The August heat was stifling, and its sun far too harsh for Aster's sensitive skin, even under the protection of her thick, enchantment-cooled fabrics and the wide-brimmed hat Hermione had bought her during their last visit to Ulthar to see Nepeta, Nailla, and Sirius.
The latter's treatment was working wonders, so much so that Doctor Vibrisse had announced he would be back on his feet by November at the latest. This good news, along with her need to escape the sun, was the reason for her retreat to her study on the upper floor of their small English country house , shutters closed, dozens of documents and legal texts spread out before her, illuminated by the diaphanous glow of a small, downy luminon floating peacefully above her, soothed by the alchemical cloud extract she had given it a few hours earlier.
A farewell gift from Nailla, Aster had mixed feelings about keeping a pet, especially with Crookshanks already in the house, but the luminon had proven to be particularly placid as long as it was well-fed—and very pleasant to the touch, its silky fur soft beneath her fingers. That said, it wasn't very clever, content to drift about the house following her, occasionally letting out sharp whistles when hunger struck.
At least, unlike Crookshanks, it didn't distract her from her work, something Hermione was clearly struggling with a few steps behind her. Seated on the bed, her girlfriend was supposed to be helping by marking the relevant passages in the texts for her current work. But Crookshanks had other ideas. The tomcat had embarked on a slow but relentless campaign, gradually wearing down his mistress's resolve with soft meows, affectionate rubbing, and powerful purring, even going so far as to wedge himself under the book she was holding, replacing it entirely.
It had been a good fifteen minutes since Hermione had given in. The books now lay abandoned on either side of the bedspread, while Crookshanks purred so loudly the very walls seemed to tremble, utterly pleased with himself as he was showered with strokes, scritches, cuddles, and kisses.
Aster set down her quill and pushed aside the document she had been hunched over. Studying the legal avenues to restore Sirius to his rightful place as head of the noble House of Black was certainly important, but to do so, she needed to stay focused. And that was proving impossible when, to her great dismay, she found herself growing increasingly jealous of Crookshanks, who was currently receiving all the attention she wished were hers.
Exhausted from working on this for nearly the entire afternoon, and burning ever hotter with jealousy, she leapt from her desk chair, doing her best to suppress a sigh of frustration as she was once again reminded, of her small stature, by her feet never quite touching the ground.
She padded over to the bed unnoticed and, once within reach, gently scooped Crookshanks into her arms. In a series of swift, decisive movements, without giving Hermione time to react—she deposited him outside their bedroom and shut the door firmly. Then, pressing herself against it, she locked eyes with Hermione, her gaze intense, while muffled meows sounded from the other side.
"Hey! What the...?" Hermione exclaimed, bewildered. "Aster? What's going on?" she asked, blinking as she was pulled from the trance-like state Crookshanks' indulgent affection had lulled her into.
Aster hesitated not a second. With feline agility, she climbed onto the bed, settling onto Hermione's lap in one fluid motion, taking full advantage of her petite stature to nestle against her. Her lips found Hermione's in a slow, lingering kiss. When they parted, Aster revelled in the sight of Hermione's cheeks, flushed a deep peony pink. Her breath came in short, uneven gasps, and her slightly parted lips made her all the more irresistible in Aster's eyes.
One hand lifted to cup Hermione's cheek, tucking away a stray curl of chestnut hair. The other, bolder, settled on Hermione's shoulder, tracing a slow path to the hollow of her neck, then following an invisible line between her shoulder blades before reaching her nape, brushing the base of her hair with reverent tenderness.
When their gazes finally met again, Hermione's eyes sparkled with mischief. "You were jealous of Crookshanks, weren't you? You do know you're not a cat, Aster?" she murmured teasingly, wrapping her arms around her. Her hands wandered along Aster's sides, gliding over the fabric of her flannel pyjamas to rest at the curve of her hips, sending a delicious shiver through Aster. The tremor that ran down her spine was accompanied by a tiny sound, somewhere between a sigh and a purr, almost proving Hermione's words wrong.
"You can't expect me to sit here and work as if nothing's happening while I watch you be completely enthralled by Crookshanks," Aster retorted, a slight huff in her voice. She leaned down, nipping softly at the tender skin where Hermione's neck met her shoulder, savouring the warmth that radiated beneath her lips and fangs. Hermione tilted her head back, offering her better access, one hand reaching up to tangle in Aster's hair, pressing her closer.
"I'm sorry, Aster. You know how much I adore that cat," Hermione murmured, her words spilling between shallow breaths.
Aster felt Hermione arch against her, as if trying to erase the frustrating barrier of clothing still between them, despite the summer heat.
She fought against the visceral urge to sink her fangs into Hermione's neck and taste the crimson nectar beneath, remembering Severus' warnings about the importance of moderating the intake of blood restoration potion Hermione already consumed more than enough of it. So instead, she simply nibbled gently, her thoughts swiftly swept away by the storm of sensation.
