Zodiac Academy 7: Heartless Sky
Heartless Sky: Chapter 34

I sat in the smaller of the two offices I knew resided within the Palace of Souls, despising that I still couldn’t gain access to Hail’s quarters and his main study which likely held countless secrets within its depths. But I would crack my way in in time, and at least for now I could revel in dominating this space that he had once occupied too. Hopefully he was watching me from beyond the Veil, seeing the man I had become and seething with vitriol over the better Fae who had won his crown.

I dominated the oak desk that ran the length of the enormous window on the back wall, my fingers flexing across the grain of the wood. The light was crisp, casting shadows through the room including those of the Hydra heads that made up the iron chandelier above. I’d toyed with the idea of gutting the palace, stripping out the mark of the old king entirely, but there was something abundantly satisfying about sitting in the place of a man who’d once thought he was far greater than me.

But Hail had been a puppet of my design and this whole ascension would have gone much smoother had he not married that whore of a queen from a savage land. She had made things far trickier for me, her Sight a difficult obstacle to navigate. But eventually, I had found ways by allying with the Nymphs and using the shadows to hide my plans, a thing even a powerful Seer like her could not foresee.

Their deaths should have been the end of my troubles, but now their daughters had returned to lure away my Heir and his Guardian with their pussies. No matter though, I had things under control. I would soon produce another Heir to ensure the Acrux line was upheld, and those who opposed me would be crushed beneath my heel and ground into the earth like the worthless ants they were.

And better still, they were playing into my hands by closing that rift to the Shadow Realm.

Lavinia had complained of the weakness it had brought on in her and that was something I was most pleased about. Because she could not control me as easily now, and she had spent much of her time alone and plotting some hateful vengeance against them, which equalled her staying out of my way.

I still needed her, but I needed her on a leash, one I could yank tight whenever it suited me. But let them weaken her for all I cared, then when she was malleable again, she would be easier to control.

I’d have to keep an eye on the situation though. I couldn’t have them taking the Shadow Princess from me entirely, but for now I would let them believe they had gained an advantage over me while in fact they had just made my weapon easier to wield.

A knock came at the door, the light knuckled rapping familiar enough to let me know it was my butler Jenkins.

“Yes?” I barked.

“My King, Stella Orion is here to see you,” he replied and a weary sigh left me.

I considered turning her away as I had been doing for some time now, but then again…Lavinia wasn’t as easy to force beneath me and fuck as she had been when Clara had inhabited her.

I growled low in my throat, wanting to exert my power. I’d have liked to have women brought to the palace in droves, the most beautiful in Solaria. I was the king, after all. I should be burying my cock in whoever I liked, but the first time I’d had some brought here, all five women had been found mutilated in the entrance hall.

Lavinia had stood among their corpses, smiling menacingly as she stood drenched in their blood, a lump of flesh gripped in her hand with a savage bite taken out of it.

I had not brought a single woman here since.

But Stella could come and go as she pleased and she was a beautiful woman, one I had long enjoyed the company of even if I had grown bored of her over time. And Lavinia was currently nowhere to be seen. My cock was already aching to be inside a warm body, because Lavinia’s was cold and unwelcoming. I needed the hot flesh of a Fae to sate me, and it looked like it was time to get what I wanted.

“Let her in,” I called and the door opened, revealing Stella as she stepped into my office in high black heels and a fitted white dress which hugged her perfectly fuckable body.

“My King.” She bowed her head and I leaned back in my seat as I watched her walk towards me, admiring her tight figure.

Once upon a time, she and I had studied together at Zodiac Academy alongside Hail Vega, the other Celestial Councillors and Azriel Orion. Of course, back then I had merely been the spare, below their notice most of the time while my older brother Radcliff lorded it over me, believing he would always be the most powerful Fae in our line and that I would never pose any kind of threat to his position.

Of course, he’d died choking on that belief, staring up at me in horror as he awoke one night finding I had dropped a norian wasp into his bed while he slept, his hands locked to his sides with my air magic, preventing him from healing himself of the severe reaction he had to it’s sting. With healing magic, the norian wasps’s sting wasn’t much of a threat to most Fae, but for anyone who didn’t manage to heal away the effects of it, they suffered a slow and agonising death as their internal organs swelled and swelled until they burst. The process took almost an hour to kill a man as big as my brother had been, and it had been quite the shock to my parents when they found him the next morning. Everyone believed he must have been tapped out and stung in his sleep, his tongue too swollen to call for help by the time he woke from the agony of the sting.

