Arden and Chorzo stood outside of the tent again, overlooking the fallen building. The sun was slowly rising, painting the world a dark blue as opposed to the normal pitch black that it was during the night.
“A Blight Walker healing other Blight Walkers,” Chorzo said, with a shake of his head. “You and your group are some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Every time you do something, it's crazier than the last thing.”
“You’re not the first person to say that.”
“I hope I’m not the last.”
Arden thought back on everything that’s happened. Meeting Vera, the mysterious message on his Status, the cascade, absorbing his doppelanger, completing his trial, becoming an Archon and fighting one too.
‘And I’ve only been a Starborn for maybe a week.’
“I doubt you will be,” Arden said. “When things get this crazy this fast, it's only going to get crazier. Whether I wanted it or not, it seems I’m wrapped up in a lot of stuff bigger than I am.”
“I’d believe it. How do the girls feel about everything that’s going on? Will they be content in coming along for the ride?”
“If they weren’t into the craziness, then I doubt they would have become Starborn.”
Chorzo chuckled softly in response. Arden was thrown by the normally emotionless man showing an emotion that wasn’t grim stoicism.
“That’s true. There are no normal Starborn. We’re all crazy now. The powers tend to do that.”
“Actually, I think it's the crazies that become Starborn. You probably read Santos' report on me. The same things pushing me forward now are the same as they were when I was mundane. I’m not exactly a lunatic, but I can’t honestly say that I believe that I’m mentally all there. Maybe it was the isolation, maybe it was the boredom, I don’t know.”
Chorzo nodded, agreeing with the fledgling Starborn.
“So where do you plan to go from here?”
Arden thought for a moment.
“Well, me and Vera have put it off for some time now.”
Chorzo understood.
“You two are really compatible with each other,” he said. “It’d be a shame if it didn’t go anywhere, but now you finally have time.”
“I agree,” Arden nodded. “We’ll definitely be doing some stuff, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. Technically, me and her are rogues, since we haven't been registered yet. That seems like a good place to start. I don’t know about Vera and Sya, but I managed to snag a good amount of loot from my trial. I figure we make some cash and live it up in Ring 4 for the time being. Do some training so that we’re good enough to become licensed Starborn.”
“How pragmatic,” he said, trying to gloss over his embarrassing assumption. “And unnecessary. With what you three have done for Miasma, we’d be able to get you licensed on recommendation alone. Details won’t be disclosed either, so you can rest easy.”
“Yeah, no. That’s appealing, but the whole reason I asked for anonymity back a few nights ago at Savish’s was because I wanted to blend in. I don’t want to be known as the nepo baby Starborn.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Plus, me and Sya actually both need a lot of training.”
“I can’t speak for your sister, but do you need the training? You’ve already beat Yaan. He was already in the upper echelon of red-tier protostars before he went rogue.”
“That wasn’t skill. He didn’t take me seriously until the end. He let me win. Vera applauded me for my instinct in a fight, but my actual skills are unpolished.”
“Very well. But let Miasma do something for you three. You’ve all earned it.”
Arden chuckled.
“Was scouting us not enough?”
“I’m rescinding my offer,” Chorzo said, getting a surprised reaction from Arden. “My offer stood so long as you didn’t know what to do. I gave it to you to try to put you on the right path. But after seeing what your sister did, I no longer have the need to do that. You are already representative of what Miasma is.”
“And what’s the real reason?” Arden asked immediately, not falling for it for even a moment.
“You’ll be tied down to Miasma if you join. You have the potential to go beyond us. I want to see what you can do on a larger stage, one where the slums are only a part of your mission.”
“It’s a bit too early to reach that conclusion, isn’t it? Me and Vera have only been Starborn for a week. It hasn’t even been a day for Sya.”
“It’s not about the time passed. It’s about what you’ve done in the time that has passed. In the last week, you and Vera protected a restaurant full of mundanes when a pair of rogues attacked. You outlasted a hellfire stigmata. You rescued a group of kidnapped Blight Walkers and your sister cured them. I want to reward you. So what do you want?”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
*****
Arden didn’t know what to think when a single ambulance rolled up on the scene. It definitely wasn’t going to hold all of the former Blight Walkers that were still unconscious.
At least, that's what he thought up until the back doors swung open and a conga line of paramedics and stretchers came filing out like it was a clown car.
‘Ah. right. Spatial powers. Bigger on the inside.’
“But how did they get through the wall without being stopped?” he asked aloud.
Laurent gave a shrug in response.
“We have money. Most of the guards want money. It’s a simple equation.”
Chorzo spoke up, not wanting his second in command to taint the reputation of Miasma by making it seem like they bribed city officials on the regular.
