Redeeming the Broken Stars.

CHAPTER 9: GUIDANCE AWAKENING:

Chapter 9:

"Who are you?" This fragment still had enough coherence to speak. "You're not one of the Devourers."

"No. I am something older. A remnant from the previous cycle of creation." 

Her blind eyes seemed to see everything. 

"I am what persists when universes end. And I've been waiting a very long time for someone like you." Old Moth said.

"Someone being murdered?"

"Someone who survives the murder."

Kaelen's fragment pulsed with desperate hope. "I can survive this?"

"A part of you can. Not much. Not enough to simply continue existing. But enough to find a new vessel, if such a vessel were available." Old Moth's smile was enigmatic. 

"The soul-bond Celestia formed at the moment of your death, genuine love combined with genuine betrayal, created a resonance.”

“Most of your essence is being consumed. But a fragment can escape along that bond."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I need you." Her smile widened, showing too many teeth.

"The Primordial Void has manipulated events for eons, orchestrating a scenario where creation destroys itself. The Elders' paranoia. The Devourers' imprisonment.”

“Your sacrifice. All of it part of a larger design to return everything to nothingness."

"I don't care about cosmic games," Kaelen Ashwright’s fragment said bitterly. "I just don't want to die."

"Then we agreed. I'll guide you to a suitable vessel. You'll inhabit it. Grow strong. Climb back to power.”

“…And when the time comes, you'll be the catalyst that breaks the cycle." Old Moth leaned closer. "Whether that breaking leads to creation's salvation or destruction... Well, that will be your choice."

"What do you get out of it?"

"The end of a universe built on betrayal. What comes after..." Old Moth immediately shrugged. 

"I've seen countless universes rise and fall. This one is particularly corrupt.”

“Perhaps the next will be better. Or perhaps the Void will finally triumph, and there will be no next. Either way, I'm curious to see."

"You're insane."

"I've existed longer than your comprehension allows. Sanity is relative." 

Old Moth extended a hand toward Kaelen's fragment. 

"Now, choose quickly. The Devourers' hunger is vast. Soon, even this echo of you will be consumed. Accept my help and live, however diminished. Or refuse and simply end."

Kaelen's fragments thought of his mother, still imprisoned.

Of Soren Ashwright, his father who had betrayed him, who needed to face judgment.

Of the system that had murdered him.

Of the desperate, all-consuming need to make someone, anyone, pay for what had been done.

"I accept." Kaelen Ashwright immediately said, his voice was laced with a mixture of emotions and thoughts as he spoke.

Old Moth's smile became triumphant. 

"Excellent. Then let me show you your new home."

She waved her hand, and Kaelen Ashwright's fragment was pulled away from the Void Between, escaping along the thread of the soul-bond Celestia had unwittingly created.

In the space of moments that felt like eons, Kaelen Ashwright was consumed.

His futures were eaten. His memories were cataloged and devoured.

His very existence was torn apart and digested by cosmic entities that wept even as they fed.

But a fragment, small, damaged, filled with hatred and determination, escaped, something the Elders and his father Soren Ashwright never imagined possible.

It tumbled through dimensions, following the soul-bond's thread, searching desperately for an anchor.

And three days later, in an alley in the Mortal Coil, it would find one.

A boy named Zain, dying from infected wounds, his broken body becoming empty.

A perfect vessel for a consciousness that refused to simply cease.

But that was three days away.

For now, Kaelen's fragment drifted through the spaces between, experiencing what few beings ever did: death from the inside, consumption by gods, and the terrible journey toward an impossible survival.

In the ceremonial chamber, his empty body was prepared for burial.

In the Celestial Realm, Soren Ashwright, his father and Typhon, his ruthless mentor, returned to their duties, carrying guilt they would never fully articulate.

In her chambers, Celestia wept for seven lifetimes of grief, remembering every version of Kaelen Ashwright she'd loved and killed.

And in the Primordial Void, something vast and patient smiled.

The pieces were in motion. The game had begun.

And Kaelen Ashwright, though he didn't know it yet, would be the key to either salvation or annihilation of…well everything.

“Are you sure I'm really going to come back, old Moth?” Kaelen Ashwright asked as he drifted through time and space.

“We are about to find out.” Old Moth said as she laughed out loud.