?? Suggested Listening:

  “Inelius, think you can get these doors open?” Aurania asked.

  Inelius looked over the control panel for the elevators. “Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard.”

  Then he grabbed Soren by the wrist and pulled him over to the elevator door marked ‘3A.’

  “If you’d be so kind,” Inelius indicated to the door.

  Soren punched through the door and yanked them open, exposing the elevator shaft.

  “Not exactly what I meant,” Aurania said.

  “So?” Inelius shrugged. “I delegated.”

  “Looks like… they’re 3 levels down,” Soren’s voice echoed off the walls of the elevator shaft as he leaned in to look. He keyed comms, “Tamiyo, we’re right above you.”

  “Okay,” Tamiyo answered. “Well we’ve got to get the elevator down, all of our gear is still on this thing.”

  “Alright, hang tight.” Soren turned to the team. “Ideas?”

  “Hmm,” Aurania said. “Crack open the elevator shaft next to it.”

  He stepped over and tore it open, just like the first.

  “Where’s the car?” Aurania asked.

  Soren looked down, then up. “Above us.”

  “Perfect. Think you can target the doors five floors down and tear them off?”

  “Uh…” Soren looked unsure. “I can try.”

  He jumped into the elevator shaft and grabbed onto the cables. After taking a moment to catch his bearings, he looked down and reached out.

  Aurania heard a bunch of noise from groaning metal, then an abrupt SHRIEK, followed by clanging.

  Soren swung back through the door. “Okay. It was a little messy but I got it.”

  “Damn, you’re like a skeleton key,” Amalia quipped.

  “Alright,” Aurania said. “Soren, you’re staying up here with me. Violet, you’re going down 3A, I need you to grab Morgan’s Mercy from the gear crates. The rest of you, get down and make sure the path is clear for us when we land.”

  The team all sounded off various confirmations and began moving, scaling down their directed elevator shafts.

  While they waited, Aurania asked Soren, “Hey, you doing alright?”

  His head tilted slightly. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I can feel how much strain you’re under, you’ve been channeling that power a lot more in the past week than you ever have before.”

  “I’m… I’m alright,” he said.

  “Hey!” She strode forward quickly, putting a hand to his chest until she backed him up against the wall. “Do. Not. Lie to me.”

  It wasn’t lost on her how she couldn’t have pushed him even an inch—much less up against the wall—if he hadn’t let her.

  His expression softened. “I’m tired.”

  Aurania let out a small sigh. “I thought so.”

  She stepped back from him. “Are you good to get us out of here?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t hesitate.

  She stared at him for a moment, expression stern.

  “As soon as we’re off this ship,” Aurania said, “As soon as we’re safe. You’re going to sleep. Got it?”

  He gave her a bashful nod. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Alright,” Aurania walked toward elevator 3A. “I’m going to crawl up the shaft a bit. Focus on pulling the cable to you with your gravity power. I’ll sever the line and you lower them down, got it?”

  Soren walked up next to her. “What about the elevator brakes?”

  “That’s Violet’s job. You think you can hold the weight?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you do it if you’re not glowing?” Aurania cocked an eyebrow at him. “I want you to take a breather, even if it’s just a little one.”

  Soren looked conflicted.

  But after a moment, he took a deep breath and then sighed.

  The glow slowly faded from him until he was back to normal.

  Yeah. ‘Normal.’ Ethereal hair and vibrant green eyes with shifting silver. Oh, and there goes some of that elusive gold—

  “Aurania?” Soren asked.

  She shook her head, blinked once, and realized she had been staring.

  Aurania turned and yelled down the elevator shaft. “Hey Violet! Got it?!”

  “Yep!” Violet yelled back up at her.

  “Do you need a hand getting up there?” Soren asked, looking up the shaft.

  “Pssht, no,” Aurania said a little too dismissively. So to make up for it, she looked back in his eyes. “But you can still give me one if you want.”

  Her heart fluttered a little at the way he smiled.

  Aurania hopped up just enough to leave the deck and bent her knees. Soren caught her, palm up, so she sat perched along his forearm. She weighed almost 600 pounds and he could hold her like she was made of air.

  “Ready?” Soren asked.

  Her legs tensed. “Do it.”

  With a smooth surge, Soren hurled her up the elevator shaft. The walls blurred for a second as she rose three levels upward, then she swung her axe hard into the wall and hung there from it.

