Ancestry of Secrets

Ethan woke to the scent of burning ozone and the sound of screams that weren't human. The sky above him was a tapestry of fractures, jagged splits oozing green-black light that dripped like venom onto the scorched earth.

The Thirteenth Star's heartbeat thrummed in the air, a discordant rhythm that made his teeth ache.

He stumbled to his feet, his body a mosaic of bruises and fresh scars. The relic was gone, reduced to ash in his palms, but the raven sigil on his hand still glowed faintly—a dying ember of the Duskheir's power.

What did I lose this time?

He clenched his fist, trying to recall his mother's face, but only static answered.

The town of Hollow's End was no longer a town. Houses floated upside down, their foundations ripped into the bleeding sky. People—or what remained of them—shambled through the streets, their bodies warped by the Star's influence, limbs elongated, eyes replaced by swirling voids.

Ethan's stomach turned as a child skittered past on spider-like fingers, giggling in a language that cracked the cobblestones.

"You did this," a voice hissed.

Ethan spun. A figure emerged from the shadows, cloaked in the tattered remnants of an Order uniform. The agent's mask was half-melted, revealing a scarred face beneath—Jarek, the man who'd held Mara at knifepoint in the chapel.

"You shattered the Star's heart," Jarek spat, leveling a pistol. "Now its corruption's spreading faster. We could've controlled it. Used it."

Ethan didn't flinch.

"Shoot me or help me fix this."

Jarek's finger twitched on the trigger. Then, with a snarl, he lowered the gun.

"There's a way. An old Veyra ritual—the Eclipse Concord. It's a pact that binds celestial entities. But you'll need the Keeper's tears to perform it."

"The Keeper's a liar."

"So am I," Jarek said, smiling bitterly. "Doesn't mean we're wrong."

They trekked to the ruins of Ravenscroft Manor, Ethan's paternal family estate, now a carcass of splintered wood and memories. Mara's journal, retrieved from Jarek's pack, hinted at a vault beneath the cellar where Liora and Cedric had once plotted.

The vault door was sealed with a lock shaped like a raven's skull. Ethan pressed his sigil-hand to it. The lock crumbled.

Inside, walls lined with spectral mirrors reflected not their faces, but scenes of Veyra history.

Elara and Cedric as children, their mother Liora singing lullabies in a tongue that made the mirrors bleed. At the room's center stood a pedestal holding a vial of silver liquid—the Keeper's tears, according to Mara's notes.

"Touching, isn't it?"

The Keeper's child-form materialized in the mirror glass, her grin sharp.

"You've come to beg, Duskheir? Or to finally ask the right questions?"

"Why help Cedric?" Ethan demanded.

"I didn't. He stole my title, my purpose. The true Keeper is bound to the Athenaeum. He reduced me to this… parody." Her voice cracked with millennia-old rage. "The Eclipse Concord can bind the Star, but it requires a vessel. Someone to take its essence into themselves. Someone already… tainted."

Her gaze slid to Jarek.

The Order agent stiffened. "No."

"Yes," Ethan said, cold clarity dawning. "The Order's been channeling the Star's power for years. Your body could withstand it."

Jarek backed toward the door. "You're as mad as Cedric."

The Keeper laughed. "Too late. It's already in you. Can't you feel it? The itch beneath your skin?"

Jarek's hand flew to his neck, where black veins now pulsed. He roared, charging at Ethan—but the Keeper flicked her wrist. Mirrors shattered, and Jarek froze, pinned by shards of glass.

"The ritual, Duskheir," the Keeper whispered. "Now."

Ethan poured the vial into Jarek's mouth. The agent convulsed as silver fire consumed him, his screams harmonizing with the Star's wail. The vault trembled, and Ethan's sigil flared, channeling the chaos into a single, searing command.

"Be bound."

Light exploded. When it faded, Jarek lay motionless, a living prison of flickering runes. The fractures in the sky began to mend.

But the Keeper's smile was triumphant. "Well done. But did you really think I'd let you win?"

She pressed her palm to Jarek's chest. The runes inverted, and the Thirteenth Star's essence poured into her. Her child-form bulged, distorted, until she stood reborn—a towering figure of starlight and shadow, her true form unveiled.

"Thank you for the vessel," she said, voice echoing across dimensions. "The Veyras always did make excellent pawns."

Ethan lunged, but she vanished, leaving only a feather of void-black smoke.

Outside, the sky was whole again. But in the silence, Ethan heard it—the faintest click, like a lock turning.

Somewhere, the Thirteenth Star laughed.