Celeste's POV
Silver starlight exploded from my hands.
It slammed into Cassius before I even realized I'd moved, pure instinct taking over. The blast should have disintegrated him like it did the Void Hunters.
Instead, he caught it.
Cassius held my starlight in his palm like it was a toy, dark energy swirling around the silver light, containing it. He smiled.
"Impressive. You're learning to control it faster than your mother did." He crushed the starlight, and it dissolved into sparks. "But you're forgetting something, little Starweaver. I've had twenty years to prepare for you. Every power you have, I've already planned for."
Orion struggled to his feet beside me, still weak from having the darkness ripped out. "Get away from her, Cassius."
"Or what? You'll fight me?" Cassius laughed. "You can barely stand, Commander. And she just absorbed three hundred years of corruption to save you. Tell me, Celeste—how does it feel? The darkness whispering in your mind, promising power, begging to be used?"
He was right. I could feel it—shadows coiling inside me like living things, hungry and eager. They wanted out. They wanted to destroy.
"I can control it," I said, but my voice shook.
"For now." Cassius moved closer, and the Celestial Knights in the amphitheater tried to stop him, but invisible barriers kept them frozen in place. Only Orion, the Moon Goddess, and I could move. "But corruption is patient. It will wait until you're angry, or scared, or desperate. And then it will consume you from the inside out."
"She's stronger than that," Orion said fiercely.
"Is she?" Cassius tilted his head. "Let's test that theory." He raised his hand, and suddenly the amphitheater filled with illusions—dozens of copies of Dorian, all laughing at me. Seraphina's voice echoed from everywhere: "You'll never be anything but trash."
Rage exploded inside me.
The darkness responded instantly, surging up like a tidal wave. I felt it reaching for the surface, wanting to tear apart these illusions, to make them hurt like they hurt me—
Orion's hand closed around mine.
"They're not real," he said quietly. Through the bond, I felt his steady presence, his calm anchoring me. "Don't let him manipulate you."
The darkness receded slightly. I forced myself to breathe, to focus on Orion's hand in mine instead of the fury burning through me.
The illusions vanished.
Cassius looked genuinely impressed. "Well done. The bond is stronger than I calculated." His expression turned calculating. "Which means I need to separate you. Break the bond, break your control, and then you'll be mine."
"You can't break a soul-bond," the Moon Goddess said, finally speaking. Her voice was cold. "It's impossible without killing them both."
"Nothing is impossible with the right tools." Cassius pulled something from his cloak—a dagger that looked like it was made from crystallized shadows. "This blade was forged from the same dark energy that killed the last Starweaver. Your mother, Celeste. It can cut through anything, even soul-bonds."
Horror washed over me. "You're lying."
"Am I?" He smiled. "There's one way to find out."
He moved so fast I didn't see it coming. The dagger slashed through the air, aimed directly at the golden thread connecting my chest to Orion's.
Orion threw himself in front of me, and the blade sank into his shoulder instead.
He screamed.
Through the bond, I felt his pain—not just physical, but something deeper. The dagger was cutting through the bond itself, severing the connection piece by piece.
"NO!" I grabbed the dagger and yanked it out, and the moment my skin touched it, silver and dark energy exploded outward in a massive wave.
The blast threw Cassius backward. It shattered his barriers, freeing the frozen celestials. And it filled the entire amphitheater with light so bright everyone had to shield their eyes.
When the light faded, I was still standing, holding the dagger. The blade was no longer pure darkness—silver starlight now ran through it like veins, transforming it into something new.
"Impossible," Cassius breathed. "You purified corrupted void metal. That's never been done. Ever."
I looked at the blade in my hand, then at Orion. The bond was damaged but not broken, holding on by a thread.
"Get out," I said to Cassius, my voice steady despite my pounding heart. "Get out now, or I'll use this blade on you."
For the first time, Cassius looked uncertain. "This changes nothing. You're still exactly what I need—light and darkness balanced in one body. The perfect weapon to tear down the barrier between realms."
"I'm not a weapon," I said. "I'm a person. And I choose what I become."
Cassius's expression hardened. "Then you choose wrong." He started to fade, shadows wrapping around him. "The next trial begins in six hours. If you survive it, we'll talk again. And next time, I won't be so gentle."
He vanished completely.
The moment he disappeared, the barriers holding everyone frozen dissolved. Celestial Knights rushed forward, surrounding us protectively.
And Nyx—the purple-haired warrior I'd seen fighting earlier—pushed through the crowd and dropped to one knee beside Orion.
"Commander, you're injured—"
"I'm fine," Orion said through gritted teeth, but blood was pouring from his shoulder. "Protect Celeste. That's an order."
Nyx's amethyst eyes fixed on me, sharp and assessing. "So YOU'RE the mortal who did the impossible." She stood and walked around me slowly, like I was a puzzle she was trying to solve. "Made the Frozen Commander FEEL something. Made him defy the Celestial Court. Made him bleed for you." She stopped in front of me. "Those marks on your skin, the power you just displayed—you're not just a Constellation Heir. You're something entirely new."
Orion shot her a warning glare. "Nyx—"
"What? I'm supposed to pretend this isn't the most interesting thing to happen in three hundred years?" She ignored him and focused on me. "The Court is going to want you dead more than ever now. You purified void metal. That means you can undo Cassius's corruption, which makes you the biggest threat he's ever faced."
"Then we train her," Orion said, struggling to stand. "Make her ready for whatever comes next."
"With what time?" Nyx gestured at the shattered trial platform. "The next trial starts in six hours. She barely survived the first one, and that was supposed to be the easiest."