Her mind dissolved entirely when Hermione's expert hands worked into her scalp, while the other explored her body with firm gentleness. Her fingers traced slow paths gliding from her hips to the outside of her thighs, then up the length of her back. They followed the curve of her spine, vertebra by vertebra, caressing the nape of her neck before descending once more with that same, excruciating, measured slowness, stopping at the small of her back far too soon for Aster's liking.
But she could not protest, trembling in Hermione's arms like an autumn leaf desperately clinging to its branch against an unrelenting wind, her mind shattered by an overwhelming pleasure, a deep, purring joy, silent and biting.
She could feel words slipping from her lips, yet she had no idea what she was saying, perhaps meaningless syllables, or half-formed pleas. That was, until Hermione silenced her once more, capturing her unfinished words with a tender, possessive kiss.
It wasn't the first time they had lost themselves like this, with it happening more and more often in recent weeks, whenever they were alone and one of them succumbed to impulse, derailing countless conversations, games, studies, and other activities. More rarely, Hermione allowed herself certain liberties at the dinner table, whenever she was feeling particularly playful.
Aster remembered all too well the mortifying occasions when, with calculated ease, Hermione would slip her hand beneath the table to brush against her knee, then slowly trail upwards along her thigh, caressing her gently over her clothes, tracing the curve of her hip—never venturing further, much to Aster's simultaneous relief and despair. She tested Aster's limits, waiting for the moment she would yield and remove her hand by force, her dignity preserved only by her inability to blush.
Aster had often considered returning the favour, but she had never dared—not with Anna in the same room. Instead, she took her revenge in moments like this. Regaining a semblance of control, she used her vampiric strength to flip their positions. In a swift, fluid motion, Hermione found herself on her back, her wrists trapped in a single hand, arms pinned above her head.
Aster straddled her hips, eliciting a delicious gasp of surprise from Hermione before silencing her with a fervent kiss. A glint of mischief flickered in Aster's eyes as she decided to go on the offensive, her fingers dancing lightly along Hermione's sides, just beneath her ribs, launching a carefully placed tickle assault. She felt a rush of satisfaction as Hermione wriggled beneath her, laughing helplessly, squirming like an eel in a futile attempt to escape.
Their playful skirmishes never crossed certain unspoken boundaries; neither of them was quite ready to take that step—but they lingered at the edges, teasing the limits, pressing against them without ever breaking through, to their frustration as much as to their relief. As tempting as it was, there was still so much to explore in their closeness before venturing further. Aster might have been willing to ignore these barriers, had Hermione not held onto them so firmly—out of fear of her mother's reaction.
Anna had been clear: no excess, no rushing.
Aster's thoughts vanished entirely when, in a surprising show of strength, Hermione flipped them over. She now straddled Aster, her curls forming a curtain around her face, her hazel eyes glinting with pine-honey warmth shimmering with undeniable desire, tinged with playful vengeance.
She wasted no time in making her intentions clear, leaning down to nibble gently at Aster's neck, a mirror of one of Aster's own favourite indulgences. The sounds that escaped Aster's lips were of a nature she hadn't believed herself capable of, the kind that would mortify her if anyone else had been there to hear them.
Their game might have lasted much longer, had the bed not suddenly begun to tremble beneath them.
Aster jolted upright, her heart hammering, as books and glass objects rattled on the shelves. The luminon, which had been peacefully floating in the air, darted into its woven basket shelter with a sharp, panicked squeak.
A fine layer of dust drifted from the ceiling.
In an instant, they were both on their feet, senses on high alert. Aster reached for her battle staff only to be struck by a wave of raw magic surging from the ground, crashing through her like a shockwave and knocking her back onto the sheets.
Both of them recovered quickly, exchanging a glance. In the blink of an eye, they were armed and ready for battle, dashing down the staircase at full speed.
Aster, however, was perplexed. The wards protecting the property were powerful—she should have sensed if anything had breached them. Yet, they were clearly still intact. Her confusion only deepened when a cry of joy rang out from the cellar.
She and Hermione rushed towards the source of the sound, only to find Anna standing in the middle of the room, illuminated by the glow of an ancient candelabrum. A thick carpet of mist blanketed the floor, spilling forth from a rectangular opening in the underground wall.
"Mum! Are you all right?" Aster cried out, racing towards Anna, her worry overriding all rational thought. Ever since the resurrection, the mere idea of losing her mother again had become a constant, uncontrollable paranoia.
"I've finally stabilised it! The portal to the edges," Anna announced in a triumphant, almost musical voice. "We are no longer confined to this world!"
Aster felt her face light up, the full implications of those words sinking in. It was only a matter of time before she could see Kav-Deb again.
"Congratulations, Mum!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around her mother.
"Aster, Hermione, get ready, we're paying an old friend a visit!" Anna declared.
That was all Aster needed to hear before she bolted upstairs to change into something more fitting for such a journey. Excitement burned in her chest like a newborn star, the anticipation of seeing the closest thing to a second parental figure, besides Sonya, blazing through her like wildfire.
oOOOo
Hermione was terrified, and that was an understatement.
