Page 8 of New World

Ash eyed the cake. “So, uh… we can have more than one piece, right?”

Josh chuckled. “That’s up to the birthday girl.”

Mei gave them all a slow, assessing look. Then she picked up a knife, cut the barest sliver, and handed it to Sergi with a cheeky grin, laughing at his disgruntled expression before she added more.

“I knew you loved me,” he said with a pleased expression at the chunk of cake now on his plate.

She snorted out a rare, inelegant laugh and shook her head. “Don’t get too comfortable, Lazaroff. There will be payback. I promise. There will be some serious payback.”

His laughter was warm, real. “I’d expect nothing less, pandochka.”

Mei breathed out as a rare emotion threatened to choke her, and glanced at the others. Their faces were filled with laughter and light. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel alone.

It truly is a happy birthday, mama.

1

Jeslean, Neri – Legion Headquarters

* * *

The capital city of Jeslean stretched beneath Andri, its skyline a labyrinth of towering spires and sweeping bridges that gleamed under the planet’s pale sun. From the highest floor of the Legion Headquarters, Andri Andronikos observed his empire through the massive transparisteel windows of his office. The city pulsed with controlled order—precisely as he had designed it.

His control of the star systems was almost absolute. Only the Knights of the Gallant Order and a few council members continued to defy him, and there were only a handful of them left. Andri and his brother had made sure of that.

He turned and walked over to his desk. His office was an extension of that control. A vast chamber brightly lit by crimson recessed lights in the walls, the black marble floors polished to a mirror sheen. The furniture was sparse—elegant but severe. A single desk carved from obsidian, its surface immaculate. A long, vertical holoscreen flickered beside the desk, casting shifting shadows across the walls. Every detail of the room was calculated, measured, perfect—a stark contrast to the turmoil churning beneath the surface of his mind.

Andri sat down, motionless, fingers steepled beneath his chin as he listened to the voice on the transmission. The captain of the Varrien, one of his most efficient warships, reported from the debris field they had discovered.

“We picked up an anomaly, Director Andronikos. It was brief, a fraction of a second, but the disturbance in subspace was significant. We couldn’t pinpoint an exact location before it disappeared.”

Andri’s jaw tensed. Another anomaly. Another disruption without explanation. This was the third such report in the past cycle.

“We have begun recovery operations,” the captain continued, his voice tinged with something unspoken—unease. “The wreckage is… unusual. The material composition doesn’t match any known ship in our records. And there’s more, sir—our instruments detected five unique energy signatures moving in different directions before they vanished. We lost track of them almost immediately.”

Five.

Andri’s eyes flicked to the other report that lay before him. The one he had received just hours earlier. His stomach twisted with a cold weight of certainty as he exhaled slowly.

“Retrieve everything. I want every fragment analyzed at the Jeslean laboratories. Nothing is to be left behind.” His voice remained smooth, clipped, but his fingers tightened over the edge of his desk. “And Captain?—”

“Sir?”

“If any trace of those five energy signatures reappear anywhere in the system, I want to know immediately.”

“Understood, Director Andronikos. We’ll update you the moment we have further information.”

The transmission ended, the holoscreen flickering back to idle status. Silence draped over the room like a suffocating shroud.

Andri inhaled deeply, the sound loud in the quiet space. His fingers traced the edges of the report before him—the one from his historian, detailing what remained of the Gallant Order.

For two decades, Andri and his brother had hunted them, eliminating them one by one. He had thought they were finished. The Gallant was a relic of a bygone era, shattered and scattered, their so-called warriors little more than dying embers of a forgotten fire.

But the fire was returning.

His eyes dropped to the faded parchment nestled among the official reports. A copy of an ancient prophecy, a fragment of text that had always haunted him. He had dismissed it as a myth for years. A precautionary tale woven by fools who refused to let go of the past.

But now…

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