Emily Hardendor followed the dark onyx walkway towards the intersection of corridors leading to the innermost chamber of the Acritas family star. Dim light shined from recessed alcoves set high above in the imposing black stone walls. Emily strained her eyes ahead into the gloom, each alcove was separated by ten meters ensuring the already dim lights provided almost no light along the fifty meter hall connecting this dark place to the outer star complex, and relative safety for the young girl. Head down and shoulders slumped under the weight of the wooden bucket she held in two scarred hands, each step took tremendous effort. The only sound in the long corridor was the soft sloshing of soapy water as it echoed off the stone walls. She could feel the press of gravity increasing step by step, attempting to force her to the floor and squeeze the air from her lungs. With every meter of progress toward the heart of the star complex Emily’s breathing became more ragged and soon it too echoed off the walls, the sound giving Emily the feeling the imposing onyx walls were closing in on top of her and attempting to crush her under their infinite darkness. Despite the enormous size of the hall, these walls that seemed to absorb the weak light from above made Emily feel claustrophobic as if she were trapped underground.

 I might as well be trapped underground. There is no escaping him. Emily thought. 

She gripped the bucket as if it were a talisman warding against evil, knuckles as white as the fresh cloth slung over her left shoulder and continued to struggle forward. Finally reaching the intersection Emily stopped for a moment to gather her strength and attempt to quell the feeling of panic rising in her chest. Her legs shook with the effort to stay standing against the overwhelming force of gravity pulling her downward. Taking a breath she reached within herself for the essence she had spent her the last few years gathering and refining into raw power. She had not reached out to the power in the last two months since she had been forced to serve in the Acritas star complex as a slave. As her focus contacted it she felt the familiar rough stone aspect or her essence and unexpected memories surged up threatening to overwhelm her control. She felt the memory of her family, of tragedy and why she was trapped in this life warring against the weak control she could muster over her essence. Hopelessness flooded her mind, making her stomach churn and the last threads of her control frayed and snapped as she was swallowed by her memories of the last five years.

She would swear she could practically feel the pride of her father, a minor baron serving the Acritas family, radiating off him in happy waves as he was appointed overseer of one of the most profitable Celesteel mines in the empire. Celesteel was prized by the empire’s military for its near indestructibility combined with both flexibility and the ability to hold the sharpest edge of any known metal in the galaxy. The Acritas family had controlled the charter for all celesteel mines in the empire for the last ten years after acquiring the rights in exchange for Duke Rylen Acritas’ first daughter, Cassea Acritas’, hand in marriage to Fornax Solari, current Emperor of the Solari Empire. The smile on Baron Derek Hardendor’s round face, as Rylen Acritas himself handed him the deed to the mine, made Emily’s heart jump for joy. As if mimicking her heart Emily bounced up and down excitedly tugging on her mother’s slender arm to get her attention as they stood to the side of the stage for the ceremony. Looking up into her mother’s warm caramel eyes and kind face framed with dark brown hair parted in the middle, Emily saw that even her usually reserved mother was not immune to the mood of her husband and daughter, as a large smile split her beautiful face right alongside theirs.

“Does this mean we will be able to afford the medicine to heal Grandpa’s ruined leg?” Chirped emily excitedly

“Emily behave yourself… the ceremony is still going on” 

Her mother said in a harsh whisper. However when seeing the hurt look on her beautiful daughter’s face she added quietly

“But yes we should have plenty of money to afford all the medicine Grandfather could need.”  

Emily could still feel her mother squeezing her hand as the memory faded and was replaced with another.

It had been two years since the ceremony where her father had been given the deed to the Celesteel mine. Her father had moved their entire family to the asteroid belt on the edge of the empire. Most young girls in the empire probably would have disliked being taken to the remote wasteland at the edge of the void but Emily found the rough gray stones making up the asteroids surrounding their estate comforting when she rested against them after playing with her grandfather in the yard or finished the essence training she had begun under her father a year ago as she was now.Emily lay on her back panting feeling the sturdy rock beneath her as she looked up past the various floating rocks her father’s mines were located on and out toward the endless blackness of the void past the asteroid belt and outside the Solari Empire and galaxy for that matter. She could feel the essence she had just fought so hard to wrestle from the stones around her fighting to escape back out. She smiled. Emily wouldn’t let it escape, just as her father had taught her. She was going to make the power hers. She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath from the exhausting exercise of wrenching power from the universe around her. While mostly a test of her willpower, at this early stage her body still struggled to contain the power within her. As she was laying on her back staring up into the void she heard the scuffing steps of leather boots on rough gravel as who could only be her grandfather walking up behind her.