  “Ready?!” she yelled down at him.

  She saw a faint white aura glow around the cables, then they groaned as they barely began to pull toward Soren.

  “Yep!”

  Aurania took a breath, planted her hooves against the wall, then—

  In one swift motion, she yanked her axe free and swung, slicing through the cables.

  The instant the cables snapped, the elevator car lurched and began to drop. The cables shot into Soren’s waiting palm and he took the full weight, keeping it from plummeting.

  Aurania kicked off the wall—then another—jumping back and forth in a controlled descent. She passed Soren, continuing downwards until she reached Violet and landed on top of the elevator.

  Violet had been watching the whole thing. Her brow was raised high, a look of slight awe on her face. “You’re a freak of nature, Boss. You both are.”

  Aurania just smiled at her and keyed up the comm. “Are we clear down there?”

  “We will be by the time you get down here,” Inelius answered.

  Aurania looked up. “Alright, start lowering it down!”

  The car lurched. Then, bit-by-bit, it moved downward. He wasn’t letting it slide through his grip—he went hand-over-hand, so the elevator car bobbed a little bit as they made their way down.

  After they’d dropped a little over half of a level, a loud CLICK echoed through the shaft, and the cable went slack.

  “Everything good out there?” Raine called up through a small access hatch.

  “Yeah!” Aurania yelled down. “Brakes just engaged!”

  Violet pulled Morgan’s Mercy out of its holster. “Cover your ears, Boss.”

  Aurania set her axe down, kicked the access hatch closed, and pressed her palms over her ears. “What about you?” she yelled to Violet.

  KRAK—

  Violet shot the first brake. “I have my earplugs in,” she said simply.

  KRAK—

  The second brake exploded in a show of sparks and the elevator car shifted slightly.

  “Pull the line tight!” Aurania called upwards.

  Then she heard yelling above.

  “Stay where you are!” A man’s voice called out.

  Apparently more LU troops had arrived by Soren.

  Aurania just shrugged and waited for—

  KRAK!

  The elevator car shifted again.

  “Is it just these four?” Violet asked. “Any more on the bottom?”

  Aurania furrowed her brow at the girl. “Violet, when’s the last time you saw an elevator in Berilinsk? Your guess is as good as mine.”

  Violet returned a blank look, then pointed her gun at the last brake without even looking.

  KRAK!

  The car dropped—

  And stopped as Soren caught it.

  “Hey!” Someone yelled at Soren from above. “What are you doing?”

  Aurania sensed his response through their mental link and rolled her eyes before he even said it.

  “Just hanging out.”

  Aurania let out a groan, picked her axe up, and yelled up at him, “Stop playing with your friends and lower us down!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  There was more yelling above but Aurania didn’t pay attention to it.

  The car dropped lower and lower, finally reaching the cargo level where they needed to stop.

  “Hold there!” Aurania called out.

  She kicked the access hatch open again. “Stand back!”

  Aurania lifted her axe high and swung down with all her might—cleaving a gash right through the metal around the access hatch. She lifted it again, roared a little, and swung. Three more swings and the hole in the ceiling was finally large enough for Aurania to fit through.

  She dropped down into the car. The freight elevator was large, but it was cramped with all of their gear crates, two CIPHERs, two d’moria, and Elias’ cryo pod.

  Aurania wasted no time, driving the blade of her axe into the doors and prying them open.

  Stepping out, she saw over a dozen LU personnel groaning from various injuries along the hallway.

  “Hey Babe!” Raine hopped out of the elevator towards Inelius.

  “Get everything out!” Aurania barked.

  They began hauling the gear crates out into the corridor, Inelius and the CIPHERs watching for more opponents while the rest of them loaded up.

  Aurania yelled back up the adjacent elevator shaft, “Soren! We’re good, get down here!”

  A moment later the elevator in 3A plummeted downward. After a couple seconds, it slammed into the bottom of the shaft, the twisted sound of metal echoing up at them.

  “Sorry guys, gotta go,” his voice echoed down. Aurania didn’t miss the note of exhaustion in it.

  And then he was there—Soren dropped down and grabbed the ledge, then pulled himself up.

  The rest of them noticed he wasn’t lit up anymore, but they stayed quiet.

  “Move!” Aurania barked. “Riza, Inelius. Go ahead with Tamiyo and Raine! Get us access to the cargo hold.”

