Married My Enemy To Save My Family
Chapter 66. Starlight Between Scars

Chapter 66: 66. Starlight Between Scars

The Wraith drifted in high orbit, weightless above the remains of Helix. Below, the once-pristine Architect complex now lay dormant, its fractured towers slowly succumbing to gravity and time.

Inside the ship, for the first time in weeks, the silence felt... earned.

Elara stood barefoot in the medbay corridor, arms folded as she watched the stars outside flicker against a field of cooling nebula dust. Her body still ached from the Seed’s final pulse, like she’d walked through fire wearing skin that wasn’t hers anymore.

She hadn’t spoken much since they left Helix.

Not because there was nothing to say.

But because some victories weren’t loud. Some were stitched in breath, in stillness, in simply surviving.

Footsteps approached behind her.

Aeron.

He didn’t say anything right away. Just leaned beside her, arms brushing.

For a long time, they watched the stars in tandem.

"Still no voices?" he asked finally, half-serious.

Elara smiled. "Only my own. And it’s annoyingly sarcastic."

Aeron gave a soft laugh. "Good. That’s how I know you’re still in there."

They shared a moment of peace before he added, more quietly, "You scared me, Elara. Back there. When the Seed took over... I thought I lost you."

"You did," she said softly. "All of you did. Just... not forever."

In the Wraith’s war room, Nova had assembled a rather dramatic looking holo presentation, complete with blinking red icons and animated stick-figure reenactments that probably weren’t necessary but were definitely appreciated.

"We broke an AI. Saved the universe from emotional collapse. Also, Damien broke the kitchen again. Honestly, I think we’re on brand."

"I didn’t break the kitchen," Damien said, arms crossed. "I liberated it from the tyranny of working plumbing."

Valen muttered, "We’re really going to die with that as our last conversation, aren’t we?"

Nova grinned. "Better than dying with regrets."

Valen didn’t reply.

Because despite the jokes, something hung in the air heavier than before. The Fifth Seed was dormant now. But the Architect Nexus hadn’t spoken its last word.

And they all knew it.

Elara walked in just as Nova’s animation showed a cartoon version of her punching a glowing Seed.

"...I’m not sure I was that buff," she said, raising a brow.

"You’re buff in our hearts," Nova replied. "Besides, it’s inspirational."

The laughter that followed was real. Short-lived, but real.

Later that night, Valen stood in the Wraith’s small training bay, slicing through hardlight targets with his twin blades. Precision in motion. Anger in control.

Elara watched him from the doorway, arms folded.

"You’re still mad," she said.

"I’m not," he replied, not pausing. "I’m just not... satisfied."

"With what?"

"With how it ended. With the fact that you walked out of that Seed chamber like nothing broke inside you."

She stepped closer. "A lot broke."

Valen finally stopped. Turned.

Their eyes locked.

"You kissed me," he said. "And then you walked away."

"I didn’t walk away," she said. "I just... walked forward."

He nodded once, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

"I get it," he said. "You love him."

"I didn’t say that."

"But you didn’t have to."

The quiet between them was jagged.

"I still care for you," she said, voice softer now. "I always will. But I can’t be the version of me that lives in your memories."

Valen didn’t move. Didn’t speak.

And then, finally: "Then don’t be. Be the one who walks beside me anyway."

The Wraith cruised slowly through the outer bands of the Nexan Cloud, a dense cluster of star matter surrounding Architect space. It was beautiful and dangerous. Debris from old conflicts floated like glittering bones.

In the crew’s common area, Damien nursed a cup of synthe-coffee while Nova half-dozed across the couch, legs kicked up.

Aeron sat in silence at the table, flipping through Elara’s old mission files ones he’d never read before. Ones she hadn’t known he saved.

"I ever tell you," Nova said, eyes still closed, "that I once tried to fake a medical scan to avoid a training sim?"

"You mean like yesterday?" Damien quipped.

Nova cracked one eye open. "Damien. If we die tomorrow, I want you to know I will haunt you with paperwork."

"I’d deserve it," he replied, smiling faintly.

For a moment, the Wraith felt like a family again.

At exactly 02:19 ship time, the console in the command bay lit up.

An encoded signal.

Damien nearly spilled his coffee sprinting up the corridor.

"Uh, Elara? We’ve got something."

Within minutes, the entire crew had gathered.

The message decrypted slowly unfolding like a digital flower.

KAEL.

His image flickered on-scree half-burned, partially reconstructed, more AI than man now.

"You survived," his synthetic voice rasped. "Good. You are needed."

"By you?" Elara said aloud.

"No," Kael replied. "By them."

The screen shifted showing the Nexus. Alive. Active. And surrounded by more Architect vessels than they’d ever seen.

"The Architects have activated the Convergence Protocol. They mean to purge all fractured code. Including the Seeds. Including you."

Elara’s heart thudded.

"They think you’re a virus," Kael finished. "But they’re wrong. You’re evolution."

The message cut off.

Silence returned.

Valen broke it.

"Well. That’s subtle."

Damien looked pale. "How long until they reach us?"

"Hours," Nova said grimly. "Maybe less if they fold-jump early."

Elara turned away from the screen, voice low but steady.

"Then we don’t run."

The crew scattered preparing the Wraith for war, for survival, for whatever came next.

Nova loaded every last round of ammo.

Damien rewired the secondary core, muttering curses in five languages.

Valen sharpened his blades, slower than usual.

Aeron found Elara on the upper deck, staring out into the approaching dark.

"They’re coming," she said.

"I know."

"Think we’ll survive?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"No."

He stepped beside her.

"Then yes," he said softly. "Because this time, you’re not carrying the war alone."

She turned to him, eyes shining with something deeper than just fire.

And for once, she let him hold her.

Not as a soldier. Not as a weapon.

But as a person.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.