The ladder down into Conduit Station 7 felt endless, each rung a descent further from the world he knew. The air grew thick and heavy, humming with a low, sub-audible frequency that vibrated in Kaelen's teeth. Below, a sickly green glow pulsed like a diseased heart.
He dropped the last few feet onto a grated catwalk, the impact jolting his still-sore ribs. He was in a colossal, cylindrical chamber. Below him, snaking along the floor, were the dead conduits—massive, insulated cables as wide as his torso, all converging on a central dais. There, a large, crystalline core sat dark and dormant, the source of the faint, pulsating light.
His father's journal felt like a live coal against his chest. Hold this journal against the central core.
But he wasn't alone.
Voices echoed, sharp and businesslike, cutting through the hum. Peering through the grating, Kaelen saw them. Three figures in rugged, non-uniform gear, their faces obscured by hoods and respirators. They weren't Aegis Corps. They moved with a predatory efficiency, setting up equipment near the base of the core.
"—final connection. The siphon is ready," one said, his voice muffled.
A siphon. Kaelen's blood ran cold. He'd heard whispers in the Warrens of black-market tech that could illegally drain raw Aether from decommissioned conduits. It was incredibly volatile, the kind of operation that could cause a feedback loop powerful enough to vaporize a city block. These weren't explorers; they were thieves, and they were playing with a force that could kill thousands.
He had to get out. He had to tell someone.
His boot scuffed against a loose bolt on the catwalk.
The sound was tiny, but in the dead silence of the chamber, it was a gunshot.
All three figures froze. Then, as one, their heads snapped up. Six eyes, gleaming in the gloom, locked onto him.
"Intruder," the leader snarled. "A little rat. Snuff him. Now."
Panic seized Kaelen. He turned and ran, scrambling back the way he came. He heard the heavy thud of boots landing on the catwalk behind him, far closer than they should be. One of them had a Kinetic trait, closing the distance in leaps.
A searing pain exploded in his back—not an impact, but a wave of pure, paralyzing energy. A Spark-Wright. He cried out, his muscles locking, and collapsed onto the cold grating, his body convulsing.
Rough hands rolled him over. The leader stood above him, pulling a vicious, curved knife from his belt. The blade glinted in the green light.
"Pesky fool, sticking your nose where they don't belong," the man growled, his voice devoid of emotion. "Nothing personal, kid. Just bad luck."
Terror, pure and absolute, swallowed Kaelen. This was it. He would die here, in the dark, for witnessing a crime no one would ever know about. His mother and Lira would never know what happened to him. The helplessness was a final, crushing weight.
"NO!" He screamed, not wanting to accept the end.
The denial was not a thought, but a fundamental command from the core of his being, a final, desperate scream against the dying of the light.
As the knife descended, Kaelen's hand, acting on a last, instinctual hope, clutched at the journal inside his jacket and slammed it against the grating, against the chamber itself, a final, pointless act of defiance.
The world did not slow down.
It shattered.
A soundless, concussive wave of pure, incandescent blue energy erupted from the journal. It didn't travel through the air; it simply was, filling the entire chamber in an instant. The green glow was utterly obliterated.
The lead thief was thrown backward as if hit by a freight train, his knife clattering away.
But for Kaelen, the world vanished. He was floating in a void of brilliant, shifting blue. Lines of stark, white text scrolled across his vision, faster than he could comprehend.
[...CONDITION ATTAINED...]
[...HOST BIOMETRICS CONFIRMED...]
[...LEGACY USER: ASH BURN- AUTHORIZATION TRANSFERRED...]
[...INITIATING PRIME CONNECTION TO THE CELESTIAL FOUNDRY...]
[...WELCOME, OPERATOR...]
The pain was unimaginable. It was not in his body, but in his mind, his soul. It felt like the universe was being poured into a thimble. He felt his own consciousness fraying at the edges, dissolving under the onslaught of raw, cosmic data.
[...WARNING: HOST NEUROLOGICAL INTEGRITY AT 12%...]
[...CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT...]
[...BOOTSTRAPPING EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS...]
The text flashed a violent, urgent red.
[...ACTIVATING STASIS PROTOCOL IN 10 SECONDS...]
[...DURATION: 72 HOURS...]
[...WARNING: REMAINING ENERGY AT 3%...]
[...SHUTTING ALL NON-ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS...]
[...WARNING: HOST VULNERABLE...]
[...INITIATING TELEPORTATION...]
[...TELEPORTING IN 5...]
[...TELEPORTING IN 4...]
[...TELEPORTING IN 3...]
[...TELEPORTING IN 2...]
[...TELEPORTING IN 1...]
The blue void collapsed. The last thing Kaelen saw before darkness swallowed him was the lead thief, stumbling to his feet, his face a mask of terror and furious greed, staring not at Kaelen, but at the journal that now glowed with a soft, steady, impossible light.
The final line of text burned itself into his dying mind.
[...STASIS ENGAGED. AWAITING OPERATOR RECOVERY...]