The Echo of the Hollow Star
May 11, 2025
The stars had always guided Elira, but tonight, they were silent.
Standing at the edge of the cliff, she stared at the sky, watching the night unfold like an ancient tapestry. The Hollow Star, the legendary light that had appeared once every hundred years, was nowhere to be found.
“Do you feel that?” Jorin’s voice broke the stillness behind her.
Elira didn’t turn. “The pull of the Star? Yes.”
“You’re sure it’s not just superstition?”
“It’s not. The Hollow Star has called to me for as long as I can remember. It’s not superstition, Jorin. It’s destiny.”
Jorin sighed, his breath misting in the cold air. “Destiny’s a dangerous thing to chase.”
Elira clenched her fists, her knuckles white. “We have no choice. It’s my birthright.”
They had journeyed for weeks, crossing rivers and deserts, climbing through forests and mountains, all to find the fabled Hollow Star. Elira’s ancestors had spoken of it in hushed whispers, a light that existed beyond the stars, able to grant untold power to anyone brave—or foolish—enough to claim it.
But now, as she stood on the cliffs of Caelen Ridge, the light eluded her.
The sky shifted, dark clouds swirling in unnatural patterns. A low hum filled the air, and the ground trembled beneath their feet. The Hollow Star was near.
“Elira…” Jorin’s voice was laced with uncertainty. “Do you hear it?”
The hum grew louder, vibrating through Elira’s bones. She closed her eyes, feeling the pull, stronger than ever. It was like a voice—no, a song, calling her name. The Hollow Star was reaching out to her.
“It’s time,” Elira whispered.
With a swift motion, she stepped forward, her feet leaving the ground as she fell into the void.
Jorin shouted her name, but Elira was already lost to the darkness.
She fell through the abyss, weightless and drifting, the hum of the Hollow Star guiding her deeper. Time had no meaning here, and for a moment, she wondered if she was even still alive.
The light appeared, a bright, hollow core in the distance, a sphere of pale fire that pulsed with the rhythm of the universe. The further she fell, the more it consumed her thoughts, her senses, her very being. She could feel the Star inside her, urging her to come closer.
“Elira…”
Her name echoed around her, not from her own lips, but from somewhere else—somewhere deep within the Hollow Star itself.
It wasn’t a voice. It was a memory, a whisper of the past.
The fall ended abruptly, and Elira landed softly on a strange, silken floor of starlight. She stood, disoriented, in a vast space that felt both familiar and otherworldly.
The Hollow Star floated before her, its light surrounding her like a cocoon. But something was wrong. The light wasn’t warm—it was cold, distant, as if it had never been meant to touch the world.
“Elira…”
The voice called again, but this time, she saw something in the center of the light. A figure—tall, radiant, and shrouded in shadows.
“Who are you?” Elira demanded, her voice trembling.
“I am the Hollow Star,” the figure said, its voice a mixture of sorrow and power. “I have waited for you.”
She stepped forward, unable to resist the pull. “For me?”
“Yes. You are the chosen one, Elira. The one who was destined to wield my power.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. “Then why did you disappear? Why have I been searching for you all these years?”
The Hollow Star’s voice softened. “I never left. I am always here, in the heart of the universe, waiting to be found. But you must understand, Elira: to wield my power is to lose yourself. You will become part of me, and the world you know will cease to exist.”
Elira’s eyes widened. “I… I don’t understand.”
“The Hollow Star is not just a source of power. It is a mirror, a reflection of all that is and all that could be. It is a paradox, and those who seek it risk their very souls. You came seeking power, but power comes at a price.”
Jorin’s voice echoed in her mind. Destiny’s a dangerous thing to chase.
“Then I have no choice,” Elira whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.”
The Hollow Star pulsed, its light growing brighter. “You must choose, Elira. To claim me, or to leave me.”
The vision of the Hollow Star faded, and Elira’s mind was flooded with images—of destruction, of worlds falling apart, of lives consumed by power. She saw herself standing in the center of it all, the source of the chaos, the ruin.
“No,” she whispered, taking a step back. “I can’t. I won’t.”
A sudden wave of relief washed over her, and the figure of the Hollow Star shattered like glass. The light dispersed into the void, leaving only silence.
“Elira!”
She blinked, and Jorin was there, standing before her, looking terrified.
“I—I thought I lost you,” he gasped. “You were gone for hours.”
Elira shook her head, her mind still reeling from the vision. “I was… in the Hollow Star.”
Jorin’s brow furrowed. “And?”
“I was about to claim it,” she said quietly. “But I saw the future. A future of nothing but destruction. It would have consumed me. I… I almost became part of it.”
Jorin placed a hand on her shoulder. “Then you made the right choice.”
Elira looked up at him, the weight of the decision heavy in her chest. “I don’t know if it was the right choice. But I know this: I can’t let power define me.”
The night sky cleared as Elira and Jorin made their way back to the ridge, the stars now shining brightly above them.
The Hollow Star was gone. But the memory of it lingered, a warning that power—no matter how alluring—was not worth the cost.
And the stars, once silent, whispered a new song.