Kelos held his hands out above the staff and closed his eyes. Soon, a look of pained concentration creased his brow. His hands formed into claws, trembling as he willed the staff into them. Finally, letting out an explosive breath, he opened his eyes.

“I… I don’t understand. It is the most base sorcery, it should be simple. I must be more tired than I realised.”

He handed the staff back to Illiun.

“There’s no need to apologise, I assure you,” he said. “The situation you find yourselves in must be very distressing. Where exactly do you call home?”

“Twilight,” Dunsany said. “And what is this place called?”

“We haven’t yet given the planet a designation,” Illiun said.

“I’m sorry, let’s just slow down for a moment,” Katya said. “I’m finding this hard to grasp. You, Illiun… your people are from another world?”

“Ah, yes, sorry. I sometimes take for granted a certain level of knowledge. At night, when you look up, what do you see?”

Katya couldn’t help but feel that she was being patronised, but she went along with it. “Stars.”

“Right, and some of those stars support habitable planets, just as the sun of your own world supports life. We have been travelling from world to world for many, many years.”

“I had heard that there were other worlds, out in the void,” Kelos said, “but I hadn’t really believed.”

“Oh, believe, my friend. There are many wonders, out there.” Illiun said. “Alas, we cannot stay on this planet for much longer. The entity is still in pursuit and it’s vital that we repair our engines.”

“Entity?” Bestion said. “What is that?”

“A determined enemy, one we have been fleeing for generations. Yet no matter how far we travel, it still finds us. Coming here, we hoped that we had finally escaped it. However, in the last few days our sensors detected the entity’s approach once again. We prepared the ship for departure, only for our engines to fail. There are minerals on this planet that can help us repair them, but we’re going to have to recover them quickly.”