  “Got it,” Riza said, and they rushed ahead.

  The gear crates were loaded onto large dollies Brana and Brolgar had procured so they could just be pushed along. But they were bulky, so they had to move carefully.

  Plus there was Elias.

  Soren lifted the cryo pod onto his shoulder and ran.

  The way was clear from adversaries save for the odd groaning soldier slumped against a wall, and less than two minutes later they came upon the cargo bay doors standing open.

  And there it was.

  The Aether ship sat in the cargo bay like some massive technological predator at rest. The forward section tapered to a needlepoint prow, low and aggressive, while the wings jutted midway down its body at the rear, compact but heavy with embedded thruster arrays. Landing struts splayed wide, gripping the deck as if ready to spring. The cockpit canopy sat recessed and narrow, its dark glass hiding the strange systems that waited inside.

  It wasn’t just a ship—it looked like it had been built to outfly, outgun, and outlast anything in the sky. Even dormant, it radiated the same quiet menace as a drawn blade.

  Tamiyo already had the ramp extended and they stormed up it with their gear. There would be time later to sort and put everything away—for now it all just went up against the nearest walls they could find.

  Elias though, Soren set him down gently and made sure the cryo pod wouldn’t go anywhere when they escaped.

  “Soren!” Raine yelled. “We need you down here in the engine!”

  Aurania ran down with him to see what was happening.

  The drive core was insane.

  Aurania had expected something big—maybe even something alien—but not this.

  A black sphere the size of a dropship floated in the center of the chamber, suspended in midair by nothing she could see. Four curved pylons rose from the deck around it, arching inward like the ribs of some long-dead titan, each wrapped in cables and fluid-filled conduits that pulsed faintly with light. Three concentric rings rotated lazily around the sphere that shimmered between silver and pale gold.

  The surface of the sphere was glass-smooth, but beneath it, veins of light swirled like liquid starlight—Aether Dust in motion. Every so often, a ripple passed across it, subtle as breath.

  It didn’t hum like a normal engine. It sang, low and resonant, a deep vibration in her chest with a high, crystalline tone woven through it. The sound felt alive.

  Raine was at the console tucked between two pylons, half-lit in the glow of the rotating rings. “Fucking insane, right?” She called out to them.

  “What is it?” Aurania asked, completely amazed.

  “Aether Core,” Raine answered. “Tamiyo’s up in the cockpit. We can fly this thing, but you Big Guy,” she pointed at Soren. “You’re the fuel.”

  His eyes got wider. “I’m the fuel?”

  “Sort of. We can explain more later but I need you to channel some of that glow magic into this thing, it’s the only way we’re getting out of here.”

  Aurania followed as he stepped forward. The light from the sphere caught in his eyes, reflecting the same silver-gold veins beneath its surface.

  The moment his palm pressed against the surface, the rings halted in their rotation—then flared along with Soren. The veins of light inside the sphere whipped into motion, circling faster and faster until they became a storm of luminous streaks. The pylons lit from base to tip, sending cascading pulses of light through the conduits.

  The vibration deepened, blooming into a layered chord that rattled the decking. The sphere’s glow spread outward, licking along the chamber walls until every panel and conduit in the room was awake.

  On the console, readouts flared from red to green. Raine grinned. “Drive’s online.”

  Soren stepped back, the glow fading from his eyes and hair, though not from the ship. The core kept humming, steady and alive.

  Aurania looked at him and he looked back. He wouldn’t admit it—he’d play strong for the rest of the team—but she could sense it.

  He was tapped.

  It was good they were on the ship, she wasn’t sure if he could draw any more power at the moment after charging the Aether Core.

  “Come on,” she said to him, and they headed back upstairs.

  When they reached the main deck, Aurania noticed the boarding hatch was still open, and something felt off.

  “Sit,” she ordered Soren, and left him in the main room.

  Walking back outside of the ship, she spotted Violet and Amalia at the bottom of the ramp.

  Talking to Garrin.

  She made her way down toward them, simply greeting him with, “Garrin,” as she got closer.

  “Aurania,” he responded in a flat tone.

  “I hope you’re not expecting to stop us,” she told him.

  He smiled faintly and shook his head. “I’m not so foolish. But I at least wanted to say goodbye.”

  “Aww,” Amalia let out. “We’ll miss you too, Garrin. It’s not goodbye forever.”

  “You sure? You all seem to have burnt some bridges in there.”

