The Third Sun

In the skies of Velora, a planet warmed by three radiant suns, light was life. The people built their homes, cities, and faiths around the celestial trio—Solari, Ember, and Veyra—each rising in a different part of the sky, bathing the world in constant glow.

Then, one day, Veyra vanished.

No explosion. No eclipse. It was simply... gone.

And with it, everything began to crumble.

Chapter One: The Disappearance

Kael Taren, a mid-level astronomer in the coastal city of Lume, noticed it first. He stared through his atmospheric lenses as the third sun blinked out like a candle snuffed by an invisible hand.

“There’s no debris,” he whispered. “No shift in orbit. It’s not just missing—it’s erased.”

His superiors laughed it off.

“Instrument error.”

“Dust clouds.”

“Solar refraction.”

But Kael knew better. Veyra’s warmth was gone. Crops began to fail in the southern hemisphere. Animals migrated in confusion. Some civilizations declared it the end of times.

Others went to war for resources they believed wouldn’t last.

Chapter Two: The Refugee

Lira Vahn had nothing left but a backpack and a scar along her collarbone from the last raid.

Her city had been one of the first to fall. Not to nature—but to human fear. A neighboring nation blamed her people for “disrupting the balance of the suns.” Superstition had turned into justification for destruction.

Now, Lira wandered into Lume, disguised as a trader, hiding her accent and her past.

That’s when she met Kael.

He was giving a speech to a near-empty hall, trying desperately to warn the public:

> “Veyra’s disappearance is unnatural. It’s not a natural phenomenon. Someone—or something—did this.”

No one listened.

Except her.

Chapter Three: An Unlikely Alliance

Kael noticed her in the audience—sharp eyes, calloused hands, silent curiosity.

Later, she approached him behind the observatory.

“I believe you,” she said, simply. “And I think I know where to look.”

“How could you possibly—?”

Lira pulled a worn book from her satchel. Not scientific—religious. A relic from her people.

“It’s called The Sky Forged Lie. My ancestors believed the suns were created, not born.”

Kael laughed, then stopped. The idea was absurd. But so was a sun vanishing without cause.

The two teamed up—scientist and survivor—following ancient sky maps, orbital models, and forgotten myths across the lands.

Chapter Four: The Machine Beneath

Their journey took them to the equator, to a desert ruin buried beneath glassed sand—a remnant of a war long past.

Inside, they discovered what no one else dared imagine: a stellar manipulation device buried deep underground. Rusted, humming faintly, but intact.

An interface flickered. In the center: three orbs. One dim.

Kael paled.

“This… controlled Veyra.”

Lira’s breath caught. “Then someone… turned it off?”

They scoured the system logs. A time-stamp showed the deactivation wasn’t an accident.

It was a command.

> Target: Veyra. Status: Nullified. Authorization: Unknown.

Chapter Five: The Hidden Enemy

As they prepared to return with proof, they were ambushed.

Not by bandits. Not by looters.

By soldiers.

Uniforms unmarked. Silent. Armed with technology far beyond Velora’s known science.

Kael and Lira barely escaped through maintenance tunnels.

“What government were they with?” she asked, panting in the dark.

Kael shook his head. “None of ours. Not from Velora.”

The truth slammed into them both:

The device was alien. So was the sabotage.

The sun hadn’t vanished—it had been stolen. Or worse—tested.

Chapter Six: A New Dawn

Back in Lume, Kael tried to warn the Council. But they dismissed him as a conspiracy theorist.

Lira published the truth in rogue information networks.

It spread.

People panicked. But others awakened.

Skepticism turned to resistance. Independent scientists began investigating. Old enemies became tentative allies. If someone out there could erase a sun, Velora would need to unite.

In the nights that followed—true nights, for the first time in centuries—Kael and Lira stood on a hillside, staring at the two remaining suns.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

He didn’t answer at first.

Then:

“We find them. We stop them. Or we make them understand—this world won’t be erased quietly.”

Final Words:

The people of Velora had long believed they were alone, guided by suns that warmed and watched over them.

But when the third sun vanished, they learned the hardest truth of all:

The universe watches back.