Hollow Peak, Frozen Wastes
Frostholme (Winter Continent)
Terra, Tellus solar system,
Luminary star system
Milky Way Galaxy
22nd Vetraeus cycle, 50 New Solaris Prime
June lay on the bed in the quiet, crystalline chamber she had been assigned, the soft chill of the sheets pressing against her skin like a reminder that nothing was familiar anymore. Her thoughts spiraled in a chaotic storm, weighed down by everything she had learned since her abduction.
She had been kidnapped. And not by strangers, but by people with a purpose. With ideology. With faces she knew. One face in particular haunted her more than the rest.
Leto Thalorin.
The noble girl from the Academy. The golden one—flawless, admired, seemingly untouchable. She had been perfect at everything—graceful, brilliant, poised like royalty. June had watched her from a distance with a quiet kind of awe, never imagining they existed in the same world.
Now, that golden girl was part of a faction that called itself Eclipse—a radical force standing in open opposition to the ruling powers of the Sol Continent. Extremists. Revolutionaries. Or something far worse. And Leto wasn't just a member. She belonged here, with them.
June had known there was something beneath the surface. Leto always wore a disguise at the Academy, dampening her aura, cloaking her presence, hiding the fact that she was Awakened. It had seemed odd, but not suspicious—until now. Now, the pieces fit too well. She hadn't been hiding from danger. She had been hiding from scrutiny.
June stared at the crystalline ceiling, her brows furrowed. What was the purpose of the secrecy? Why go to such lengths to blend in? And most of all, why had Leto broken her disguise during the Infernal incursion—to save her?
That question twisted in her chest.
Before she could untangle it, a knock echoed softly against the crystalline door, pulling her from her thoughts. She sat up slowly, glancing toward the source of the sound.
"Coming," she called, her voice a little hoarse. She rose, wrapped the cloak tighter around her, and moved to open it.
The door slid open with a gentle hiss. And there she was.
Leto.
Standing in the threshold like she belonged there. Like she owned the moment. She was even more striking now than June remembered. Gone was the Academy uniform, the subdued presence, the deliberate smallness. In its place stood a radiant figure draped in a midnight-and-gold robe, her posture regal, her golden hair flowing like sunlight over freshly fallen snow. Her eyes—sharp, luminous, inhumanly calm—glowed with the cold fire of someone who no longer wore a mask.
There was no smile on her lips, only poise—beauty carved in ice. The atmosphere of the stronghold clung to her—cold, commanding, impossible to ignore.
"Leto," June said, her voice caught between awe and unease. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought we should talk," Leto said softly. Her voice—still as angelic and melodic as June remembered—was a gentle whisper in contrast to the frigid stillness of her expression.
"Right," June murmured, stepping aside.
She didn't know why she wasn't shouting, didn't know why she wasn't slamming the door shut. But she wanted to hear what Leto had to say. Leto nodded once and stepped into the room, her presence altering the air, bringing with it the quiet, watchful weight of unspoken truths.
And June knew—this wasn't going to be a simple conversation.
Leto's gaze swept across the room with a passing glance—measured, silent, as if cataloging every detail. Then, without a word, she moved to the single chair positioned in the center of the chamber and sat with effortless grace. The fluidity of her movement, her quiet composure, only deepened the weight of her presence.
June hesitated for a moment, then followed, her steps slower, heavier with emotion. She lowered herself onto the edge of the bed, facing Leto. The silence between them stretched, taut and humming with unspoken questions.
"I wanted to speak with you privately," Leto said at last, her voice low and steady. "Without Master Kael looming over our conversation. I know you have questions. About why you're here."
June narrowed her eyes, the tension in her chest tightening. "Why I'm here?" she repeated. "What about why you're here, Leto? You're a Thalorin. One of the Sol Continent's ruling families. What are you doing with Eclipse—here?"
Leto's expression didn't change. "I'm not truly a member of the Thalorin family."
June blinked. "What… what do you mean?"
"You know the name," Leto said calmly. "But I only use it to conceal my true name."
June leaned forward slightly, her heart beginning to race. "You're saying the Thalorins are just a front?"
"A vassal family," Leto clarified, folding her hands in her lap with perfect composure. "The Thalorin bloodline serves my house. Always has."
June's thoughts stuttered, colliding into disbelief. "What? How could a Great Family be just a vassal? That doesn't even make sense."
"It would if you understood the history before the Merging," Leto replied. "Before the Sol Domain rose in prominence. Before the Convention of Dawn was written. Most of today's so-called Great Families were once subordinate lines—vassals to older, nobler houses. The original Five faded into obscurity, fled off-world, or were hunted into extinction."
June stared at her. "So you're saying your family was one of the original Greats?"
"No," Leto said, her voice dipping with quiet gravity. "Not a Great Family."
She paused.
"My family was the Royal Family."
The words struck June like a blow. Her throat tightened. "What…?"
Leto tilted her head slightly, watching June with cool, piercing eyes. "Have you ever heard of the AurenIdril Empire?"
June searched her memory—and found nothing. She shook her head. "No. Never."
"I'm not surprised," Leto murmured. "Its name was buried long before the Merging. Hidden. Erased. Even before the Federation reached its zenith, the AurenIdril Empire was already vanishing from recorded history."