But that hadn’t been the way it had happened at all. Oh no. My big, powerful brother had been awake for the entire thing, woken by the sharp snap of his limbs being immobilised by my power and the angry red and black wasp trapped against his chest within a glass.

He had cursed and screamed while he died, all of it contained within the silencing bubble I had cast while I watched his agony play out within his eyes, and I was filled with the satisfaction of knowing he would never again refer to me as Lame Lionel. I’d mocked him over that as he choked on his own blood and begged me to heal him. “Who’s lame now, Radcliff?”

His dying reply had left a bitter taste on my lips though. “You are,” he spat around his swollen tongue. “You’re unFae, unwanted, and will always be Lame Lionel no matter what you achieve.”

His girlfriend had sobbed so loudly at his funeral. I couldn’t recall her name now but I remembered well how I’d comforted her, taking her to his room so that she could claim something to remember him by. I fucked her on his bed while I watched the tears spill down her cheeks as she tried to bury her grief in affection for me, and I buried my cock in his woman proving just how lame I wasn’t.

Stella had always shared my vision for the world, she had been a perfect accomplice in many ways. Her obsession with me had always been useful to my needs and she’d been happy to play the part I created for her in my rise. She even married Azriel Orion so that she could grant me access to the research he was doing for the king, helping me find out more and more about the shadow realm and creating our plans to steal their power for ourselves.

The Orions had long held an alliance with my family in the past, teaching us the ways of dark magic, but Azriel had grown distant with me after Radcliff had died and I’d taken my brother’s place as Heir, his little friendship with Hail always taking precedent over his commitments to the Acruxes. I’d found my way to trap Azriel in the end though, manipulating him into assisting me by encouraging his marriage to Stella. He’d always been resistant to my kinship, but in the end I’d bound his son to mine in an act which had always felt like such sweet revenge for Azriel’s insolence.

The fool had even believed Stella loved him. Right up until he’d walked in on her sucking my cock during their anniversary dinner, that is. I swear I saw his heart crack in two right as I spilled my seed all over her lying tongue. The fool had killed himself with a wayward spell not long after that, so he hadn’t suffered the heartbreak for long. A pity really.

“It’s a pleasure to see you,” I purred, my gaze dripping over Stella’s full tits and the tight nip of her waist. I wanted to fuck with the savagery of my kind today, I wanted my name falling from those full lips while she suffered through the might of the Dragon King.

“A pleasure you could have had many times before now,” she said, a stern edge to her voice and my eyebrows arched at her icy tone.

“Bitterness doesn’t suit you, Stella,” I warned, straightening my tie as my fingers twitched to punish her.

“I’ve stood by you for years. Do I not deserve a moment of your time these days?” she asked, hurt crossing her features.

Women were always so tiresome with their emotions.

“What do you call this, if not a moment of my time?” I loosened my tie, pulling it free from my neck and undoing the top buttons of my shirt, the Dragon in me heating my body with the desire to have her.

“It has been hard won,” she said, pausing before the desk and dropping her eyes to a silver cigar box on the desk. There was an engraving of a Hydra on it wrapped in the embrace of two wings. “Do you ever think about them? What we did?”

“You hardly did anything at all. It was I who dealt with them,” I growled and her dark eyes raised to meet mine.

“I taught you all you know about dark magic,” she hissed and I sat up straighter in my seat, her tone making the fire in me burn hotter.

“You were useful, now you are less so,” I said with a shrug, rising from my seat so I was looking down at her, my shadow falling over her and swallowing her whole.

I’d always allowed Stella to speak more candidly with me than most, but something about the sharpness to her eyes today riled the beast in me.

“What have you come here for, Stella? To try and claim some of my glory?” I scoffed, moving slowly around the desk as I approached her, my gaze falling to the swell of her tits again.

“Of course not,” she muttered, dropping her gaze from mine and twisting a bracelet on her wrist. “I’ve come to ask for mercy.”

“Mercy?” I chuckled at the word. “I have no bone to pick with you, Stella.”

“Not mercy for me,” she said, her eyes raising to mine again. “For my son.”

