Onestar materialized onto the bridge of the Eternal Wanderer, while the crew was cleaning up the remains of the hordling attack. Crystal, upon seeing the samurai's return, threw her arms around him, kissing him long and hard. Once they came up for air, she slapped him.
"DON'T YOU EVER DARE DO THAT AGAIN!" she said in mock anger. Crystal turned and headed over to see if Blaise needed any help checking the helm. Hall and Belieth stepped up behind Onestar as he stood there rubbing his cheek.
"I shall never understand women," he commented.
"We're not supposed to. OW!" Hall's comment was interrupted by a elbow to the ribs from Belieth. Onestar removed a pouch from his cloak and handed it to Hall.
"Colicor is dead," Onestar said plainly. "He said that this scheme was Te'Ess-Arr's doing, and that these crystals held the evidence we need to prove that, as well as some of his other plans."
"I'll check them over," Hall replied. "Damn that arcane anyway. This wholesale slaughter, and for what? A few_"
"CAPTAIN!" Ville exclaimed from the muster deck, interrupting Hall's comments. "You'd better get up here!"
Onestar, Hall and Belieth ran up the stairs to the muster deck, to look outside. Off in the distance, Lora was beginning to glow brighter. Onestar strained to see what was going on, but couldn't.
"Hall, get on the helm. We need the viewer to see what's happening." The bard ran back and sat down on the helm. Above him the rose crystal began to glow to life. Phantom was nearest to the captain's chair, so he sat down and began to use the controls to focus on Lora.
The image changed to show the sun and a relatively small chunk of rock drifting into the sun's gravitational field. Onestar bolted up the stairs three at a time, taking over the captain's chair. He made the image focus in on the rock. When he realized what it was, his mouth opened in shock.
"HALL!" he yelled, "GET US OUT OF HERE NOW! HEADING, 180 DEGREES! FULL SPEED!"
"What is it?" Blaise asked.
"Tymar. The planet closest to the sun! It's on a collision course. When it hits..."
Onestar never finished his thought. On the screen, Tymar reached Lora's surface, exploding into a million pieces. The portals to the elemental planes of fire and air, long contained in the dead planet's rocky shell, were exposed to wildspace and the weakened planar boundaries, opened with all their fury. A wave of air and fire entered Omnispace, striking the sun. When the energies finally mixed, Lora was at the same time extinguished and replaced with a direct link to the plane of fire, a link that began to grow.
