The heat that filled the watching bridge of the Lux Sovereign was hot enough to turn to steam lead.
The dark wood chart-desks and velvet-cushioned benches didn’t catch fire. They underwent instant atom-deep burning, flashing into drifting plumes of white ash. The heavy brass switchboards along the inner walls melted, their bronze levers sagging like warm wax, copper wires sizzling into glowing green puddles.
Outside the shattered quartz dome, the air of the volcano bowl ignited into blinding sheets of static lightning. The raw starlight roared through the cabin.
Grand Astromancer Vaelen Kael laughed. A high, screeching cackle of fanatical triumph that echoed through his sound speaking tubes.
“Ash!” Kael roared, his golden skull tattoos glowing so brightly they burned through the skin of his forehead. “You’re ash, gutter-scribe! Nothing born of woman can withstand the unshielded glory of the Solar Core! You’re dissolved! You’re erased from the register of the living!”
The white fire roared, swirling through the zero-gravity chamber in majestic, blinding vortexes.
And then, the smoke began to clear.
The light was total.