She sat straighter now, her voice sharpening with something between pride and bitterness. "The AurenIdril Empire was the last bastion of advanced cultivation civilization. A realm of impossible artifice—mana-reactive architecture, soulforged constructs, dimensional sanctums far beyond what the Federation even possessed today. It stood as a rival to the Divine Federation in both technology and cultivation might."
June could only listen, stunned.
"And it was my family—the Noavellion dynasty—that ruled it. We were its heart. It's legacy. Until it was annihilated."
Leto's eyes gleamed with quiet fury.
"Not by time. Not by decline. But by the Divine Federation. Because they feared what we were. Because they could not control us."
The chamber fell into a heavy silence, crystalline walls humming faintly in the background like a distant storm approaching.
June sat frozen, struggling to reconcile the image of the perfect noble girl she once admired with the woman before her now—cold, composed, and carved from the wreckage of an empire lost to history.
Everything had changed.
And Leto Thalorin… Noavellion… had never been who she claimed to be.
"So… you want revenge," June said quietly, watching Leto's expression for a flicker of emotion. "Is that what this is all about?"
Leto's eyes remained fixed on her, steady as twin stars in a cold night sky.
"No," she replied, her voice soft—but anchored in something vast. "What I want... is deeper than revenge."
She leaned back slightly in the chair, golden robes catching the pale crystalline light like flowing firelight frozen in time.
"Besides," she continued, "it's been millions of years since the AurenIdril Empire stood. The ones who orchestrated my family's fall—most of them are long dead. Ash scattered across star systems. Forgotten by the very history they manipulated."
She paused.
But...
The silence that followed was heavy, charged. June could feel it.
"But what?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.
Leto's gaze sharpened.
"But War is coming."
June inhaled, her body tensing. The word hit harder than she expected.
"War…" she echoed, uncertain. "You believe that?"
"The Divine Federation," Leto said, the name weighted with quiet venom, "was responsible for the destruction of AurenIdril. They're the reason Terra fell into obscurity. Into silence. They reduced it to a shell of what it once was—a planet of kings and creators, brought low and forgotten."
She stood now, slowly, her presence growing like frost spreading across a windowpane.
"And now Terra has begun to stir. The planet is waking up, its ley lines reforming, its soul reemerging. Do you truly believe the Federation will sit idle and let us rise again? Let us remember what we were?"
June's thoughts scrambled for footing. "But… It's been fifty years since the Convergence. If any offworld empire wanted to strike, surely they would've done it during the Ten-Year Chaos."
Leto turned to her, eyes gleaming with an almost sad clarity.
"You're thinking like someone who's bound to a mortal clock," she said. "The Divine Federation is filled with beings who live for centuries—even millennia—without even reaching peak cultivation. Time does not move for them the way it does for us."
She stepped closer, her voice low and resonant.
"To them, fifty years is nothing. A blink. We are still in our infancy. Still fractured. Still weak. And they know it. Why would they act now, when we haven't even grown our wings?"
June sat in silence, the enormity of the scale dawning on her like a sky slowly filling with storm clouds.
"They're not ignoring us," Leto added. "They're watching. Waiting. And yes, they're distracted—galactic conflicts across the Neutral Free Zones, and the rise of the other Great Power pressing in on them like a second shadow. But make no mistake—when the time is right, they will come."
June looked down at her hands, her voice soft and uncertain. "I never really… thought about galactic politics. I barely understand the politics of my own domain. I didn't think any of that… mattered to people like me."
"It will," Leto said. "Sooner than you think."
Her voice was quiet, but it resonated with chilling finality. The truth of it hung in the air like breath in winter—visible, undeniable, fading too slowly to forget. And June realized she was standing at the edge of something vast. Something terrifying. And she couldn't look away.
"Is that what this is all about?" June said. "The Mightist philosophy."
"If we want to survive, we'll need to rebuild the AurenIdril empire," Leto said. "The Golden Dawn alliance's reliance on the Dawning Creed ideology regarding cultivation is something that only holds us back. Their rules, their regulation are only going to get us all killed. If we are going to survive, we must temper the people of Terra."
"The rules and regulations are meant to keep people safe," June said. "Awakening without the regulation is suicide..."
"No, it isn't," Leto said. "Terra's condition is the right tool in tempering the people of Terra. Those who are able to survive in its conditions will possess a foundation unlike any other in the whole universe. You've seen the Thrice-Bound; the Dormants are strong enough to contend with even an Awakened due to how strong their soul foundation is. Imagine how powerful they would become when they ascend. That is what we need for the coming tribulations."
"And it doesn't matter that millions might die in this quest of yours," June said. Leto stood up, her indifferent face finally showing emotions for the first time since June had seen her.
"What's a million lives in the extinction of the entire planet?" Leto said. "The choice is hard, but those who have sworn the thrice-bound oath are capable of making such a choice. Your former mentor, Samantha, knows that. Why do you think you're alive today? She had a choice to make. Either awaken Terra's core or allow the Celestial realignment to wipe out humanity. She chose to awaken Terra's core. And in the process, billions of lives were lost. She is a thrice-bound, whether she has sworn the oath or not." Leto stopped by the door to the room.
"I'm only telling you this, so you know, that the time is coming for you to choose," Leto said. "Do you want to survive...or do you want to die. The choice is yours." And she was gone.