text: I woke up to another barren wasteland, with an oppressive sky and mocking voices over my head.
  
  <He has done it again,> the first voice said in a disappointed tone.
  
  <What?> the second voice exclaimed in exasperation. <To this extent? How? There were so many protocols in place at this level. No matter what he tried, he should have been unable to advance. Which protocol failed to work properly?>
  
  This time the speakers sounded as if they were right next to my ear. But I couldn't see them no matter where I turned my head. In fact, I couldn't see anything but a multicolored, shapeless mass that shifted all around me.
  
  <Judging by the readings,> the third old man replied, <all of them. At once. Three times in a row.>
  
  <How did he even do it?> the first voice asked.
  
  <Brute force, apparently,> Third answered. <He just kept overcoming difficulties until the pressure on the algorithms was too great to bear.>
  
  <But the data shows that it has only been a short scale of time since his last Rise,> Second pointed out. <For him to have gained this level of accomplishment…> The old man trailed off.
  
  <He would have had to thwart a Trial,> Third confirmed.
  
  As I concentrated, details began emerging out of the formless mass. The first sensation came in the form of touch, as my feet realized they stood on shaky, loose ground. Like standing on a pile of books, or balls in a children's ball pit. I shifted to remain steady, as the frightened old men continued to talk nonsense about me.
  
  <Then this has finally become serious,> First said. <He is walking down the same road as the ancients of his race have walked before. If he forms a habit of such interference then the Expanse will know the same terror that gripped it in the time of the tyrants before him.>
  
  "Why?" I asked, looking up because I knew the frightened old voices were standing over me no matter how close they sounded. "Tell me why I am so terrifying? Why does saving lives scare all of you so much? Why is overcoming a Trial a bad thing?"
  
  <He speaks to us again,> Second sighed.
  
  <Must he?> First groaned in disgust. <This is so undignifying.>
  
  <Just cover your mouths and keep your distance, Third> said. <And make sure you don't step where he has, or you'll spend forever trying to wash off the taint.>
  
  "Wow," I said as I searched for a proper expletive for these guys. I failed when I remembered all the things that these decrepit idiots had said about Stell. "Okay," I decided, and began pushing against the heaviness I felt from the sky above me. This time, though, I didn't tear right through it. I pushed just enough to stretch it, letting me stretch to my full height. I began walking, kicking clutter out of the way until I found something high and solid enough to step upward on.
  
  <What is he doing?> First asked, sounding tense.
  
  I pushed, kicked around, found another solid mound, and took another step upward.
  
  <He is coming closer!> Second shrieked. <He is coming closer! Stop him!>
  
  <We cannot,> the third said in a trembling voice. <This whole landscape is meant to contain him!>
  
  "But I can leave on my own, apparently," I said to the figures. "This time though, I'm not doing so without answers."
  
  <He demands much,> First said in disgust. <Shame on him.>
  
  <You do not know just what you're asking of us, Earthborn>, Second said in a nauseated voice. <You do not know the violation others feel when they must talk to a member of your race.>
  
  <Tell him nothing,> Third cautioned. <His kind defiles the Expanse with every bit of knowledge they gain.>
  
  "In that case," I replied, pushing and moving upward again. "I'm on my way over to give you three a hug."
  
  <You would not dare,> First spat, though I heard uncertainty in his voice. <A lowly Earthborn like you? Touch one of us? Do you think the Expanse would even allow such an indignity?>
  
  "Maybe a punch instead of a hug?" I offered, taking another step up. I thought I could make out their shapes ahead and above me.
  
  <He's not listening,> Second said.
  
  <No, he isn't,> Third sighed.
  
  <If he touches us, we will never live down the indignity,> First said. <Others will believe they can take our positions, our power, and our slaves. We will lose everything. Even that which we have hidden.>
  
  <Speak, Earthborn,> Second said in defeat and disgust. <Speak, and come no closer. And shame on you, for the filthy ambitions you have already displayed.>
  
  "The feeling's mutual, you obnoxious jackasses," I spat. "Now tell me what exactly I have done that is so terrifying."
  
  <That answer is simple enough,> Third said grimly. <Look to your feet.>
  
  I glanced downward, and my eyes finally made sense of the objects beneath my feet. What I saw almost made me step backward, and lose all of the progress I had gained, all because of the horned skull gaping at my feet.
  
  I had been climbing a hill of bones and corpses.
  
  <This is what you have done, Earthborn,> Third explained. <In ending the Trial of a Thrall World, you have aborted and starved thousands, possibly millions of other organisms.>
  
  "These are," I began, kicking away the small horned skull. But it was only one of many, and the very next moment I noticed a horse-like skull just inches away from my right foot, a Spawn's skull. "These are Horde."
  
  "They are perhaps the most cunningly designed race in existence," Third replied gravely, projecting his voice to where I could hear him clearly. "Their creation filled a niche in the armies, slave camps, food processing, and entertainment centers among a dozen different planetary empires. The business opportunities their potential provided would have been enough to lift several fading dynasties back into their proper place."
  
