"I chose nothing."
On her console, the obsidian plate faded to inert stone. The scroll crumbled to ash.
The lattice outside flared once, blinding white. Then it dissolved. The plates crumbled into dust, the hum vanished, and the brown dwarf resumed its silent, lonely death. The warp drive hummed back to life. The proximity alarms fell silent.
Jax was staring at the doors, his mouth open. "Elara, don't. This is some kind of psychic trap."
Her mother laughed—a sound Elara hadn't heard in a decade. "Then you chose everything, little star. The combination of stellar influences isn't about power. It's about the courage to remain yourself. Welcome home."