Overview
The star shard is an empty Malverand shard prototype designed after the original spiral shard. Isandriel gives it to Thalion Zenith as a tool to stabilize the dangerous power inside Helena. When Helena's essence grows too quickly, Thalion places the shard in her palm, where it absorbs into her hand, stabilizes her body, and makes her a shard wielder.
Form and Properties
The shard begins as a small colorless crystal star and a star-shaped relic. Later, Thalion retrieves it as an iridescent star shard. When Helena receives it, it disappears into her palm, traces white lines along her skin, and releases purplish otherworldly light.
The star shard stabilizes the wielder's own power through controlled essence absorption.
Thalena can let it materialize or brighten in her palm. It can also remain hidden inside her hand during direct examination. Its reserve remains accessible during concealment, and it responds when Thalena spends her remaining power to create an essence copy in the void.
History
The star shard emerges from Arcanis's late Malverand artifact research. Raphael reacts with alarm because the prototype resembles the spiral shard. Arcanis designed the empty prototype to stabilize its wielder.
The shard remains among Malverand's stored artifacts with first-generation cores and second-generation cores. Isandriel later retrieves it for Thalion for use once Helena's essence approaches Zero or Ignatius in strength. Thalion eventually uses it when Helena is preventing overload with aether magic and her own growth exceeds her safe control.
The unique star shard is separate from the Hourglass Shard, an hourglass-shaped temporal shard meant to be filled with one magic type and prepared later for Sigvariel.
Later Use
Helena keeps the shard hidden in her palm to conceal her shard-wielder status. She plans to fill it by draining essence into it. Isaac later checks on her before she has charged it.
As Thalena, she uses the shard as a concealed reserve. She drains stored shard essence to heal Deylin in the void, checks its remaining power during later dangers, and brings it with her into the Malverand Intergalactic Empire. When Amos needs enough essence for a long plan, Thalena relies on the shard's storage capacity. In the void, the shard responds as she pours every remaining reserve into an essence copy sent to rescue her companions.
Thalena draws on the star shard's stored essence in her fights against Pyrathalor and Jorhan. The Sword of Arcanis carries another reserve for the Jorhan fight, giving her two stored sources for the immense power she uses there.