Chapter 27 NADINE
They stunned him. I know that because someone told me later. At the time, all I remembered was the sound—sharp, wrong, echoing through the cavern like thunder hitting stone—then weightlessness. Or maybe it was the opposite. Maybe it was the moment when everything became too heavy to hold.
Xandros lifted me off the ground. I remember that much.
I remember the way his arms locked around me, solid and unyielding.
I remember Ashley's voice somewhere close, urgent, saying my name over and over, like repetition alone could keep me tethered to consciousness.
I remember thinking—not clearly, not fully—that Dravok was still reaching for me even as the darkness swallowed the edges of my vision.
Darkness followed until I woke up on a couch that was too clean to be comforting. The air smelled faintly of antiseptic and ozone, the kind of scent that clung to places where damage had been repaired but not erased. A low hum vibrated through the floor, ship engines, steady and controlled. Alive.
That was my first realization. The second came slower.
Dravok was gone. The pain hit before the memory did.
It wasn't my throat, though that ached faintly, a distant soreness that I barely registered.
A healing wand lay discarded on the table beside me, its soft glow already dimming. Whatever damage had been done was gone.
But my chest, my chest felt like it had collapsed inward, like something essential had been torn loose and left a hollow behind. It hurt to breathe. Not because of pressure or bruising. Because of absence.
I sucked in a shallow breath and immediately regretted it.
The ache sharpened, radiating outward from my sternum, deep and relentless.
The bond was still there. I could feel it fluttering, barely clinging to life.
That was somehow worse. It hadn't snapped.
It hadn't vanished. But it felt… distant.
Muted. Like a star whose light was still reaching me long after it had already burned out.
Loss without closure.
I turned my head slightly and saw Xandros pacing the length of the room.
Back and forth. Back and forth. He wasn't wearing armor now, just a dark uniform stretched tight across a body that had clearly been designed for command and war.
His hands flexed at his sides, and his jaw was clenched so hard I could see the muscle jumping.
Ashley stood near the viewport. She kept her arms folded, her gaze fixed on the stars outside as if she were daring them to make sense. I swallowed. Every movement felt like an effort.
"Dravok?" I croaked. The sound barely made it out of my throat.
Ashley turned first. She crossed the room in two strides and knelt beside me. Her hand felt warm and steady against mine.
"You're safe," she assured me softly. "You're on the ship."
Xandros stopped pacing. His silence told me everything else.
"Where is he?" I whispered.
Xandros answered this time. "Contained."
The word landed like a blow.
"Contained how?"
He hesitated.
Ashley squeezed my hand. "They stunned him," she said gently. "Multiple times. He didn't… react the way a human would."
Of course, he didn't.
"He's in a high-security cell," Xandros added. "No guards. Only observation drones. His mind—whatever he can do with it—it's too dangerous to risk proximity."
I closed my eyes. Of course, he was too dangerous. He could invade other people's minds. Alter them. The image of him—golden, calm, laughing quietly at something I'd said—rose unbidden. Then shattered.
"He was going to kill me," I whispered.
Neither of them contradicted me.
Their silence hurt more than a knife going through my heart would have.
My chest tightened, grief and understanding colliding in a way that made me dizzy.
On an intellectual level, I knew what that meant.
Whatever had happened to Dravok—whatever had reached into him and twisted him—had turned him into something unstable.
Something lethal. Something that even Xandros, Superior Commander of the Imperial Forces, was afraid to keep on his ship.
On an intellectual level, I understood that.
Emotionally—
"I can still feel him," my voice broke at the words. "He's not gone. He's just… so far away."
Ashley's eyes softened painfully. "Nadine—"
"It hurts." Finally, the tears came. Not a quiet spill, but a sob that tore out of me before I could stop it. "It hurts so much."
Xandros turned away abruptly, one hand dragging down his face.
"We can't keep him here," he said tightly. "Whatever that was on Cronack, it changed him. I won't risk my ship. I can't risk my crew."
My breath hitched.
Ashley looked at him sharply. "Xandros."
"I'm not wrong," he shot back. "You saw what he did. You felt it."
"I did," she agreed. "But we're not killing him."
The word sliced through me. Kill.
My body reacted before my mind did. I curled inward, wrapping my arms around my chest as if I could hold myself together by force.
"No," I whispered. "Please."
Xandros exhaled harshly. "Ashley—"
"We are not killing him," she repeated, slower now, firmer.
"You know what he is. You know what he represents.
And you know that if we execute him because he became dangerous, if you kill a fucking god, the GTU's wrath at Daryus after he declared war on the Cryons will be child's play compared to what will happen. "
Silence stretched. I forced myself to sit up, even as pain lanced through my chest. "He's not a monster," I defended him, even though some rational part inside me reminded me that he tried to choke my life out of me. "He's sick."
Xandros turned back to me, his expression unreadable. "You almost died."
I nodded. "I know."
"And you still want to save him."
"Yes." There was no hesitation.
He studied me for a long moment, then looked away again. "You understand that whatever took him may not let him go."
"I do," I nodded. "But I also understand that if you kill him, whatever this is wins."
Ashley went still.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
I drew in a breath that hurt and forced myself to keep going.
Dravok was unconscious or worse. I was the only one here to defend him.
And the only people I knew who could help me were the ones here.
I hesitated, then realized there was another piece I hadn't said yet.
Not because I was hiding it, but because until now, I hadn't been ready to believe it myself.
"There's something else," I said quietly.
Xandros didn't look away. "Go on."
"There are beings inside the Abyss…" I hesitated, then moved to safer ground first, or at least I hoped it was safer. "Dravok calls them Mmuhr'Rhongs."
