Mateo walks about the battlefield gathering all the loot he can. It’s mostly garbage, but he gets a few DD and some decent weapons. He isn’t sure what to do with his pile of garbage, so he returns to his Void Palace to take stock. There he is greeted, curiously, by Drako.

  “I think now is the time for you to use that spell I taught you, Black Hole Sun.”

  “Won’t that destroy my domain?” Mateo questions.

  “No, it is meant to be used in your domain, you have a pile of trash in your inventory, most of it useless, why not compact that into something infinitely useful, like dark matter,” Drako replies.

  “Dark matter?”

  “Yes, if you put enough mass into the black hole it will create a certain number of units of dark matter, usually between one and three, so don’t go over loading it unnecessarily or you’ll be wasting resources,” Drako says before rolling his eyes as the presence of another god graces his senses.

  Color washes over Mateo’s void domain and his entire expedition joins him in the courtyard. Their eyes peer around with curiosity and caution, seeing the domain in such a state. An unwelcome female form graces Mateo’s domain.

  “Dios, how did you get here bitch?” Mateo questions.

  “Rude, and I followed Drako through the fabric of Fate,” Dios replies.

  “Awesome, you should follow that fabric right back to where you came from,” Mateo demands.

  Drako places a claw on his shoulder.

  “Perhaps you should listen to the lady, she has much to tell, and you need to know what she has to say.”

  “Fine, but I’m going to compact this garbage in my inventory first,” Mateo replies.

  Mateo empties the trash from his inventory into a pile as far from his void palace as he can. Dios seems to watch in eager anticipation as Drako observes him expectantly. Mateo raises his right hand clenching his fist as Natalia appears on his left shoulder.

  “By the power of the void I summon a dying star and with it the destruction it entails, oh won’t you come, black hole sun.”

  Nothing happens and Natalia stands on Mateo’s shoulder chanting.

  “Upon the void does my betrothed summon the power of the broken star, and so does the Starbreaker hear his call, to the void we summon, the black hole sun,” Natalia chants.

  Spell activated: Black Hole Sun.

  A large swirling flame filled sphere appears above them letting out a burst of light. The first thing it drains is color changing everything around them into shades of grey. The second thing it sucks in is sound leaving the air around them in a deafening silence. Then everything begins to swirl and distort as reality itself begins to be pulled into the black hole. Mateo returns to reality standing in a massive crater on the outer edge of the event horizon of the small dead star.

  After a few moments, the crater reforms into its normal form in the void leaving only a large chest upon which rests a shadowy figure resembling Natalia when she had her brilliant butterfly wings. Mateo approaches it cautiously.

  “Natalia, what is this figure?” Mateo asks.

  “It’s a shadow of my past,” she replies.

  Mateo approaches the shadowy figure and the chest it rests upon. Natalia grabs at her head as memories overwhelm her. Mateo pauses.

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  “No, don’t stop, keep going,” Natalia says panting.

  “As you wish,” Mateo replies.

  He stops in-front of the chest, and the shadowy figure tilts its head curiously.

  “You summon the black hole sun to the void, Drako has bestowed much power upon you, if you wish to retrieve the contents of this chest then you must answer the Starbreaker’s riddle,” the figure states.

  “A riddle, will I have to do this every time I use this spell?” Mateo asks.

  “No, but I am here this time, and I ask you to answer my riddle this time, perhaps others will be pulled from the void, perhaps no one will be and you will be free to claim your prize unabated, but this time I have a riddle for you,” the shadowy figure says.

  “Ugh, I’m not good with riddles,” Natalia complains.

  “Fine, what is the riddle?” Mateo questions.

  “I pull at the oceans, I glow without fire, I am the silent companion of night’s dark desire, what am I?”

  Mateo sighs audibly. Stitches steps up to him planting her staff into the void.

  “Memoirs of a Pixie Act II chapter twenty-seven, “I pulled the oceans from the land, I burned without fire, I was the silent companion, above the world I orbited as a dark knight’s desire, you are the god of Midnight’s desire, Moon.”

