Arden inspected his shirtless form in the mirror. It had been two days since he began doping himself with potions, and the results were even better than he hoped for. His body had made a full recovery. There were no more burns, the pain had ended, and even his hair grew back.

  “Yes!”

  The doctor was right about his muscles. With his muscles healed, he could see his new musculature. Before he was a Starborn, he was malnourished. When he started training and eating with Vera, his body improved to the point of not starving, but still underweight. There was little meat on his bones, but that was still better than the utter lack that he had before. When Arden first became a protostar a few days ago, his body had filled out a lot. He no longer looked like a starving slum rat. He looked a bit thin, but not unhealthily so.

  Now, he had definition.

  He was toned. He didn’t look buff, but that didn’t bother Arden. He preferred the slender look over a more beefy one anyway. And judging by the looks Vera had been giving him, she didn’t seem to mind either.

  “This is peak masculinity.”

  He exited the bathroom and returned to his room. Like normal, Vera was in the room waiting for him. Her elbow rested on the desk with her fist holding up her head. She gave him a smile seeing his joy. It was contagious.

  “You look pretty happy there,” she observed.

  “I could say the same about you,” he said, sitting down against the hospital bed that he no longer needed. “Is it because I’m healthy or because I look better?”

  “The first one, obviously.”

  “But I do look better, right?”

  “Maybe,” she teased. “You’d look better if you wore clothes that fit you better.”

  “I don’t have clothes anymore. I’m wearing the clothes that you got for me, because I can’t wear the others. A bloody assassin robe, the hospital gown, and the Stoneflesh Shroud. If we’re going to meet with Chorzo again in a business setting, I’d rather look like a normal person than either predator or prey. Once we finish here, we need to go clothes shopping. What's your wardrobe like right now?”

  “I can’t complain,” she said, bringing her arms above her head to stretch in a way that Arden found very appealing. “I have the clothes that you found the night we got back, but Savish and the girls have been bringing me clothes for the past several days.”

  “Where are my gifts?” he said with a pout.

  “They are your gifts.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Yeah, they thought that you liked crossdressing so they gave them to me to give to you.”

  Arden grimaced and rubbed his eyes with a sigh.

  “I should have seen that joke coming,” he muttered. “So you’ve got clothes then?”

  “Yup. Do you want them?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  “To be out of here. With you and Sya. Eating good food that doesn't come in cans.”

  The door suddenly opened and several people walked in, all of them were infinitely better dressed than himself. Santos still had the appearance of an aged doctor with his lab coat. Laurent was still wearing his suit that screamed “Security Specialist.” And Savish was dressed semi-formally in a black top and skinny jeans.

  “That can be arranged,” Laurent said with a grin.

  “It’s finally time?” Arden said, standing up alongside Vera.

  “You’re as healthy as can be,” Santos said. “Plus I had a feeling that you’d probably cause trouble for me if we didn’t let you out by tonight.”

  “I wouldn’t do anything that bad. I guess that means the raid is tonight?”

  “Yes. Come hell or high water, we’re bringing the victims back,” Laurent said. “Come with me. We have a strategy meeting planned.”

  A few minutes later, the six of them were in Chorzo’s office. Chorzo sat on the chair at the head of the table. Laurent and Santos sat together on one of the couches, with Laurent being closest to Chorzo as per his duties as assistant. On the other couch, Arden sat at the end with Vera then Savish with Savish being the closest to Chorzo.

  Arden covertly looked around the office, not to gauge for threats, but just to look around. He thought it was weird for the big boss’s office to be so minimalistic. There wasn’t even a single executive toy on Chorzo’s desk. He definitely seemed just as stoic in private as he did when around others. Although the one thing Arden did like about the office was the amount of natural lighting that shined into the office. It was late morning, so the sun shining in felt warm. It gave the office an air of hope, not the air of people being laid off because some rich corporate executive wanted another sports car.

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  A large map sat on the table so everyone could see. It looked to be a map of the slums as they were now. Mostly rebuilt. And right in front of Chorzo was a file, resting next to the map.

  “Let’s keep the meeting short,” Chorzo said. “We all know why we’re here. Everyone here will be the main players for the raid tonight. We don’t need too many people. That will only draw the attention of the Association, which is something we need to avoid for the time being. The goal of this mission will be to extract every person we find. If they’re alive, Santos will keep them that way. If they’ve passed, we give them back to their families and give recompensation.”

  Laurent raised his hand to ask a question.

  “What are the estimates on how many people need extraction?”

  Chorzo grabbed the file and passed it to Laurent who opened it and skimmed it.

