Magnus: 10

“What question?”

Tears cut tracks through the grime on my face. “Don’t.”

The skeleton crumbled to dust. The astralidium heart floated toward me, warm as a second sun, and merged with my chest. Pain. Then light. Then a vast, cold awareness—a web of magnetic lines stretching from the planet’s core to the edge of the system. magnus 10

Transmitting.

“How long?” I whispered.

“Oracle,” I said. “Give me a read on local magnetosphere.”

And I made my choice.

The moment my suit lights touched the skeleton, the whisper became a voice. Not through my ears—directly into my limbic system, hot and ancient.