The world was light and noise and pressure… then silence.

Crestia gasped, her lungs seizing as if the air itself refused to fill them. She collapsed to her knees, her palms striking the cold, smooth surface beneath her. Her body felt wrong—as if her skin were one step removed from reality. The familiar pulse of mana, usually a comforting current beneath her skin, felt… thin. Faint. Distant.

Her horns, always aglow with the subtle hum of her magic, now flickered weakly, struggling.

Her voice came in a rasp. “I-is everyone alright?!”

Around her, the others were in various states of collapse.

Fizz lay on her back, her mechanical goggles cracked, gasping like a fish out of water. "Wh-what… the hells was that?"

Skrill was curled up, his small frame trembling, eyes flicking wildly around the ships bridge. The goblin’s ears twitched, and he gripped his tools like a lifeline.

Stonebloom was already pushing himself upright, his broad chest heaving but steady. "We’re… alive," he rumbled, his deep voice strained but firm. "Somewhere."

Paeris, slumped against a curved wall, groaned dramatically. “Well… I suppose that counts as landing.” His voice was rough, but the grin was still there. “Stars above, I think I bit my tongue.”

Ros’Lyn crawled to Crestia’s side, her hands already glowing with faint healing magic—but the spell flickered and stuttered, weaker than it should be. She hissed through her teeth, pressing harder. “Cres, you alright?”

Crestia’s hand shot out, gripping Ros’Lyn’s wrist. “Save your strength. Something’s… wrong.”

The bridge of the ship was well lit and systems seemed to be functioning. The interior hummed softly, the colsoles and stations lined with glowing runic patterns that pulsed… erratically.

The air tasted odd—thin, metallic, tinged with ozone. And beyond the crystalline viewport… stars.

Thousands of them.

Fizz’s voice broke the silence, small and stunned. "No… no, no, no. That’s impossible.”

Crestia’s eyes lifted, following the goblin's gaze to the crystalin view port at the front of the bridge. And her chest seized. They weren’t in the cavern. They weren’t even on the same world. She could not see any ground, just endless night extending before them.

The sky—if it could be called that—was a tapestry of endless pinpricks of light. Far more than The Realms had ever known. Stars. A galaxy of gods.

Paeris’s voice, soft and shaken: “...How many gods could a place like this hold?”

Stonebloom’s expression darkened, his eyes heavy with thought. “Maybe this is a world of Gods alone.”

Ros’Lyn’s fingers sparked as she attempted a more complex healing spell, but the mana flowed thinly, like sand through clenched fingers. She frowned, frustration flickering across her face. “My spells…”

“They’re weaker,” Crestia finished grimly. "I can feel it too." She closed her eyes, reaching inward, searching for her well of power. It was there—but diluted. Strained.

Fizz cursed, slamming her fist against the floor. “The ship’s systems are glitching—the wards aren’t stable! We shouldn’t even be breathing right now!” She scrambled to a nearby console, jumping into the navigator's seat and began dragging her fingers along runic controls. "We have spells failing across the board. Skrill! Check life support!"

Skrill, his panic fading into sharp focus, darted to one of the crystalline control pillars. His hands blurred over the carved runes. “Wards… fading. Life support…” His voice turned panicked. “Failing.”

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A soft, resonant pulse rippled through the chamber.

Then, a voice—not from the speakers, but from everywhere.

"I… feel you…"

Crestia’s head snapped up, her silver eyes narrowing. “Veyrin?”

The large, shadowy cat-like form of her familiar appeared—part spirit, part intellect, its translucent form flickering. Veyrin’s green eyes, usually sharp and playful, were wide and… changing.

“I can’t… hold this form,” Veyrin’s voice echoed, fracturing. “But I feel the ship. It's magic… it’s alive, but scattered. It needs… a core.”

Crestia’s eyes widened. “A core?”

Fizz, understanding instantly, cursed. “The ship was designed for a full crew—ten mages and technicians, working together, running layered spells to stabilize it. We’re half that, and the ship’s mana systems are collapsing!”

Stonebloom grunted. “Then we need to stabilize it. Now.”