I growled, stepping closer to her as a dangerous energy rose in me. “Your son is a traitor to the king.”

“I know,” she breathed, her throat rising and falling as fear crept into her features. “I’m not asking for a pardon. All I ask is that if he is caught, he will not be killed. I have already suffered the loss of my daughter, to lose him too-”

I struck her, my hand smacking hard enough across her face to leave a blazing red print there.

“Foolish woman,” I spat. “Cut out your attachment to him at the root. He has dirtied your name even more so than his father did. Your womb has failed you. You’d do better to burn the crops it has reaped.”

Tears swam in her eyes as she looked back at me, touching the place I’d hit her as her lower lip trembled. I reached out to push a lock of raven hair behind her ear which had swept across her face, stepping closer to her and breathing in the luscious scent of her skin. I loved when they put up a little fight, it made it all the more satisfying when I was inside them. Stella had always been so boringly willing, but her resistance now was definitely more appetising. I knew what she really wanted anyway, because who wouldn’t desire the attention of the Dragon King all to themselves?

“Now be a good girl and please your Lion, hm?” I rolled down my fly, dropping one hand to squeeze her tits while she stiffened and tried to back up. But I caught her waist, not letting her go as I took her hand and brought it to the mighty swell of my cock.

“That was an order from your king,” I purred, leaning in to inhale the sweetness of her fear.

“Daaadddy,” Lavinia’s voice sailed through the air, seeming to carry on some ethereal wind and my spine straightened. “I’ve been a bad girl, Daddy. Come fiiiind me.” A giggle followed that noise and I reluctantly took my hands off of Stella, frustration filling me as I pushed her back and tugged up my fly.

“We’ll have to meet somewhere more private,” I muttered. “I’ll summon you when the time is right.” I brushed past her, marching open the door as I went in search of my psychotic housemate, my cock still ragingly hard from its unfulfilled needs.

As I strode down the echoing halls, the sound of Lavinia singing to herself reached me, and my Atlas buzzed in my pocket.

I took it out, a sneer lifting my lips as I found my emails filling up over some article that had been published online about me. My PR team were looking to put a spin on it already and I hurriedly brought up the article to see what all the fuss was about.

Catalina Acrux lives!

A shocking discovery has been made that is set to rattle the nation. Catalina Acrux – wife to King Lionel Acrux – was previously thought dead after a tragic accident at The Palace of Souls. However, she has not only has been found alive, it’s been declared that she has dissolved her marriage to the king and re-married a known Vega supporter and rebellion leader, Hamish Grus.

I froze, every fibre of my body turning to solid, unyielding ice as I stared at the photograph accompanying the article of my wife – my fucking wife – alive and well looking as stunning as she had the day I’d made her my bride in a wholly different wedding dress and on the arm of that disgusting rebel Grus.

A Dragon’s bellow spilled from my chest as my eyes roamed back and forth across the article, taking in every detail as rage clawed up my spine.

The wedding was attended by none other than the two Solarian princesses, Tory and Darcy Vega, as well as Hamish’s daughter Geraldine Grus, the four former Celestial Heirs Caleb Altair, Seth Capella, Max Rigel, and the two sons of the false king himself Darius and Xavier Acrux.

The photos demonstrate a strong alliance between the Heirs and Vegas twins, and since their disappearance after the battle at The Palace of Souls, it is clear they have formed a bond which could rock the foundations of the kingdom.

Catalina was available for comment, and the secrets that she has unveiled about the false King Lionel Acrux paint him in a terrifying light which is set to lose him support in droves.

Catalina has stated that Lionel ‘Dark Coerced her into doing anything he desired’, and that she was subjected to ‘unspeakable cruelty under his control’. Perhaps one of the most harrowing moments of her account was when she spoke about her ex-husband’s business friends, and how he secured deals with high up officials like Gregory Gander, Percy Nostar, and Christopher Bloodstone, by forcing Catalina to offer her body to them, using his dark magic to ‘keep her compliant’.

Catalina bravely detailed her years of abuse while her new husband Hamish Grus remained at her side, their hands clasped together in a union that spoke of a deep and caring relationship between them.

Darius and Xavier Acrux also gave their accounts of years of mistreatment, painting a frightening picture of a violent father who created a fearful home for his family with little stability and constant pressure to perform.

