Xavier's royal coming-of-age trial, the Gladius Ceremony, sends him alone into Starfall Forest to slay the Wanderer at its centre. He succeeds — only to discover that the Wanderer is his own mother, transformed by sacrifice. Behind her lies the planet's literal heart: the artificial core, hollowed out, its energy long since exhausted. He returns home broken. When he confronts his father, the King reveals the dynasty's secret: for generations, humans have been quietly fed into the core. Those sacrificed people become Wanderers. The Protocores extracted from Wanderers — the energy source that now powers Linkon — are, in a very real sense, the hearts of the dead.