The candlelight danced across the brass-lined walls of her private study. Incense burned low in a golden censer beside a data-slate that had long since powered down. Ancient star-charts and worn Imperial legal codices lay strewn about the room—alongside something that did not belong.

It sat on a velvet-draped table in the center of the chamber: a foreign artifact, palm-sized, made of obsidian glass etched with patterns that shimmered when unobserved. It pulsed faintly with internal light—though no power source could be found.

Lady Octavia Caldentis leaned closer, gloved fingers tracing the air above its surface. Her brown eyes narrowed, calculating. Every instinct told her to jettison it into the nearest sun… and yet curiosity, the kind that has doomed dynasties and built empires, kept her rooted.

Knock. Knock.

The heavy door boomed with the sound of armored knuckles. Her eyes did not leave the artifact.

“Enter,” she said, calmly.