear. "They're triangulating. We have thirty seconds before they blind-jump through the mist."
"That supposed to mean something to me?"
"It means we're about to die."
A faint grin tugged at Myrrha's mouth. "Not yet."
She punched the auxiliary switch.
Behind them, the ship's wings split open, releasing a burst of heat and Riftlight. The Zephyr Wasp lurched forward on raw kinetic drive, diving lower — into the Veil.
They weren't supposed to fly here. The Veil was the dead zone. The magnetic field under the outer cloud bands, where sensors failed and gravity spun sideways and entire vessels just vanished. Every pilot knew the stories.
Myrrha ignored them.
Down here, the only law was chaos. And she'd lived long enough under other people's rules.
The Zephyr Wasp twisted between clouds like a shark through blood. Turbulence slammed into the hull, throwing sparks across the bridge. One of the rear-view screens exploded in static.
Then the shadows came.
The enemy ships didn't look like anything she recognized — lean, fanged silhouettes built for silence, no lights, no insignias, no visible crew. They slipped through the storm like blades through silk.
"Why do they want you?" she snapped.
The boy's eyes glowed faintly. "Because I left."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one that matters."
Another bolt cracked the upper deck. The hull groaned. The Zephyr Wasp dipped.
Myrrha gritted her teeth and dove steeper. "Tell me what they are. Or I drop you into the storm myself."
He met her gaze. Calm. Patient.
"They're called Nullborn."
Pause.
She blinked. "That supposed to scare me?"
"It should."
The ship rocked hard.
Too hard.
An enemy hunter had caught their wake — latching onto their current like a leech. Its underbelly opened, revealing a spike cannon.
"Hold on," Myrrha hissed.
She cut power again — cold-stalled the ship in mid-air.
The hunter surged forward, too fast to adjust.
She reignited the core.
The Zephyr Wasp flipped upward like a sling.
Its hull scraped the hunter's undercarriage — metal screaming against metal — before Myrrha fired the rear thrusters point-blank.
The blast consumed the first hunter in a bloom of fire and torn wings.
The sky hissed.
Four more closed in.
"That was one," the boy said.
"I can count."
"You can't win."
She glanced sideways. "Then start praying."
"No," he said. "Start unlocking."
She stared at him.
"What?"
He stood. Walked to the back panel of the bridge and tapped the gold-rune insignia etched into the wall — the ship's nameplate.
The metal glowed.
"Zephyr Wasp," he whispered. "Authorization Protocol Aurix-Requiem. Unlock hidden helm."
The bridge shifted.
Panels folded back. Lights reconfigured. The entire helm transformed — smoother, leaner, runed in languages she couldn't read. The throttle doubled in size. The wings snapped wider.
And then the ship spoke.
"Manual Override Accepted. Rift Drive Unshackled."
Myrrha's mouth went dry.
"You just activated a warship."
The boy turned to her.
"I just gave you a weapon."
"Why me?"
"You stole it."
She slid into the new pilot's chair.
The Rift Drive thrummed beneath her.
Outside, the Nullborn circled.
Inside, Myrrha smiled.
"Let's see how many of you bastards can bleed."
She pulled the trigger.
The sky exploded.