Chapter 57 — Isla

Escorted by attendants, Isla is taken to the galaxy room, bewildered by Cronan’s insistence on her appearance. Inside, she finds a long banquet table, Grim seated at one end, six unfamiliar men attending, and the head seat beside Grim conspicuously empty for her. Cronan toasts her as his “worldkey,” and the guests appraise Isla with desire and curiosity.

The feast’s brutality becomes clear: furs upholster the chairs, silverware is bone, and skulls serve as goblets; Cronan drinks from one. Isla notices each guest is missing a finger, recalling Cronan’s demand for supporter bones. Cronan’s crown flickers to a bone crown that includes the stolen god-bone from Horus, then shifts back to metal as the meal begins.

While the men flatter Cronan about his conquest of Finestra, he outlines how some worlds are enslaved for beasts, ore, or energy, while others are erased to feed his power. With a gesture, his crown becomes a ring of sparks drawing the room’s energy, then a spiral galaxy of captured planets—worlds he has destroyed and now stores in the crown.

Isla deduces Cronan does not truly consume worlds as she can; he merely collects and channels them externally, a vulnerability proven when she once took his crown. This realization reframes her power relative to his.

Cronan then targets a “foolish world” where all people access power from sun, moon, stars, sky, darkness, and nature—Isla’s home. He proclaims that in three weeks they will break through that world to reach a new galaxy, using it as a feeding ground and doorway. Cheers erupt as he promises to kill everyone there, setting a dire countdown for Isla.