The village of Durn Hollow lay nestled between ragged hills, its homes carved from stone and timber, roofs draped in moss like the hair of sleeping giants. It was a forgotten place, even by its own people. No skyships flew overhead, no tech relics buzzed with arc-light. Here, life moved slowly. Days were for work, nights for silence.
And yet, something ancient stirred beneath its soil.
Lyra woke up screaming.
She bolted upright in the dark, drenched in sweat, her breath ragged. The air around her shimmered faintly, the walls of her small stone room humming like struck crystal. Outside, the wind howled, slamming against the wooden shutters.
Her mother rushed in, lantern in hand. "Lyra!"
"I saw it again," Lyra whispered, clutching her bedsheets. "The stars… they were bleeding."
Her mother paused at the doorway, fear tightening her features. "Was it the same dream?"
Lyra nodded. "The sky split open. A tower made of glass and fire. A man with silver eyes holding a dying star. And—" She swallowed hard. "A shadow that swallowed the suns."
Her mother crossed the room quickly, wrapping her arms around her daughter. "It's just a dream, love. Just a dream."
But Lyra knew it wasn't.
They had started when she was seven—fragments of images, flashes of light, voices in languages she didn't understand. As she grew older, they became clearer. Longer. Louder. And in the past week, they had turned violent. Entire galaxies crumbling in her mind. Names she'd never heard whispered like prayers. A burning tower. A dying world.
She looked down at her arms. The strange markings were back—glowing faintly beneath her skin like stardust beneath ice. They pulsed slowly, like a heartbeat. She quickly tugged her sleeves over them.
"I'm fine," she said, forcing a smile. "Really. I just need some air."
Her mother hesitated, then nodded. "Be careful. The storm's bad tonight."
Lyra stepped outside, the wind whipping her hair across her face. The sky above was a dark sea, cloud-covered, no stars in sight. But in her mind, they were still burning.
She walked through the quiet village, boots crunching over gravel. Every window was shut, every lamp dimmed. No one else seemed to stir—not even the dogs.
The dreams were changing her. She could feel it. The way she could hear things before they happened. The way metal sometimes bent when she got angry. The way the lights flickered when she touched them.
She didn't tell anyone. Not even her mother.
At the edge of the village stood the old stone circle—twelve jagged monoliths arranged in a perfect ring, older than Durn Hollow itself. No one knew who built them. Most people avoided the place. Said it was cursed.
But Lyra felt drawn to it. Always had.
She stepped into the circle, and the wind suddenly stopped. Silence fell like a curtain. Her breath came out in visible wisps, though the air wasn't cold. And then—just as it had before—her skin began to glow.
The symbols across her arms lit up, delicate and silver, moving slowly like constellations in motion. And in the center of the circle, something answered.
A sound—not a voice, but not a song either. A vibration in her bones. A pulse.
Boom. Boom. Boom
Lyra dropped to her knees, clutching her head. Visions flooded her again.
A man in black armor standing beneath two suns.
A shattered sword buried in a field of glass.
A girl—herself—standing at the heart of a crumbling starship, screaming as everything around her turned to fire.
Then she heard it, a voice this time, Clear, Terrifying.
"Starborn."
She gasped.
And then everything went black.
Far above the world of Durn Hollow, far beyond even its fading sun, a ship stirred to life.
The Eclipse had awakened.
Kaelen stood before the holomap, watching the pulses of energy ripple across the system. "We found her," he said quietly.
Seris leaned in. "Coordinates?"
Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "A backwater world… Sector 9-A. Designation: Earth."
She raised an eyebrow. "The ancient cradle?"
"It fits," he said. "That's where the First Flame fell. Where the Ancients seeded the line."
He tapped the map. "Her signature's strong. She's already awakening. If we wait too long, the Voidspawn will sense her too."
Seris nodded. "Then we move. Now."
Kaelen stared out the viewport at the stars ahead.
"She's just a girl," he murmured. "She has no idea what's coming."