Free Star Rising: Heartless by Cesar Gonzalez Page A

who are born with energy abilities and transfer that ability to themselves.”
    “How? I would have thought that impossible.”
    “I assure you, it is not impossible. The only thing we don’t know is how they do it.”
    The boy’s hand subconsciously travelled to his chest. The entire situation sounded eerily similar. Images of a fateful night back on Vintra flashed through his head. He felt the heat of the campfire as he and Rund sat beside it. He recalled the screams as the flames reached out to him. No, not to him, but into him. They travelled into his chest. The device within him had turned a deep red, easily visible through the skin.
    “Young man?”
    Xalen shook his head, the forest disappeared, giving way to the musky office. “Yes, yes.” He tried to calm his breaths. Though this revelation had visibly put him on edge.
    “I know that you possess a similar ability. It is because of this, that before I can accept you into Alioth, you must understand that you will serve all the races, not just humans. And more importantly.” Her brown eyes met his. “You must never seek out the Black Sanction. You may think they may have some answers as to your own past, but I assure you that is not the case.”
    There was a moment of silence. He thought back to the countless hours he’d spent thinking of his past and strange ability. Then he said what the woman wanted to hear, “I will not seek out the Black Sanction.” Even as he said the words though, he wasn’t convinced he would honor them.

Chapter 5
     
    Beatrix stared out the window. Her eyes closed and opened rapidly as she struggled to accept what she was seeing. She should back at home, hunting Antlans through the deep forest, or honing her sword skills in the training pit. But instead she was aboard a Bastion ship, gazing blankly out the window, her eyes settling on distant swirling blue gasses. In each corner of the square vessel stood an armed Bastion soldier. As if the elderly folk and children possessed an actual threat. Most of her people sat on two long, cushioned seats that were bolted, back to back, to the floor.
    A hand landed on her shoulder.
    “Beatrix,” came her mother’s muffled voice.
    The young girl turned slowly. Her mother held her hands up, a bowl of white oatmeal resting in her palms. “Eat, Beatrix. We have many hours left in the voyage. You need your strength.”
    The girl took a whiff of the creamy concoction and her stomach growled. She was beyond hungry. But she wasn’t about to take anything from the Bastion. She might not have her father or her land, but she still had her Palek pride. “I’m not hungry.”
    Her mother rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Beatrix. Don’t do this. You haven’t eaten since we left. You have to eat.”
    “I said I’m not hungry,” she said with finality. She had no interest in getting in an argument, but she knew her father would have never taken handouts from the Bastion, and she was would not dishonor her papa by stomping on his memory. She was her father’s daughter, after all.
    Her mother began to speak, but she didn’t finish. A sudden screeching blast rang in her ear, followed by a tremor that reverberated through the hull of the ship.
    Beatrix barely had enough time to recognize the screeches as the result of beeping bombs, when the lights of the ship went completely black. The deep blue emergency lights burst on, covering the ship in a dark tint. The hum of the engines died out, replaced by the ragged breathing of the scared passengers
    “What’s going on?” demanded a voice that Beatrix assumed belonged to one of the guards.
    “Someone just hit us with a beeping bomb,” mumbled the pilot, disbelief in his voice. “I don’t know how. There were no readings on the scanners of another ship.”
    “Bastion vessel,” boomed a deep voice from all around them. Whoever their attackers were, they had also hacked into the ship’s communicator. “We have linked ourselves to your hatch. Put