Veyrin’s translucent form began to fray, becoming ribbons of shadow. “I can… bind myself to it. The ship is designed for magic. So am I. Together, we can—”

Crestia’s eyes blazed. “No! What if we can’t separate you again?!”

Veyrin’s voice was gentle. “Crestia. Trust me.”

Without waiting for further argument, Veyrin surged forward, his body dissolving into wisps of shadow and light—and plunged into the ship’s core.

The effect was immediate.

The runes across the walls flared—bright, chaotic, then steadying. The air, which had grown thin, suddenly felt richer, breathable.

The ship’s vibrations smoothed, and a low, melodic hum filled the chamber.

Fizz’s eyes shot to her controls. “Life support… stable. Shields… stable.” She paused, blinking. “The ship feels different.”

A voice, familiar but layered with something new, echoed from the very walls:

"I am here."

Crestia looked around the chamber frantically. "Veyrin? What did you do?" Her voice shook as she struggled to get out the words.

"I have bonded with the ship, I flow through it's walls, I can see the whole of it." Veyrin's voice was calm, composed.

Fizz began to calm down. "He did it, he stabilized the systems." She rotated her chair to face Crestia. "This ship normally requires multiple skilled and trained people to operate it, monitor spells, make adjustments and changes, but Veyrin is managing most of the systems on his own. He just saved all of our lives."

Crestia's eyes glistened with gathering tears.

"Thank you, Rin." She said quietly to the air. "But I wish you hadn't done that."

Veyrin's voice was clam as he spoke. "It was mutually beneficial. This... place... the magical weave here is weaker, thinner, frayed at the edges. Had I not anchored myself to a magical source, I would have dissipated into the ether in moments. This was the most logical solution for all of our survival."

Crestia nodded solemnly, placing her hand on a control panel. She could feel her familiar there, flowing through the ship, and she nodded.

"Yes, wonderful, we are all alive, huzzah, now can someone tell me where the hells we are?!" Paeris was clearly still shaken and in a bit of a panic, but it had done nothing to lessen his usual sarcasm.

"Right," Crestia said, her mind snapping back to immediate matters. She took a seat in the captain's chair, needing to get her bearings in every sense of the word. "Fizz, are you getting anything from the external scrying stones that can tell us where we are?"

Fizz pressed a few runes on her panel and brought up some data on the forward viewport.

"No atmosphere, no gravity, we seem to be floating in some sort of void." She said, her mind focusing on her work, which always helped calm her. "But it isn't completely empty. We seem to be surrounded by a debris field." She examined the data closely.

Ros'Lyn limped towards the viewport, her leg still not fully healed, and looked at it with a mixture of awe and horror. "So many stars..." she said.

The reality of what had happened began to sink in for Crestia. She had done it. She had found a reality separate from their own. A sense of pride and validation ran through her. "We did it." she whispered to herself with a grin. Then that reality took hold and the grin faded. "Oh gods... the portal." she thought.

"Fizz," she said, trying to keep the panic from her voice. "is the portal still open?" She gripped the armrests of her seat, claws trying to dig into the hard metal of the structure.

For a moment Fizz said nothing as she worked the controls. She rotated her chair and gave her head a small shake. "It... it closed behind us. The cave must have collapsed and broke the ritual circles."

Everyone was silent as it began to sink in. She had done it. She had proven her theories to be correct. There were other worlds, and in the process, she had trapped herself and her friends in one of them. Crestia swallowed hard, trying to maintain her composure.

She had created this problem because of her arrogance and hubris, now she was going to get them out of it. Skrill was the first to break the silence.

"Reading energy pulse from floating thing." he jabbed at a few runes on the wall panel he was working at and an image appeared on the viewport.

It was a strange metallic construct floating in the void among the debris.

"It seems to be emanating electromagnetic waves in a deliberate pattern. I do not believe this is a natural phenomenon." Veyrin said in confirmation. "This may be another craft of some sort. We are not alone." He said, his normally calm tone had a tone of cautious reservation.

Just then they saw the craft begin flashing pulsing lights in their direction.

"I think... it's trying to communicate." Fizz said cautiously. "Let's say hello."