The sky was bleeding ash, and Kael was running for his life.
His boots skidded over cracked stone and rusted steel as he darted between the ruins of Old Hollow District. All around him, the city groaned—metal creaked, broken signs flapped, and the distant whine of relic drones buzzed like angry hornets.
He didn't dare look back. He'd seen what chased him.
Twice as tall as a man. Eyes like furnace coals. A beast of welded bone and scorched armor, its name whispered in fear by scavengers: a Skorran.
Kael clutched the strap of his pack tighter and pushed his legs harder, lungs screaming. The creature was gaining.
"I just wanted to find copper wire," he wheezed. "Not—giant murder tanks."
He ducked into a crumbled transit tunnel, heart hammering. The darkness swallowed him. Dust danced in thin shafts of light from above.
Silence.
Too much silence.
Kael pressed his back to a cold pillar and drew his weapon—a jagged piece of metal crudely shaped like a sword. It had no name, no edge, and probably no chance of killing anything. But it made him feel better.
He counted his breath.
One. Two. Three—
BOOM.
The tunnel entrance exploded inward. The Skorran stomped through the dust cloud, eyes burning.
Kael didn't think. He ran deeper.
---
He hadn't meant to find the door.
He was just trying to survive.
But something pulled him off-course—down an untouched passage sealed by debris. A narrow crack glowed faintly. Against all instinct, Kael slipped through.
And there it was.
A hexagonal vault door, embedded into the stone like it had been waiting centuries to be found. It pulsed—softly, faintly, with a rhythm like a heartbeat.
Kael stared. "What…?"
He stepped forward, and as if sensing him, the vault opened.
A low hum filled the chamber beyond. Inside, everything was clean. Untouched. Alien.
At the center hovered a sphere the size of a fist. It glowed with circuits and etched runes, surrounded by coils of faded light.
> SYSTEM RECOGNITION: GENETIC SIGNATURE ACCEPTED.
Lightbearer Protocol: Activating.
Booting Companion AI: Designation—B.I.T.S.
The orb spun once, then pulsed brightly.
"Greetings," said a voice, glitchy and sharp. "Congratulations, Subject 87. You have officially awakened a sealed relic of Solara. Side effects may include paranoia, sudden insight, or vaporization."
Kael blinked. "…What?"
"I'm B.I.T.S. — Bot with Integrated Tactical Sarcasm. Your personal assistant. Defense system. Therapist, if necessary."
The Skorran roared somewhere outside.
Kael backed away. "Okay, I'm hallucinating. That's it. The stress broke my brain."
"Nope. Very real," BITS chirped. "Oh—and you're being hunted by a creature classified as 'death in heavy boots.' Might want to do something about that."
The orb hovered closer and lit up.
> Companion Bonding Initiated. Linking to host neural network...
Warning: Subject's mental stability is... questionable. Proceeding anyway.
A jolt of light surged into Kael's chest.
He gasped—falling to one knee as memories not his own flashed behind his eyes. Fire. Towers of light. The city of Solara, before it fell.
And a single voice:
> "The light will choose its vessel. One with nothing left to lose."
Kael staggered up. "What—what did you do?"
BITS spun beside him. "Congratulations. You're now the only person on this continent with partial access to Solara's ancient systems. Oh, and a great big target on your back."
"Why?!"
"Because the last time Solara activated," BITS said cheerfully, "the world burned."
---
The Skorran smashed through the vault wall.
Kael moved on instinct—dodging the metal claw that would've ripped him in half. He rolled, raised the broken blade—and this time, it hummed.
Light flared from his hand. His weapon glowed, reforged by energy pouring through his veins.
He slashed.
The Skorran recoiled, screeching, smoke pouring from a glowing wound in its armor.
BITS screamed, "DID YOU JUST HIT THAT THING?! I AM SO PROUD I COULD CRASH!"
Kael didn't stop to celebrate. He dove for the exit.
Behind him, the Skorran slammed into the ceiling—causing the whole vault to cave in.
Kael barely made it out alive.
---
Outside, smoke billowed from the ruins. Kael limped into the shadows, gasping.
BITS hovered beside him, flickering. "So. First day on the job as the Lightbearer. Thoughts?"
Kael looked at the burning wreck behind them. His glowing blade. The relic in his head. The voice in his bones.
He exhaled.
"…I think I'm in trouble."
BITS beeped. "Oh yes. Enormous trouble. Malrix is going to love this."
"Malrix?"
"Ex-Commander of Solara's security force. Currently queen of a scavenger warband. She's been searching for a Lightbearer for twenty years. And now she knows you exist."
Kael stared into the dark horizon.
Something deep inside him—the spark awakened in the vault—burned brighter.
"Then let her come."