“Ferzan,” Vernisha said as they walked beneath floating glass spheres, each containing a bright orange flame that lit up the street. Streetlights.

  Each one bore a spiral flame graphic, a company she wasn’t familiar with yet. Still, it was good to know Light For All didn’t have a monopoly on non-ether light.

  “Yeah?” he answered.

  A mostly brown carriage with a blue stripe slowed nearby. A pink warbird was painted along its side, messy but artistically beautiful.

  The passengers inside stared through the window at Ferzan in open astonishment.

  Vernisha stepped around a splatter of dry white bird poop. “What’s your plan for the future? Like a goal. What do you want to do with your life, other than being a good person?”

  He was listening, but at the phrase “a good person,” he shook his head and chuckled like she was teasing him.

  “I don’t really have many plans. I mean…” He drew a slow breath, ignoring the people already calling out to him across the street. “I don’t really control my life. I’m a Starworth in name. But Starlight in purpose.”

  “To be a pawn for them?”

  “I’m not a fan of being called that, but… sure.” He grimaced slightly. “It’s just the nature of life. I don’t mind, as long as I’m not pressured to do things I’d hate.”

  “Really?” Vernisha noticed several people from the small crowd were now speed-walking toward them. “What if you’re forced to marry someone you don’t want? That would make me kill myself.”

  “Don’t say such repulsive things,” he muttered. “I’m young. That’s not something I have to worry about. And if I have to, then, eh, whatever. As long as she’s hot, I guess.”

  He laughed. “Man, I’m dumb.”

  Vernisha chuckled lightly. So much for the serious conversation. “You’re serious? That’s all?”

  “I mean… I don’t know. There was this girl I liked, but she was a regular. My dad didn’t really care, he’s cool, you know. But Mom hated it. So that was that.”

  “That’s kinda sad.”

  “You got your eyes on someone? Being a Vlandos making you scared?” he asked, shifting the topic.

  Romance wasn’t something Vernisha expected to deal with anytime soon. Not with this childish body. Not when her peers were children.

  “No. I was just curious about you.” She glanced toward a group of balding old men drinking outside a small bar.

  “Oh. Why?”

  “Why not? You’re reliable, cool, self-sacrificing. I shouldn’t just know the surface of you. I think people you help should know more. To know you’re a real person, not just... an existence.”

  That caught him off guard.

  His pace slowed. He blinked, then tilted his head down slightly. “I don’t think I want that.”

  By then, the admirers had caught up and began bombarding him with questions. He kept walking through it all, unbothered, like wind passing around him.

  Then a communication line opened.

  'If I do that, imagine how harshly people would judge me. They can’t know too much. That’s scary to even think about. I mean… they probably already judge me, just quietly.'

  Vernisha was surprised. She had assumed the admiration simply tired him out.

  But he was actually concerned.

  Ferzan smiled at the crowd, shaking hands and offering hugs when asked. Normally he would have slipped away after brief pleasantries.

  “I love you, Ferzan!” a girl shouted.

  Eventually, the crowd dispersed, and he walked back to Vernisha.

  “I don’t know. It’s a dumb worry. I’d rather people only know the public side of me. Not the part my friends and family see.”

  “That makes sense. I’m one of your friends, right?”

  “Yeah. Absolutely.”

  “Hm...” Vernisha exhaled lightly. “I don’t envy your life. Sounds like a pain. And if I ask how Yellowbrim wants to use you, I’m guessing that’s a sensitive topic.”

  “You guess well.”

  “If you’re planning to take over the world, please spare me.”

  “You don’t have to wage war to take over the world, Vernisha.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Sometimes the biggest wars happen behind tables, looking civil.”

  “Uh-huh… You’re a good guy, right? I really don’t want to have my emotions betrayed.”

  He smiled faintly, glancing toward a black cat that had been staring at Vernisha. “I’m not in any shady business. Well... you know what I mean.”

  Vernisha studied him for a moment.

  She really hoped that was true. It would honestly sting if she ended up hating him.

  “I really hope so, Ferzan.”

  Back at the estate, Vernisha stopped near Katie’s bedroom door.

  She waved Ferzan good night.

  Then she opened the door.

  The smell hit immediately.

  Rotting rats and vinegar.

  Inside, in the corner of the room, Katie stood wearing plastic goggles and leather gloves.

  In front of her sat a glass box containing a bat. A grey bat.

  Not grey because of skin.

  Grey because of the exoskeleton hiding its flesh.

  Bonebat.

  Vernisha nearly jumped. “Holy shit, you’re insane! You’re going to get us killed!”

