Nero Kingdom

Every single one of us holds our breath as our ship drifts closer and closer to the glowing planet.

Glorra Quin Lune lies before us, a brilliant, terrifying nightmare miracle. Its entire surface is engulfed in Neron, glowing vivid blue and white. Arcs of power jut from the surface of the planet to every one of its five moons, ensnaring them as well.

The amount of power trapped around that planet could obliterate this entire solar system if it blew.

Slowly, slowly, Deliverance drifts toward the planet.

My palms sweat as I look at the holoscreen and check the readings.

They're high, but we aren't in the danger zone yet.

"This is far closer than I was ever able to get," my father says in a low voice as he, too, looks at the readings. "Back then, I couldn't get closer than a league before my ship started shutting down."

I nod, though I'm barely hearing him. My heart is thundering in my ears.

I never plan things well enough. I barrel in without thinking. I could have thought about this for two minutes before I dragged us all across the galaxy to a planet that is too dangerous, swarmed by too much power, to even approach.

But here we are.

"This is Valen Nero aboard the vessel Deliverance," he says into his com. "If anyone is out there, if anyone can hear me, please respond."

We all hold our breath as we listen, pausing for an entire two minutes.

No response comes through.

They're dead, they're dead, my brain screams at me. No one could survive that blast of power.

They called to you for help, my heart counters. You heard them. You saw yourself here in the future. There has to be a way this is possible.

Information flies across the holoscreen as our systems try to get a reading on the impossible system before us.

"What about that moon?" my father asks as he stares at the information with furrowed brows. He points at the smallest one. "Its reading as the least amount of Neron. What if we just try to get to one of the moons for now?"

The readings are going insane, trying to measure something that's beyond any scale we ever conceived of.

We can't get a dependable reading on the planet itself, but each of the moons are somewhat stable.

The fifth, smallest moon has the lowest reading and shows as the most stable.

"It could be possible for Deliverance to make it to the surface there," Valen says, looking over at me with his Neron eyes. "With the two of us stabilizing, if Torin or Edan helps pilot the ship, we could possibly make it to the surface of that smallest moon."

This is a risk, no matter our slagging numbers. We're...I'm...taking their lives into my hands.

We could die trying to do this.

These are the most important people in my whole world.

I don't want to be the reason they die.

But what other choice do we have right now?

Even though my palms sweat, because the danger is so real, I nod my head. I look over to Valen. "Let's head for that small moon."

He nods in agreement, and I wrap my hands tightly around the helm as he directs us toward the smallest moon.

The first alarm starts sounding when we get within half a league of it. Edan continues monitoring the readings, and Torin steps to the controls, having past experience as a pilot...twenty solars ago-and Valen moves to the front of the ship.

I feel the Neron as we descend closer and closer. I feel its power. It's like a song and a whisper. It says my name but it doesn't sound the same. I swear it feels like a warm embrace instead of a searing blast of power.

"How are we looking?" Valen asks as he stands square in the viewport.

"Amazingly stable," Edan reports, a trace of mischievous awe in his voice.

Bigger and bigger the moon grows.

Every hair on my arms stands on end. I feel a prickle of excitement and fear stand along the back of my neck. I feel something in my blood wake up. It starts in my fingers and toes, zinging as it laces its way through my veins. It climbs farther, faster, searching and racing toward the core-my heart.

Faintly, I hear my father swear. Edan breathes harder.

Everyone feels amazing when they hold Neron. It can be addictive.

We're already breathing it in. I can feel it finding its way into the ship, flooding it with mass amounts.

While they might feel panicked as their bodies are filled with what they have no power to control, it's currently healing every little thing that might be bruised or broken in their bodies. For right now, they aren't even aging.

Neron is incredible.

And for a moment, I have to marvel over the fact that I am able to wield it. That something so powerful and so incredible listens to my will.

For half a second, I understand why the Bahiri revere the Nero so much.

For half a second, I feel god-like.

But as I take in the moon before me, engulfed in such a massive amount of Neron, I am reminded that I am tiny.

I am nothing.

This could kill me, just as it could kill my father or Edan.

I'm no one. I am nothing.

"Quarter of a league," Edan says, his tone louder, a little more nervous. "Systems are heating, but still stable. Holy slag...we really might be able to land on that moon."

"You were doubtful?" I ask, turning wild, panicking eyes his direction.

He just shrugs, his eyes filled with wild uncertainty.

"We're fine," my father says, firm and definitive. "If the systems say we're fine, we're fine."

But just then, an alarm sounds, and the view outside grows brilliant and white. I'm completely blinded.

Our pace toward the surface of the moon picks up.

"Their gravity is pulling us in," Edan says with that new, unfamiliar panicky tone to his voice.

I feel the surge of Neron double and then triple.

The helm in my hands surges hot and wild. I feel it as Deliverance is engulfed in Neron.

Valen stands at the viewport with his hands extended, his fingers curled and his knuckles white. I see the Neron outside pushing away, bending to his will. A tunnel opens up before us, growing longer and broader. Valen clears the way, tunneling a path for us straight to the surface of the moon.

"We'll be to the surface in twenty seconds," Edan says, his tone rising higher and higher. "Entering the atmosphere in...now!"

There's a sucking pop sound, and we fall even faster toward the surface of the moon. I hear my father frantically entering commands.

The ship shakes violently and the sound grows deafening, as if we've been caught in a massive windstorm.

