A streak of violet spatial lightning tore across the western sea two hours before midnight.
Claire Vance flew at the head of the formation, her pale gray robes billowing in the damp ocean wind. Flanking her on either side were Mina Vance, wrapped in an azure cocoon of freezing mist, and Sera Thorne, whose Tier 8 Storm-Pike crackled with sharp purple sparks.
Behind them trailed forty heavy transport galleons sailing under Princess Valeria’s imperial banner, their deep timber holds empty and waiting.
As they flew, the sea beneath them remained flat and undisturbed.
“The Void-Rift Reef was once the spiritual heart of the western archipelago,” Claire said, her voice carrying over the whistling wind. “Six hundred years ago, our founding matriarch established the Void Lotus Sanctuary to study spatial navigation and cultivate void-herbs.”
Sera glanced down at the dark water, pulling out her Overtime Grudge Ledger to jot down a quick note. “And then Ancestor Vesper took over?”
“Sixty years ago, Vesper allied with Sovereign Solon,” Claire said, her gray eyes hardening behind her spectacles. “He staged a bloody coup, poisoned our grand elders, and instituted the blood-tax. Every family had to offer a child every ten years to feed the Upper Firmament furnaces.”
