A MAP WRITTEN IN GRAVES

The admiral's records completed Laana's route.

Every destroyed world formed part of a vast geometric lock. The War God had not merely erased civilizations. He had used their deaths to seal the Throne Beyond Time away from retaliation.

Each grave was a hinge.

Each extinct sun was a key.

Izanara projected the map across the Astra Noctis. Red lines filled the chamber, converging beyond the multiverse.

"To open the path, we must reactivate seven dead systems simultaneously," she said.

"Can it be done?"

"Yes."

"Then why do you sound unhappy?"

"Because the energy required would consume the Divine Remnant."

Ren'ō looked at the map.

"Consume the power or the host?"

"Both."

He nodded once.

Izanara struck the projection away. "That was not agreement I requested."

"You gave me information. I acknowledged it."

"You decided before I finished speaking."

"I decided on La-Sol 7."

Her staff hit the deck hard enough to ring. "And what exactly did you decide? That you would continue until nothing remained of you?"

Ren'ō's expression closed.

"Do not turn this into a prophecy lecture."

"There is no prophecy. That is the problem. I cannot see beyond the Throne. I cannot know whether your sacrifice achieves anything."

"People rarely know that before sacrificing."

"You are not a soldier following an order anymore."

"I know."

"Then stop acting like your life is an acceptable expense."

The chamber went silent.

Gold moved faintly beneath Ren'ō's skin. Not anger. Hurt.

"My life became an expense the moment Laana put this inside me," he said.

Izanara stepped closer. "She told you to remain a man, not to become a monument to her guilt."

Space warped.

For one dangerous instant, the Void stood behind Ren'ō's eyes.

Izanara did not retreat.

"You did not know her," he said.

"No. I know you."

The words landed without force and broke through more than shouting could have.

Ren'ō looked away.

The map of graves rotated above them.

"There may be another method," Izanara said more quietly. "The seven systems were once connected by a living celestial network. If we restore the network instead of forcing the lock, the burden can be distributed."

"Across whom?"

"Across the worlds you helped."

His eyes hardened. "No."

"Not their lives. Their infrastructure. Their free choice to contribute energy."

"And if the War God follows the connection back?"

"Then they will decide whether the risk is theirs to take."

Ren'ō disliked it because it was fair.

He disliked it more because it meant trusting people to stand beside him without becoming his weapons.

"Ask them," he said at last. "Tell them everything. No legends. No oath. No promises that I can protect them."

Izanara nodded.

Responses arrived from Orison, Meridia, the Uncounted, and dozens of smaller worlds.

All agreed.

Ren'ō read each message alone.

For the first time since La-Sol 7, he allowed himself to believe that carrying a burden did not always mean carrying it by himself.