[Author’s Note: Here we jump ahead a bit to show what the actual space traveling might include]

It was the first time I’d seen stars. All we got on Palunos were the atmosphere-masked suns, but here the contrast was incredible. The map projection showed a yellow fog all around our home system, but nothing here. We were approaching a system called Daeru. For a system it didn’t look like there was much in it. Just wide open space for the next few weeks.

“Any of you want to do that thing with your voices?” I muttered, my eyes drawn back to the stars. I tried to see the shapes that the elders had talked about, but they were all just specks of light to me. As enthralled as I was at the moment, even stars were going to get old soon.

“You mean sing?”

Startled, I dropped the projection surface. It rattled on the synthese floor, causing the floor to faintly glow with the contact of each corner, before landing safely. My eyes darted around in search of the speaker, but the observation chamber was still just a room full of Grey.

“Who said that?” Had someone back home turned on the communicator again? There was no indication light coming from the console.

“You expect so little of us, don’t you?”

Then my gaze caught hers for the first time since we locked eyes on the chariots. I forgot the stars and the time and the distance, and even the words she’d said, and found myself staring into those deep, black pools again. “You…?”

She stood in place. Still hunched over, still looking ragged and colorless, her expression was what threw me. It was calm, as Grey were always calm, but her lip curled upward and her brow lowered. The others raised their heads and looked up to her too. I suddenly found it difficult to move.

Then, before I could come up with something to say or do, everything around me was bright, blue, and glowing. There was a high-pitched ringing that seemed to continually bounce in and out of my curled ears. I grabbed my head, which was searing with pain. What kind of sorcery was this? Had the Grey been a cult of mages all along, waiting for a chance to lure one of us out and kill us? Maybe they made sure my name was in that Cup. Was this what death felt like?

And then the light faded and the ringing remained only in my ears. Each time I blinked I saw nothing but white and blue splotches of light over my field of vision. The room around me was darker than I remembered. “What did you do to me?” I muttered.

They were quiet, and I couldn’t make out their faces. Not that I’d be able to tell them apart.

“Was that your sorry attempt to blind me?” I tried to let out a laugh. “You plan to take me hostage out here? Because the joke’s on you.” I stumbled over to my locking seat, too shaky and disoriented to strap myself in. “They sent me expecting me to die with the rest of you. How great is that? I’d ask you to make us a celebration cocktail, but all we get is stale water here.”

I leaned back, searching for a position I could rest my head in where it would stop throbbing, not daring to open my eyes again. At least this was a hell of a lot more interesting than wandering an empty galaxy.

As the pain and pressure decreased, I started to think clearly again. When we’d come on board—that room below—there was an armory on this thing. If I could figure out an excuse to head down there for awhile, I could protect myself from them. Hell, when had a Lumen ever needed an excuse for the things he did? Launching us into space didn’t change the pecking order. If they were using sorcery though...conventional weapons may not work.

I got up too quickly. The room seemed to spin around me, forcing me to grab the wall near the window for balance. I hobbled toward the back of the ship, toward the sliding pole and ladder, when one of the Grey fools actually stepped in front of me. “What is that?”

“You’re going to have to learn a few more words if you want to communicate effectively,” I snapped. “Now, if you’ll let me by—”

“Pulse dragon,” came a voice behind me. I turned to see the Greys piling themselves at the window.

“Of course,” the one who’d blocked my path said, rushing to join the others.

“Pulse dragon?” I shouted at them. “How do you even know what that is?" They ignored me. "They’re a relic of ancient history, passed down in children’s stories. You can’t actually think—”

Then the blue glow returned. If the Grey were setting it off, it must have been with their minds, because they were all practically pressing themselves to that window. What was more, it seemed the light was coming from outside. Blocked for the most part by the rest of the crew, it hardly fazed me this time. Then the Grey at the front fell backward into the arms of their friends, knocking most of them to the floor.

I couldn’t help smirking, glad I wasn’t the only one affected by the light, when my eyes were drawn back to the stars. I could see a shape now. But it was moving. It was coming toward us.

Gaping, I took a few cautious steps back toward the clear, synthese pane myself and looked. “By the ancient wizards, that’s a pulse dragon.”

Its body was made of bone. Historians recorded that the flesh of a pulse dragon burned up as it left the mountains and fiery atmosphere of Draconia. They turned from red-fleshed volcanic lizards to oversized skeletal beasts. Most died on their ascent, but the few who made it were said to be immortal. The creature had large, gaping holes where it should have had eyes, and its mouth was nothing more than intertwined teeth, nearly as sharp and long as its ribs. The ribs themselves bent inward, and at the center of the hollow beast was a glowing blue orb. It danced around, reminding me of the colored spheres that lit the sky fire at the Planetary Palace. Extending from this fearsome creature’s body were wings of bone, three times its size in each direction, and a long, spike-covered tale.

Its mouth sprung open and the orb inside began to vibrate, increasing in size, spilling light between its thick, curved ribs. It was staring right at us.

Next Chapter: The Box