Aria’s last memory broke the Valerius dynasty. A billion witnesses had watched the truth come out of the mind their commander destroyed.
The High Council had lost its strongest weapon and stood exposed for its own complicity. It moved quickly to save itself.
Seraphina fell first. Guards caught her on a transport bound for the lawless Outer Rim and brought her back in chains. The billion witnesses made a trial unnecessary.
The Council sentenced her to genetic dissolution, the Empire’s highest punishment. Inside a sterile chamber, the process unwrote her DNA and scattered her atoms.
The Imperial Saint left behind only a sterile scent.
The Duke followed. With his corporation collapsing and his name ruined, he used a shard from a shattered data-slate to cut his throat in his cell before t