Perhaps Aster walked beside her with a spring in her step, stars in her eyes, endlessly rambling about this Kav-Deb whose ominous title, Master of the Depths, hardly reassured her—recounting their countless, increasingly absurd adventures. But none of that could distract Hermione from the stark reality that she, a fragile little human, was travelling in the company of two objectively terrifying (albeit adorable) vampires to visit a monster.
From Aster's enthusiastic chatter and Anna's more structured explanations, Hermione had gathered that they were about to meet one of the most fearsome immortal dark mages not of the planet, but of the bloody galaxy. An entity that Hogwarts' scholars would undoubtedly classify as an ancient abomination, a twisted monstrosity with a psyche so warped and fractured that it retained nothing human after eons of existence, an ever-growing amalgamation of blessings and curses from an incalculable number of other entities each more terrible than the last. Those beings had made this thing their herald, anchoring their power across time and space.
Even though this wasn't her first time stepping into the Lisières, she still struggled to grasp the sheer scale of what was happening. Was she truly comprehending that she had been walking for over an hour between Aster and Anna along a stone path likely older than the stellar aggregation that would one day give birth to the solar system and, much later, to that ridiculous cosmic dustball called Earth?
With each step, she brushed against what she now understood to be an unfathomable, other reality one that her limited human mind twisted and simplified to the extreme, until her primate brain could only interpret it as a vast, crystalline lake, smooth and still as a mirror, reflecting stars and galaxies in its darkness.
She could no longer distinguish the boundary between the lake and the sky. Each step spanned light-years, incomprehensible cosmic distances, traversable only through this obscure manipulation of the ultimate edges of reality just before what Aster, with both fear and reverence, called the Beyond.
While Muggles prided themselves on having set foot on the Moon, some wizards had been exchanging knowledge with intelligent extraterrestrial species for millennia. They travelled between solar systems and galaxies, slipping through the unstable and treacherous folds at the frayed edges of the universe, where the very fabric of reality came undone.
Oh, how blind she had been in her childhood her feet planted firmly on Earth, her gaze turned skyward, her mind safe, spared from the knowledge that each of those twinkling points held secrets far more terrifying than their mere nature as titanic spheres of plasma in ceaseless explosion, held together only by the crushing grip of their own gravity.
As their trio ascended through the different layers of the Lisières, Hermione tried to come to terms with the fact that she was about to set foot on an alien world for the first time in her life. She would be one of the rare humans to experience such a thing—her excitement wrestling against the existential terror of knowing it was even possible.
Fortunately or unfortunately her thoughts were interrupted as they emerged into the Asphodel Meadow. Here, the perpetual twilight of the Lisières was absent. She froze, unable to tear her gaze away from the absurd spectacle unfolding before her.
The sky, usually serene and melancholic under its eternal sunset, was… torn.
That was the only word that came to her mind.
The firmament was split, shattered like a broken mirror, fragments of twilight light drifting into infinity. It was as if claws of incomprehensible scale had slashed through the very fabric of reality, exposing beyond the sky of the Lisières an alien universe.
Mad stars and impossible constellations drifted within swirling mists of indescribable, nameless colours.
At an immeasurable distance, where the Lisières seemed to collapse in on themselves—she glimpsed flashes of searing light, like white and golden lightning striking an ocean of shifting, misty darkness. Each flash carried a silent vibration that she felt deep in her bones, her magic, her very soul…
She felt like a tiny crab caught in the foaming tide of a distant storm. A terrible sense of powerlessness seized her. Never had she felt so small, so insignificant.
She could only imagine what force could have so utterly ravaged this part of space.
She knew of comparable beings Lagaelis, for one. She had seen the summoning ritual for that entity, she had witnessed the destruction of Azkaban… and yet, all of that now seemed trivial in comparison to the colossal forces that had fractured the very weave of reality here.
Finding herself unable to speak, Hermione simply cast a pleading look at Aster and Anna, hoping they could explain what had happened here.
To her surprise, Aster who had been positively delighted at the prospect of seeing her abominable master again—now looked as though she had bitten into a lemon, her face twisted with bitter resentment.
"Sonya," she said flatly, as if that single name was explanation enough.
Thankfully, Anna came to her rescue, taking both their hands and urging them forward.
"We shouldn't linger here. This part of the Lisières is highly unstable, and I wouldn't be surprised if abominations started creeping up from the circles of the Beyond should they sense our presence."
"They're not confined beyond the Starry Lake?" Hermione managed to stammer.
"Not here. Sonya and the Radiant did too much damage to the fabric of space-time. We need to move quickly."
"Sonya..." A memory surfaced in Hermione's mind. Aster had mentioned a Sonya before some sort of unofficial master, from whom she had learned knowledge she preferred not to apply.
"The same one Aster knows?" she asked.
"Much to my regret, yes..."
"Don't speak ill of Sonya," Aster muttered through gritted teeth.
