Page 130 of Stars in Aura

The walls were not metal or stone but an arcane, sentient material that shifted from a dense to a fluid, more ephemeral form in milliseconds.

Light pulsed in delicate, swirling patterns, a cosmic heartbeat, tracing the intricate celestial etchings that adorned each surface.

The floor did not echo beneath their boots; instead, it radiated as they stepped upon woven threads of reality suspended between dimensions.

Arched passageways stretched before her, framed with towering pillars that palpitated with divine inscriptions, not written but sung into existence.

The aether, for it was not air, was laced with whispered hymns as if the vessel remembered every word spoken since the genesis of time.

As they passed through the corridors lined with more celestial Saatifa warriors, their leviathan bodies stiff, their gazes unreadable.

Ahead, the doors to the bridge dissipated and shimmered away.

Not with a sound but with a breath and a song.

Twas where Zavei waited for her.

His voice was the hush of an eclipsed sun, the whisper of ages.

‘The stars have sung of your return, Issandra Elaris Astraeus D’Leqan.’

She tilted her chin, steeling herself.

‘Let them sing the truth, Zavei Rhakiba Caleph D’Ketheron. I have not come to kneel.’

Zavei stood before her, his eyes stilling her.

Up close, the two golden abysses swirled like twin galaxies, endless and consuming.

‘The Sanopic vessel, child.’

She shook her head, the earrings on her lobe catching the light. ‘Nada. Not now. Not until I face Sulfiqar and hand them to him myself.’

Zavei’s face darkened into a storm. He was not amused.

‘You overstep, Issandra,’ he intoned, his snarl an invocation, a hymn laced with warning. ‘You dictate terms where none are granted. You presume the right to decide who shall receive that which does not belong to you.’

Issa held his gaze, unflinching.

‘It is not your property, Zavei,’ she said, her voice measured, unwavering. ‘Nor does it belong to Sulfiqar. It is mine until an exchange is met.’

Zavei’s lips curved, not in a smile but a lethal twist.

‘You have walked among mortals too long,’ he rasped, the tonnage of eternity in his tone. ‘Their hubris is infecting you. You regard yourself untouchable, untethered from the divine laws that bind the universe and our realms beyond it.’

Issa tilted her head, her dark curls catching the ethereal glow of the ship’s interior.

‘I believe in debts paid,’ she murmured. ‘Also, the suffering inflicted upon my family deserves its retribution. Sulfiqar will look me in the eye when he takes back what he covets. He will answer for what was done.’

‘Blasphemy and quisling.’

‘He started this fight, not I.’

A bristling silence coiled and snapped between them.

Ki’Remi, beside her, exhaled just a fraction too hard.

Arms crossed over his chest, his stance deceptively at ease, but she knew him now as she imagined the storm beneath his expressionless face.

---