Ancestry of Secrets

The Shattered Wastes screamed as Ethan and Alric clashed, starlight against void. The spire's glass walls reflected their duel in fractured glimpses: Ethan's cloak billowing like a storm, Alric's spectral form rippling with the Keeper's corruption. Each strike sent shockwaves through the dead realm, eroding the spire's foundation.

"You're a fool, boy!" Alric roared, parrying Ethan's whip of condensed light. "The Star birthed our line! Its hunger is our strength!"

"Then why did Liora bind it?" Ethan snarled, ducking a tendril of shadow.

"Fear," Alaric hissed. "Fear of what we could become."

The Thirteenth Star's heart pulsed, its rhythm syncing with Ethan's fraying heartbeat. He could feel its pull—a primal call to submit, to let the Veyra legacy consume him. The raven on his shoulder shrieked, snapping him back.

Focus.

He channeled the cloak's power, weaving starlight into a blade. "I'm not here to become anything you want."

The blurred woman appeared mid-strike, her form solidifying between them. Golden light erupted, hurling Alric into the spire's wall.

"Enough," she said, her voice finally clear.

Ethan froze. He knew that cadence, that faint scent of jasmine.

"Mother…?"

Elara Veyra turned, her face no longer blurred. She wore a cloak like his, its edges fraying into stardust. "You've done well, Ethan. But this battle isn't yours alone."

Alric staggered to his feet, void-blood dripping from his spectral wounds. "Elara? You were erased—

"Not erased," she interrupted. "Reborn. The Crossroads preserved me when Cedric tore my memory from the world. I've been waiting… guiding him."

Ethan's chest tightened. "You… you've been here the whole time?"

Elara's smile was sad. "A mother's duty doesn't end with death."

Alric lunged, but Elara flicked her wrist. Chains of light pinned him to the heart.

"The Keeper lied to you, cousin. The Star isn't our ancestor. It's a parasite. It chose us because we were strong enough to cage it. Liora knew—that's why she hid the anchor."

The heart's pulse quickened, cracks spreading across its surface. Alric writhed, the Keeper's voice tearing from his throat.

"Liar! The Star is eternal! We are its children!"

Elara pressed a hand to the heart.

"Then let it answer."

Light exploded. The heart's core ruptured, and the Thirteenth Star's true form emerged—not a celestial entity, but a writhing mass of absence, a hole in existence itself. It had no voice, only hunger.

"It's not a star," Ethan realized, horror dawning. "It's a wound. A void that devours realms."

Elara nodded. "And the Veyras were never its heirs. We were its bandage."

Alric screamed as the void consumed him, the Keeper's essence torn from his ghost. Ethan reached for him, but Elara held him back.

"It's too late. The Keeper bound herself to the void. She's part of it now."

The spire collapsed. Ethan and Elara fled as the Shattered Wastes disintegrated, the void spreading like rot. They emerged in the Crossroads, now trembling under the strain of the unleashed abyss.

The Weaver awaited them, her stitched faces grim.

"You've accelerated the end. The void will consume all realms now."

"How do we stop it?" Ethan demanded.

"You don't," the Weaver said. "You replace it. Become the new anchor. Let the void feast on you instead."

Elara stepped forward. "No. I'll do it."

"Mother—"

"I've had my time," she said, cupping his face. "Yours is just beginning. But you'll need to let go… of everything."

She kissed his forehead, her touch erasing the raven's weight from his shoulder. Then she turned, walking into the void's maw, her cloak dissolving into a net of golden light.

The void stilled—for now.

Ethan stood alone in the Crossroads, the raven gone, his cloak inert. The Weaver watched, her gaze inscrutable.

"What am I now?" he asked.

"What you always were," she replied. "A choice, not a bloodline."

But as she vanished, Ethan felt it—the void's whisper, softer now, but insistent.

Find me.