  “What?” Katie said, standing up in an oversized shirt that hung down to her knees. Vernisha was fairly certain it belonged to an older man, judging by the pink cursive text across the front. I love my wife’s... wink wink.

  Vernisha pointed sharply. “That thing. What are you doing?”

  “Oh...” Katie glanced at the glass container, then back at her with a shrug. “It’s dead.”

  “Yeah, no shit. You’re messing with the virus in it, aren’t you?”

  “What are you on about?”

  “That’s a bonebat, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, I see the confusion.” Katie crossed her arms. “They’re not from Leiipava. The contaminated ones are from ages ago, and from that country. Bonebats now don’t have the virus.”

  “Uh-huh. Sure...”

  “They don’t. Research has been done. This isn’t even from the Contma cave, which doesn’t even exist anymore.”

  “Yeah...” Vernisha took a slow step back. “I’ll be sleeping outside.”

  “Oh come on! Stop being such a little pussy.”

  “‘Oh my gosh, Vernisha, you don’t want to turn into a melting zombie? You’re such a pussy,’” Vernisha mocked, pitching her voice higher and making exaggerated ugly faces, which was admittedly difficult because she was quite cute. In her own opinion.

  “Mocking me doesn’t change reality. You would like it.” Katie looked back at the corpse. “Upon death, the creature’s stomach accumulates volatile gases as a byproduct of internal decay. These gases crystallize into a dormant, frozen state. However, if the stomach acids, rich in engineered reactive compounds, are introduced under specific conditions, they catalyze a transformation in the gas structure. When exposed to water, the newly altered gas violently rehydrates and destabilizes, triggering an explosive reaction. It goes boom.”

  Oh.

  She was smart smart.

  Vernisha had a strong suspicion these poor bats had been turned into grenades during some war, or at the very least their stomach acid had been harvested for that purpose.

  “So what are all these other liquids for?” Vernisha asked.

  “To see if I can make a bigger boom.” Katie glanced at the tubes. “Well, to see how big I can make the boom.”

  …Right.

  “I see. But why in the room?”

  “I don’t want to go to the lab.” Katie met her eyes directly, then added after a short pause, “My mom doesn’t allow me past nighttime.”

  Vernisha could absolutely imagine why.

  “How big is the boom you’re expecting?” Vernisha asked.

  “Enough to blow half of my face off.” Katie grinned without the smile reaching her eyes, which made her look like a complete ghoul.

  “Do you... do drugs?”

  “Performance enchantments? Or dopamine stimulants? Caffeine is also a drug, you know?”

  Vernisha didn’t argue. She was too tired for this conversation. Instead, she moved to the corner near the door and sat down.

  There was now a new black dresser at the back of the bed, silver handles centered on each drawer. It was most likely the reason why Vernisha's mountain of clothes were gone.

  “You don’t want to see it? Damn, everyone’s lame.” Tarnisha said.

  “I’m tired, and I don’t want half of my face blown off,” Vernisha scoffed.

  “Lame. Sleep well.”

  Vernisha wondered if she was tired enough to fall asleep instantly. It felt like she was, but she didn’t want to take the chance.

  So she got up, sat on the bed, and watched Katie’s face light up as the girl launched into an explanation about how bonebats used to be reared for their stomach acid by the Coldstone company to refrigerate goods. The government had invested heavily in the practice to lessen the country’s dependence on Vurmion’s ice caps, which were absurdly expensive, as well as Ice Monsters, which were meant to reduce reliance on vlandos. There was also the issue of their own naturally harvested mountain ice; since most villages were built on flatter land, that ice often carried dangerous bacteria responsible for the Sleeping Man Epidemic long ago, with occasional outbreaks even now. Treating the ice was tedious and costly.

  Apparently, bonebat farming had ultimately been abandoned because the creatures produced too little acid to justify the expense, and even their diet and living conditions affected the quality of what they produced. Katie kept talking while Vernisha felt herself growing heavier with every passing sentence, which, honestly, was good.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  By the time she leaned back onto the bed, she was already slipping under. That part of Katie reminded her strongly of her eldest sister back on Earth, Namel, who had been completely obsessed with science. Vernisha had never fully understood why. Namel had simply needed to know how the world worked, and obsessed was not an exaggeration. If Namel could have gotten away with cutting animals open to study their insides, she absolutely would have.

  Katie’s voice faded as Vernisha drifted into nothing.

  The nothing slowly began to take shape.