Xavier discusses how his father kept him locked up in Acrux Manor after he Emerged as a Pegasus, subjecting him to the wicked and previously outlawed practise of Order Reassignment. We’re as yet unclear to the reason his father would take such measures, but it is possible he planned on casting an illusion over his second son to make him appear as a Dragon to avoid admitting his true Order. This of course begs the question as to why the so-called king would want to do such a thing and suggests that his Orderist laws are based on prejudices more than legitimate facts as he claims.

The Daily Solaria has reached out to King Acrux for comment, and we will wait to hear his response. What we know for sure, is that the false king who paints himself as a great ruler, appears to be nothing but an abuser with years of shameful secrets to his name. One can only wonder at what else he is hiding, and at a time of great unrest in the kingdom, we must ask ourselves who it is morally right to align ourselves with.

Click here to watch the full interview with Catalina Acrux and her sons Darius and Xavier Acrux.

(All statements have been verified by reputable Cyclops and former FIB agent Blane Moonbead.)

–            By Tyler Corbin

I threw my Atlas so hard that it smashed to pieces against the wall, scattering along the hall as I roared my utter fury into the palace, the whole place shuddering around me.

“Daddy, what’s the matter?!” Lavinia cried and I strode toward her voice with my hands curling into fists, about to head through the door ahead of me when it slammed into my face so hard it broke my fucking nose.

“Argh!” I shouted, clutching my face and healing the wound before throwing my fist into the door.

The fucking palace was shutting me out of more and more rooms, and I pummelled the door with my knuckles as I fought to get through it.

“JENKINS?!” I yelled for my manservant, needing him to bring me my stardust.

I was going to head to the press and make sure every single piece of that article was undermined. I’d have every upstanding Fae in the kingdom speak on my behalf to besmirch every one of that filthy Pegasus’s words.

I gave up on the door which had closed itself to me and turned down the next corridor, taking the long way round towards Lavinia’s voice, wanting to throttle her to shut her up.

My eyes fell to a trail of blood along the floor as though someone had been dragged down it and a frown gripped my features as I quickened my pace and followed it.

“Jenkins!” I shouted. “Who left this fucking mess here?!”

My foot slipped in the blood and I spat a snarl as I nearly fell on my fucking ass before using air magic to keep me upright and hurrying along after the blood trail. “JENKINS!”

The blood swerved left into a room and I threw the door open, smoke seeping between my teeth as rage clouded every thought in my head. And there stood Lavinia in a mist of shadow with Jenkins held above her head, her hand buried in his chest as he jerked and thrashed, unable to scream around the shadows pouring into his mouth. His arms were missing and I spotted them on the floor, half eaten like raw meat.

No, he was my best man. My most loyal servant. “Wait!” I ordered, but Lavinia just smiled like a witch and ripped his heart clean from his chest, letting him fall to the floor, his legs snapping on impact.

She tossed his heart away and dropped over his body, taking a bloody bite out of his side as I stumbled a step back, my spine hitting the open door as she pinned those wild eyes on me.

“I’m going to eat him bite by bite,” she said, laughing manically and I raised a hand, fire blazing at my fingertips as I prepared to defend myself.

“Why?” I gasped. “Why him?” Of all the people in this world, Jenkins was the one I would likely miss the most. He was relentless in his attention to detail, unwavering in his worship of me, as perfectly enraptured with my power and violence as a man could be, a devoted fan of the brutality of Pitball, the most flawless shoe shiner I’d ever known, and there was no Fae in the whole of Solaria who could rival his calligraphy skills. To put it simply, he was irreplaceable. And of all the worthless Fae in this fucking palace set to serve us, this bitch had chosen him to play out her vile games on. Why did the stars curse me so?

“I should kill you for this!” I bellowed, my rage exploding from me as I took a step towards her, intent on putting her back in her fucking place and punishing her for stealing my best man from me.

But then that traitorous shadow hand of mine slammed down hard between my thighs and I wheezed out a cough, falling to my knees and extinguishing the flames in my palm as I cupped my crotch.

Lavinia jerked her chin and the door was slammed shut behind me by a tendril of shadow, two more taking hold of me and dragging me across the floor towards her.

“Stop,” I snapped, throwing out my hand again and blasting her with fire. She deflected it easily, her shadows swallowing up the flames as she stalked toward me, her face and body wet with blood.

