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Tar’ank leaps up, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me. “Wait here,” he growls, and the three warriors sprint out of the pleasure room. Their auras are instantly focused. The doors close behind them.

There’s no way in hell I’m sitting around in a pleasure room while the station gets attacked. I rush forward, stumbling on shaky legs, and pick myself up. I slam my watch against the door scanner, and it opens. I run down the hallway into the observatory room.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” I yell, looking out the reinforced glass, scanning space for any hint of hundreds of Toad ships descending on us.

Space is empty except for the billions of stars.

If something’s coming for us, I don’t see it.

My three Aurelians are standing in front of the holo-vid screen. It turns on, and a blonde woman speaks to us. “We have breaking news from Colossus, the capital of the Aurelian Empire.

I walk forward, nervous, feeling frayed and dizzy from the mating. Garrick turns away from the screen to run his hand over my shoulder, bolstering me, and I stand in front of him. He wraps his huge arms around me and I lean back against his reassuring presence as we watch the breaking news report so urgent it set off all the station’s alarms.

The blonde woman blinks out, and in her place is the massive blue-green planet the Aurelians call home, floating in front of us like I could touch it. Around it, Reavers and Aurelians converge in on the huge, distended bulk of a Toad mothership headed right for the planet below.

The Aurelian defenses converge on the monstrosity just like the one we destroyed. It gets in closer, and I tense up, waiting for missiles and laser fire to rain down hell on the cities below.

“This isn’t right,” I say, half to myself.

The universe has been on the brink of war, but I was expecting Aurelian Separatists, led by the Priests, not Toads. Why would the cowardly species send a single ship in? Could this be some strange form of revenge for what we did to the Toads?

There aren’t even Toad attack ships surrounding it to protect it.

It doesn’t make any sense, and I’m just waiting helplessly for the suicidal attack to draw blood.

“Don’t worry,” says Garrick, sensing my unease. “There are shields guarding Colossus. A single mothership cannot harm us.” He squeezes me tighter, and I realize that even though he is an Independent Aurelian and not working for the Empire, he still calls Colossus home.

“That’s not just any Toad mothership.” Markrin stares at the screen in confusion. “That’s Lord Oblog’s. He’s one of the ten fingers to the Toad King. What the hell he is doing putting himself in danger?”

I don’t know much about Toad politics, but I do know that when they get power, they use it to put themselves as far out of harm’s way as possible.

Why would one of the ten most powerful men in the Toad Kingdom Orb-Shift his prize ship into Aurelian Space? What could have been so important he’d risk shifting at all, considering how dangerous it is recently?

From the green and blue of Colossus, white dots fly upwards. Reavers.

Hundreds of them. They have markings on the front as the news cameras zoom in on them. A black, deep circle on every vessel. It’s sliced in half, a shard of white between the lines. Not every ship has them, and some look hastily painted on. They weren’t planning such a sudden move.

“Priest Separatists,” spits Tar’ank.

“What does it mean?” I ask the question, trying to piece it all together.

“Obsidian.” Garrick states the word with a strange reverence.

“What the hell is Obsidian?”

“Who. Perhaps just a superstition. The Priests have a legend of a man who will split the universe in half and save us from a great evil.” Even if he believes it’s just a superstition, there’s an edge of respect to his voice that scares me.

Massive warships take off from Colossus. One Orb-Shifts. The front half with the mark of Obsidian disappears…

The back half doesn’t make it. The Orb-Shift fails, and it falls downwards, Aurelian Separatists falling out into space. The broken metal bulk of the ship burns up in the atmosphere without shields to protect it.

“Gods,” I gasp, as thousands of lives are extinguished. The failed shift doesn’t stop the second huge warship from shifting away, disappearing into the void like it never existed.

“War’s coming,” growls Tar’ank, and I feel this eagerness from him that scares me. He’s not quite ready for domestic life. He still has a battle hunger to him.

“The Priests are breaking off from the Aurelian Empire. I don’t know where they’re going…but one day, they will return.” Garrick states the words slowly, thinking them over as he speaks.

We’ve been waiting for this moment.