Xandros nodded. "We have those. They're aggressive, but easily killed."
His dismissive attitude didn't compute with what Dravok had told me about the monsters, but resonated with the emperor's original attitude.
I hadn't seen them—and I wasn't keen on doing so either—but I didn't believe for a second that the Pandraxians were stronger or better fighters than the Arkhevari.
That assumption alone felt wrong. There had to be another explanation. I left it for now and pushed on.
I took a deep breath, "There is something else inside the Abyss, something… an entity, and it's trying to break through—"
"An entity?" Xandros scoffed, and I winced again. I couldn't fault him for his disbelief.
"I know, I realize how incredible this sounds," I shook my head, wishing Dravok was here for more reasons than just to be able to explain this.
But he wasn't. Because of the Abyss or the Harrowed One or whatever it was inside.
Anger overcame me. A deep-rooted fury. It had done this to him.
It was now on me to convince Xandros and Ashley not to kill Dravok, to believe me, and to fight for him.
It seemed like an impossible task, but renewed resolve fueled me.
I had to do this. "I know I'm asking a lot from you.
Most of it I don't understand myself yet, nor do the Arkhevari—although they think they do.
" A wry smile twisted my lips at that. I wouldn't have been me had I not felt a certain amount of power and pride that I was figuring things out that even gods hadn't quite understood.
"We don't know if this being has always been in the Dark Abyss, or if it was something that evolved with the arrival of the Arkhevari, but I do know that if it gets out, it'll be devastating for the entire universe. "
Xandros and Ashley exchanged a look, one that made me think they wanted to lock me up like they had done to Dravok. Hell, part of me wished they would. Then it would be out of my hands. Then I could say, well, I tried.
Anger still fueled me, and a new emotion grew inside me: revenge.
I had never been a vengeful person in my life, had avoided conflict wherever possible, because there was always, logically, a better, more acceptable solution—it helped that most of my life I had been surrounded by sane, reasonable people.
I had skipped grades and had gone to the most prestigious schools, where other kids were as nerdy as I was.
There had never been a pecking order. This was new territory to me.
It started when the Cryons came, and it had simmered inside me ever since.
Suddenly, I wanted blood. I wanted to fight, which scared me.
So being locked up and rendered unconscious seemed like a good solution not to deal with reality.
"Okay," Ashley said at last, taking me off guard.
"Okay?"
Xandros nodded, "If there is even the slightest possibility that what you're saying is true, this danger to the universe needs to be dealt with. Now."
"What do you want to do? What is the plan? You do have one, right?" Ashley threw out before I could respond.
Did I?
To my surprise, I sounded like I did. " We should take Dravok to the other Arkhevari, to the Dark Abyss. They will know what to do."
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Xandros queried. "According to you, the Harrowed One is strongest there. If whatever has Dravok is there," he shuddered, likely not at the thought of Dravok being hurt or killed, but at the idea of something controlling Dravok.
I gave that a moment of thought.
"It sounds counterintuitive," I agreed slowly.
"I know. Bringing him closer to the source of what's hurting him feels like the worst possible decision.
" I rubbed my hands together, grounding myself.
"But everything we've seen so far suggests that proximity changes things.
Power isn't constant across environments.
It's contextual." Xandros watched me carefully now, not interrupting.
"The Arkhevari don't exist in a vacuum," I went on.
"Neither do the things they're connected to.
Whatever rules govern Nox Eternum don't apply cleanly out here.
" I hesitated, then added, "And that includes the Mmuhr'Rhong. "
I looked up at them. "What you've fought—what you've killed—may not be what they truly are."
That was the thought that finally tipped everything into place.
"I haven't encountered them myself," I admitted. "Not directly. But from Nythor's fragments, from what Dravok told me—and from the way the Arkhevari change inside Nox Eternum—I don't think the Mmuhr'Rhong outside the Abyss are what they once were."
Ashley's eyes narrowed. "You're saying they degrade."
"Yes," I nodded. "Just like the Arkhevari do.
" I drew in a slow breath, feeling the pieces click together as I spoke.
"Outside the Abyss, Arkhevari lose power.
They stabilize. They become… less. More contained.
" I swallowed. "I think the same thing happens to the Mmuhr'Rhong.
What you've fought are echoes. Stripped-down versions. "
"And inside?" Xandros asked.
"Inside, they're closer to what they were meant to be."
Silence settled again.
"The balance worked," I continued. "Abyss, Mmuhr'Rhong, entropy, release. Worlds lived. Worlds ended. Nothing carried forward that couldn't rest."
"And then the Arkhevari interfered," Ashley nodded.
"Yes," I agreed. "They didn't just interrupt the Abyss; they disrupted the entire cycle. By absorbing the worlds' stories, histories, and identities, they removed the very thing the Mmuhr'Rhong existed to break down."
"So you think the… Harrowed One," Ashley didn't make the finger air quotation marks; she didn't need to. Her tone said it all. "Has or is adapting?"
"Yes."
"Then we need to stop it," Xandros agreed.
A sigh escaped me. For now, at least, they would help me—help Dravok. Whatever Xandros and Ashley ultimately decided, we were moving him closer to Nox Eternum. Closer to the place where he might remember who he was, where his power could realign instead of fracture.
It was a risk. I knew that. Because we might be walking him straight into the grasp of the Abyss—playing directly into the hands of the thing that wanted him broken, isolated, and claimed.
But the alternative was doing nothing while it took him anyway. I would rather fight the darkness on its own ground than surrender him without trying.