  The shadowy figure takes a bow before dissipating into the void. Mateo steps up to the chest and kicks it. The chest pops open. The very satisfying sound of a chest opening from an old game Mateo played in his youth, something about an ocarina and time, sounds and he grabs the items holding them above his head with outstretched arms.

  Item obtained: Dark Matter.

  Item Obtained: Pixie’s tears.

  Item obtained: Empty chest. Empty chest can be added to your void domain to help sort items.

  “Thanks Stitches,” Mateo says.

  “No problem, is Natalia ok?” Stitches asks.

  Natalia has disappeared from Mateo’s shoulder. Mateo steps over wrapping Stitches in an embrace before heading to his void palace. His party observe him hesitantly. It seems summoning a black hole is a bit of a strange spell, even for a Voidlord.

  Mateo enters his void palace stepping past the throne and entering a small chamber behind it where his bedroom resides. Natalia rests on his bed staring at the floor. Mateo shuts the door behind him joining her on the bed.

  “What’s wrong Natalia?” Mateo asks.

  “I remember more, the further we go, the more I remember, the people I loved, the people I lost, friends, family, what’s it like when you remember Mateo? I feel your emotions, but I don’t feel them as you, I just feel them as emotions, like you probably feel my emotions, but don’t know what they mean,” Natalia says continuing to stare at the floor.

  Mateo runs his hand over her back, and then her brilliant raven feathered wings.

  “The past doesn’t matter, I need you now, there is nothing you can do about the past, we must press forward, even if it means ignoring our past trespasses, whether we atone for them or not,” Mateo says pulling her into an embrace.

  “Mateo,” Natalia says gripping him tightly.

  “I know Natalia, you did what you had to do, everyone was going to die anyway.”

  “Yes, but it didn’t have to be me that killed them.”

  “And you still took that burden,” Mateo says running his fingers through her soft silver hair.

  “So, you know who I am?”

  “No, I know who you were, we are still working on who you are,” Mateo replies.

  Natalia grips him firmly fighting back tears. Mateo continues to hold her as an unwanted presence enters the room. Mateo relaxes his grip turning toward Dios.

  “What do you want dragon bitch?” Mateo asks.

  “You could be a little more civil,” she replies.

  “And you could give me my eyes back you cunt.”

  “Fair enough, I came to give you these, you will need them to travel to Daedalus,” she replies holding out a satchel full of clanking tokens.

  “What are those?” Mateo asks.

  “Interplanetary passes, they’ll grant you and your expedition passage to the port of Weltraum allowing you to board a cosmic whale and venture to Daedalus.”

  Mateo stands meeting eyes with the avatar of Dios.

  “Why do you grant me your aid?” Mateo questions.

  “Maybe I want to have sex with you, isn’t that the motivation of most mortals of the opposite sex, to prove they can be of use hoping to receive intimacy as a reward?” Dios questions.

  “I’ll take your tokens, but as for the intimacy,” Mateo says grabbing the satchel from her hands forcefully. “You can go fuck yourself.”

  Lady Dios takes a bow and turns toward the door. She pauses before exiting glancing over her shoulder.

  “Lady Jessica has your eyes, she cherishes them, and you for some reason, her playmates are often weak, so they don’t last long, but she sees promise in you, when you are strong enough you will be able to take them from her, and when you grow even stronger, I hope you will fulfill your promise to me, or, promise me something more.”

  The dragon god Dios vanishes from Mateo’s void domain as Drako enters his private chambers.

  “The spell worked splendidly, you should use it when you have excess materials, I must return to the realm of the gods and assist Garren in ending the war of the gods, we have beaten back Avarice and Fate for now, but they still linger in the shadows as a threat, if you must ask anything of me then ask it now,” Drako states.

  “What’s a cosmic whale?” Mateo asks.

  Drako smiles.