  Walls formed around her, and suddenly she was standing among broken slabs of concrete with grey dust hanging thick in the air. Long wooden benches lay crushed beneath rubble, and in front of her stood a statue made of too many things at once—stone, man, lion, sea, grass, wings. There was so much going on that Vernisha couldn’t even tell what it was supposed to be.

  She rose slowly, ignoring how sweat glued the white dress to her body. A bad dream, it had to be.

  She looked around. No one.

  And yet it felt wrong.

  Like someone was there, watching.

  Cold, bony hands suddenly clamped onto her shoulder.

  Vernisha spun around, half expecting to see Caren. It wasn’t him—of course it wasn’t. His fingers had never been skeletal like that.

  Standing before her was the Temple Defender she had killed: a skeleton in white.

  Had he been dressed in only white back then? Vernisha couldn’t remember. She didn’t think so. Not that the Balash Temples followed any clear color code anyway.

  She held her ground, fully aware this was a dream.

  The skeleton grabbed her other shoulder and dragged his face close, breath reeking of dirt.

  “You will pay for what you have done…”

  “I doubt that,” Vernisha replied flatly.

  “You wouldn’t even apologize?”

  “If you were actually him, I would. But you’re not. You’re made up by my mind.”

  Only after the words left her did the old truth surface again.

  She had killed him unjustly.

  He had acted in self-defense.

  And Tarnisha had somehow finished the rest.

  Vernisha had a lot of innocent blood on her hands. The city included.

  Yes.

  She knew that.

  She was a bad person and had never pretended otherwise.

  The world fractured into red and white dust, the particles swirling into a violent spiral with Vernisha at the center. Her hair and clothes whipped around as warm and cold currents brushed over her skin, and then the storm slowly unraveled into darkness.

  “Why did you kill me…”

  A cold spike ran down Vernisha’s spine.

  That voice was too familiar.

  She whipped around.

  “I wanted to save you!”

  Ulah stood on a platform of pure darkness, clutching his stomach in visible agony. Sweat soaked his hands and dampened his massive blue shirt.

  “Really? You’re too naive… really too naive.”

  Natasha appeared to Vernisha’s left, resting her weight on one foot.

  “You—”

  She vanished instantly.

  Not like normal dream figures.

  Wrong.

  Unnatural.

  Then Vernisha felt it again—those watching eyes.

  “Why did you have to make that deal with evil itself…? Don’t you know how cruel they are?”

  Caren was behind her now, kneeling and staring at the ground.

  Vernisha dragged both hands through her short hair.

  “Why can’t I just have an empty dream? Stop it. Stop it… just stop it!”

  Tears burned at the edges of her eyes.

  “I did the best I could! The very damn best I could!”

  “You have no right crying,” Ulah glared, arms hanging limply. “Not when you wouldn’t even grieve for me. If you really cared, you’d be in misery—nothing but misery. That’s how you grieve. That’s how you show you care.”

  Vernisha’s heart went cold.

  She wanted to argue.

  But she didn’t want misery.

  She hated suffering—hated depressive spirals.

  “We died… and yet all you can think about is what you want?” Caren rose slowly, eyes dark and empty. “You… you… you…? You’re truly a Darsean Cultist.”

  Her fingers clenched in her hair.

  Vernisha drew in a slow breath and forced herself steady.

  “You’re right. I’m selfish. But I have a right to be, don’t I?!”

  Her voice cracked into a shout.

  “I cared. I really did. I hated you, Caren—God knows I did. Yet… I cried for you. I was sad. I grieved. I grieved for you more than Ulah. Do you even know how pathetic that is?”

  Her hands fell to her sides as she shook her head slowly.

  “You’re all dead. Nothing I can do to change that.”

  Then something clicked loose in her memory.

  Vernisha stilled.

  “Caren… I remember something.”

  Her hand rose slowly, and she pointed at him.

  “You treated Natasha like absolute shit.”

  Her glare sharpened as a strange smile pulled at her mouth.

  “For some reason, the good memories came flooding back, and I started thinking about what if you changed and all that. But now I remember.”

  Her stomach twisted.

  “I feel sick that I cried for you. You changed in the last second? So what. I don’t care.”

  Memories flashed brighter.

  “So descriptive with your words, you were—so disgusting. How can you call your wife such things? And to say it in front of people you saw as children too. I cried for you. I grieved for you…”

  Her jaw slackened.

  Disgust.

  Not just at him.

  At herself.

  Redemption wasn’t a foreign concept to her. She had done terrible things and would never expect forgiveness from her victims. By that same logic, she didn’t consider it hypocritical to hate him.

  And even if it was?

  So what.

  Who cared?