"What's the second trial?" I asked.
Nyx and Orion exchanged glances.
"The Trial of Pain," Nyx said quietly. "It forces you to experience every moment of suffering from your entire life, all at once. Most candidates go insane before it's over."
My stomach dropped. Every moment of suffering? Twenty-one years of being invisible, used, betrayed—all of it hitting me simultaneously?
"I can't," I whispered. "I barely survived living through it once. I can't do it again."
"Then you die," High Justicar Lyra said, approaching from the crowd. Her burning eyes were cold. "The trials cannot be stopped once begun. You face them, or you're executed for forfeit."
"There has to be another way," Orion argued.
"There isn't." Lyra looked at me with something that might have been pity. "The only mercy I can offer is this: because of the soul-bond, Commander Orion will experience your pain with you. You won't face it alone."
Through the bond, I felt Orion's determination. He would endure every moment of my suffering alongside me, without hesitation.
"Six hours," Nyx said. "That's what we have to prepare. Come on, both of you. We need to get that shoulder healed and figure out a strategy."
She led us out of the amphitheater, other celestials parting to let us through. Their whispers followed us again, but different now—not just curious or disgusted, but afraid.
I'd become something that scared even the celestials.
Nyx brought us to a smaller chamber with healing pools that glowed with soft blue light. While Orion sank into one to heal his wound, Nyx sat beside me.
"You're wondering why I'm helping," she said.
"A little," I admitted.
"Because Orion is the closest thing I have to family. Three hundred years ago, when he made that pact and became the Frozen Commander, everyone else backed away. He was too cold, too perfect, too dangerous to be close to." She smiled sadly. "But I stayed. I watched him turn into a weapon, watched him bury everything human about himself. And I watched him slowly die inside."
She looked at Orion healing in the pool.
"Then you came along," she continued. "And for the first time in three centuries, I saw him feel something. Fight for something that wasn't duty. Choose someone over his precious control." She met my eyes. "So yeah, I'm helping. Because whatever you are, whatever you've become—you made him start living again."
"What if the darkness corrupts me?" I asked quietly. "What if I become the monster everyone's afraid of?"
"Then Orion will stop you," Nyx said simply. "And if he can't, I will. But I don't think it'll come to that." She tapped my chest where the bond connected to Orion. "You absorbed his darkness to save him, knowing it could destroy you. That's not what monsters do."
I wanted to believe her.
Orion emerged from the healing pool, his shoulder completely healed. "Nyx, status report. How many knights can we trust?"
"Twelve are absolutely loyal to you. Another twenty might side with us if things go bad. The rest will follow the Court's orders." She frowned. "Why? You planning a mutiny?"
"I'm planning to survive," Orion said. "Cassius isn't going to wait for us to complete all seven trials. He'll attack during one of them, when we're most vulnerable."
"Then we set a trap," I said, an idea forming. "Let him attack. And when he does, we're ready."
Both of them looked at me in surprise.
"You want to bait Cassius Void?" Nyx asked. "That's either brilliant or suicidal."
"Probably both," I admitted. "But he said I'm exactly what he needs—light and darkness in one body. Which means he has to keep me alive long enough to use me. We can exploit that."
Orion studied me. "What are you thinking?"
"The Trial of Pain makes me relive my worst memories, right? What if we use that? What if we make Cassius think the trial is breaking me, making me vulnerable to his corruption?" I looked between them. "He'll try to influence me during the trial. And when he does, we trap him."
Nyx whistled low. "Using yourself as bait. That's insane."
"Do you have a better plan?"
She grinned. "I like you, little mortal. You're crazy, but I like you."
The Moon Goddess appeared in the doorway, her expression grave. "The second trial will begin in five minutes. All participants must report to the arena immediately."
Five minutes? But Nyx said six hours!
"Time moves strangely during trials," the Goddess explained, reading my confusion. "What feels like hours of preparation may only be moments in trial time." She looked at me with an expression I couldn't read. "Celeste Ashford, what you did in the first trial—purifying void metal—has shifted the balance of power. Forces are moving that even I cannot control now."
"What forces?" Orion demanded.
"The barrier between realms is weakening. Cassius's plan is accelerating. And something ancient has awakened—something that hasn't stirred in a thousand years." The Goddess's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "The Void itself is watching you now, child. And it's hungry."
The lights in the chamber flickered.
And through the walls, we heard something that made everyone freeze.
Scratching.
Thousands of claws scratching against the outside of the Celestial Sanctum, trying to get in.
Nyx ran to the window and went pale. "Commander, you need to see this."
We crowded around the window and looked out.
The sky was dark—not the normal darkness of night, but absolute black. And in that darkness, millions of red eyes stared back at us.
Void Hunters. An army of them, surrounding the entire Sanctum.
"Cassius isn't waiting for the trials to end," Orion said grimly. "He's laying siege to the Celestial Sanctum itself."
The Moon Goddess's voice was heavy with sorrow. "The second trial must still be completed. But now you face two battles simultaneously—the trial within, and the war outside." She looked at me. "I'm sorry, child. But this is the burden of being a Starweaver. The fate of both realms rests on your shoulders."
The scratching grew louder.
And somewhere in the distance, Cassius's voice echoed like thunder:
"GIVE ME THE GIRL, AND I'LL SPARE YOUR REALM. REFUSE, AND I'LL TEAR DOWN THESE WALLS AND TAKE HER MYSELF."
The entire Sanctum shook as his army began their assault.
The second trial was about to begin.
And outside, the gates were already breaking.