Body Not My Own, Heart Not My Own

Hearing Situ Xuan agree without the slightest hesitation, Vassago froze as well. A flicker of surprise crossed his orange-red eyes, and then that surprise deepened into an even broader smile.

He had thought this young man would hesitate, test him, raise all sorts of conditions, or perhaps even refuse. After all, any normal person, after killing two high-ranking members of a race on an unfamiliar plane, would not easily follow that race's number-three figure.

But Situ Xuan had agreed.

"Good."

Vassago nodded.

"Let's go."

He raised his right hand, and a cluster of starlight gathered in his palm. It pulsed there, giving off a warm orange-yellow glow that echoed the starlight falling from the sky. His fingers drew lightly through the air, leaving orange-yellow trails wherever his fingertips passed, and those trails wove together into the pattern of a six-pointed star.

Every point of the six-pointed star lit up, then all six points extended toward the center at once and converged there. The moment they met, a crack split open in the center of the star, like an eye opening in the void. It parted from the middle toward both sides, then widened.

A door appeared within the starlight.

The door was not large, just enough for one person to pass through. Its edges were made of orange-yellow starlight, and beyond it lay a deep darkness. Countless tiny specks of light glittered in that darkness, like stars in the night sky. They moved slowly—some rotating, some flowing, some flickering—like a living star map.

Vassago stepped through the door first.

The instant he crossed the threshold, his figure was swallowed by starlight. His long orange-red hair turned into a streak of flowing light within it, then vanished.

Situ Xuan followed without the slightest hesitation.

The moment his foot stepped through that