On the entire ride home, Arden was worried. Vera was refusing to make eye contact with him, and only giving him short answers when prompted. When they got back to Miasma, Sya popped a question.

  “What’s the plan next? Aura training? Weapon training?”

  “Your choice,” Vera said. “I need to have a talk with your brother for a bit. We’ll catch up with you later.”

  Sya silently prayed for her brother as she went to her room to practice aura manipulation.

  When Vera pulled Arden into her room, he realized he was seeing a side of Vera that he hadn't seen before, at least not when it was directed at him.

  She was angry.

  It felt worse than when he disappointed her during the fight with Frozhe. She stood in front of him as he sat at the edge of her bed, scolding him like a schoolboy in trouble.

  “Arden, what the hell did you do? I thought you wanted to be a Starborn.”

  “I do,” he said.

  “Then why did you do something so incredibly stupid? You don’t even know how close you were to being rejected by the officials. You acted out of pettiness, and it almost cost you your registration. I taught you that a Starborn needs to keep a calm head. Have you forgotten that?”

  “Of course not, Vera. I’ve only gotten this far because of your guidance. Both with the trial and with Domah.”

  “Then why did you act out now? Your trial and the events with Domah were crazy enough to warrant some craziness as well. I understand what you did and why you did it then. But why now? If there was any time to remain calm and put up a facade of normalcy, it’s in a meeting with bureaucrats of the Association.”

  Arden knew that she was right.

  “Remember, this isn't about just you anymore,” Vera continued. “Sya and I are with you now. What I do affects you two. What Sya does affects you and me. What you do affects Sya and I. We work together. What you did today put the party at risk. What would you have done had Sya not fed you a script?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  “You need to think more about the consequences,” she said. “You're smarter than you think you are. I've seen it. It wasn't just out of pettiness that you decided to disembowel yourself in front of the interviewers. You have some dumb moments, but you're not an idiot.”

  Arden didn't respond immediately. He needed to make sure that he conveyed himself properly.

  Vera’s ire cooled as Arden found his words.

  “...I told you a few days ago that Starborn are almost legendary figures in my mind. I think…I think I was just trying to live up to their image in my mind.”

  He sighed and continued.

  “You are already a perfect Starborn. You live up to the legend. You're beautiful, you're strong, and you have a sense of justice. You have incredible control of your powers.”

  “Are you jealous?”

  He shook his head.

  “I want to stand by your side. You stand out, so I want to stand out with you. Sya stood out earlier by showing that she already had control over her aura after only a few hours.”

  “She's the exception rather than the rule,” Vera said, sitting down next to him. “We've known that since the beginning when we saw her perception. She was able to learn a few of the movements of the Dance of the Nine Phases after seeing me perform it.”

  “But that's exactly my point,” Arden said, leaning back. “I want to stand on equal footing with you guys, so I needed to stand out as well. In a way that doesn't show off any of my secrets.”

  “You are aware that you are the only one who thinks that we’re beyond you, right?”

  Arden nodded slowly.

  “I know. It's a mental thing. Day two of being a Starborn ended with me fighting a higher-ranked Starborn, and I survived. I know I'm not falling behind. It's wrong to think that I am. We're still at the very beginning of the journey. Maybe I feel inferior because I realize how little I actually have at this point. Most everyone else had a family, a house, and an upbringing of some kind. Me and Sya had a little of that. And now I'm afraid that someone, somewhere will take away the only things I have: you, and Sya. That thought horrifies me more than anything. I told you how I reacted when Another-Vera died on top of me.”

  Vera nodded and leaned her head against Arden’s shoulder.

  “I'm not angry anymore,” she said. “You learned your lesson, right? Just be smarter in the future. We got off easy this time, but it won't always go well when you go full you.”

  “Full me?”

  “Yeah. Now come on,” she said, standing up and pulling Arden to his feet. “We've got more training to do if you want to pass the exam.”

  *****

  Two days passed since then, and Arden couldn't be happier. Since he spilled his guts, he felt like he and Vera had gotten even closer than they were before.

  Nothing of note happened in the intervening time, giving Arden the notion that something bad was going to happen at any given moment. These four days since returning from the restricted zone had the least amount of things happen in that time since before the cascade.

  That isn’t to say that Arden wasn’t enjoying the break from paradoxes, gods, and everything in between. He very much was.

  He finally had the time and the ability to spend time with his loved ones. Whether that was helping Sya mentally recover from her ordeal with Yaan, spending nights with Vera, or training with both of them, he was having fun again.

  His room ended up being the de facto meeting spot for the group when they were relaxing, and he didn't mind at all.

  There was plenty of room in his apartment for Vera and Sya. There would likely be plenty of room for another three or four people as well, so long as they didn't spend the night. Even before getting that far, Arden would need to make more friends.

  The only people in Miasma that he had gotten to know were either high in the hierarchy, someone who used to help abuse him, or people outside the hierarchy entirely.