“It’ll be time for dinner soon.” her grandfather drawled out slowly in his outer rim accent that Emily loved so much.

“It’s so beautiful out tonight! Do you think we can convince mom to eat out in the gardens tonight?”

Emily said, turning over and pushing herself up on hands and knees smiling from ear to ear at her joke and attempting not to laugh.

grandfather sighed and looked down.

“I don’t think that daughter of mine has much interest in the rocks we set up in the courtyard last week. I’m also sure she would not refer to it as a garden…”

He answered with a smile.

“I’m also quite sure you already knew that.. But hey, might be worth asking just to hear her stumble to come up with a proper way to refuse.” grandfather said with a hint of laughter in his eyes.

Emily loved her grandfather. Particularly because he was the only person she could ever get to mess with her mom and try to get her to break out of the stuffy propriety of nobles. All of their servants and even Emily’s father were terrified of Lady Helen Hardendor’s wrath. 

As Emily stood up dusting off her training clothes which consisted of a long gray robe that went down to her knees with loose sleeves extending to her forearm and black leggings there was a loud cracking from above. Quickly following her grandfather’s horrified gaze upwards her breath caught when she noticed the massive cloud of debris in the sky. 

“Get inside now.” Her grandfather said, no trace of the laughter from a moment ago on his features.

Emily stood rooted, standing on the rough gray boulder she had been resting on staring upwards. The cloud of debris was coming from Vesta, the largest and most profitable of the asteroids her father was responsible for. As the debris ejected into space she could finally see what had caused the destruction. A giant lizard thrashed inside of the thinning debris, more than a mile in length from spiked tail to vicious maw,  destroying more of the precious mining equipment and infrastructure every second.

“Where is my dad?” she asked quietly, her voice shaking.

“We need to get inside Emily.” Her grandfather said more sternly than she had ever heard him talk before.

“Where is he?.. Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?” 

she repeated faster and faster, voice growing louder and cracking as tears started to flow down her dusty cheeks leaving sad lines running down her face.

“I don’t know.” Her grandfather was practically yelling.

“But we need to get inside now!” he finished, grabbing her arm and pulling her off the rock and practically dragging her back inside their tiny manor.

The memory was ending, she could feel the vice like grip of her grandfather and the enormous strength he was using as he channeled essence through his body to lend his tired limbs strength. Turning back to look at Vesta as she was being dragged inside she prayed that her father wasn’t there.

It probably would have been better if he had been on that asteroid. She thought sadly.

Emily was sitting at their granite table in the dining room of the Hardendor manor. At the head of the table sat her father. The happy warm man he had once been was absent tonight. It had been absent ever since one of the mining teams had gone too deep in an attempt to catch up to the ridiculous monthly quota set by the Acritas family, and stumbled onto the sleeping diamond scaled lizard. 

“Why do they need do much damn Celesteel?” Derek Hardendor said to himself angrily.

“The Empire has been at peace for over four hundred years.” He said almost at a whisper, pulling at his thinning hair.

Emily could see that her father had lost weight the last three weeks. His once round and happy face was now drooping and there were deep bags under his eyes. Floating above his shoulder was his assistant, an analytical tool usually reserved for high nobles of the empire due to their insane cost. Emily was not really sure how they worked but her father had explained that they were constructs of essence and star silver, a soft material that could hold and conduct essence. There was certainly a lot more to it than that but all Emily knew was that they had incredible power to analyze data and make predictions.

“I already know we missed the deadline and won’t make the next one. Please stop reminding me Aila.” Her father said trying to keep his voice calm and mostly failing, turning his head toward the assistant floating near his left shoulder.

