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The light disappears from the cavern. I can see the outlines of torches, but they are simply a tiny light that cannot travel in the sudden deep silence that falls over us all as if we are being crushed by the night sky. Some nights back on Earth I’d look up at the stars and fear that our atmosphere would be pierced by the nothingness of space.

Screams fill the cavern and the light comes back on, but no one is moving. We are not frozen, but not a single one of us can move a muscle. Gasps fill the cave as a blackpulsecomes from down a long corridor. Long tendrils of Orb-Lightning reach out, and then as soon as it all started, it stops.

“The Orb-God calls to us. Even a chief cannot stand between an Aurelian and a deity,” says Brigg, appealing to rationality. I force myself not to tremble. Ineedto put on a strong front.

Ripper considers. He holds his huge pincer claws up, and there is open bloodlust in his eyes as he stares down Stryker. Suddenly, the two men deactivate their weapons as one. “Very well. I will give you the consult, but I too will be there.”

Stryker bristles. Horror fills me as I see his veins pulsating – every one, crisscrossing his body like the roots of a plant, and I know that the Scorp-Venom is affecting him; charging his anger and emotion. We were on the verge of bloody violence, and it’s hard for him to back down.

“It is the right of a triad to seek consult alone!”

Ripper bares his teeth. “Aye, and it’s also the right of the Chief to kill a man who insults him. Take my conditions – leave, or fight.”

I grab Stryker’s arm. “Please, we came this far. We need to speak with the Orb. What matter is it if he’s there to witness?”

In fact, given how Ripper’s misunderstanding of the situation had led to this, maybe it would be beneficial if he was there, too.

Stryker nods, not saying anything, and we follow Ripper into the chamber that houses their Orb-God.

It’s the first time I’ve seen it, and I gasp as I witness a shimmering, rippling blacker-than-black ball that’s so much larger than the one that brought me back to this world.

The Orb back on earth was nothing compared to this stallion-sized, pulsating sphere of energy. I look into it and lose myself in the swirling, incomprehensible darkness. It’s like I’m staring into nothing, yeteverything. I see the entire chaos of the universe – the vastness of space, the brutality of life, and the coldness of an empty, endless void.

Tendrils of darkness emanate from the ominous Orb, and I wonder deep in my heart if thesethingsare good or evil, or if they are somethingelse –far beyond human comprehension.

Stryker, Haleon and Brigg step forward to address their Orb-God. Nothing happens that I can see, and they look at each other, confused and disappointed.

“So, the Orb-God didnotcall you. Tell me then, whatdoyou seek?”

“A son,” says Brigg.

Ripper looks at me again. “This female will not bear you a son? She is truly the Cursed Mate. The moment she came to our lands, the tyrant dragon rampaged. Perhaps it is a sign that I must end her!”

I gasp. The room hums with violence as my triad circles me, keeping their bodies between me and Ripper.

That great, hovering Orb-Sphere activates again.

We all feel it, and turn to watch.

Then Iseeit.

The great, shimmering Orbpulsesand I witness the clouds of black oblivion swirling and parting; moving open. I step forward without even telling my feet to move, until I’m right in front of the Orb.

I remember the death and destruction the much-smaller Orb wrought, back in that lab on Earth…

…but I’m not afraid.

It’sspeakingto me.

“I see… I seesomething,” I whisper, and the four growling Aurelians reluctantly back down.

I stare into the Orb, and I watch swirling blackness form shapes and images. I see generation after generation of the Scorp-Blood tribe, and other proud, primitive warriors like them, finding their mates and bringing them back through the benevolence of their Orb-God.

Then I see a meteor hitting the ground, and hatching – for it is no mere chunk of space debris. It’s anegg.

A dragon grows from that cracked, otherworldly egg - a dragon that lusts for company; another of its kind. A mate – and yet it finds none.

A dragon that now lashes out in anger upon the Scorp-Blood tribe; alone and frightened and hate-fueled and vengeful.