The Hollow Crag was no place for the living. Kaelis Veyne crouched behind a jagged spire of blackened stone, her breath shallow as the wind howled through the ruins. The air tasted of ash and something sharper—something alive, like the pulse of a dying star. Above, the sky churned, a bruise of purple and gray where the Voidveil's mists coiled, hungry for the crumbling realm. Kaelis tightened her grip on her scavenged dagger, its blade chipped but sharp enough to gut a man. Or a monster. She wasn't picky.
At nineteen, Kaelis had learned to survive where others faltered. The Hollow Crag, a shattered remnant of the once-glorious Shattered Realms, was her hunting ground. She scavenged relics—bits of crystal, rusted trinkets, anything the traders in the lower realms would barter for a scrap of bread. But today, something had called her deeper into the ruins than she'd ever dared. A hum, low and resonant, like a voice trapped in her bones. It wasn't hunger driving her now. It was need.
Her boots crunched on ash as she crept toward the source: a collapsed temple half-swallowed by the earth. Its spires, etched with fading glyphs, leaned like broken fingers pointing to the sky. The hum grew louder, thrumming in her chest. Kaelis glanced back at the mist-choked horizon. The Voidveil was closer today, its tendrils licking the edges of the Crag. She'd seen what it did to those who lingered too long—hollowed eyes, skin cracked like parched earth, voices whispering of a god that wasn't there. She wasn't fool enough to stay past dusk.
But the hum. It promised something. Freedom, maybe. A way to find her sister, Taryn, stolen by raiders three years ago. Kaelis pushed the thought down, her jaw tightening. No time for ghosts. She slipped through a gap in the temple's wall, her wiry frame barely disturbing the dust. Inside, the air was thick, charged, like the moment before a storm. A faint glow pulsed from the center of the chamber, where a cracked altar stood. On it, cradled in a nest of shattered stone, was a shard of crystal no bigger than her fist. It shimmered, not with light but with something deeper—a flicker of stars trapped in its facets.
Kaelis froze. A star-shard. She'd heard the tales—fragments of the Star Crown, the relic that once bound the Shattered Realms. The nobles of Astralhold hoarded them, using their power to weave magic that bent light, summoned beasts, or twisted time. But here, unguarded? It was a trap or a miracle. Either way, it was hers.
She reached for it, her fingers trembling. The moment her skin brushed the shard, pain seared through her hand, sharp as a blade. She gasped, yanking back, but the shard pulsed, and her vision fractured. Images flooded her mind: a crown of blinding light, floating realms tethered by glowing vines, a figure cloaked in storms wielding a scepter of fire. And then, her sister—Taryn, chained in a gilded cage, her eyes glowing with the same starlight as the shard. Kaelis's knees buckled, her heart pounding. "Taryn," she whispered, the name a wound.
The shard's glow flared, and the air around her shimmered. A shape coalesced—a wolf, its form woven from light and shadow, its eyes twin stars. It bared its teeth, not at her but at the darkness beyond the temple. A low growl echoed, and Kaelis's skin prickled. Something was coming. She snatched the shard, ignoring the burn, and stuffed it into her satchel. The wolf lunged past her, toward the temple's entrance, where the shadows writhed.
A creature emerged from the mist—a Voidspawn, its body a tangle of claws and teeth, its eyes voids that drank the light. Kaelis had seen them before, but never this close. It screeched, a sound that clawed at her mind, and charged. The spectral wolf met it, light and shadow clashing in a burst of sparks. Kaelis didn't wait to see who won. She bolted, scrambling through the ruins, the shard's hum now a scream in her head.
She didn't stop until the temple was a speck behind her, the Crag's edge looming where the realm dropped into the Voidveil. Her chest heaved, her hand throbbing where the shard had touched her. She pulled it from her satchel, its glow dimmer now but no less alive. The visions lingered—Taryn, the crown, a world on the brink. Kaelis's life had been survival, scavenging to eat, hiding from raiders and nobles alike. But this? This was bigger. Dangerous. If the shard was real, every Starweaver in the realms would hunt her. The Astral Court would kill for it. And Taryn… was she truly alive?
Footsteps crunched behind her. Kaelis spun, dagger raised, to find a figure in a tattered cloak, their face hidden by a hood. "You shouldn't have touched it," the figure said, voice rough as gravel. "The Star Crown's shards choose their bearers. And they don't let go."
Kaelis tightened her grip on the dagger, her pulse racing. "Who are you? What do you know about this?" she demanded.
The figure stepped closer, and the shard in her satchel pulsed again. "I know you're Starborn," they said. "And I know the Voidveil's coming for you now."