I stood in silence as the night deepened beyond the glass walls of my observatory. The stars above the palace shimmered strangely—like someone had stirred the sky with a cosmic ladle. I watched them flicker, one by one, as if blinking in response to a child's dreaming breath.
And downstairs, in the Royal Cradle, my sister dreamed.
Psychic Echo Detected
Resonance Level: Tier 2 – Cross-Dimensional Feedback Present
Mental Link Status: Stabilized
Subject: Elira Vael (Age 1)
Warning: Incoming Memory Stream – Non-local Origin
A golden thread unfurled from the corner of the chamber.
I closed my eyes and let the system link me to her vision.
Her dream was not a child's dream.
She floated in an ocean of light. Above her: shattered moons. Below her: cities of glass and flame. Strange beasts the size of towers moved across deserts of silver sand. In the sky hung rings like Saturn's—only they were made of words. Constantly changing, unreadable.
At the center of the vision stood a throne not made of bone or stone—but of memory.
Sitting on it… was her.
Older.
Wiser.
Crowned in stardust and silence.
She whispered my name—across dimensions, across time.
"James… don't let it break you."
"The mirror doesn't lie, but it never shows the whole."
"You must become more than the prince. You must become the spark."
And then the dream shattered into violet light.
I woke gasping.
Elira stirred in her crib, blinked once, and smiled with too much knowing for a child who could not yet speak.
I activated the System manually.
New Subquest Unlocked: [The Younger Star's Path]
Objective: Decipher 3 Dream Shards from Elira before she reaches Age 3
Reward: Unknown Skill Tree (Primordial-Class)
This was more than just inherited power.
Elira's memories… weren't hers.
They were fragments—lives she might have lived.
Timelines that never came to be.
She was a cosmic nexus.
A soul not bound to a single world.
Just like me.
I knew what had to be done.
Within the hour, I stood in the Vault of the Eternal Forge, where flames never cooled and metals from fallen stars were forged into weapons and armor.
My engineers were waiting.
Artificers. Coders. Mages. All handpicked.
"Begin Project: Resonance Protocol."
Directive Accepted
Sub-Core Frame Design Initiated: TYPE ∞ – Elira-Class
Purpose: Defensive Matrix & Interdimensional Anchor Node
Materials Required: Astralsteel x9, Etherglass Core x3, Starbone x2
Estimated Completion Time: 83 Days
This wouldn't just protect her—it would channel her.
My sister would not be a tool.She would be the lighthouse guiding us between realms.
But even as the forge hissed and roared, my mind wandered.
The last part of the dream still haunted me.
The mirror doesn't lie, but it never shows the whole.
What mirror?
And who was showing her?
Level Up: 38 → 39
+5 Stat Points – Assigned: Agility +2, Mana +3
New Trait Unlocked: Dreambound Link – Allows voluntary access to sibling-linked dream realms (max 1 per day).
Frame Zero Progress: 26% – Star Engine Integration (Locked at 50%)
Dimensional Pulse Detected – Source: Outer Void (Quadrant Δ1)
Risk Level: Unknown