Emily’s chest tightened seeing her father worry. She was just glad that he had been on another asteroid when the lizard had woken up. Her father had not returned that first night after the attack and Emily and her mother had stayed up all night holding one another and crying periodically until baron hardendor stepped through the door to the manor looking completely drained. They had stood there Emily, mom, dad and grandpa holding each other for what seemed like hours. The lizard had apparently completely destroyed mining operations on Vesta leaving her father with no way to meet his monthly quota. Thousands of miners were killed in the attack and millions of gold in equipment was lost.

The entire family was sitting silently at the table looking down at their untouched meals when a knock grabbed the entire families attention and they looked toward the door gloomily as a servant opened the double doors leading to the front of the manor and said a hint of panic in his otherwise professional voice

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“There are some soldiers at the door my lord, they said they would like to speak with you.”

“Very w-” Derek started but his mouth had gone dry and his voice had cracked.

Just as he was clearing his throat to begin again 8 soldiers dressed in Black uniforms with gold trim and a gold crest depicting 9 stars in the shape of a spear, the Crest of the Acritas family, burst in from behind the servant. Apparently they had not wanted to wait any longer.

“What is the meaning of this?” and outraged baron Hardendor shouted.

“Derek what is happ--” 

Lady Helen’s panicked question was cut short as she was pulled back hard into the gray stone wall when one of the two guards moving in her direction used his gravity essence to cause the gravity affecting Lady Helen to change directions instantly and increase in force by several orders of magnitude. Emily watched in horror as her mother’s head slammed into the stone wall and her body went rigid as the gravity pinned her against the wall. 

“Mom!” Emily exclaimed trying to lunge across the table and towards her mother just as a decidedly less intense gravitational field pinned her to the ground. Emily was forced to the ground, body pinned in much the same way as her mother was pinned to the wall. Unable to even turn her head, all Emily could see was the corner of her father’s polished black boots from under the table. It appeared that he too was pinned down by two guards. She could only assume that her grandfather was in a similar position. They had sent two guards for each of them. Emily thought it seemed like overkill considering how weak their family was in terms of essence cultivation when compared to the might of the gravity cultivators of the Acritas house.

Emily could feel a new heavy presence enter the room. She could feel this one pushing his presence against the essence inside her that she had fought so hard to gain control of. She heard footsteps enter the room. Her vision was slowly growing dark as the blood failed to circulate through her body against the force of gravity being exerted on her. As her vision went black she heard the man speak in the clear and polished tones of nobility.

“Baron Derek Hardendor, You have been found guilty of failing to pay your debts to the Acritas family. You and your family are hereby sentenced to death.” 

The new arrivals voice was almost casual as he ended the lives of four people. Emily’s awareness faded completely into unconsciousness as she heard the soldiers moving to stand over her family drawing Celesteel swords.

Emily felt as if she had just awoken from a trance. She was back at the entrance to the dark corridor that seemed to bend all of the light toward the imposing double doors at the far end of the hall where the light would vanish seemingly absorbed by the dark material. She was on her hands and knees breathing heavily. Emily thought back to the days following the abrupt end of her family. As far as she knew her entire family had been executed that day. She had never seen the bodies but she was told that she was spared to serve as an example of the cost of failure when serving the Acritas family. Serve she had. Over the last two years she had been enslaved; she had served in the Acritas star complex as a maid, but the last 6 months had been the worst as she had been assigned to cleaning the innermost part of the complex. The area where the high nobles of Acritas lived and conducted business. Surrounded by the men and women she considered to be the murderers of everything she held dear, Emily had been forced to clean up after them. Her arms trembled as she once again felt hopelessness welling up inside her. She still could not believe the casualness of that unnamed noble declaring her family's fate to be executed. 

Emily tried to stand again but without using essence overcoming the gravity at the heart of the star complex that was multiplied by all of the assembled high nobles of Acritas was impossible. She took another deep breath thinking about her grandfather. He would not have wanted her to just give up. She needed to survive so that she could find a way out of this hopeless situation. Looking at the polished black floor she saw the two hopeless eyes of a slave reflected back up at her. Clenching her jaw she was determined to overcome this slave girl who would not stop staring sadly at her. She reached down once more trying to latch onto the long unused strength of stone from the edge of the empire. She could feel the essence fighting the insanely strong gravity as it crept through her essence channels spreading strength to her shaking limbs. It finally finished its circuit through her channels and Emily pushed herself to her feet. The act was not easy by any means, but it was possible now that she had essence flowing through her body. She pushed her dirty brown hair out of her face and could feel the sweat dripping down her back from the effort.

