As soon as they left hyperspace, Lia felt Fornax’s pressure on her mind. Immediately she used her own magic to create a mental barrier between her and him. The whispers of how she would belong to him lessened somewhat but stayed in the background.

The captain swore next to her. “This is really uncomfortable.”

The HTVs came online a moment later. The broken planet laid deceptively calm in front of them, illuminated by the orange sun it belonged to. A moment later gravity ceased. Lia held onto the handle mounted to the captain’s seat. The personnel and the captain strapped themselves in.

A moment later they got the information as to why everyone was floating: “Engine room to bridge. The donar have fallen unconscious, we’re trapped here.”

The fall captain nodded, his expression grim. “Get the medics and keep them asleep until our business here is finished or until we’re far enough away from this place.”

Lia gulped. Fornax seemed far more powerful than the last time she was here. Would she even be able to get close enough?

Captain Hawking tapped on the armrest. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to get closer with the whole ship and crew. This feels far more dangerous than I remember.”

“He’s pissed.” Lia ground her teeth. “He knows why we’re here, and he’ll do anything to prevent me from succeeding.” And at the same time, he’d try to get her.

“What’s your plan?” Roger Hawking looked at her.

“I need to get closer.” She pressed her lips together. “The best way would be to approach him with a shuttle, but I have no idea, how to pilot one.”

There was a long period of silence. No one wanted to get closer to Fornax. Lia couldn’t blame them. She didn’t want to get closer, either. But she had to.

“Guess I have to step up once again.” Captain Hawking undid the straps and floated slightly upwards, straightening.

“Captain?” someone of the crew asked.

“I trust you can manage the ship without me, but the burden of the captain is making the hard decisions and to protect his crew.” He turned away from partly stunned looking people. “Come.”

Lia nodded and left the bridge with him. She looked back for a moment, but no one else moved. It made her feel even more anxious than before. That they didn’t talk all the way to the shuttle made it even worse.

Only when they arrived at the hanger, did Roger Hawking turn to her. “I hope you have more of a plan than just having to get closer.”

“Not much,” she admitted and closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on her door. “This is an opponent like no other, but I will try to hit him where it will hurt him most.”

Roger Hawking gasped when she opened her eyes again. “Right now you seem as otherworldly as that thing out there.”

Hearing him say that hurt her a bit, but she understood. “Let’s just hope that I’m otherworldly enough,” she answered with a sad smile and walked to the shuttle.

The captain chuckled behind her. “For what it’s worth, you just gave me a bit of hope. You might not only be able to deal with this Fornax, but maybe also with the council. I, for one, wish you the best of luck.”

Lia didn’t answer as she entered the shuttle, donned one of the space suits there, and took the seat next to the pilot’s, strapping in.

Roger Hawking sat down next to her, also in a space suit, and started the shuttle’s engine.

Lia ignored the communication and further preparations for their takeoff. She was putting Roger into danger, but it was necessary. She knew she could get closer with her powers alone, but that would cut into her reserves. Still, she had to battle her conscience in addition with her anxiety.

It felt like an eternity until the shuttle began to move toward the opening wall. The admiral’s ship had an old-fashioned hangar – probably because mages could be impaired.

When Lia saw Fornax directly, through the windows of the shuttle, he looked a lot different than just a broken planet: It looked like a pulsing black hole with a purplish glowing event horizon and thousands of tentacles lashing out and into the void of space.

With her heart racing, Lia stared at the true look of her opponent. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, and she wondered how Orphelia had managed to fight through that feeling and still walk to her own doom.

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“Are you alright?” Roger looked at her for a moment.

“No, I’m not okay,” she managed to say between heavy breaths. “I am just realizing, no I am seeing, what I am really up against.”

“We can still turn arou–”

“No. I have to do this. I have no other choice.”

“The admiral told me that you feel that way,” the fall captain answered.

“No, I’m not just feeling that way, I know. I can see the future. I really have no other choice!”

The pirate captain didn’t answer for a long time while they moved closer toward the broken planet. Then he whispered a simple, “I am sorry.”

Lia didn’t answer. It was just an empty phrase. He might feel sorry, but he wasn’t responsible and he was already doing what he could. Lia bit her lower lip and tried to get her breathing and her emotions under control. This would be the last battle. Maybe even her last battle.

Looking into the future didn’t prepare her for this, even though she already felt this way several times. But feeling it for real was still worse.

