The Day the Songs Returned
Velmora Prime healed slowly.
The fields still bore scars.
The oceans still whispered of old wounds.
The stars still blinked uncertainly in the smoke-streaked heavens.
But for the first time in a thousand years, the people sang.
• Songs of freedom.
• Songs of sorrow.
• Songs of a girl who broke chains with her laughter and lit the skies with her fists.
Across the valleys and broken cities, they planted Stones of Memory carved with a single word:
"LIBERASTRA."
And Zaraya Starheart?
She stood on the high cliffs of the Crystal Reaches, staring up at the endless sky.
It was not enough.
It was never enough.
There were other worlds.
Other chains.
Other songs silenced before they could even be born.
The universe was wide.
And she had a ship now.
⸻
The Red Radiant
Pulled from the wreckage of a fallen godship, rebuilt by Velmorian engineers, and tuned by Amari Vey herself,
The Red Radiant was a marvel:
• Sleek, fast, and rebellious.
• Armed with technology that defied Dominion design.
• Housing a core infused with the cosmic pulse Zaraya carried within her.
It was not a warship.
It was a promise:
To carry hope farther than chains could ever reach.
⸻
The Farewells
Old Father Kaen blessed her journey, placing a fragment of Velmora's shattered moon in her palm.
Threx Soluun, declining command of any new government, chose to stay and rebuild with his people.
Amari Vey?
She smiled—grudging, proud—and said, "Don't get yourself killed before you make something even more ridiculous happen."
They clasped arms.
Sisters-in-battle, forever.
⸻
Into the Unknown
At the gates of Velmora's upper atmosphere, Zaraya stood on the bridge of the Radiant.
Her fingers danced across controls she barely understood.
Her heart raced—not with fear, but with hunger.
For more.
For wonder.
For adventure.
Somewhere out there, whispered in lost scrolls and outlaw ports, was talk of the Universe's Greatest Treasure—
• Not gold.
• Not weapons.
• Something greater: a key that could rewrite fate itself.
She didn't know where to start.
But she knew she wouldn't fly alone.
She needed a crew.
A family.
Legends yet to be written.
She smiled.
And punched the throttle.
The stars flared around her, and Zaraya Starheart—Liberastra—
disappeared into the infinite horizon.
⸻
End of the Liberastra Rebellion Saga