  It just went to show that Arden and his band of monsters didn't exactly fit in at Miasma.

  Currently, the trio of Starborn hatchlings sat in the living room on the Usurper’s Throne. With Vera’s ascension, she found out that one of the active aspects allowed it to transform into other furniture. One infusion of stellar essence later, and the throne transformed to a large couch big enough to easily contain the three of them.

  A large bottle of red-tier alcohol sat on the coffee table in front of them with a third of it consumed already. Mundane alcohol wouldn't do much unless they drank an outrageous amount, and they didn't think they wanted to put Miasma into debt because of a single drinking night. So, they paced themselves and drank the liquor.

  “This stuff is amazing,” Arden said, taking a sip of a mixed drink that contained the alcohol and cola. It tasted just like an amazing bourbon and coke.

  “I know, right?” Sya said. “I didn't think there'd be a type of alcohol for Starborn that tasted like whatever alcohol you wanted it to.”

  She swirled her glass that looked like the rising sun, a mixture of orange juice, grenadine and the alcohol that for her tasted like tequila.

  Vera spoke up with the customary knowledge that the siblings were used to.

  “It's the blood of a Celestial called an Omniglint. It's whole thing is that it's really good at camouflage. It's not particularly hard to kill, just hard to find.”

  She pointed her own drink towards the bottle on the table. Hers was a mojito with the rum replaced with the monster blood.

  “Its blood has the same properties. Camouflage and blending in. Hence why it works with any type of drink.”

  At the mention of the alcohol being blood, Arden only increased his speed of drinking. Vera watched with amusement until he finished his second glass.

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  “There’s not enough biomass in there for you,” she said with a smile. “It's highly diluted.”

  Arden swore.

  “Shit. You just got me a bit screwed up.”

  Vera laughed.

  “Are you going to stop?”

  “No,” he said, pouring himself another drink. “I just feel a bit looser now.”

  “That's dangerous,” Sya said. “Last time you went a little loose, you disemboweled yourself.”

  Arden made a hurt face.

  “Ugh. Don't remind me. I was immature then.”

  “It was two days ago!”

  “I’ve grown since then. I'm the Archon of Slow-But-Steady-Self-Improvement, remember?”

  “People, please!” Vera exclaimed. “Focus your alcohol impaired mind on the task at hand!”

  She pointed to the notepad that Arden placed on the table to fix himself another drink. It was fast running out of paper, as indicated by the many tear marks near the spine.

  “We still have to figure out a team name!”

  “Do we even need a team name if we're not a full team yet?” Sya asked. “Three members is a little short for a full party.”

  “We'll still need a name. Otherwise we'll be Starborn Squad (Provisional)!”

  “I don't want that,” Arden said. “Just having the title of provisional seems worrying in a prophetic kind of way.”

  “So let's do this then!” Vera cheered.

  It was clear to both Arden and Sya that despite both of them having more to drink, Vera was more intoxicated than either of them. She wasn't completely drunk yet, but they could see her riding the buzz.

  Arden smiled and took another swig of his drink. He pointed to each of the girls.

  “You're representative of universal collapse,” he said, pointing at Sya before dragging his finger to Vera. “And you are both a binary system and the moon. I'm RedShift. How about Team Astra?”

  He wrote it down on the pad.

  “Denied.”

  “Veto!”

  “Whats wrong with that?” Arden asked. “We're all astronomical terms!”

  “Yeah,” Sya said. “Us and every other member of every other team. Did you forget that we're all called Starborn?”

  Arden grumbled to himself as he crossed out the team name.

  “You go then,” Arden challenged. “Show us what your brain is capable of.”

  “Okay, try this on for size. You're thinking too much about what we are. Think about what you want to be instead. I want to be strong, so how about Team Zenith?”

  “Team Zenith…” Arden said, writing it down. “I hate to admit it, but it's alright. I see a flaw with it though.”

  Sya smiled dangerously.

  “Do tell, o brother mine.”

  “Dont call me that,” he said.

  Before he could explain his rationale, Vera spoke up. It was less eloquent than Arden would have said, but it got the point across.

  “Veto!” Vera said. “We're just starting out! Why would we choose our name to be the super mega strongest team ever?”

  “Exactly,” Arden said. “It's arrogant. It's a challenge to every existing team.”

  “Hmm,” Sya said in thought. “You have a point. Do you have a name, Vera?”

  Vera took a long drink of her beverage before slamming it to the table, causing a little bit of it to fly out and land on the couch. She made a grand proclamation.

  “The Black Edge!”

  Arden wrote it down, but inwardly believed it was dead in the water. The look on Sya’s face told him that she agreed with him.

  “Okay…” he said. “Anything else? Anything less edgy?”

  Vera pointed a shaky finger at him. With them sitting right next to each other on the couch, her finger was right in front of his face.

  “You are the last person who should complain about something being edgy! How's your bandit armor? Or your bone claws?”

