“They just disappeared?” Arden asked.

  Sya nodded.

  “They were with me one minute, and gone the next. I don’t know what it was, but I don’t think they were the only ones.”

  “All of the Starborn disappearances,” Vera realized. “Just like what happened to Cirai and Podren’s coworkers.”

  “And maybe the other disappearances as well,” Arden added. “We thought that the people were just unfortunate casualties in the cascade, or that Yaan took a lot of them. But if they disappeared with space magic then that changes things.”

  “People have started to notice the disappearances?” Sya asked.

  “Yeah. The Guilds and the Association are trying to cover it up until they have a handle on things. Admitting to losing so many Starborn would be admitting that they can't protect the civilians.”

  “What about the others?”

  “The other what?”

  “The other disappearances. It's not just the Starborn that are disappearing. Blight Walkers have been vanishing as well.”

  *****

  A week passed since Podren and Cirai vanished, leaving Sya alone to find for herself. Being alone didn't just mean that she would have to survive on her own.

  She had no one to rely on. If she found a Celestial, or more accurately, if one found her, she had to solve it herself. Running away became her main source of exercise. With only a damaged sword, there was barely a chance to fight back. She wasn't confident that she could fight without the support of Arden and Vera by her side.

  It wasn't just the Celestials that she had to watch out for. She couldn't even trust her fellow humans.

  The Blight was a thing of fear, and Blight Walkers were a thing to be hunted.

  Now, it was her against the world. Both men and monsters had it out for her.

  That isolation terrified her.

  Even after living for years in the most isolated part of the slums as a Blight Walker, she never felt as scared as she felt now.

  Before, she had Arden. Now, he was gone.

  Sya refused to let the fear consume her, though. Just like when they fought the Maverick or Other-Arden, she fought back even though she was horrified.

  Her fear led her back to a familiar place many times.

  Everyday, she returned to the site of the collapsed warehouse where she and her friends had their final fight against the otherworldly facsimile of her brother.

  She returned there every day, hoping that Arden and Vera finished their trial and were there waiting for her.

  It was on one of these trips that Sya realized that Celestials seemed to have an aversion to the building. Whether it had to do with it being the sacred ground of an Archon, or because two golden stargates opened in close proximity to each other, Sya could only speculate.

  Regardless, it felt like lady luck finally shined on Sya. She felt a strange sense of deja vu as she made the collapsed building her shelter until everything blew over.

  It was mid-morning as Sya rolled off the heavily damaged futon she managed to scavenge in the wreckage.

  “It sure is no Usurper’s Throne, that's for certain,” she muttered.

  Somewhere off in the distance, one of her unruly neighbors roared. Sya prayed it wouldn't come any closer.

  Not wanting to be caught unaware, she grabbed her sword just in case, just like she did during every waking moment now.

  She was in hostile territory. Vera taught them to never let their guards down in a dangerous place. Everything and everyone was a potential threat. She had to be ready for it, if she wanted to see Arden and Vera again.

  She stood in front of the site that she believed was the closest to where Arden and Vera disappeared. As was routine, she slashed a tally mark into the ground.

  There were now 12 tallies carved into the dirt. One for each day she hadn't seen them.

  “Please hurry,” she whispered. “It's just me now. I want to see you guys again.”

  She briefly wondered how their respective trials were going. She could only hope that they were going well.

  After giving a silent prayer, Sya emerged from the shell of the building. After a brief questioning thought of how many of her homes would be destroyed. She went off in search of Celestial corpses.

  With two makeshift pouches made from the ineptly butchered hides of last night’s dinner, she set off. She needed more food, and if she was lucky, she would be able to secure some star cores for the future.

  She felt the omnipresent threat of exhaustion that she had grown accustomed to over the past few years and stifled a yawn. Her day had only just begun. She still had more to do.

  *****

  A few hours had passed since she set off in search of necessities. Clean water was on the top of that list, and she had come up rather lucky on that front.

  Lizards weren’t the only Celestials around here.

  The cactus spiders claimed their territory somewhere between the site of Association branch building and the wilds, and had regular turf wars with their many neighbors.

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  Sya knew that they weren't spiders, as they had four legs coming out from a center mass with what looked like a short round cactus cephalothorax, but she couldn’t shake the name, even if cactus crab sounded better. She just couldn’t stop herself from calling them cactus spiders. Perhaps it was because spiders were inherently more frightening than crabs, and these spiders were definitely fearsome, especially with their size, as they were the size of a small dog.

  Right now, Sya was crouched behind a pile of rubble overlooking a battlefield filled with a small group of cactus spiders and a single meter tall Celestial that looked like a shark’s head had grown stubby legs. She watched with keen interest to see how the group of four red-tier protostar spiders would take out the main-sequence land shark.

  She knew it was dangerous to linger, but the cactus spiders drew her to them. She needed water, and it was a well known fact that cacti stored water in them. She could only hope that the same rule applied to Celestials

  The cactus spiders made some chittering sounds with their cactus needle jaws. Sya couldn't tell if they were communicating with each other, or just posturing to try to scare off the land shark.

  The land shark snarled and took a step towards the spiders, not caring about their noises.

  That would be its mistake.

  Despite its large eyes, it was either too dumb or it couldn’t see the thin webbing that was spread along the ground throughout the area.