Just as Emily stood a sound coming through the two massive black doors at the end of the hallway threatened to steal her focus. The sound of muffled screams and whimpering reached her as she took her first step into the dark hallway and she froze again paralyzed. The sound of the screaming was constant and only grew louder as Emily clenched her jaw and began to work trying to block out the sounds. Duke Rylen Acritas was evil, she had known that since the day her family had been executed and it had only been reinforced everyday she had worked in the capital of Acritas family. Emily needed to escape this place, this life. She started to form a plan as she scrubbed, not noticing the frantic pace that she worked at as the fear overtook her body. She would keep working. She would try and go strong enough to escape by cultivating then when she escaped she could find some way to warn others about Rylen Acritas and maybe if she could grow strong enough she would one day be able to avenge her parents. Emily smiled to herself as she thought of killing the Duke who had taken everything from her. Yes, that was what was going to happen. She would just survive for now. Survive until she could cultivate her essence to a level strong enough to escape this place. 

“Just survive.” 

she whispered to herself as she thought about her family to fuel her anger and give her strength. She hadn’t noticed that the sound of screaming from inside the dark room had finally stopped.

Inside the dark room at the end of the corridor six of the most powerful men in the empire sat around a black stone table that seemed to flow out of the ground like liquid until it suddenly expanded into a perfectly flat block of onyx with six sides. The surface was polished to a glossy sheen, causing the perfectly black material to look almost liquid. The room mirrored the shape of the table with six rough black stone walls that extended high above. 

Viscount Desmond Acritas looked up, he could not even see the ceiling in this monstrous room. As he lowered his eyes back to the center of the glossy black table he felt bile rise in the back of his throat. Averting his gaze to the side to avoid looking at the gruesome scene he and the other high nobles had been summoned to witness, Desmond jumped at the sudden sound of laughter from the monster of a man two seats to his left. Keeping his gaze lowered to avoid offending the bulky figure Desmond could feel the gravitational waves shaking in response to the bulky man’s laughter as if they were laughing with him. Cold sweat formed on his brow just thinking about the enormous power this man controlled, at the slightest provocation the laughing man could destroy a small moon or cause tidal waves to ravage entire coastlines with his power over the gravity. Desmond also had power over gravity as did all Acritas nobles. All acritas were taught to harness the essence of gravity from a young age, there simply was no other path allowed to them. Harnessing the essence of gravity was extremely difficult. More difficult even than that of the Imperial Family’s Light cultivation which most thought to be the most powerful type of essence cultivation in the galaxy. Desmond knew people who thought this was wrong, they need only compare the strength of the Solari family warriors to those of the Acritas family. It had been four hundred years since the two families had clashed in the bloody conquest that led to the Solari Empire. The Acritas had lost that war to superior numbers. While Acritas gravity cultivation was indeed more powerful It was far more difficult. This difficulty led to a higher frequency of cultivators killing themselves attempting to force the essence of gravity under their will, which led to a far smaller Acritas force than the Solari force arrayed against them. 

The laughing abruptly stopped, just as the screams coming from the center of table had a few moments before snapping Desmond out of his distracted thoughts.

“So daughter…” The massive man stood up, the gravity around him causing the light in the room to distort around his black military uniform trimmed in brilliant gold.

“I don’t know about you, but I think we may have the perfect gift for our young nephew for his birthday.” His voice was deep and smooth, conveying his authority as easily as a crown.

A sharp laugh from Desmond’s immediate right caused his hand to grip the arm of the leather chair he sat in tightly.

“I think I have a perfect idea, and we have just the star to suit the young Solari’s needs. A shame he will have to leave the imperial capital and come all the way out to the edge of the empire to retrieve the Star Core himself if he wants to be able to use it in his research before it degrades.” 

