STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

STARLIGHT UNBOUND

The safehouse was gone.

He stood at the precipice of something vast, an infinite expanse of stars stretching in every direction. The ground—if there even was ground—had no substance beneath him. The cosmos pulsed, waves of light washing over him, through him.

From the void, a shape began to form.

A swirling mass of energy, shifting, morphing —until it became the starburst.

It hovered before him, massive and luminous, its jagged edges crackling with arcs of light. It felt alive.

Lucien reached out, his fingers trembling. The moment his skin met its surface, a voice filled his mind.

Not his own. But not unfamiliar.

"The system is a fragment, a mirage of something greater. You’ve seen the cracks. Now step through them."

The universe fractured.

Lucien fell —tumbling through darkness, through nothingness, through everything all at once.

The void swallowed him whole.

Then —impact.

His body jolted. The world snapped back into focus.

He was in the safehouse again, his breath ragged, the walls solid around him. Something was different. Energy crackled beneath his skin, a charge that left his hands unsteady, his heartbeat erratic.

What is happening to me?

***

Lucien stepped into the main room, his legs unsteady beneath him.

Around the central table, the rebels stood on one side; on the other, Jaris held his position.

Jaris ’s voice was cool, measured. “We’ll help you. But if you think we’re just going to fall in line, you ’re mistaken.”

Corin leaned forward, his tone edged. “You don’t have to follow us. But you do have to trust that we know what we ’re doing.”

Jaris scoffed. “Trust? That’s rich, coming from the people who broadcasted half-truths across the entire city. You’ve thrown everything into chaos, and now you expect us to clean up the mess?”

163