  “Pass it along. That file contains every reported missing woman since the cascade. I don’t expect Yaan to have been responsible for all of them, but it is likely that he is responsible for a worrying amount of them.”

  “How many are in the file?” Laurent asked, flipping through the pictures.

  “357.”

  “I hate to say it, but isn’t that number kind of low?” Savish asked.

  “It very likely is,” Chorzo admitted. “These are the reported disappearances.”

  Arden nodded.

  “Most people from the slums have no records,” he explained to Savish. “I'd say maybe a quarter of us actually had ID's. To the rich folk out in the higher rings, we were little more than a statistic.”

  Arden looked to the head of the table as the file was handed to Santos.

  “How many of these were reported during or after reconstruction?”

  “Almost all of them. After order was restored.”

  “Not that it really matters right now,” Laurent said. “Whether or not the people that Yaan took were reported missing, we'll be rescuing all of them anyway.”

  “Indeed,” Chorzo said.

  Arden was given the file and he looked through it alongside Vera. The conversation continued as Chorzo began talking about the details of the mission.

  “Our informant told us where Yaan had been hiding. It's pretty far into the restricted zone, so no one's actually gone looking there.”

  “The restricted zone is past the edge of reconstruction right? Wouldn't that place be the first place a criminal would run to? Why are we just now learning this?” Vera asked, still looking through the numerous photos.

  “We always knew that Yaan hid in the restricted zone, we just never knew where. Without any information, looking for him would've been impossible. There are too many places to hide and too few people in Miasma to undertake a search like that.”

  “That’s why I lived out there with Sya for the longest time,” Arden confirmed. “We were some of the only ones to live that far out because, even with the risk of Celestials from the wilds, it was safer for Sya to be there than closer to civilization.”

  Arden froze when he got to the last image on file. It showed a woman with black hair and silver streaks that flowed like liquid metal through her hair. She was pale and feeble, but still managed to have more meat on her bones than Arden did back in the day. He always made sure that she ate more than him. His hands tightened around the image of Sya.

  ‘Just a little longer.’ he told himself.

  Arden reluctantly handed the folder to Vera, who immediately passed it to Savish. Vera’s hand snaked around Arden’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  “Which brings me to my next point,” Chorzo continued. “The restricted zone is restricted because of how close it is to the wilds outside of Foruta. Celestials may occasionally enter the restricted zone in search of prey. Arden, you lived out there for years. How many Celestials did you see?”

  “Not many. On average, maybe once per year.”

  “How strong were they?”

  “Stronger than Sya and I. We weren’t up to fighting any Celestials. We just ran away out of the restricted zone for a day or two then returned when they were gone. I don't think any of the ones we saw were above red-tier, though.”

  “There will be Celestials there now. The cascade may have ended, but the numerous ruptures flooded the slums with Celestials. I very much doubt that all of them were cleared out.”

  Savish handed the file back to Chorzo. He continued after taking it back.

  “It's not as easy to get into the restricted zone as it used to be. The association has security checkpoints now at certain places, and guard patrols at others. Because there would be questions if I were to go through the checkpoint, we will all have to sneak through instead.”

  Chorzo pointed to Laurent and Santos.

  “You two go together. Arden and Vera in group two. Savish and I will go individually. Our destination is an hour’s walk south of the border. Get there before sunset.”

  “What is our destination?” Savish asked.

  Chorzo pulled out a marker and began making marks on the map. He made X’s on three spots that when connected created the curve of a semicircle.

  “These are the security checkpoints at the border of the restricted zone. Go around them, over them, through them, I don’t care. Just make sure you’re through without getting caught.”

  Chorzo dragged his hand closer to himself and drew a circle on the map..

  “This is our destination. The coordinates were given to us by our compliant prisoner. His abilities are similar to tracking. He tracked Yaan over the last two months and found that this was where he always returned to.”

  “What is it?” Laurent asked.

  “A portion of the slums with several intact buildings by the looks of it. Several high-rise buildings as well. Everywhere around it though is nothing rubble and dust. Whenever you get there, radio in and establish a perimeter. If it’s not one of us or a victim, it needs to be gone. Any questions?”

  Arden raised his hand.

  “Why are we waiting until nightfall?”

  “On Earth, Celestials are less active during the night. It'd be better to escape with a bunch of mundanes with as little Celestial interference as possible.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Anyone else?”

  Chorzo looked around the table. No one else raised their hands. He stood up with the folder of women's pictures in his arms.

  “Meeting adjourned, then. Stop by the armory on the second floor before you all head out. They can lend you any equipment you might need. Radio, holo-map, armor. There's been enough tragedy in this case already. Let's not see anymore.”