“You forget who I am, My King,” she sneered, blood running down her chin as she prowled closer, her eyes a roiling storm of shadows. “I am the Shadow Princess, ruler of my realm and soon to be your queen. I am done waiting for my crown and I won’t suffer the pain of my shadows being ripped from me without being allowed to drown my grief in blood.”

Panic welled as she latched whips of shadows all around my body, binding my arms to my sides as I fought to blast her with my magic. But she was an unstoppable force, a creature so powerful I was suddenly at her mercy and I wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

“Enough! I am your king,” I barked as she stood above me, bending me right back onto the floor.

“Yes, you are,” she said, licking the blood from her lips. “And I owe you an heir, Daddy.”

She released my right arm and took hold of the shadow hand she’d gifted me, forcing me to unbuckle my pants and free my bruised cock.

“No, stop,” I rasped as she made me pump it forcefully up and down for her, watching me with glee in her eyes while she made me do it so roughly, I feared she’d rip it right off. “Please, Lavinia,” I gasped in panic and she offered me some reprieve by having me stroke it more gently.

“Make me your queen,” she hissed, the threat of refusing her clear in her eyes. “You have put it off long enough.”

“We need a minister,” I blurted, hunting for a reason to stall her.

“The word of the king will be enough to bind us beneath the eyes of the stars,” she replied, a feral look in her eyes as she waited for my agreement, and I could tell that I’d pushed her for as long as I could with this. She wouldn’t wait anymore and perhaps with the announcement of Catalina’s union to that fucking rebel Grus, a royal wedding was just the publicity spin I needed to draw attention away from it.

“Alright,” I conceded, trying to ignore the way my fucking shadow hand was still tugging at my manhood. “I’ll set it up for the weekend. A huge celebration, the whole court in attendance and-”

“No,” she snarled, bearing bloody teeth at me. “Tell the stars now, Daddy. I want my crown.”

I swallowed thickly, staring up at her as she cocked her head and my hand squeezed my cock a little harder like she was warning me of what would happen if I refused, and I gave in.

“By the power of the crown,” I called out, tipping my head back to look up towards the heavens and crying out in alarm as Lavinia smashed a hole in the roof with her shadows so that I could actually see the stars. “As King of Solaria, I choose to bind myself to this woman in marriage. Let us both enter this union with clarity and honesty and forever be linked by the stars.’

Lavinia clapped excitedly, tipping her head to the sky too and repeating the words in reverse. ‘I choose to bind myself to my king in marriage. Let us both enter this union with clarity and honesty and forever be linked by the stars as he makes me his queen.’

I felt the slap of that bond fall upon us like a crash of thunder rumbling ominously throughout my soul and as I looked up at my new bride, she smiled a wicked, bloody, triumphant smile at me, urging my hand to move to move faster up and down my still flaccid shaft.

“It is done,” I breathed, watching as she dropped her head back and a crown forged of shadow grew to rest upon her brow, making her moan as she began to run her hands down her chest.

“I just want to please you, Daddy,” Lavinia purred, the cloak of shadows on her body falling away to expose her naked flesh. She was bloody and beautiful and maybe having a queen this powerful wasn’t such a bad thing, so long as she truly wanted to please me. She was mine to own, mine to ruin if I decided it, and as she released me from the shadows and allowed me to rise, I let myself indulge in looking at her lustful body.

She stroked a hand down my chest, her fingernails cutting through my shirt and tearing it off of me as she looked up at me with wide eyes, the crown on her head clearly tempering some of that rage in her and reminding her of her place. A queen’s job was to serve her king after all.

I started to get hard at last as her nipples brushed against my chest and she moaned softly, dropping her bloody mouth to my throat. Her skin was near translucent, darkness writhing through her veins in place of blood, but there was something endlessly seductive about owning this powerful being.

“You killed my butler. I will never find anyone good enough to replace him,” I hissed, reaching up to lock my fingers around her throat.

“Then you’d better show me how bad I’ve been, Daddy,” she said, biting her lower lip and I couldn’t deny I liked having this hold over her.

Besides, I was the Dragon King, if anyone could tame her it was me.

