The Empire was in an uproar.
It had been days since the announcement, and the chaos showed no sign of fading. Emperor Aldric Valerion, the ruler of the Human Domain, was throwing a grand gala for his daughter's eighteenth birthday.
Every noble house had received an invitation. Every important family was making preparations to attend. The capital, Astra Prime, was drowning in a flood of arriving guests, their luxury cars clogging the streets and their servants scrambling for lodging.
But the gala was not the only thing fueling the chaos.
There was a rumor. A whisper that had started in the shadows of the noble courts and spread like wildfire across every communication platform in the Empire.
The Astra-net was ablaze.
