The holographic image of the four-armed Nexus official faded, leaving the main room of their apartment quiet once more. The city-wide announcement about the Centennial Galactic Tournament still seemed to echo in the air.
Sera looked up from the complex, three-dimensional game board, her eyes shining with excitement. "A tournament, Papa? A big fight? Are you going to enter?"
Rhys looked out the crystalline window at the impossibly tall spires of the Nexus city. He had come here seeking knowledge, a place to understand the new, unsealed universe. He had planned to observe, to learn from the shadows. But the announcement had presented a different, more direct path. An audience with the Architect, the mysterious ruler of this galactic crossroads. That was an opportunity too valuable to ignore. And besides… a small, almost forgotten part of him, the part that had been forged in the brutal trials of the Labyrinth, felt a flicker of interest. A challenge.