  "They kill, eat, and degrade people in the most horrible ways possible," I rebutted. "Your omission of such things frightens and baffles me."
  
  "We know," Third sighed. "The degenerates among your ancestors reacted much the same way. It was the last straw the Council refused to bear."
  
  "Tell me what the Council is," I demanded, kicking away the Spawn skull and lifting my foot as if to take a menacing step upwards. "Tell me what my ancestors did that enraged them so much."
  
  "Did?" Second scoffed. "What didn't they do?"
  
  "The Council was the governing body of most of the Expanse," Third answered me. "Their rulings maintained a healthy balance between the numerous worlds and allowed for countless civilizations to flourish. There has never been, nor will there ever be, any ruling body like it."
  
  "And the Earthborn were members," I stated, recalling what the other beings inside Avalon had told me. Also, I recalled that this jerk just extolled the Horde as a galactic economy boomer.
  
  "No," Third protested vehemently. "The Earthborn were a leech. A race of parasites that attached themselves to a key position and never let go."
  
  "Okay," I said thinking, "that would mean that they either granted the other races a resource to where they couldn't afford to do without my ancestors, or we became so powerful that you were forced to acknowledge us. Judging by how asinine you three are, I'm guessing it was the second."
  
  "You are wrong, but certainly closer than you were with your first guess," Third said, and I thought he made a spitting motion as he did so. "Your ancestors certainly didn't provide us any resources. Instead, they denied the entire Expanse of thousands of resources."
  
  "Really?" I asked sarcastically. "I didn't get much of a hoarder vibe from what I've learned about them."
  
  "Learned about them?" Second asked suspiciously. "He should not have been able to learn about them on his own."
  
  <Which means I probably wasn't supposed to learn about them from you,> I resisted pointing out.
  
  "It is irrelevant, Third sighed, especially now. Your race, Earthborn, attempted to change the very way the Expanse functioned. They rose up on their own, seizing power from others, overturning their empires and economies, and for the longest period of time we were all forced to tolerate it. But in the end, your people reached too far, and so the civilized races seized their chance to end their collective nightmare. We were unable and unwilling to wipe you out for good. Instead, however, we enacted every protocol we could to keep your people from seizing power again. Now as I behold you, however, undoing the same resource that forced the Council to turn on you in full, I fear we may have been mistaken."
  
  "Were we?" Second asked, dubious. He is still only one.
  
  "The first rebel Earthborn was only one," First said. He still proved to be too many.
  
  "But he is no first Earthborn," Second scoffed. "He can barely call himself one of the Dusk Era."
  
  "Stell", I said suddenly. "What about Stell?"
  
  "It is just as we told you," Third sighed again. "The Last Starsown has been sentenced to suffer the punishment her actions have merited. This is an issue that has been settled back in the Dusk Era of your race."
  
  "That's nonsense!" I snapped. "Stell wasn't even alive during that era! How could you possibly sentence someone before they exist?"
  
  "In her case, easily," Third replied. "The Starsown's reproduction are easy to chart, much like the movement of the stars they are tied to. The birth of the one you named Stell was charted to occur at an appointed date, and her appearance and nature were quickly predicted based on the genetics of her family and the star she was tied to. Once those predictions were complete, it was a small matter to rule a conviction, decide on the sentence, then auction off the privilege of carrying out that sentence."
  
  "No!" I shouted, fed up with all of the constant nonsense I'd had to put up with. "Stop it! Stop saying nonsense! You cannot justify passing a prepartum conviction for a crime that may never even occur!"
  
  "Highly irrelevant," First snorted. "And frankly insulting, to say the least. Then again, you are an Earthborn. Implying that a unanimous conviction, agreed upon by literally every single civilized race on the Council to be unjustified, is rather par for the course when it comes to your race."
  
  A scream tore from my mouth then. The dragon in me roared, and I leaped forward, swinging my newly taloned hands at the hazy shapes of the old men. I heard them hiss in surprise just before they fled backwards and upwards. I went crashing down upon another pile of Horde bones.
  
  "Ah," Third said when they flew a safe distance away. "This explains much."
  
  "Does it?" First replied. "It makes him quite cannibalistic, does it not?"
  
  "Exactly," Third affirmed. "And at any rate, we should be relieved. The source of his strength has been discovered. He is still contaminated, but he will not reach the height of the Earthborn of old."
  
  "Then he is nothing more than a minor roadblock," Second said in relief. "We—I mean, the Expanse is safe. The Starsown's claimant will take care of him. Our job is done, and we need not interfere." I felt his gaze fall upon me. "This is as far as you go, little mutant. You will not reach our height."
  
  "You are forgetting," I roared at them.
  
  I swiped a talon directly into the emptiness above me, this time tearing it apart.
  
  "These are not my skies!"