The grand hall of the Celestial Bastion shimmered with fractured light, its vaulted ceilings alive with constellations trapped in crystal. Stars plucked from dying skies cast jagged shadows over the gathering, their light refracted through goblets of liquid void and platters of crystallized entropy. Tatsu stood at the edge of the crowd, his mask, a relic of tarnished star-metal digging into his temples. Nyxis' voice slithered through his mind, restless.
"They reek of fear. Let me taste it."
"No," Tatsu muttered, adjusting the dagger at his hip. Renzo had warned him: "The Gathering is a dance. Step wrong, and the Seven will cut your strings."
Renzo materialized beside him, maskless and grinning. "You look like a starved Husk Knight. Relax. The Icebloods won't gut you until after the speeches."
"Comforting," Tatsu said dryly.
A gong shuddered through the hall. The crowd stilled as the Seven Anchors descended from the vaulted ceiling, suspended on threads of frozen light. The First Anchor led, his hollow eyes scanning the room from behind a helm of black ice. When he spoke, his voice was a winter wind.
"The Eclipse begins. Let the bonds be honored."
General Zee found him first.
She wore a mask of glacial silver, her scar, a lightning bolt of frostbite curving from lip to ear. Tatsu recognized it: his mother's commander, a ghost from the Splinter Wars.
"Sovereign Tatsu," she said, raising a goblet of wine that hissed with trapped stardust. "To your ascension. May Nyxis' hunger spare you."
The crowd nearby quieted, eyes flickering behind masks.
Tatsu's relic-scarred hand tightened. "You're supposed to be dead."
"And you're supposed to kneel to the Cabal." She removed her mask, revealing eyes like shattered glass. "Yet here we are."
Nyxis stirred. "Kill her. Let me feast on her frozen heart."
Tatsu forced his voice steady. "What do you want?"
"An alliance. The Icebloods offer relics, soldiers, sanctuary." She leaned closer, her breath frosting the air. "The Seven will discard you. The Bastion consumes what it cannot control."
Renzo slid between them, a stolen wineglass in hand. "He's spoken for, Zee. Ghostwalkers don't share toys."
Her laugh cracked like ice. "Ghostwalkers don't survive the night."
Later, in a corridor lined with mirrors that wept starlight, the Third Anchor intercepted Tatsu. Her chainwhip relic coiled around her throat like a serpent.
"Zee's lies are venom," she said, her voice colder than the void. "The Icebloods want Solfractum, not you. And the Seven… they want you broken."
Tatsu stared at his reflection, distorted, violet scars pulsing. "Why warn me?"
"Because Nyxis is a storm. Storms unmake fragile things." She stepped closer, her mask reflecting his fractured gaze. "The First Anchor sees you as a threat. Prove him right, and you die. Prove him wrong, and you die slower."
The Eclipse reached its zenith. The Seven Anchors convened at the hall's heart, their relics humming in dissonant harmony. The First Anchor raised a chalice of void-dark wine.
"To the Gathering. May it forge bonds stronger than entropy."
As the crowd drank, heat seared Tatsu's chest.
Kio's pendant cradled beneath his robes and glowed white, Cracks spiderwebbed across its stardust gem, her voice spilling out, soft and sorrowful.
"Tatsu… the throne's heart is a lock. I am the key. Forgive me."
The gem shattered.
Shards of light sliced his palm, dissolving into smoke. Nyxis roared, its rage detonating through Tatsu's veins.
"NO!"
Power erupted.
Violet entropy tendrils lashed from Tatsu's scars, shredding his mask. The air warped, chandeliers exploding into supernova fragments. Students stumbled back, tripping over robes and wine. A Dawnbreaker's goblet crystallized mid-sip, freezing her scream.
Renzo grabbed his arm. "Tatsu, stop!"
But the storm raged.
Tatsu's vision blurred. Nyxis' laughter merged with his pulse, deafening. The hall's starstone pillars cracked, their hum rising to a scream. The Seven Anchors stood motionless, their relics flaring the First Anchor's helm glowing like a dying sun.
General Zee's voice cut through the chaos. "Contain him!"
Husk Knights surged forward, blades raised.
Tatsu turned.
His eyes, now voids edged with starlight locked onto theirs.
"Burn."
Nyxis' tendrils ignited. The Knights' armor melted, their flesh crumbling to ash. The crowd scattered, masks torn away in panic.
Renzo tackled Tatsu, pinning him to the floor. "Snap out of it! You're playing right into their hands!"
The pendant's remnants glowed faintly in Tatsu's palm. Kio's voice echoed one last time, fading:
"Goodbye."