The vast cityscape of Caelaran Prime glimmered beneath an artificial aurora, streams of charged particles manipulated by orbital satellites to display dazzling colors in the skies. It was a celebration of the new trade accord between the Merchant Sovereign, Leon Drake, and the Council of Nine Systems. But deep in the bowels of the capital, where neon lights gave way to steel and shadow, a different kind of negotiation was unfolding—one not of contracts, but of blood and betrayal.
Leon sat in his private chamber aboard the Celestial Haven, no longer just a merchant vessel but a mobile sovereign citadel. It hovered above Caelaran Prime like a silent predator, cloaked by energy fields and watched closely by every power in the system. His fingers ran over the latest market reports, but his mind was elsewhere.
The dream had returned—vivid, prophetic, and disturbing.