"Valen!" I yell out. The Neron around us shatters as he breaks through it with his tunnel.

He grits out a deep growl and the Neron beneath his veins surges brilliant and blue.

I swear there is nothing left of my hands. The skin is burned to ash. They're just bones, being scorched to nothingness as the helm grows hotter and hotter and hotter.

"Landing in five...four..." Edan counts down, sounding absolutely terrified.

Frantically, Valen shatters the frozen Neron.

Desperately my father wrestles to get control over the ship.

"Three...two!"

I squeeze my eyes closed.

Mentally, I push out to all the Neron surrounding us.

I find the surface of that moon.

I scream as I scramble to find balance.

"One!"

There's a deafening moment of silence as everything around us stabilizes.

And then the slight groan of the ship's landing gear as we drop our weight onto it.

And then there are the sounds of decompression as we settle onto the surface of this foreign moon.

The core of the ship cools, and all the heat in my hands disappears.

I whip around, looking for my dad and Edan. "Everyone okay?"

Edan looks ahead, his eyes frozen, his expression stuck in shock. But he nods his head just a little.

"We...we did it," my father says in little more than a whisper. "We...we landed on part of the Frozen Kingdom."

I allow myself just a little bit of a smile.

For a second, I take that in.

I'd never even heard of the Frozen Kingdom until about a solar ago, but the legend of it, the mythology of what it is, exceeds even Valen's own mythos.

We're here.

I look to Valen, and I feel the door between our minds open. What about here? He prods into my mind. Does this feel like home?

I don't know, I say, shaking my head, even though no one else heard Valen's unspoken question. I...there's something about the Neron here. It's different. Like it knows my name.

Maybe it does, Valen answers me.

I don't understand what that means. There's so much about this galaxy that I doubt I'll ever understand. It isn't my right to.

"I can't get any kind of reading," Edan says. He doesn't know that he's interrupting a telepathic conversation. "I have no idea what's going to happen when we open that hatch."

We might all just instantly die.

"I need to get out there," I speak before I think. I go to stand next to Valen at the viewport. I see scorched earth around us, because Deliverance is so powerful. Beyond that, all I see is white, frozen Neron.

"Valen, I want you to create a shield," I say, looking at the hatch. "Keep yourself and dad and Edan protected. I'll lower the hatch and go outside. If anything goes wrong, at least you can close it and get off this moon."

"Nova, that's-" my father begins to protest.

"Trust her, Torin," Valen says, cutting him off. "She knows what to do."

I meet Valen's eyes, grateful for his faith in me. I wish he could sometimes have that same amount of faith in himself.

I walk toward the hatch, telling myself to keep moving forward without fear, but still, when I'm in place with my hand hesitating over the control, I look back.

Valen stands in between my father and Edan, and I make out the shimmering, blue bubble that surrounds them all.

I summon Neron, the easiest I ever have, creating a shield around myself.

With one nod to my family, I press the control, and the hatch begins to open.

The already blinding light grows increasingly intense as the doors open, letting more and more inside. I raise a hand to shield my eyes, but it doesn't do a bit of good.

One step at a time, I head down the ramp. I take a cautious breath in, and find that there is oxygen. It tastes charged. It tastes like power and magic. I feel Neron rush in my blood, and I feel absolutely electric. Like I could fly. Like power will crackle from my fingertips at the slightest thought.

I feel...I don't even know how to describe it.

I feel like a goddess, returned to the source of her power.

I'm hardly even breathing as I walk down the ramp. My footsteps barely even feel as if they're touching solid surface.

Nothing. I see nothing but frozen, white Neron.

This feels familiar.

This feels like my vision.

And I know it. This is what my future was trying to show me.

For the first time, I purposefully tried to fulfill what the future gave me.

With a shallow, shaking breath, I take a step forward.

It's like the world explodes and disappears at the same time.

The second my foot sets down on the surface of the moon, every bit of Neron releases like a breath, and suddenly disappears.

Instantly, I can see everything surrounding me.

It's beautiful.

Green trees surround me, not as tall and towering as the planet Valen and I crash-landed on, but still tall and lush. The ground outside our burn circle is covered in grass, just as green.

To our left, I find a road, and my eyes follow it, to where I find a city. Small, but vertical.

Footsteps running down the ramp pull my eyes back for just a moment. All three men I journeyed with come to stand at my side. Valen's Neron shield is gone.

"How..." my father muses, shaking his head. "That amount of Neron, and it all just...listened to you."

I feel a hand slip into mine and I give Valen's a squeeze. In my mind, I hear that familiar confidence. He understands. He knows. More than I can grasp.

He knows why the Neron listened to me.

Because I came from here.

"What do you think we'll find in that city?" Edan asks, his tone unsure.

I shake my head. "I...I don't know."

"Only one way to find out," my father says. He places his hand on my shoulder, giving a supportive squeeze, and takes a step forward, aiming for the road that leads to the city.

As a group, having no idea what to expect, we step forward.

Pound, pound, pound goes my heart with every step we take. I study everything, wracking my brain for any sense of familiarity.

It's there, but only for the Neron I feel in everything. I can still hear it calling to me, singing the name I cannot hear.

But this place itself is not familiar. And how could it be when I was only around three solars old when I left?

My palms sweat as we get to the edge of the city and we begin passing homes on either side of the road.