Chapter 9: The Cost of Curiosity
The order was simple: control the source of the power. Study it. Harness it. Take what can be taken. That’s how the Ferox had built empires—through force and fire. But this world resisted more quietly.
The order was simple: control the source of the power. Study it. Harness it. Take what can be taken. That’s how the Ferox had built empires—through force and fire. But this world resisted more quietly.
They landed like they always did—tactically, systematically, prepared for resistance. But there were no hostile natives, no planetary defenses. Just wind that moaned like it carried names and trees that bent when no breeze passed.
The signal came in pulses—too clean for background radiation, too structured for natural interference. The Ferox Dominion’s deep-space array had long since stopped expecting miracles, but this wasn’t a miracle.
Devotion became decay. Priests who once healed the land now carved runes into their skin, drinking sap infused with Void fragments.