I woke to the same translucent screen hovering before my blurry vision. But the message had changed, glowing with cold finality:
`[SYSTEM UPDATE: 100% COMPLETE]`
`[SYSTEM OFFLINE UNTIL CRIMSON MARK ACTIVATION]`
*Crimson Mark?* Before the question fully formed, new text flickered:
`[SHUTTING DOWN...]`
The rectangle dissolved like smoke, leaving a hollow silence in its wake. My only tether to understanding this world – gone.
I turned my head, frustration coiling in my gut. And froze.
A stranger stood sentinel by the crib.
Obsidian hair braided severely tight. Flint-sharp eyes scanning the room. Bulky chestplate etched with a stone golem sigil trimmed in moss-green. Calloused hands, scarred brow, stance like a rooted oak ready for combat. *Soldier.* Zion's instincts screamed. Dangerous.
"ELOWEN!" Her shout cracked like a whip. "The baby's awake!"
Footsteps rushed in. Elowen appeared, wiping flour-dusted hands on a sunflower-yellow apron, wooden spoon jutting from her pocket. She swept me up, honey-rosemary scent enveloping me. Moon-pale skin, gold-spun hair, tender smile. Yet when I tried to demand answers – *Who is she? Why is the system gone?* – only a choked gurgle escaped. *Trapped.* Seething in helpless flesh.
Elowen carried me to the kitchen. Sunlight revealed alien vegetables: bulbous violet tubers, feathered carrot-tops, oil-slick shimmering peppers. Her knife flashed, dicing them into jeweled pieces. Impossible world.
The back door banged open.
Cassian strode in, heaving a carcass onto the butcher's block. The creature defied reason: six stilt-legs, obsidian-branch antlers, stag-meets-nightmare body. "Thornstag," Cassian announced, sweat gleaming. Elowen pointed her knife. "The haunch, love. Stew meat."
"Aye, Captain." Cassian winked at me. His dagger slid through sinew with lethal grace. I watched, mesmerized, until he pried a walnut-sized crystal from its chest. It pulsed viridian light. Raw energy hummed – thick, primal – pulling at my core. I reached blindly, whining.
Cassian chuckled, rinsed the crystal, and pressed it into my palm. Liquid emerald power flooded my veins. I shook it; light swirled like captured stars. Elowen laughed behind me. Heat rushed my cheeks… then froze.
*Damp. Heavy. Cold.*
I'd soiled myself. Mortification burned. Zion Aris, who faced a dying star... reduced to this.
"Bath time!" Elowen announced, noticing instantly. Her gentle tone made it worse.
Scrubbed pink and re-swaddled, I stewed in my crib's humiliation. Cassian loomed over me, grinning. "Entertainment for His Grumpiness!" He launched into an off-key tavern song, jigging like a spooked chicken. I stared, stone-faced.
Undeterred, he pulled lamb's wool from his pocket. Raised his thumb.
*Fwoosh.*
Tiny flame ignited. My eyes snapped wide. *Magic.*
He touched fire to wool. Flame bloomed... then *shaped* itself. A finger-sized fire-man pirouetted on his palm. Cartwheeled. Bowed... then tripped into dying sparks.
A giggle burst out – sharp, surprised, utterly beyond control.
Cassian beamed. "Gotcha!"