"Apologies, apologies." Anna sighed. "Sonya Legravallina is one of Kav-Deb's least reputable acquaintances—what we call a Birthless." She hesitated for a moment, as though carefully choosing her words. "She is… an entity, a shape-shifter. Far less terrifying than Lagaelis, but comparable in nature," she explained, leading them towards a stone ruin resembling a mausoleum.
"And what does Sonya have to do with the state of the Lisières here?" Hermione asked, eyeing Aster.
She couldn't help but wonder how long had her girlfriend been keeping company with the worst possible individuals? More importantly, what on earth could count as a 'bad influence' for a dark mage of Kav-Deb's calibre?
At that moment, Hermione thought she grasped one of the fundamental truths of the universe:
"There is always something greater than oneself, no matter what 'oneself' may be."
As they descended into a concealed passage at the back of the mausoleum one that was, supposedly, meant to return them to their original plane of reality and as Aster remained sulking for reasons Hermione still did not fully understand, Anna continued:
"Sonya is a Birthless. Aster may have already explained the concept to you: the universe is cyclical, following a series of creations and destructions, collapsing upon itself at the end of each cycle to be reborn anew each time shaping new natural laws dictated by the entity that emerges as its core. Normally, everything from the previous universe is destroyed before the next is born. But this isn't an absolute rule.
"Exceptions exist. They can be artefacts—objects that continue to obey the laws of a universe long since gone or, in some cases… beings.
"Sonya is one of them. Just like the Radiant."
"Those two have a grudge against each other. I have no idea why, but every few millennia, they end up clashing. From what Kav-Deb managed to extract from Sonya, the Radiant supposedly destroyed a kingdom Sonya had built in a universe that once was, to take revenge for something Sonya had done to him."
Anna paused, then added with a shrug, "Take that with a pinch of salt these stories predate time itself. They are anything but reliable. If you ask me, it's more likely that Sonya and the Radiant have simply forgotten the reason behind their original quarrel."
"So… this… was the result of one of their battles?" Hermione stammered, terrified.
"Birthless," Anna simply replied, shrugging, as if that single word was explanation enough.
"All I know is that because of this, I haven't been able to see Sonya for years," Aster grumbled, looking thoroughly put out.
"Perhaps, but now, we're about to see Kav-Deb," Anna said with a bright smile, ruffling Aster's hair. A small smile tugged at Aster's lips in response.
As the mist finally cleared, revealing their destination, Hermione had to summon all her self-control not to let out a squeak of horror.
The vast circular chamber was built in an architectural style she didn't recognise. Towering stone columns stretched up to a lofty ceiling, supporting smooth walls curving in elegant, unfamiliar arcs, shaped like objects she could not identify. Great stained-glass windows filtered coloured light into the space—features that might have drawn her interest, had her gaze not been locked on the monster standing just a few metres ahead.
Words failed her.
The thing before her was vaguely humanoid, draped in a robe of blue fabric with an unnatural sheen—but any resemblance to humanity ended with the existence of its four limbs. Its arms ended in monstrous, warped claws, its skin resembling fire-scorched bark, etched with shifting, fluid inscriptions.
Its skull, above its jaw, appeared to have exploded, fragments of its strange bone structure levitating around a misty, glowing orb that pulsed between hues of violet and green.
Despite the lack of eyes, Hermione felt its attention fixed upon her.
She remained frozen in terror until the moment was abruptly shattered by a cry of delight from Aster.
Aster dashed towards the abomination but halted just short, reaching out to place a hand on one of its grotesque claws.
The luminous orb at the top of the creature seemed to contract, its hazy light shrinking into a single, concentrated point of intense brilliance.
Hermione could not see Aster's expression, but the tension in the air was palpable.
For reassurance, she took a small step closer to Anna, ignoring the tiny voice in her mind that pointed out the absurdity of seeking comfort from a millennia-old vampire.
Once again, Hermione felt small. Fragile.
Then, the tension shattered.
A voice reverberated through the air, through the stone of the structure, through her mind—through magic itself. Its timbre was layered, impossible to define.
The words—though unfamiliar—carried meaning on their own.
"You have grown well, my apprentice. You have not allowed yourself to waver. The path of your learning is still long, but at last, we may end this little interlude and resume your lessons. However, before we address that, my little nightbird, there are other matters that must be discussed."
Kav-Deb turned then towards her and Anna, and a shiver ran down Hermione's spine at the sheer intensity of the creature's magic.
She could not see it, only feel it, like the charged hum of raw power radiating from a formidable wizard, as she had sensed from Dumbledore and a few other professors at Hogwarts. But here, in Kav-Deb's presence, the very air seemed warped, like the mirage-like distortions of vision on a sweltering summer's day. She could even smell ozone, feel the tension in the fabric of reality itself, altered by whatever force stood before her.
She shuddered at the thought of what Aster must be seeing, staring at a mage of this calibre—one far beyond anything Hermione had ever encountered.
"For instance," Kav-Deb continued, "explaining what happened to Anna, introducing me to your new companion, and most importantly, telling me why your bond with Lagaelis has changed so drastically."
