The stars no longer blinked.
Kairos sat alone in the captain's quarters, the holographic star map hovering above his desk. Each Sovereign Key pulsed along the rim of the projection like ancient runes—Commerce, Echo, Wrath, Signal. Four flames. Four legacies claimed.
But the fifth…
Vault of Chains.
Not marked. Not mapped.
Not even mentioned in the Sovereign archives.
Only one source pointed them there: a corrupted data burst embedded in the fourth key. A message hidden in recursive code that took Raya two sleepless nights to decrypt.
"Vault V… buried in orbit… Station Halcyon-VII. Prison of Sovereigns. Location—Black Circle. Access—traitor's signature required."
A prison.
Orbiting a long-dead planet.
And only someone marked as a Sovereign traitor could open it.
Kairos stared into the void.
A Sovereign exile could mean salvation—or damnation.
But the choice wasn't really his.
The game had already begun.
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