Dock Nine had many sectors that appeared forgotten.

  Corridors abandoned after structural changes. Cargo chambers sealed decades earlier when asteroid routes shifted. Maintenance rings that no longer served their original purpose but still remained connected to the station’s vast internal network.

  Most travelers never saw those places.

  Odnar Zephyr and Zerena found one by accident.

  They had been moving through the lower levels of the station for nearly half an hour after leaving the relic market. The crowd had thinned with every corridor they crossed. Traders preferred the upper plazas where traffic was constant and business predictable. Down here the station felt older, quieter, as though Dock Nine itself had been built layer upon layer over a much older structure.

  Odnar’s wrist scanner pulsed faintly.

  He glanced down.

  The interface flickered for a moment before stabilizing.

  Flux Detection: Minor Anomaly

  Zerena noticed.

  “What is it?”

  “Something nearby,” Odnar said.

  “Hostile?”

  “No.”

  He rotated his wrist slowly.

  The scanner projected a narrow directional indicator toward the left corridor branching away from their current path.

  “Energy signature.”

  “Flux?”

  “Yes.”

  Zerena looked down the dark passage.

  The corridor was poorly lit, with only occasional emergency lamps casting dim cones of light across the metal floor. Old cargo rails ran along the ground, suggesting that this section had once been used to transport heavy containers between the docking arms and storage sectors.

  “Could be another trap,” she said.

  “Could be.”

  Odnar stepped toward the corridor anyway.

  “If Rhaegon’s soldiers are still searching the station, they won’t expect us to explore maintenance sectors.”

  “That’s optimistic.”

  “It’s practical.”

  They moved slowly down the corridor.

  The air felt colder here. A faint metallic echo followed their footsteps as the walls narrowed around them. Several sealed doors lined the passage, most of them marked with faded identification numbers that had long since lost their meaning.

  The scanner pulsed again.

  The Flux indicator brightened.

  “Closer,” Odnar murmured.

  The corridor ended at a reinforced cargo hatch.

  Unlike the other sealed doors they had passed earlier, this one was partially open.

  A thin beam of pale red light spilled out from the gap between the metal plates.

  Zerena’s eyes narrowed.

  “That’s not station lighting.”

  “No,” Odnar said.

  “It isn’t.”

  He pushed the hatch open.

  The chamber beyond was small and circular, perhaps once used as a secure storage vault. Most of the equipment racks along the walls had been removed, leaving only the central pedestal still standing beneath a dim overhead lamp.

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  Something rested on that pedestal.

  A crystal.

  Roughly the size of a human heart.

  Its surface glowed deep crimson.

  The light was not constant. It pulsed slowly, like a living heartbeat.

  Zerena stepped into the chamber first.

  “What is this?”

  Odnar’s scanner reacted instantly.

  The holographic interface appeared above his wrist again.

  Several lines of data formed rapidly across the display.

  ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED

  ELEMENTAL CRYSTAL IDENTIFIED

  CLASSIFICATION: DIAMOND

  TYPE: CRIMSON

  Odnar read the information aloud.

  “Crimson Diamond.”

  Zerena looked back at him.

  “That’s one of the elemental diamonds.”

  “Yes.”

  The scanner expanded its display.

  Additional information appeared beneath the classification.

  PRIMARY FUNCTION: COMBAT AMPLIFICATION

  SECONDARY FUNCTION: VITALIS SURGE

  DURATION EFFECTS: TEMPORARY POWER ENHANCEMENT

  Odnar stared at the crystal.

  “Now I understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “The system we activated earlier.”

  He gestured toward the diamond.

  “This is part of it.”

  Zerena approached the pedestal slowly.

  The crimson light illuminated her face as she studied the crystal.

  “It feels… alive.”

  Odnar nodded.

  “Energy constructs often do.”

  “Should we touch it?”

  “Probably.”

  “That didn’t sound confident.”

  “Nothing about this situation is.”

  Zerena glanced at him briefly before placing her hand near the crystal.

  The moment her fingers brushed the surface, the diamond reacted.

  The crimson light surged.

  Odnar’s scanner flashed.

  The interface expanded across his wrist display.

  CRIMSON DIAMOND ACTIVATED

  SYSTEM SYNC IN PROGRESS

  The crystal lifted slightly from the pedestal.

  A thin beam of red light shot toward Odnar’s scanner.

  For a brief moment the entire chamber filled with crimson illumination.

  Then the light collapsed inward.

  The diamond hovered in the air for one second longer before dissolving into a stream of glowing particles.

  Those particles flowed directly into the scanner.

  The interface stabilized.

  A new icon appeared beneath the Flux bar.

  CRIMSON DIAMOND — EQUIPPED

  Zerena lowered her hand slowly.

  “Well,” she said.

  “That answered the question.”

  Odnar stared at the scanner.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  He flexed his fingers.

  Energy moved through his arm in a way he had never experienced before. It wasn’t painful. It felt more like a sudden expansion of awareness, as though his body had been quietly connected to a reservoir of power that had previously remained inaccessible.

  “Different,” he admitted.

  “Better?”

  “Yes.”

  The interface pulsed again.

  New information appeared.

  CRIMSON DIAMOND ABILITY UNLOCKED

  BLOOD SURGE

  EFFECT: TEMPORARY VITALIS AMPLIFICATION

  Zerena leaned closer to read the display.

  “That sounds dangerous.”

  “Most useful abilities are.”

  Odnar drew his new sword from the sheath.

  The blade’s red energy channel reacted immediately.

  The glow intensified.

  The Flux bar on the interface pulsed.

  “Try it,” Zerena said.

  Odnar hesitated.

  Then he focused.

  The energy inside the blade surged.

  For half a second the weapon emitted a faint wave of red light that spread across the chamber walls.

  Odnar stopped.

  The Flux bar dropped slightly.

  But the Vitalis bar rose.

  Zerena’s eyes widened.

  “You just converted energy into health.”

  “Yes.”

  “Through the diamond.”

  “Yes.”

  Odnar slowly lowered the sword.

  “That’s what the Crimson Diamond does.”

  Zerena stepped back from the pedestal.

  “So this is how the system works.”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Diamonds enhance abilities.”

  “Each one probably does something different.”

  She glanced around the empty chamber.

  “Which means this station just handed us our first upgrade.”

  Odnar smiled faintly.

  “Yes.”

  “It did.”

  He sheathed the blade again.

  The crimson glow faded slightly but did not disappear entirely.

  The diamond’s energy remained linked to the system.

  Waiting.

  Zerena looked toward the corridor outside the vault.

  “We should move.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if this diamond was stored here, someone else might be looking for it.”

  Odnar nodded.

  “Good point.”

  They stepped out of the chamber and returned to the corridor.

  Behind them the pedestal now stood empty beneath the dim lamp.

  Dock Nine continued its endless mechanical rhythm above their heads. Traders argued over prices in the relic market while cargo ships arrived and departed from the outer docking arms.

  No one in the station realized that a small vault deep within its forgotten corridors had just released the first elemental diamond into the hands of the two fugitives who intended to challenge Rhaegon’s empire.

  Odnar glanced once more at the scanner.

  The icon of the Crimson Diamond glowed softly beneath the Flux bar.

  The system had begun.

  And the war was about to become far more complicated.