At those final words, Hermione saw Aster's shoulders twitch with a barely perceptible shudder.
"Of course, Master," she began. "Allow me to introduce Hermione, she is my friend, my disciple, and my lover."
A searing heat flared up Hermione's face, caught somewhere between flattery and sheer mortification at hearing Aster acknowledge their relationship with such confident ease—especially in front of what she suspected was the most terrifying entity she had ever laid eyes on. (Lagaelis and Azkaban, in her mind, did not count as people.)
"Good evening, sir…" she blurted, not quite sure how to address the being before her. Kav-Deb seemed far too familiar.
She wasn't even certain if sir or madam was appropriate—or if Kav-Deb was something else entirely. She felt like a fool, a child, utterly out of her depth.
"Call me Kav-Deb, apprentice of my apprentice," the being replied before turning away from her, gesturing for them to follow, inviting them to sit at a table and share news over refreshments.
…Was Kav-Deb even capable of eating or drinking?
Hermione quickly dismissed the thought, refocusing as their host led them through a wide, spiralling staircase within the towering structure.
Taking advantage of the fact that Kav-Deb was engrossed in conversation with Anna, Hermione seized the opportunity to extract a few answers from Aster.
That was how she learned they were inside a floating fortress—similar in principle to the sky-cities of the Hanse of Svorak, yet held aloft by a different method, one resulting from an ancient pact between Kav-Deb and an unknown entity.
As their small group stepped out onto a balcony, overlooking dizzying heights, Hermione couldn't help but marvel at the sight before her.
Billowing white clouds, thick and creamy, tinged in places with hues of rose, parted occasionally under shifting winds, revealing beneath them an abyss an ocean of black and green waters, rolling with waves so massive they appeared minuscule from this altitude.
When she finally tore her gaze away from the depths, forcing her grip to loosen from the cold stone railing lest she succumb to the call of the void, she made the mistake of looking up.
Above her, in a sky of deep blue marbled with pastel-pink streaks, three suns turned in a slow, ancient waltz.
Arcs of plasma, torn from one and merging into another, ripped apart and reformed in an endless cycle, an eternal battle between mindless, soulless titans, consuming one another across the eons, illuminating the cosmos with their ceaseless, insatiable struggle.
It was at that moment that the realisation struck her.
She was standing on the surface of another world, likely hundreds of light-years from Earth, trying not to stare at alien stars for fear of burning her retinas… and yet, humanity had once celebrated the first man to set foot on the Moon as a world-changing event.
Unable to make sense of what she was experiencing, she discreetly pinched her own hand—on the very real chance that she was dreaming—then quickened her pace to catch up with Aster, slipping her hand into hers, hoping the contact would help her stay grounded in reality.
She got far more than she had bargained for when Aster took the opportunity to pull her close and press a quick kiss to her lips, an effect more potent than any sobering potion.
She was on an alien world. In a floating fortress, owned by an overwhelmingly powerful and likely half-mad mage. Accompanied by her vampire girlfriend, who had just gifted her the sweetest of kisses.
This was her new reality.
To her relief, their small group soon arrived in a round chamber furnished in pastel-mauve wood, the floor covered by a deep brick-red carpet woven from a material she could not identify.
A table, already set, awaited them, chairs neatly drawn back.
Delicate translucent porcelain teacups, finely painted with floral motifs Hermione suspected to be extraterrestrial, surrounded a teapot of the same material, filled with a steaming amber liquid whose spiced, intoxicating aroma filled the air.
On a rose-hued metal tray rested an assortment of small cakes that looked utterly delectable.
She did not have long to wonder how their host planned to partake in the treats and what she assumed was tea, given their particular anatomy.
Kav-Deb picked up a biscuit, which disintegrated almost instantly into the flickering flame within their skull, before reaching for another with evident enjoyment.
With a simple gesture from one of their clawed hands, the teacups slid gracefully into place before each of them, and the teapot, seemingly endowed with a will of its own, poured the enchanting brew into each cup in turn.
Hermione listened only half-attentively to the ensuing conversation.
Anna and Aster eagerly fed Kav-Deb's insatiable curiosity, recounting everything that had happened since their forced separation.
She only spoke occasionally, offering details or responding to Aster's prompts particularly when she explained how she had managed to raise an army to march on Azkaban.
When Aster reached the subject of her recent developments with Lagaelis, she seemed so embarrassed and ashamed to discuss it before her master that it was almost painful to witness.
Kav-Deb remained silent, their burning orb pulsing more intensely, its shifting colours betraying something perhaps an emotion.
Hermione chose to ignore these subtle signals, preferring not to draw hasty conclusions.
Instead, she focused on Aster, who looked as though she might disappear under the weight of Kav-Deb's piercing gaze and Anna's disapproving scrutiny.
Had the situation not been so tense, Hermione might have found amusement in the parallel Aster, confessing her transgressions to Kav-Deb under Anna's stern watch, was not unlike a child being forced to admit to their parents how they had broken the television.
