Page 129 of Stars in Nova

The corridors twisted and turned, their identical design disorienting.

Cold air bit at her skin as she raced past decayed, lifeless chambers filled with half-finished cyborg constructs.

She burst into a garden, or what was left of it.

What had once been lush and vibrant was now a dead-end expanse of withered trees and cracked stone.

The atmosphere was redolent with the scent of decay, and the gurgle of a dying fountain’s plumbing was the only sound echoing in the space.

Eyes darting, she searched for a way out. Her heart fell as she realized the walls surrounding the space were too high to scale.

She caught her breath as heavy footsteps clattered after her.

The Corilian sentinels closed in, their weapons trained on her.

She raised her hands in surrender and dropped to one knee with nowhere to go.

Samira was dragged back to the throne room, her limbs ponderous with the terror of surrender, slowed by exhaustion.

Marius awaited her, his glitching subdued, his mechanical gaze filled with cold rage.

‘If we can’t flee, neither can you,’ he hissed, his clawed hand raising as if to strike.

She flinched away from his feinted blow. ‘Escape what?’

He grinned, a maniacal scar appearing across his mangled face, and his eyes darkened in entirety.

Kaelith’s words flashed in her mind.

‘Here be dragons,’ Samira muttered, sensing an otherworldly, roiling malevolence surging in Marius’ glower.

‘Take her,’ the emperor whispered, ‘break her, turn her into one of us.’

Samira’s entire body froze, her heart rate beating wild as she braced herself.

She raised her chin, her defiance unbroken even as the shadows of her captors loomed over her.

They bent over her, and arms reached out.

A thunderous explosion shattered the silence without warning, the ground trembling beneath their feet.

Dust and debris filled the air as the stronghold’s walls shook with violent shudders.

Marius staggered, his voice garbled with static.

The guards around her faltered, their movements erratic.

Samira’s spirit soared, hope flaring like a spark in the darkness. The fight wasn’t over. Not yet.

A Shadowed Face

The Cygnus Stronghold loomed like a festering wound on the planet’s surface.

Jagged towers of obsidian steel jutted skyward, their tips crackling with energy pulses.

The entire structure pulsed with an eerie glow that distorted shadows across the scorched ground.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, a rumbling roar that mingled with the ever-present drone of machinery.

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