Pact of Blood
They had curated the growth of civilizations, ensuring that the influence of the Primordial remained suppressed in the margins of space.
But the Primordial was not a foe that could be defeated by simple containment. It was a patient, ancient consciousness, and it had been studying them.
It started in the sector they called "The Cradle," a cluster of worlds that had been the first to flourish under their new laws. Laura, existing as a faint pulse in the local ley lines, noticed the shift first. A vibration, a dissonance in the atmosphere of a major world.
She reached out, expecting to find a natural tectonic disturbance, but she found something else. She found a presence. Standing on the b