A female voice said warmly, the excitement in her voice was clear. Her tone sent chills up Desmond’s spine just as it had when they were growing up and Vikra Acrita, daughter of Duke Ryle Acritas, would ask him to come play with her.  Desmond knew that unfortunately for the young Solari boy any eagerness displayed by this woman would only lead to pain for the intended recipient of her gift.

The gravity in the room shifted as Duke Ryle Acritas made his way directly behind Desmond, a heavy limp in his step as he favored his right leg, and looked down at his youngest daughter with pride.

“I think that we should use Ramil and….. I think it's time we tested Aren’s commitment and stomach for our cause..” Duke Ryle said. 

Desmond could hear the smile in the duke’s voice and grimaced as the image of the Duke’s face came to mind. Duke Ryle had been badly scarred in the last battle of The Conquest, three scars from Eridanus’ Solari’s essence blades marred the right side of his face in three parallel lines down his cheek. A normal blade would have left scars in the form of thin lines but Eridanus blades were made from the essence of stars. When they cut they also melted the skin leaving Ryle with three permanent blistered red lines that pinched the entire right side of his face into an eternal grimace. When the Duke smiled the effect was nightmarish, warping his face into that of a demon.

“You’re excellency.” A muscular man directly across the table from Desmond and where the Duke now stood directly behind his chair said quickly

“I would like to take this responsibility on myself. I hardly think that Aren should be trusted with something this important.” scoffed the Noble.

Desmond shrank back in his chair, unsure if he was doing it instinctively or if he was being pushed down as the pressure coming from the Duke increased.

“Oh so you think that you should be trusted with this?” The Duke said coldly.

“Sir I do thin--” The muscular man's voice abruptly cut off as he shot into the stone ceiling far above. There was a resound snap of bone and crack as the noble was slammed into the ceiling with enough force to shake the room.

The room went silent. None of the nobles dared move or breathe too heavily. They did not want to accidentally upset their Duke when he was in this mood. Everyone present knew of the Ryle Acritas wrath when he was displeased but they were still surprised that he had killed the man so quickly. Perhaps it was because they were dealing with the Solari family. Ryle always seemed to be on edge when they were discussing the Imperial Family as if he took their continued survival as a personal attack against his pride.

Desmond looked up briefly but could not make out the man’s body in the gloomy light above. The Duke's gloved hand suddenly gripped Desmond’s shoulder but he somehow managed to keep himself from reacting physically except for the sweat that began to cover his body. Desmond’s eyes fell to the fresh bloodied corpse in the center of the table that had been tortured until giving up information regarding Corvus Solari’s research and he felt cold. Something warm and wet hit him on the top of his forehead, reaching up with his hand and bringing it down he saw to his horror that it was blood. Desmond looked up in horror only to see the disfigured smiling face of the duke looking down at him. Desmond cringed, and felt fear attempt to overcome him. If the duke took offense at his reaction, then Desmond would surely join his colleague on the cieling. Desmond also knew that the blood would not possibly have fallen from the Duke’s gravitational control unless he wanted it to. Before panic could overcome him the duke patted his shoulder and stepped toward Vikra smiling. 

Suddenly the gravity in the room increased to the point where all of the nobles were crushed back into their chairs. Desmond’s vision grew blurry as he fought to stay conscious.

“I trust you will be able to carry out my instructions.. As Instructed.” calmly stated Ryle Acritas with only a tiny amount of anger bleeding into the end of his words. 

Without another word or letting up the pressure of gravity on his followers Ryle Acritas turned and limped out of the room.

As Ryle left the room he took in a deep breath and reached down to his sword Eclipse. The slightly curved Celesteel blade had been stained black and had gold runes running down the length of the sword allowing for Ryle’s gravity essence to flow through the sword without crushing it. A smile lit on the Duke’s face. It had been over four hundred years since he and eclipse had tasted Solari blood, but the time to drink again was fast approaching. Duke Ryle Acritas limped slowly toward his training room to work out some of his excitement for the months to come out through physical exertion. As he rounded the corner toward his personal training section inside the Star complex he did not notice the body of the young maid that had been caught in the Duke’s gravitational outburst moments before. The body lay broken in a slowly growing pool of blood, dead