They returned to the surface not in triumph—but in quiet.
The sky above them no longer bled. The Hollow Star was gone… for now. But Orin could feel its absence like a pressure behind his ribs, as if the world was holding its breath and waiting for something to collapse.
The Skybrand—the circle of four radiant stars across his chest—no longer burned. It hummed, a low, constant vibration, like distant thunder rolling across time.
Kaelen spoke first.
"We bought time."
Orin nodded. "But we didn't win."
They set up camp near the Ridge of Unborn Storms, where winds rolled over blackened hills and the bones of forgotten titans jutted from the earth like monuments. The land here was still scarred from the last Skyfall.
Mira stared into the fire. "What now?"
Orin didn't answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, it was like reciting from something older than memory.
> "When the four anchors are bound, the Hollow Star recoils… but it also remembers.
It learns.
It adapts.
And then it returns—stronger.
Unless we do something different."
Kaelen looked at him warily. "You mean breaking the cycle."
"I mean going where none of the Skyborn ever dared," Orin said. "Into the Hollow itself."
Silence.
Mira glanced up sharply. "You're talking about entering the Star?"
Orin met her gaze. "I saw it, when I touched the Heart. There's a center. A mind. Something behind the hunger."
Kaelen frowned. "You want to reason with it?"
"I want to understand it. Maybe… it wasn't always what it is now."
Mira stood, pacing. "This is insane. You just finished binding the last anchor. The world is barely breathing again, and now you want to tear into the thing that nearly ended it?"
"No," Orin said. "I want to end the threat for good."
Kaelen's voice was soft. "Then we'll need more than anchors. We'll need a path."
Orin looked up.
Past the clouds. Past the stars.
"Then we find the Starforge."