  The land shark tried to take a second step, but found that it couldn’t remove its leg from the webbing.

  The spiders released a shrill cry and flew into action, skittering along the ground and the threads with speeds that surprised both Sya and the land shark. In seconds, all four of the spiders had surrounded the land shark and launched more of their webbing at it before running circles around the beast, completely tying it up.

  ‘I guess they really are spiders.’

  Sya felt that the fight was anticlimactic.

  The land shark tried to bite through the webs that restrained it, but it was for naught. It fell to the ground and could only roar in anger as the cactus spiders closed in for the kill.

  Just when Sya thought the fight was over, one of the spiders got too close to the land shark's mouth, and was quickly cleaved cleanly in two with nothing more than the land shark’s horrific bite force.

  The remaining three spiders chittered in rage, and quickly finished the job, injecting their prey with their many needles.

  Sya wasn’t looking too closely at how they finished the job. She was more focused on the slain cactus spider. Though it was cut in half, it didn’t spill blood, but water. Even more, there were no organs at all. The insides of the cactus spiders were only filled with water

  She grinned from ear to ear. She had secured her source of water for now. Doing some quick math, she figured that each spider held about five or six liters of water. The one that was killed had half of it spill, but the remaining water would be enough to get through the day, maybe two if she conserved it well.

  The remaining spiders threw their pincers into the air in a celebratory fashion after killing the land shark. Making haste, the spiders quickly finished wrapping up the corpse of the land shark in several more layers of their string before carrying it away.

  Leaving the spider corpse behind.

  Sya checked to see that the coast was clear, and booked it to the cactus spider’s corpse. After taking a sip from its hollow body, Sya licked her lips, pleased that it was in fact water.

  Moving as fast as she could, Sya brought the corpse back to her shelter, careful not to spill any of the water. If she lost too much, she would have to go back and find more cactus spiders, and possibly fight them.

  After seeing them handily dispose of a main sequence, she was in no such hurry to do so.

  As she entered the broken shell of the building, she was startled by the appearance of a bulky cloaked figure sitting on her futon, staring at her.

  Even in the dim light, Sya could see the pleased smile on the man’s face. She looked at his body for any marking that could help her identify the individual.

  She found one on his shoulder, pinned to his cloak.

  A dark cloud swirling in on itself. Miasma.

  A sense of dread entered her mind.

  “She was right,” the man said, lowering the cloak from his head so she could see his face. “She told me that I would find someone I was looking for if I came here. And lo was it so. I guess she really was a god.”

  Sya lowered the corpse of the cactus spider to the ground and took a step backward. Her hand was already reaching for her sword.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  Red sparks came together in the shape of a katana in the man’s hand.

  “A friend of your brother,” Yaan said.

  *****

  To call what happened next a fight would be wrong.

  Sya was quickly destroyed.

  Be it speed, reflexes, skill, or firepower, Yaan had Sya outclassed in every front.

  Sya looked up at the dark ceiling taking in quick shallow breaths. Everything hurt. Between the flames and cuts, she felt worse than when she fought Other-Arden.

  Even her trick of using her poisonous blood was ridiculed by Yaan, who burnt the blood away before it could even reach him.

  “Get ready Sya,” he said, throwing the defeated Blight Walker over her shoulder. “Things are going to get real interesting for you. And you only have your brother to blame.”

  *****

  Sya didn’t remember much following her one sided beatdown by the man who she knew routinely assaulted her brother as well. She drifted in and out of consciousness as she was brought to the remains of her old haunt.

  She thought it odd that the building that was little more than piles of concrete and nostalgia was now suddenly repaired of most of its damage.

  When she was awake, Yaan made sure to tell her what was going on. She didn’t know much about the prince of Miasma, but she knew enough to know that he was trying to scare her.

  And it was working.

  “Here’s the deal, sister. My boss has been waiting for something like this to happen for a while now. She needs a body to inhabit. A Blight Walker, untouched by the starlight’s vestige, or something like that.”

  Yaan carried Sya to the top floor as he continued.

  “She chose me because we share the same goal: domination. We came to an agreement. I’d help her descend if I provide her with a Blight Walker, and she’d utterly crush anyone of my choice however I like.”

  A malicious grin crossed his face.

  “That’s Arden by the way. As much as I hate to admit it, he’s got some balls. I don’t think it's enough to survive against a god, though. He either submits, or he dies.”

  Sya gave Yaan a look of fear and fury.

  “You made a deal with an Archon?” she whispered.

  “That’s the word! Archon!”

  He looked like he was about to continue talking, when he suddenly looked up into the sky, like someone was talking to him.

  “Oh?” he asked. “That really is lucky. I just chose her because I knew it would fuck Arden up if we found out about this. I didn’t think she’d be perfect for you.”

  Sya passed out again, only to be forced awake by blinding pain in her hands and feet. She tried to scream out in pain, but realized she had a piece of cloth covering her mouth, preventing her from even opening it to scream.

  “Perfect,” Yaan said, admiring the crucified Sya. “Don’t worry too much. You won’t die. Your friend the echo of eternity made sure of that when he swung by. In the meantime, relax. Get comfortable. You’re going to be here for a long time. Do you know how many Blight Walkers it takes to power a prime vessel? Me neither. My goddess says it will take a lot. I guess you’ll have some friends soon. And when they disappear, I’ll bring more friends.”