The infirmary's starlight lanterns flickered like dying fireflies. Kio lay rigid on the cot, her left arm encased in jagged, translucent crystal that pulsed faintly with the Chainsword's scream frost. The air smelled of burnt ozone and iron, and every breath Tatsu took felt like swallowing crushed glass. His star-marked hand trembled beneath its bandages, veins spider webbing up his forearm like cracks in porcelain.
Lira flickered at the foot of the bed, her form unstable, edges dissolving into static, then snapping back.
"The scream frost isn't just ice," she whispered. "It's a memory. The Husk Knight's final moments... they're eating her from the inside."
Tatsu's mother, Sayuri, stood silhouetted in the doorway, her scarred wrist glowing faintly. She hadn't spoken since the knight's revelation—"I am your father"—but her silence screamed louder than any phantom star.
The medic, a star-born woman with hollow, oil-slick eyes, injected Kio with luminescent serum.
"This will slow the crystallization. But you need a cleansing relic. Without it, her heart will turn to ice by week's end."
Tatsu's throat tightened.
"Where do I find one?"
The medic hesitated.
"The Black Bazaar. But beware the Gilded Maw. His relics are… altered."
Sayuri finally spoke, her voice a blade wrapped in silk.
"The Maw is Throne Bound. He'll smell your desperation like blood in water."
Principal Halara's orders were nonnegotiable: Attend class. Maintain normalcy. The Stabilization Studies classroom hummed with tension, its domed ceiling etched with constellations of dead stars. Instructor Veyra, her prosthetic arm coiled like barbed starlight, paced the perimeter.
"Phase progression is inevitable," she intoned, levitating a decaying star fragment. "But discipline delays Entropy's bite. Today, you'll learn to redirect decay."
Power System RefresherStarthreads: Energy harvested from dying stars/fissures. Weave for temporary abilities; knot into flesh for mutations.
Eclipse Risk: Overuse risks supernova explosion or becoming a Husk.
Dissonance: Clashing powers warp reality (e.g., phantom stars, fused timelines).
Cosmic Entities: Void-dwellers that offer pacts at dire costs.
"Kuroda," Veyra snapped. "Channel Entropy into Mirror 12."
Tatsu's star-mark flared. He Splinter Walked to the mirror, but his reflection showed the throne's castle walls oozing black sludge, frozen victims clawing at the glass. Students recoiled as phantom hands breached the surface, snatching at their sleeves.
"Control it," Veyra hissed.
Tatsu gritted his teeth, forcing the vision to collapse. The mirror cracked, bleeding stardust.
Lira's voice echoed in his mind: "The throne is using your fear. Fight louder."
The Black Bazaar thrived in the city's underbelly, a maze of stalls lit by bioluminescent star-vines and haunted by shadows. Tatsu navigated the crowd, coins trembling in his pocket. Vendors hawked corrupted relics: swords that erased memories, mirrors that showed futures of decay, crowns humming with phantom stars.
Lira flickered beside him.
"The cleansing relic is a Dawnshard. It's been extinct for centuries… unless the Maw's twisted one."
The air thickened with the scent of burnt sugar. A child's laugh echoed, high and distorted.
The crowd parted like a corpse under a scalpel. The Maw glided forward, jeweled mask glinting—rubies pulsed with a general's last orders, sapphires whispered a poet's final verse. His cloak, stitched with gold thread, shimmered like liquid stardust. Coins in Tatsu's pocket screamed.
The Maw paused at a stall, swallowing a locket whole. His belly bulged, something squirming beneath his silk robes. When he exhaled, the locket reappeared blackened, oozing ichor. The merchant wept with gratitude.
Tatsu found the relic-smith, a hunched hybrid with star-ash teeth.
"I need a Dawnshard."
The smith grinned.
"The Maw trades in renewed relics. But beware his cures rot from within."
As Tatsu turned, the Maw materialized behind him, mask tilting.
"Ah. The Anchor. Here to save your little friend?" His voice layered Kio's timbre with a dozen others. "How… quaint."
Lira hissed, "Don't let him touch you!"
The Maw's jaw unhinged, a blackened tongue lashing toward Tatsu's chest. Tatsu Splinterwalked, but the tongue grazed his wrist.
The Maw convulsed, regurgitating a Dawnshard but warped. The relic pulsed with Tatsu's own memories: his mother's betrayal, Kio's scream as frost consumed her.
"Take it," the Maw crooned. "But know this: every cure is a corruption in disguise."
Tatsu grabbed the relic. The Maw's belly laughed, the child's voice, clear and desperate:
"Help me."
Back at the infirmary, Tatsu pressed the Dawnshard to Kio's crystallized arm. The relic flared, dissolving frost but her veins blackened. Her eyes snapped open, glowing with Entropy.
"Tatsu?" she whispered, voice layered with the throne's chorus. "I can hear it… the song."
Lira flickered wildly.
"The relic was a trap! It's bonding her to the throne!"
The door burst open. The Gilded Maw stood framed in starlight, mask gleaming.
"A trade, Anchor. The girl's soul… for the child in my belly."
Before Tatsu could react, the air shattered.
Cosmic Entity Revealed: The Hundred-Handed MournerAppearance: A towering figure with 100 translucent hands, each gripping a frozen scream.
Pact: Sacrifice a loved one's memory to gain its power.
Role: Enforces cosmic balance; punishes those who defy Entropy.
The Mourner's hands encircled the room, voices echoing:
"You owe a debt. Pay it."
Tatsu's star-mark burned. The Mourner pointed to Kio.
"Her life… or hers."
In its palm floated a spectral vision: the Maw's child—a girl with Sayuri's heterochromatic eyes.
Kio's crystal arm erupted in black flames. The Maw laughed, his mask splitting to reveal a void where his face should be.
"Too late, Anchor. The throne's song has a new verse."
Lira screamed as static consumed her. The Mourner's hands closed in.
And Tatsu—
He reached for the Dawnshard, its corrupted light reflected in his void-touched eye.
"No," Sayuri snarled, seizing his wrist. Her scar blazed gold.
"There's another way. But it requires… her."
She pointed to the Mourner's vision, the child in the Maw's belly.
Somewhere, a coin trembled.