Fortunately, the exquisite flavours of the cakes infused with tastes she had never encountered before and the sublime tea, which felt like drinking the essence of divine spices, provided a welcome distraction.
The sheer wonder of gazing out the window, onto a landscape that defied logic, helped dull the second-hand discomfort she felt on Aster's behalf.
Earlier, before the conversation had taken a more serious turn, Kav-Deb had mentioned ordering these pastries and the tea directly from a prestigious supplier in Kudra-Langkor, then suspending them in time to ensure they would be perfectly fresh upon their return—regardless of how long they had been away.
Ever curious, Hermione had questioned Kav-Deb about Kudra-Langkor, feeling slightly braver now that their host seemed a little less terrifying after she had watched them gleefully devour pastries without a hint of restraint.
However, Kav-Deb's brief explanation did little to illuminate the subject for her. Apparently, Kudra-Langkor was a powerful city-state and commercial hub on a planet called Tsuna? And, surprisingly, it had a significant human population because, it seemed, long before the establishment of the Statute of Secrecy, various groups of humans had travelled through the Lisières for a myriad of reasons, disappearing forever or settling on entirely new worlds.
Her fingers itched—she desperately wanted to beg Kav-Deb to direct her to the nearest library where she could find serious books on the subject… But now was not the time.
Aster had finally finished recounting her dealings with Lagaelis, and Kav-Deb had launched into a formidable scolding, their voice deep and terrible, chastising Aster for her lack of caution and foresight—for too often charging ahead without proper contingencies.
They explained that had she followed their advice more carefully, she would never have ended up in situations where Lagaelis could wield such power over her.
Hermione was startled to hear Kav-Deb claim that Aster was lucky that Lagaelis was the entity at the source of her dark magic—implying that most other entities would have been far less merciful.
She swallowed hard, her gaze drifting over Aster's jet-black, scale-marked arm, up to the faint pink scar running through the centre of her forehead, and she wondered what less accommodating beings might have done had Aster found herself in a similar predicament with them.
She preferred not to think about it.
Kav-Deb concluded their lecture with a reluctant concession: Aster had indeed been unfortunate, and given her desperate situation along with the imperative of bringing Anna back—there were mitigating circumstances.
Not to mention that Lagaelis was exceptionally devious, and Kav-Deb did not rule out the possibility that he had manipulated events in his favour, rather than simply taking advantage of circumstances as they arose.
Still, as punishment, Aster was assigned a series of books to read on entities and dark magic contracts.
Aster pouted, but Hermione failed to see how that could be considered a punishment.
After that, the conversation eased into calmer territory, with Kav-Deb commending Aster for successfully bringing back Anna and for handling the ICW's attack on their home as well as she had.
They muttered about the recklessness of meddling with daemons, but admitted that under the circumstances, the extreme measure of using Sonya's artefact had been justified.
Hermione wasn't sure what to think.
She had asked Aster about daemons on several occasions, but her girlfriend had always been evasive telling her she wasn't ready to know, or that it was better if she didn't.
Which, in fact, was currently a point of tension—perhaps even an ongoing argument between them.
Maybe, just maybe, if she could convince Kav-Deb that she was serious, they might grant her access to knowledge on the subject—knowledge she suspected would be utterly fascinating.
From the little she had pieced together from her strained conversations with Aster, just knowing about the existence of daemons already placed her in danger.
Some of them, being achronic, were capable of ensuring their own summoning into the material plane retroactively.
That was, admittedly, terrifying—but not terrifying enough to dull her curiosity.
The discussion then drifted towards the logistics of resuming Aster's training under Kav-Deb. It was difficult to set aside a few hours per week, given Aster's many obligations, but Anna's increasing involvement within the Order of the Asphodel was already easing the burden considerably.
Aster suggested that Hermione join her lessons, but Kav-Deb firmly refused, insisting that she was Aster's apprentice, not theirs.
Hermione felt a pang of disappointment at that, but also a slight relief—knowing that the dynamic between her and Aster wouldn't be completely upended.
To her delight, however, Aster and Anna took advantage of Kav-Deb's refusal to convince them to grant Hermione access to their library (on the condition that Aster supervised her). The very thought of being able to explore the collected works of the most powerful mage she had ever encountered made her thrill with excitement.
As Hermione poured herself another cup of the delicious infusion, Anna spoke:
"We should consider opening a safer passage through the Limbes to connect my portal to yours. The damage from Sonya and the Radiant's battle has faded somewhat, but the instability still makes the journey far too dangerous."
"Do you really think that's necessary? The Limbes are crystallising again—the path will soon return to its natural state," Kav-Deb countered.
"That process will take decades. Your sense of time is far too warped—you really ought to leave your fortress more often. When was the last time you ventured outside?"
"This sort of project, aside from being complicated, presents a risk in and of itself. A stabilised passage through the Limbes could allow certain inhabitants—or unwanted travellers—to slip through one of our gates," Kav-Deb replied, pointedly ignoring Anna's last remark.