  She was probably a hypocrite in other ways already. If not now, then eventually.

  She was human, after all.

  Caren only stared at her.

  Vernisha responded to that silence. “At least in the last seconds of your life—your human life—you felt regret.” That was the least he could do. She supposed she was at least grateful for that. “Disappear, forever.”

  Then she turned around and was faced with her little brother, who didn’t seem as eerie as before. He appeared lost, confused.

  She didn’t say much, just, “You’re not real either. I wish you were, so I could hug you.”

  He liked affection, especially hugs. She had always told herself she was stingy with that because she was often dirty.

  No…

  That was a lie. A lie to hide from her regrets. She supposed she just hadn’t valued hugs and the like. She had thought giving him attention could make up for that.

  He then said in a deep, dark tone, “We will not leave. Every time you sleep, you’ll remember us.”

  Caren added, “Because you’re evil.”

  Vernisha mocked a smile.

  She wished she had a distraction, really. Just some monsters to fight, to kill. She needed it.

  She grasped at thin air, feeling for the cold handle of a knife. But of course, the comforting feeling wasn’t there.

  Then she thought of something, or remembered, rather. “I made somebody happy today. So you know what, you’re not wrong. But... I’m happy. And I’m happy because of how making someone else happy made me feel.”

  “You will remember us…”

  “Because you’re evil.”

  “Evil evil.”

  They kept repeating the same things before turning to dust and fading away.

  When Vernisha woke up, the room was filled with natural golden light. She moved to the edge of the bed, felt the hard wooden frame, and let her legs dangle near the floor.

  It seemed early.

  “That makes no sense. You’re making no sense.” Katie’s voice drew Vernisha’s eyes to the door, where Ferzan was sketching an obsidian-black giant.

  She sat near him, watching it with distaste.

  “Hello,” Vernisha said.

  “You’re up already?” Ferzan asked, his eyes still on the sketch, pencil tight in his hand.

  “Slept early.”

  “Awesome... You want to join?”

  Katie shook her head. “No no. In the next round. Hurry up, you’ve got ten seconds remaining!”

  Vernisha got off the bed and walked over to get a better look at what they were doing. In Katie’s hand was a graphic book with a ton of text and images. The cover, though aged, showed a graphic of men and women sitting at a massive empty table, staring at them.

  Ferzan finished his sketch by adding a fin to the giant’s head, which made Katie upset. “Damn it.”

  Ferzan smiled. “Sucker. Like I was going to forget that.”

  Vernisha sat on the carpet and asked, “What’s that?”

  “Titan Auguscandefmatag. We’re doing a guessing game, drawing important historical figures.”

  “Oh... no idea who that is.” She knew of Titans, otherworldly giant beings that invaded the other side of the world a long time ago.

  She believed it was around that time special System privileges, heroes and such, became a thing.

  Then Vernisha looked at one of the pages and saw a very tall, brown-skinned woman with long, curly black hair reaching down to the middle of her back, a Holvion. One with an incredible number of scars on her arms and face.

  She asked, “Is that the current Holvious queen?”

  “Hm?” Katie looked at the sketch. “No. The Lucky Queen. Holvious’s first. I drew it, pretty damn accurate. Way better than Ferzan’s drawings.”

  “Get off my case,” he sighed, then looked at his pocket watch. “Got to go train.”

  He pushed himself up and dusted off his white pants, which had pockets scattered along the front. “Get ready for your classes too. You stink of death.”

  Katie scoffed, then leaned back, holding herself up with her arms.

  Vernisha asked Ferzan, “Can I watch? Your training.”

  He seemed surprised, then smiled. “Of course.”

  It was better than doing nothing.

  Then he said, “But first... we must eat.”

  And so they did. They went downstairs.

  In the dining room, Abella was sitting at the table. Her hair was now straight and still beautiful. If it weren’t for her tense arm and pained expression, Vernisha would have said she looked stunning, like usual.

  She noticed their entrance, took a deep breath, and said to them in a neutral tone, “You all took long.”

  Vernisha assumed that acting calm only made her pain worse, judging by how the odd purple veins around her golden monster seal pulsed more intensely than a moment ago.

  The golden seal, known as a mark of a [Hero]. The painful veins were most likely a result of bearing Ferzan. Even though he said Katie’s birth didn’t make it worse, Vernisha assumed that wasn’t true, since it wouldn’t have made sense.

  “Good morning, mom.”

  “Morning. We were busy with something.” Katie took the seat on the right, where three plates of food waited for a diner.

  “Good morning,” Vernisha said.

