The dawn did not break. It arrived slow, deliberate, like a monarch stepping into his own hall.
Andy stood at the river's edge, wings folded close, ember-light pulsing faint beneath feathers and scales. Nia and Aurelia slept nearby, their auras faintly visible: glyphs humming steady around Nia's wrist, silver echoes shimmering at Aurelia's lips when she dreamed.
The system stirred.
[System Log — Orion Constellation]
Stage: COMPLETE
Status: Retired
Anchor: Stabilized
Final Rewards Granted:
— Celestial Dragon-Phoenix Nova (Unlocked)
Type: Ultimate Skill
Function: All-element convergence strike.
Output: Limitless.
Restriction: User's will defines horizon.
— Passive: Constellation Triad Field (Permanent)
Range: 500m
Effect: Amplified synergy, aura contamination nullified, fear resistance absolute.
— Shared Inventory: Infinite expansion (soul-linked).
— Nia Everhart: Glyph Ascendant EX — sustained, no staff anchor required.
— Aurelia Moonveil: Moonveil Huntress EX — sustained, echoes permanent.
— Title Granted: Bearers of the Twin Flame
The Oathblade pulsed once, warm, then vanished back into the Shared Inventory. Andy let the glow pass through him without change. His breath remained calm. The sky above, no longer Orion's, burned with Andraste's twin arcs crowned in three bright points.
---
Far beyond the valley, the world noticed.
Shepherds on lonely hills dropped their crooks, eyes fixed on the sky. Sailors on black seas cursed and wept as their star-maps turned false in a single night. In noble halls, scrolls and compasses fell from hands, ink bleeding across parchment as scholars realized their charts had been rewritten.
And in the capital, priests of the Silverlight bent their knees. Some prayed. Some wept. None could deny the truth: Orion had ended. A crown had risen.
The world's map was no longer the same.
---
At the camp, Nia stirred awake, the dawn gilding her hair. She sat up, eyes red from restless sleep. Aurelia yawned and stretched like a cat, smirk curving even in exhaustion.
Then hooves thundered.
A rider stumbled into their clearing, horse froth-streaked, his eyes wide. He dismounted clumsily, thrusting a sealed scroll into Nia's hands. His lips trembled with thirst, but he managed one sentence:
"From Everhart… for the Lady."
Nia broke the wax. Her eyes moved once across the lines, and the blood drained from her face.
Aurelia leaned forward, grin fading. "What is it, princess?"
Nia's voice cracked though she tried to steady it. "My father—Lord Everhart—he is dying."
Andy's jaw set, but he remained silent.
Nia's hands shook as she read further. Then her voice broke fully. "And… he writes—he asks—"
She swallowed, tears burning. "He asks me to bring home… my twin."
The words hit like a dropped blade.
Andy frowned. Aurelia blinked, momentarily speechless.
Nia shook her head violently, hair whipping her cheeks. "I don't have a twin. I've never—my whole life—"
Her eyes scanned the letter again, desperate. "But it's here. In his own hand. A sister—kept hidden in a church, in a border-town we may pass on the road. He says… she must be brought home before he dies."
The parchment trembled in her grip. The final line burned beneath her eyes:
"She is yours, as much as blood and bond. Bring her back, or the House Everhart will fall with me."
The system whispered in Andy's vision, private, chilling:
[Constellation Path — Andraste, The Twin Flame]
Secondary Condition: Hidden Lineage
Target: ??? (Everhart Twin)
Note: Potential Bond Catalyst — Future Constellation Access
Andy closed his eyes briefly. The chain had shifted again. The road home was no longer straight—it now bent toward a church holding secrets even Nia did not know she carried.
Aurelia broke the silence first, her grin returning, sharper than ever. "A secret sister? Now this will be interesting."
Nia's knuckles whitened around the scroll. Her voice, low and furious, shook. "He hid her from me. My own father. And now, when it's too late, he calls her back…"
Andy's hand touched her shoulder, steady, grounding. His voice was calm, even as the dawn flared brighter behind him. "We'll find her."
Above them, Andraste blazed, its twin arcs burning like crossed blades, its crown of three stars pulsing as if in answer.
And in the silence between breaths, the Creator's words from Andy's dream pressed heavy again:
"Be strong. There is another above me."