"The risk remains lesser than the danger of making hundreds of crossings through a reality fractured enough to cause Beyond reflux," Anna shot back.
"We do plan to visit much more regularly…" Aster added, backing her up.
Kav-Deb was about to respond when, all at once, both they and Aster froze.
Their gazes locked onto a single point in the ceiling.
Hermione exchanged a glance with Anna, seeing the same lack of understanding in the vampire's eyes though now tinged with growing concern.
One minute passed. Then another.
The silence grew heavier.
The only sound was the distant, almost imperceptible whistling of the wind.
Hermione could feel the tension thickening in the room, saw Anna's jaw clench as Kav-Deb's burning orb seemed suspended, frozen mid-flame, while Aster's pupils dilated until her irises became nothing more than thin rings of brilliant green around the abyssal black of her eyes.
Hermione opened her mouth to ask what was happening but before she could speak, both Aster and Kav-Deb stood up in unison, the legs of their chairs scraping sharply against the stone floor.
Without a word, they strode towards a towering, arched doorway, its entrance concealed by a thick mauve curtain.
With a swift movement, Aster pulled it aside, revealing the vastness of the sky and the balcony railing beyond.
Hermione and Anna followed instinctively, though without understanding why.
Hermione felt her throat tighten, her stomach clench, every hair on her body stand on end despite the absence of any cold.
Then, she noticed it.
The whistling sound, which she had been vaguely aware of for the past several minutes, was growing louder.
What had once been barely audible was now a faint ringing in her ears.
When they joined Aster and Kav-Deb on the balcony, both seemed intensely focused on something high in the sky, far above the tallest spires of the floating fortress.
Hermione noticed then that Aster was gripping her battle staff, the runes etched into it crackling with magical energy, while Kav-Deb was shrouded in an invisible, ice-cold aura that made Hermione shiver despite the warmth of her jumper.
The once diffuse, almost welcoming presence of the entity was now focused—razor-sharp, honed to a lethal precision, like the tip of a spear.
Following Aster's gaze, Hermione spotted, high above, a faint mist—barely perceptible, just a slight greying of the sky's blue.
A simple high-altitude cloud, she thought at first—until she remembered that at such heights, only cirrus clouds should exist: thin, elegant white streaks composed of ice crystals suspended in the upper atmosphere, casting breathtaking displays when lit by the setting sun.
This mist, however, was nothing like that.
It was growing. Expanding rapidly.
A subtle shift in Aster's stance made Hermione realise there were two other similar formations in different parts of the sky.
Then a sudden flash of light caught her attention.
The first cloud had swollen into a colossal mass, and now, streaks of violet lightning, brief but of unimaginable intensity, ripped through its surface.
At first sporadic, the arcs multiplied, until the storm resembled a vast, roiling mass of pure electrical fury, some bolts twisting and writhing for long seconds before vanishing.
The once faint whistling in Hermione's ears had deepened into a low, ominous rumble, reminding her of those childhood nights when she had watched distant storms from her doorstep, mesmerised by the towering clouds, imagining the raging deluge and electric chaos hidden behind their cotton-like walls.
The rumble swelled, deepened. Flashes of violet surged within the billowing storm.
"They followed us..." Aster whispered, horror lacing her voice, as giant shadows began to form within the swirling clouds, which had now merged to blanket the sky.
"I knew they'd find this place eventually..." Kav-Deb growled, their voice now even more terrifying than the magical storm raging above them.
Hermione didn't need to ask who they were. She saw it unfold before her very eyes.
Slowly, through the maelstrom of mist, magic, lightning, and raw power, they emerged. What had been only vague black silhouettes seconds ago now took shape. Three immense constructs of ochre ceramic, leviathans of the skies, each stretching across several kilometres, cast monstrous shadows across the heavens, their massive forms defying all logic. Dark titans, which by all reason should not have been able to float, and yet, they did. Rising steadily from the storm, their hulls still crackling with furious arcs of electricity.
Then, suddenly, the storm was sucked inwards.
In a whirling vortex of energy, the mist collapsed, consumed into nothingness, and with a deafening crack, a thousand thunderclaps struck at once. A divine artillery of sound tore through the sky, its sheer force rattling Hermione's entire body. Her ears rang from the impact.
When she lifted her gaze once more, the sky had returned to its pristine blue, but now it was dominated by three colossal Khrè Yujul Imperial Warships. They advanced in formation, moving in elegant, calculated arcs despite their formidable size.
Encircling Kav-Deb's fortress.
Taking position.
Securing altitude advantage.
Hermione understood.
They were here to strike.
"Are we doomed?" Hermione heard Anna murmur.
"Not yet," replied Kav-Deb.
From within their robes, as though drawing from a bottomless well, Kav-Deb produced an elongated metal tablet, three times the size of the parchments Hermione was accustomed to. Its surface was etched with a web of delicate symbols, inscribed in a dark material she recognised from Aster's explanations as the infamous deathstone.