“Guild vehicles get a pass. A lot of training goes on in the wilds past the restricted zone. The rich ones go by air or teleportation, cheaper ones go by land.”
“Miasma doesn't seem cheap to me,” Arden said. “I saw the penthouse.”
“That’s where all the money went,” Laurent replied.
The group of Starborn stood watch over the medics as they loaded each of the victims into the ambulance. Arden would have found the scene comical if the people being loaded into the ambulance weren’t victims of whatever Yaan did to break them.
The sun was now above the horizon, and it shone down on the slums. Everyone except for Santos stood outside the tent making sure that no Celestials wandered too close.
“Is anyone else getting a clown car vibe?” Sya said, showing off her natural silver haired Starborn form. Over the course of the night, she was able to make her eyes look normal as well, so right now she didn’t look at all like a Blight Walker.
“I’m glad someone else said it,” Arden muttered.
Santos exited the now barren triage tent. Everything had been removed and brought to his inventory. All of the beds, all of the machines, everything.
“I’m done here,” he called out to Chorzo.
The leader of Miasma nodded his head and looked at the trio of recently awoken Starborn.
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
Arden nodded.
“Sya and I talked about it. It didn’t really have any good memories, just a bunch of bland ones. And now it's full of misery, from us and from them," he said, nodding his head towards the ambulance. “Get rid of it.”
“Just so you know, this doesn’t count as your reward,” Chorzo said, as embers began to dance in his palms.
In seconds, the second home of Arden and Sya was wreathed in orange-tier flames. These were much more potent than a mundane flame, or even a red-tier flame. Yaan’s attacks could only hope to be as destructive as his uncle’s.
Under the glorious majesty of the building’s pyre, the Starborn piled into the ambulance as well. All except for Arden and Vera, who climbed to the top wanting a front row seat for the fire.
That, and they wanted alone time.
Their job was done.
The ambulance sped back the way it came.
Arden and Sya watched the viking funeral of their old home, neither saying anything. Sya was watching from the window inside the ambulance, and Arden was riding on top of the ambulance with Vera at his side.
The fire wouldn’t rage on for long. The incredible power of Chorzo’s fire would reduce the building to ashes long before they returned to the city. Hopefully, with it destroyed at the molecular level, there would be no way for the ‘echo of eternity’ to bring it back again.
Vera glanced between the raging inferno and the man who used to live there.
“Will you miss it?” she asked.
Arden didn’t feel sad about losing the building at all. There had been too few happy memories there and so many horrible memories.
“Not at all.”
“Even though it was your starting point?”
Arden chuckled.
“Sure, the first of the craziness started there, but that wasn't my starting point. Meeting you was. More than anything that happened, the best thing that’s ever happened to me was meeting you.”
Vera blushed at his words.
“Even more than becoming a Starborn?”
“I only became a Starborn because of you. Even if somehow I resolved the paradox without ever meeting you, I would have failed the trial. Like I said before, you were the reason I kept going.”
Vera leaned into him and snaked her hand into his. It was a simple motion, but both of them felt infinitely happier. They each felt the warmth of each other and felt that it was warmer than the burning building.
After the fight with the rogue Starborn Frozhe, Arden said that she was someone that he couldn't live without. At the time, they were still just friends, but she felt bliss when he said it.
Her bliss then was nothing compared to how it was now.
She knew in her heart that she couldn’t live without him either. Not anymore.
Not everyone was lucky enough to fall in love. Even fewer were lucky enough to fall in love with one of their best friends.
“You really do have a good mouth,” she said, at peace.
“I haven't shown you anything yet.”
*****
Reentering the city had been no problem at all. They slowed down as they came through the tunnel so the driver could show his certificates.
Arden and Vera still sat atop the ambulance as they cruised through the city’s perimeter. They had a brief giggle when they saw the guards who let them through yesterday point at them with shock.
A few minutes later, they were back at Miasma.
The Starborn got off or out of the ambulance, and walked into the building as the ambulance went around to bring the Blight Walkers to the inbound patient entrance next to the infirmary.
It didn’t take long for the group to receive news that was worrying to say the least.
Laurent and Chorzo were quickly given a run down of everything that had happened over the past day. As the rest were considered trustworthy, they didn’t bother hiding the news.
“Yaan disappeared?” Chorzo repeated, bewildered. “How did he escape a second time?”
“That’s the weird thing, sir,” the sweating subordinate responded after taking a nervous gulp. “We caught it on the camera feed. He didn’t do anything. One moment he was lying on his cot hooked up to his IV, then he suddenly healed and attacked the medic.”
“And then?”
“He and the medic disappeared. Completely vanished. There was no sign of stellar essence or anything else. No traces of teleportation either. He just disappeared.”