When the first tentacles came into range, she started to undo the seat’s straps, failing several times. Her hands shook while trying to navigate the bands and buttons, but she finally managed to get free.

“This is as far as you’ll accompany me,” she told Roger Hawking, and when she looked into his face, she saw that he was at his limit. His jaw was set, his forehead glistened with sweat, and she needed to put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. When he looked at her, she told him again: “Turn around. I’ll do the rest on my own.” He didn’t react, so she grabbed one of his hands and made him turn the shuttle around before using her magic to shield his mind from the dark mist all around it. Only then did he give her a nod. She nodded back.

Making her way to the back of the shuttle, she put the helmet on, entered the airlock and left the shuttle, before her own panic could overwhelm her.

It took a moment, but when she finally drifted away from the shuttle and toward Fornax, she was overcome by a strange calm. Her magic pushed against the oncoming tentacles and gravity formed in front of her, pulling her toward her opponent.

The closer she got, the more magic she had to spent on protecting herself. Purple tentacles of gravity magic rushed past her. Time magic warned her just enough in advance that she was able to dodge them. Meanwhile an undirected stream of mind magic pushed against her and she had to constantly push back.

The closer she got, the more she had to dodge. Rocks from the broken planet were hurled at her, and she had to break some of them apart to pass by them. At least the atmosphere had dissipated and there was no water or plasma –

Lia stopped, just in time for a stream of plasma from the sun to pass her by. Her spacesuit got alarmingly warm, but she managed to push past it. Fornax could reach far further with his magic than she thought, and he didn’t show any signs of tiring.

Gritting her teeth, she allowed herself to fall faster toward the gravity-well she created before her, speeding toward the planet. It made it harder to dodge the many attacks Fornax was throwing at her, though she was probably still lucky that he didn’t go all-out against her. He still wanted her.

When the broken planet filled all of her vision, many of Fornax’s attacks stopped, but the attack on her mind increased. It was as if all the magic that he had radiated in all directions before that was now focused on her. The pressure on her mind was so strong that it felt as if she was leaving her rapidly moving body behind.

Lia pushed against it with her own magic. She still needed to get closer. Holding onto her own body, she was breathing hard, glad that she didn’t need to manage her air as well.

The closer she got, the more her vision narrowed. With her tunnel vision it was hard to remember that she had to slow down. In the end it saved her that Fornax still speculated on winning her body.

When she unceremoniously crashed into the surface of a larger chunk of the planet, she almost lost her consciousness, as the air was forced out of her lungs. While still pushing against the pressure on her mind, she got back to her feet. What was left of the planet had still its own gravity.

The pressure on her mind told her where to go. Putting one feet in front of the other, she moved into the direction, her body fighting hard against the constant use of mana, but at least she managed to get far further than in her visions.

After a while it felt as if she was dragging herself toward the crevasse at the edge of the rock she was on and fell to her knees. She crawled over the edge and looked down in the glowing darkness below her, and at Fornax’s core. This still wasn’t close enough, but it got harder and harder to continue.

She took a deep breath and pulled herself further. The only way for her to continue was to have faith in Fornax’s wish to have her. That he would keep protecting her body even while she closed in on his core.

Lia took a deep breath, pressed her lips together and pulled herself over the edge. Gravity pulled her toward the core while another force tried to pull her back. Her mind felt as if it was torn apart, and the feet and hands of her spiritual body eroded. Concentrating on protecting her core, her head and chest, she continued on, while her body hit the walls of the chasm like a rag doll. Fornax did little to protect her, and she herself did only the bare minimum. Her suit held, but some of her bones didn’t. The pain assaulted her mind as well, giving Fornax another edge.

Somehow she held onto her own self until she was finally in range. Mobilizing all the power she had, her defenses fell apart, and she pushed against Fornax’s core, against his door, slowly closing it.

The pressure on her mind, or what was left of it, lessened, but she kept concentrating on her magic. As time passed, she forgot why she was there, forgot who she was, but she still knew that she had to close the door in front of her. Even when the pressure on her mind faded completely, and all she remembered was that she had to shut the door of the other presence, while said presence pushed back, she continued on.

And then, finally, with a resounding boom, the door she had been pushing against, closed completely. The light in front of her faded, and she thought she heard a frustrated voice somewhere in the distance.

Then, with all the pressure gone, and all her reason for still being there gone, the light of her core flickered a few more times, and went out.