"Three warships…" she heard Aster mutter, her voice trembling. "They've come to blast this place to the last atom."
"I have contingencies for such an eventuality. Once I launch this array confluence to slow them down, listen carefully to my instructions: you must buy me time," Kav-Deb commanded, their voice sharper than diamond.
Not waiting for a response, they raised the metallic tablet, which began to levitate before them.
The symbols ignited with light as an overwhelming surge of magic gathered, so dense that the air reeked of ozone, thick and intoxicating. Hermione's legs felt weak, her tongue tinged with the metallic taste of copper, a sensation akin to thousands of sparks dancing along the back of her neck.
Kav-Deb's magic had become visible, spinning through the air in whorls of raw energy, threading through the metal, coalescing into intricate circles and geometric constructs, luminous glyphs suspended mid-air.
The vast, woven structure of power shifted, turning towards the Khrè warships with a sizzling hum, as though Kav-Deb were manipulating something of immeasurable mass.
Then, the air itself tightened, like a drawn string about to be released, for a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then, a blinding flash.
The metallic tablet and the magical construct combusted, giving form to the spell.
A fractal bloom of raw energy, as terrible as it was magnificent, erupted across the atmosphere, expanding across kilometres in an instant, reaching the Khrè warships in less than a heartbeat.
The impact struck against condensed magical shields, similar in principle to Aster's Aegis, but of an infinitely greater scale. The fractal lattice of light seemed to fracture the air itself, momentarily solidifying, and then...
Hermione barely had time to see before Kav-Deb, with a rapid motion, cast a shield, an opaque dome of magic around their small group. She realised her mistake in calling it opaque, for even through its darkness, she could perceive the infinite fractal of luminous energy beyond it.
Then came the detonation.
A soundless white explosion.
A split second later, the shockwave hit.
Hermione only understood what had happened after the fact, when she realised that Kav-Deb had shielded them not just from deafness, not just from blindness, but from total incineration.
In the ten-kilometre gap that had once separated them from the Khrè warships, the very air had been transmuted into plasma as hot as a star's surface, before being hurled in cascading waves towards the ships.
Between them and their attackers, a gaping void now stretched, an infernal maelstrom of superheated air, raw energy igniting into an apocalyptic aerial vortex.
When Kav-Deb finally dissipated their barrier, the airscape had changed entirely.
The once-endless sea of clouds beneath the fortress had vanished, revealing, far below, a vast expanse of steam, obscuring an ocean brought to a rolling boil.
The sky itself was fractured, its deep blue gone, dissipated, exposing the unfathomable darkness of space beyond.
The Khrè warships were still there, but their erratic trajectory betrayed their shock at what had just occurred. Hermione had no time to process the scene before Kav-Deb's voice abruptly pulled her from her thoughts.
Their body was smouldering, the fabric covering them seemed to have been burned away, revealing a blackened and monstrous silhouette. More strikingly, Hermione recognised the dozens of power stones, now white and brittle, falling from necklaces and bracelets scattered across their limbs. Dozens upon dozens, completely drained in a single spell.
"Anna, Aster, Hermione, give me a location on Earth where my fortress can crash without causing too much destruction."
"What?" Aster exclaimed. Anna simply stood beside her, stunned into silence by the statement. Hermione was still trying to grasp the meaning of the request, unable to comprehend its full implications.
"I am going to use all of the fortress's core magic to activate the algemetric confluence of emergency arrays and create a spatiotemporal rift to bring the fortress to Earth."
"What?" Hermione murmured, finally realising the weight of Kav-Deb's words and the sheer absurdity of what they were proposing. This lunatic was planning to teleport a mass of several million tonnes across interstellar distances without passing through the Lisières. The idea was madness, and yet, she could not bring herself to doubt that this being was capable of such a feat.
"We will not hold out. My plasmic wave spell will only slow them down. At best, we have a few hours against the Khrè Imperial warships. And there is no point in hoping to escape through the Lisières. The Empire always ensures that its targets are cut off from that option."
"Siberia," Aster and Anna said at the same time.
"It is the largest unsupervised magical reserve, along with the heart of the Pacific," Anna added. "If there is a place on Earth that can absorb the crash of a flying fortress without drawing too much attention, it is there."
"Good. Anna, you will help me calibrate the teleportation. Aster, Hermione, you take control of the citadel's defences. Buy us as much time as possible. The Khrè will need a moment to reactivate their ships, but they will likely send their golems in the meantime."
Without waiting for a response, Kav-Deb seized Anna by the arm and pulled her with them through a staircase that had appeared in the wall, giving her no time to protest.
Aster and Hermione were left alone, side by side on the balcony, their gazes lost in the ravaged sky. In the distance, the titanic silhouettes of the Khrè Yujul Imperial warships seemed to quiver, their shields flickering as they began recovering from the impact of Kav-Deb's spell. Aster clenched her fists, her jaw tightening.
"They dared to ruin my reunion with Kav-Deb. Let us show them what hell looks like."