Darkness had no form.
It was silence made solid, pressing against Aster's lungs until even breathing felt like a sin.
He could not move. The world was nothing but shadow and whispers. The sigil that once burned on his hand had gone cold, sealed by golden light that pulsed like a heartbeat not his own.
He remembered the last thing he saw before everything faded.
Erian's face, pale and desperate, reaching toward him as the seal closed.
Now, he floated in a void of memory. Fragments of stars flickered above him, faint and dying. He tried to grasp them, but each time his fingers passed through light, a voice echoed in the dark.
"You are not the heir of the stars, Aster Caelum. You were born of the sun."
Pain lanced through his chest. He fell to his knees, clutching the mark on his heart. Golden chains coiled from the air, binding him. Each one shimmered with divine fire.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
The answer came not as a voice, but a presence.
A figure stepped from the dark, cloaked in radiance so bright it hurt to look at. Its face was hidden behind a mask shaped like the sun.
"The Order of Solarius thanks you, Your Highness," the figure said calmly. "You will sleep until the Starlight Heir is captured. The empire needs only one celestial source, and it will not be him."
Aster's heart thundered in defiance. "Erian has nothing to do with this."
"You think the stars are merciful?" the masked figure said, almost laughing. "He carries the same mark that doomed your bloodline. You are both bound, and that is your curse."
The chains tightened. Aster's magic flared, silver light bursting from his core, clashing against the golden seal. For a moment, the darkness cracked open and through it, he saw something.
Erian, standing alone in the observatory, his hands bleeding, eyes glowing with tears and determination.
Aster reached out instinctively, his lips parting.
"Erian…"
The light shattered. The chains struck again, forcing him to the ground.
His body trembled, but his will did not break.
If the world thought it could keep him away from Erian, then the world would burn before he yielded.
Far away, in the same moment, Erian gasped and clutched his chest. The mark of starlight pulsed once more, faint but alive.
Somewhere between them, the chains began to crack.