  “Or your soul?” Sya offered. “It's straight up body horror.”

  Arden furrowed his brows.

  “Your soul is an eclipse shrouded in living shadows.”

  The drinks and suggestions continued to flow for another hour. The diluted Omniglint blood vanished, as did any hope of coming up with a good name for their group. They unanimously agreed to put a pin in it later.

  It also became apparent that Vera had a little too much to drink. Or a lot.

  Sya was also riding the high of the buzz as she sat upside down on the couch with her legs dangling over the back, but she was already a bit off. Vera’s inebriation was much more apparent.

  It was quite a sight to see the person who so rigidly enforced the idea of combative balance being so uncoordinated for a change. When she tried to walk across the room, her legs looked like Arden’s felt after the first run.

  When he saw her falling down, Arden acted immediately, rushing to her side to support her.

  “I think you've had enough Vera,” he said.

  “Nnnoooo,” she slurred. “I feel ffffine.”

  She took another step and almost fell down alongside Arden.

  “I think it's time you went to bed,” Arden said, leading her to his bedroom.

  She looked at him with a red face and glassy eyes. She looked between him and the bedroom.

  “No wayyyyy. You're cute, but I alllllrea-y have a boyfriend. He's pefect, and I don't want to ruin thatttt.”

  Arden felt his heart swell hearing her words. He felt like he won at life.

  ‘I already knew she was beautiful and hot, but no one told me she was this cute!’

  “Your boyfriend is lucky to have someone like you,” he said.

  Vera drunkenly shook her head.

  “Noooo. Im thhhhe lucky oone. He's too good to me. He's funny. He's cute. And he always tries to better himself. And he's cute.”

  When they got to Arden’s room, he laid her down on his bed. She tried to get up several times immediately after being laid down, but eventually she took the hint and settled into his bed.

  She looked at him and her eyes went wide with happiness. A smile that Arden would never forget blossomed on her face.

  “Arden,” she said blissfully. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” he said. “Get some rest. Sya and I need to clean up.”

  “Will you come back?” she asked with a face that looked like it was moments away from tears.

  “Of course,” he grinned. “I’ll be in the next room with Sya. If you need anything, just call.”

  She grabbed his hand.

  “I need you.”

  Arden was struggling to come up with a reply, but he was saved by her falling asleep. She kept a vice grip on his hand even as she softly breathed into his pillow.

  “I bet your ego must be swelling nicely right about now,” Sya said quietly from the doorway.

  “Just a bit. It's not everyday that someone so perfect raves about you and tells you that they're the lucky one for being with you.”

  He turned to face his sister.

  “So how long have you known?”

  “Since you rescued me,” she said, taking another sip of her last drink. “It was obvious the way you two looked at each other. Ever since we started living with her before the cascade, I kind of figured that you would end up with her.”

  “Why? At that point, we didn't even know.”

  Sya shrugged.

  “I don't know. Call it the red string of fate, or perfect compatibility, but you two just looked good together. At least in my eyes. When did it start for you?”

  “I always thought she was gorgeous,” he said. “When we first met, I asked her if she was a Starborn because I thought she was unreal. As we continued to stay together, we got closer.”

  “Was it just a matter of spending enough time together with someone who actually gave you the time of day?”

  “I don't know. I just know that sometime along the way, I fell for her. Fell for her hard. I only realized it during my trial before everything went wrong.”

  He took a breath.

  “There have only been two people who I felt the need to hurt, more so than kill. One of them was Yaan, as you know. The other was the son of a bitch from the trial who killed that Vera in front of me. I killed him at the end, but by then the damage was done. I was horrified that the Vera that Nux killed was our Vera.”

  “But she wasn't,” Sya said.

  “I still don't know what she was. Perhaps I never will. But when Vera found me the night I returned, I was lost. I had no leads and no support. Vera gave me the latter, and the rest is history. I was just happy that she felt the same way.”

  Sya looked at Arden’s bed. At the connection between her brother and her best friend. It was obvious to her that they would be inseparable in the future, if they weren't there already.

  ‘Might as well help them along.’

  “Stay with her. I'll take care of the cleaning.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Sya pointed to Vera's stranglehold on him.

  “If you want to help, remove yourself from her.”

  “No, I'm good.”

  “That's what I thought. I'll head out after I clean up. Just one more thing.”

  “What is it?”

  “Treat her right. Looking at the pair of you, it's easy to see how much you care for each other. Don't let her go. Make her the happiest girl in the world. Be happy with her. You deserve it more than most.”

  “So do you,” Arden said. “You’ve been housebound with space cancer for quite a few years now.”

  She chuckled.

  “I’m already having the time of my life. I became a Starborn, and I’m training to fight monsters with my evil blood. It’s exciting. Speaking of which, do you think she'll be up for training in the morning?”

  “Even if she’s not, we’ll still have to. Habits and all of that.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. Have a good night.”

  “You too.”