  Violet shrugged. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission.”

  “Violet, Amalia, time for us to go,” Aurania said sternly.

  “Shame we’re probably being recorded,” Amalia said. “Or I’d give you a goodbye kiss.”

  Violet started backing up the ramp and Amalia followed.

  “Save it for me?” Garrin asked with a smirk.

  “Next time we meet,” Amalia said.

  Then the sisters turned, and all three of them ran up the ramp.

  The hatch sealed shut and Aurania felt the deck rumbling faintly beneath her hooves—the Aether Core’s deep chord resonating throughout the hull. She ran towards the cockpit, taking the steps two at a time.

  Tamiyo was already strapped in, fingers flying across the controls foreign to Aurania’s eyes—but the CIPHER seemed fully locked in. Through the viewport, Aurania could see the cargo bay doors they had entered through—Liberty Union personnel pouring through.

  “This thing have an external comm?” Aurania asked, dropping into the co-pilot’s chair.

  “Uh, yeah,” Tamiyo replied without looking up. “One second… there you go, it’s open.”

  “Garrin!” Aurania yelled out. “We’re going to blow the cargo bay doors wide open. Unless you and your men feel like taking a short trip in a vacuum, you might want to clear out!”

  The crowd of LU personnel all froze. Then they scrambled back toward the exit.

  “We’re ready,” Tamiyo said, finally looking up.

  “Hold,” Aurania told her. Then after a few moments, the last of the LU troops ran out and the cargo bay doors began to slide shut.

  Aurania gripped the armrests. “Alright, let’s move.”

  Tamiyo’s hands slid over the throttle. The Aether Core’s song rose in pitch, and the ship shivered—not the rattle of strain, but the coiled energy of something built to run. The thrusters whined, a layered, otherworldly tone that was nothing like a standard drive.

  The ship lurched as it lifted clean off the deck, anti-gravs humming as the nose swung toward the bay doors.

  From somewhere deep in the hull, a charge began to build—not the steady hum of the drive, but a sharp, rising tone that vibrated in Aurania’s teeth. The view through the canopy shimmered as a gauge filled on the holographic display along the dashboard.

  Aurania’s pulse quickened. “What is that?”

  Tamiyo shrugged. “Not completely sure.” Her voice was calm and eyes bright. “But I’ve been itching to press the trigger since I found it.”

  The charge hit its peak with a sound like crystal under strain, then snapped forward in twin beams that tore across the hangar. The bolts hit the outer doors dead-center, the metal folding outward, leaving a jagged-edged wound open to the black beyond.

  Pressure alarms wailed across the hangar as the atmosphere roared out into space, scattering tools, crates, and the various cargo into the void.

  “Neat trigger,” Aurania said lightly.

  Tamiyo throttled forward, the ship sliding through the breach without so much as a scrape. The Aether Core’s hum smoothed into a predatory purr as they broke free, the Liberty Union ships outside already shifting into pursuit vectors.

  Aurania found the ship’s internal comms and keyed it up. “Everyone strap in, Tamiyo’s going to show us what we pay her for.”

  “You don’t pay me,” Tamiyo said flatly.

  She gunned the throttle.

  The ship shot clear of the hangar breach, inertial dampeners groaning to keep the crew in their seats. Everything turned to blur as the craft accelerated almost impossibly fast, fueled by that strange cosmic particle.

  “Holy shit,” Aurania muttered as she felt herself pressing into her seat from the momentum shift.

  A blip on a screen to her left caught Aurania’s attention. “Looks like two LU gunships coming right at us, Tamiyo—”

  “Already on it.”

  Instead of climbing away, Tamiyo dropped the nose and rolled them under the nearest gunship’s firing arc. The hull vibrated as green tracer fire hissed past overhead.

  “Hold onto something,” Tamiyo warned.

  The ship’s wings flexed as hidden maneuvering vanes unfolded along their edges. The ship cut sideways like a knife through water, inertia sliding around them in a way that made Aurania’s stomach flip. The gunship overshot in a blur.

  Aurania glanced at the readouts. “They’re locking missiles.”

  “I wonder what this button does,” Tamiyo said.

  The first salvo streaked toward them—sleek, needle-nosed projectiles with too much thrust to outrun. Aurania braced for evasive maneuvers, but instead, Tamiyo flicked a control and the ship’s skin shimmered. The silver-gold glow from the Aether Core bled across the hull, refracting space like heat haze.

