Bryce opens the crystal coffin with a simple command to the mountain’s stones, and Azriel and Nesta react with immediate alarm. Bryce summons the Starsword from Azriel’s grasp, then approaches the freed Asteri instead of attacking, betting that the creature is weak after millennia without feeding.

The Asteri identifies herself as Vesperus, “the Evening Star,” and confirms she is one of the Asteri. Under Bryce’s interrogation, Vesperus reveals her people fled a dying home world, learned to travel between worlds, and then began feeding on other worlds’ magic. She explains the Asteri pooled their power to imbue the Cauldron, Made the Dread Trove from it, and bound the Cauldron’s essence to the world—meaning destroying the Cauldron would destroy the world as well, a deliberate “kill switch.”

Bryce presses for help undoing the parasite in Midgard’s water that forces magic to be siphoned to the Asteri, but Vesperus refuses without leverage. Bryce instead threatens Vesperus with knowledge that an Asteri can be killed and claims the demon Apollion, the “Star-Eater,” consumed Sirius, implying Hel could be called to devour Vesperus too. The exchange escalates as Vesperus shifts from bargaining to hunting for advantage.

Vesperus taunts Azriel’s use of Truth-Teller and boasts that the Asteri hid caches of their power throughout the land, especially beneath sacred mountains in “thin places” where the veil between worlds is weak. She identifies Bryce as a “Light-Stealer” descended from Theia’s gift and implies Bryce has learned to seize and amplify such stored power. Vesperus then admits a vast firstlight core lies buried beneath the mountain—power Theia never accessed—and moves to feed.

As light begins to surge up Vesperus’s body, Nesta—having maneuvered into position—drives Ataraxia straight through Vesperus’s chest. Black blood spills, the rising firstlight falters and vanishes, and Vesperus’s attempt to reclaim the hidden power is cut short by Nesta’s decisive strike.