Black Magnet, Book Five: Child of the Earth Veins

Chen Ye and Ling Xi have lived on Homecoming Star for so long that they have grown used to the shifting silver-white canopy, the daily patrol route of Chuxia, and the damp feel of moss in the greenish morning light. But the calm is slowly unraveling. A dark gray vein is spreading upward from the base of the silver-white tree’s trunk. Deep beneath the planet’s surface, an unfamiliar echo pulses to a different rhythm, growing clearer by the day. Meanwhile, a dim silhouette is approaching Homecoming Star’s upper atmosphere at a steady speed. Through her deep perception, Ling Xi touches the outline of that echo: it is a fusion of Chen Ye’s genes, Ling Xi’s energy, Homecoming Star’s planetary veins, and the remnants of the Dark Zone. It is their child. Chuxia leaves its usual position and glides to the very edge of Homecoming Star’s surface, sending signals continuously toward the distant silhouette, like a lamp flashing again and again in the darkness. When will the child rise? Is that being coming to make contact, or to cause harm? Chen Ye waits for an answer he cannot predict. Homecoming Star is completing itself in its own way, and all they can do is remain standing there when everything arrives. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.