I spun her around, shoving her against the wall to my right and pinning her firmly there. She pressed her ass back eagerly and I lined my cock up with her entrance, a rush of power rolling through me at taking control of her, of reminding her that I was her king.

I was inside her within one hard thrust and I growled, taking my rage out on her over that article, over Jenkins, my fingers bruisingly tight on her arms as I crushed her to the wall and she cried out like the rougher I was, the more she desired me.

“I’ll give you an Heir,” she moaned. “I will please you, My King. Just give me your seed and I shall grow us a boy more powerful than any you have spawned before.”

“You’d better produce one soon,” I snarled, fucking her harder at the thought of that. A replacement to the treacherous creatures who had abandoned me for the Vega whores. A true Heir who I could trust to rule in my stead the way this kingdom needed to be ruled as he fulfilled my legacy.

“You have had plenty of time to offer me one. So where is it?” I shoved her face harder against the wall and she moaned louder.

“I told you I would give you an Heir once I was your queen. Not before,” she gasped.

“Well you’re my queen now. So give it to me,” I grunted, my cock close to bursting as I drove into the tightness of her body.

“As you wish,” she replied, her words a violent promise which I failed to react to fast enough as I prepared to finish inside her.

Just as I was about to find my release, Lavinia took hold of my shadow hand once again, punching me in the head and I stumbled backwards from the force she used, roaring in rage as my cock was tugged free of her body and my legs hit a table behind me.

Lavinia flipped around, running toward me with a shriek in her throat and though I cast an air shield to protect myself, she tore through it like paper with her shadows, diving on me and forcing me down on the table.

She slammed her pussy down on my cock, bending it sideways and I yelled in pain before she grabbed hold of it and shoved it inside her, riding me hard while locking both of her hands around my throat.

“Stop,” I choked out, trying to push her back as she bounced furiously on my lap, the crown on her head growing larger as she moaned in ecstasy. She lashed my good arm to my side while wielding my shadow hand so it tweaked my own nipples hard enough to almost rip them off.

“Lavinia!” I begged.

“Daddy!” she cried back as if my prayer for her to stop had been an exclamation of pleasure, and I wailed as she made me shove the shadow hand beneath me and spread open my ass cheeks.

“Stop – stop it!” I roared, trying to buck her off of me but it only spurred her on.

The next words died in my throat as she forced me to shove two shadow fingers up my own ass, the burning pain of it making me scream like a new born whelp.

Lavinia howled like a banshee, her pussy tightening around my cock to the point of agony. And suddenly she was forcing an orgasm out of me, one that somehow hurt like fire was tearing free of my cock as I spilled myself inside her, and she continued to bounce until I’d given her everything I had and my cock felt as though it was broken beyond repair.

I groaned in discomfort as she leapt off of me, leaving me bound there on the table, unable to move as the shadow fingers remained deep in my ass and my other hand was still latched to my side.

Lavinia moved around the room as the shadows danced across her skin, and a horrified realisation fell over me as her stomach started to swell and swell as though she were pregnant, but that wasn’t at all possible.

“What’s happening?” I asked, my voice coming out weak as I continued to strain against her hold on me.

“It’s your Heir, of course,” she said with a manic smile, clutching her belly as she dropped down on the couch and spread her legs wide so I had a view straight to her cunt. “He wants to say hello to his daddy.”

“Stop,” I begged, shaking my head, unsure what game this was but I didn’t like it at all. “Let me go, Lavinia. I am your king – obey me!”

She moaned gleefully, clutching her swollen stomach as she spread her legs wider. “He’s coming.”

“Who?” I breathed in fear, but my answer was given to me in the most horrifying way as small shadow hands clawed their way out of her vagina and a blackened head swiftly followed, two blood red eyes locking on me as the thing clawed its way out of her, making her scream.

“He’s here!” Lavinia gasped and I shuddered, trying to get free, but I was bound in place and she wouldn’t let me look away.

The shadow creature dragged itself fully out of her body, the thing the size of a baby but nothing like one too. Its limbs were too long, its head too bulbous, and the moment it slithered free of its mother, it stood up on two legs, its eyes glowing red and its body smooth and wet with some black substance that dripped to the floor at its webbed feet.

“Say hello, baby,” Lavinia encouraged.

“Hello Daddy,” it growled in a voice made of nightmares and I screamed.

I screamed and fucking screamed like I had never screamed before.

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