  The missiles lost them, screaming past and veering into empty black before their failsafes self-detonated.

  Tamiyo grinned, eyes still locked ahead. “Guess we have a cloak.”

  “Please stop winging this.”

  A second gunship tried a broadside pass, but Tamiyo was already raising their ship over its dorsal arc. Tamiyo flipped the trigger she’d used in the hangar, and another lance flared—short, surgical—spearing the gunship’s starboard engine. The enemy ship spun away, venting plasma.

  Aurania checked the display. “That’s two down. Nothing else currently in range.”

  “Time to go then,” Tamiyo said innocently.

  She pushed the throttle to its limit. The Aether Core’s song swelled into a roar, and the stars stretched ahead into streaks as the Jump Drive brought them into a repetition of skipping faster than light. The Cradle, The Bastion of Libertas’ fleet, and the system’s twin suns shrank behind them into the dark.

  Aurania let out a long breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “Set course for Nox.”

  “Copy that, Boss,” the CIPHER replied, hands steady over the controls. The ship purred under her touch, and Aurania caught the subtle ease in Tamiyo’s posture—locked in, but not straining.

  “You good to keep flying?” Aurania asked. “Feel pretty confident with this thing?”

  Tamiyo smiled at her. “Yep. Followed Riza’s orders, I’ve spent way too much time in this ship over the past several days. And I didn’t have to fight my way off the flagship, so no naps needed here.”

  She tilted her head slightly, antennae accentuating her whimsical tone. “Go get some sleep, Aura. You’ve earned it.”

  Aurania smiled warmly back at the girl and rose from her seat. “Thanks, Tamiyo.”

  She left the cockpit, taking the stairs slower this time, letting herself begin to feel the adrenaline withdrawal. The ship was amazing—sleek, advanced, and spacious even for her large frame.

  In the central room, her team sat exhaling the stress of the mission.

  Amalia and Violet were sprawled in two of the large, comfortable crew chairs present throughout the main room. Veolo was inspecting Inelius’ hands for breaks and bruises—he had fought with the fierceness of a lacravida despite not being one. Brana had pulled bedding from somewhere and was bringing it to Riza, who was curled up next to Elias’ pod.

  Brolgar was already going to work unpacking their crates.

  Aurania sighed and let the tension ease from her shoulders. “Good work everyone, I’m proud of all of you. Get some rest.”

  She walked over to Soren—he sat slightly reclined in one of the large chairs. He looked… drained. Not weak, not broken—just exhausted.

  Aurania reached for his hand.

  “Come on,” she murmured.

  He looked up at her, curious, but followed without question. Their steps were soft against the hum of the Aether Core. She took them to one of the large bedrooms aboard the ship—which were all identical from what Aurania had seen, but also large and comfortable.

  “What are you doing?” Soren asked, voice small.

  She gave him a gentle smile. “Nothing crazy, don’t worry.”

  She nudged him toward the bed, and he dropped onto it with a quiet exhale. Aurania kneeled down and began working at the ties to his boots.

  “You don’t have to,” he tried protesting.

  “I know.”

  She pulled both boots off, then his socks, and she found herself staring for a moment.

  “What?” Soren said quietly. Then a little more concerned, “Do they smell?”

  She looked up at him, a small laugh escaping. “No, nothing like that, it’s just…” She could feel the exhaustion growing stronger throughout her body. “I don’t have feet like yours. They’re interesting.”

  Then she stood, moved to sit next to him on the bed, and wrapped one leg around his body.

  Aurania leaned back, pulled him down, and let his head rest on the soft swells of her chest.

  For a moment he stayed tense—holding himself up, like he was afraid to put his full weight on her. But she curled an arm around him and pressed her cheek to his hair.

  “Sleep,” she whispered.

  It didn’t take long. He pushed an arm around her torso, making himself more comfortable, and moments later, his breathing slowed. His weight settled fully against her and it felt like their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces.

  Aurania meant to stay awake—meant to watch over him so they didn’t accidentally share a memory—but the rhythm of the ship, his warmth, and the exhaustion pressing into her bones began to pull her under.

  Outside the ship, the stars blurred past on their way to Nox. But Aurania didn’t notice anything beyond what lay right in front of her.

  They both were soundly asleep.

  And we're off!

  How did you enjoy the Book 3 opening?