  Everyone seemed lively, except Tarnisha. She was fast asleep, head tilted back in the chair.

  Vernisha sat near Ferzan, relatively close to Abella, and was surprised by how heavy the breakfast looked.

  It might as well have been lunch, with the amount of green pasta, ground provision, and meat piled on the main plate.

  If it weren’t for the fruit plate to its right, the smell of baked rabbit mixed with beef would’ve dominated the table.

  Hers was mostly filled with long blue grapes, sliced mango, basically the same as those on Earth except for how watery it looked, and Moonpaes too.

  They were the C-shaped grapes she used to have back home, and oddly, just seeing them brought back a lot of memories.

  They were a common fruit, so they didn’t sell for much. There was this village called Plaintainmain, a silly name, but there were towns called Canefield and Massacre in her country back on Earth, filled mostly with older people because the soil in the area had become poor in quality. It was believed it used to be incredibly rich, allowing nutrient-hungry provisions such as Clowdy Plantain Trees to grow quickly and in high quantities. The wealthier villagers, seeing an opportunity, made a Clowdy Plantain plantation. When businessmen heard about the high yields, they bought up land in the village for the same reason. Over time, the soil was stripped of its richness, leaving it poor and difficult to grow anything in.

  Vernisha sighed. Life wasn’t easy.

  Abella’s eyes were lazily fixed on the Moonpae skewered on her Food Needle.

  Its yellow flesh bulged, and juice dripped down onto the other fruits.

  Then she said out of the blue, “I heard you didn’t kill the Broken.”

  Vernisha replied, “Saved him, actually. Big thanks to Ferzan.”

  She responded, “Glad to hear.”

  Ferzan didn’t train on the rectangular battlefield near the house. Instead, he chose a spot a good distance away from the residences, northeast of the estate and closer to the gate than the mansion itself.

  Vernisha stared at the circular field of scorched red rough stone.

  She asked him, “What kind of stone is this?”

  Ferzan glanced down and kicked a regular pebble. “Quartz Rain. It’s a skill from my mother’s Rockonquer monster.”

  She nodded slowly, most likely unaware of what kind of monster that was. Since she didn’t ask, he didn’t explain.

  Rockonquer was a monster composed of white stones shaped like a spider. Only shaped like one. It lacked fangs and didn’t have the rounded lower body typical of real spiders.

  Ferzan pointed back toward the mansion. “The mansion was made by my mother using it and the Sharpider monster.”

  That one was humanoid in shape but moved like a beast. It always crouched as if trying to be stealthy, despite its reflective metal body making that completely impossible.

  Curious, Vernisha asked, “I thought that kinda thing was looked down on.”

  “She’s a Starlight, remember?”

  “Ah.” She clearly didn’t like that.

  Ferzan couldn’t blame her.

  There was this comedian, Le’Mar, a human despite having the naming style of a Punchio. He’d been adopted by a Punchio as a baby, which explained it.

  Ferzan remembered one of his jokes.

  “Being a vlandos has got to be the worst in Terrafall. ’Cause you got people like me and you clutching our bags when they walk past us.

  “But if it’s a damn Starlight, especially a cute one, we’re all like, ‘hellllllllllllllllo. I’m willing to die for you!’”

  Vernisha looked around the massive estate. “So your mom got this piece of land a long time ago?”

  “No, it’s my father’s. The original mansion was made by Eren as a gift for him. But…” Ferzan paused, then chose not to elaborate. “Stuff happened.”

  He hadn’t been born yet, but from what his relatives said, Eren had been very displeased with his father’s relationship.

  Disgusted, even.

  And when his parents got married, the mansion had come tumbling down like its foundation had simply fallen asleep.

  For a long time, Ferzan had wondered why. He was never given an answer.

  No. The answer had been deliberately kept from him.

  He had thought about it enough to form a theory that made sense.

  First Grandma had an enormous family, and throughout history many other Starlights had been absorbed into their bloodline.

  It was possible Eren also wanted to create a lineage. Ferzan’s mother had destroyed that possibility.

  But his father had five siblings. Four whole ones and a half sibling. All of whom wanted lineages of their own, which poked holes in the theory.

  That aside, his trainer finally arrived. An old man with two circular scars above his eyebrows.

  When Kaen was a teenager, he and his brother had gotten cosmetic surgery to install catcow horns, thinking it would make them look cool.

  Their grand-uncle had been horrified, so he sawed them off himself.

  Kaen waved his golden cane at them. “Who’s the young girl?”

  “Think of her as the newest family member,” Ferzan said.

  Of course, Kaen didn’t actually need the cane. He had simply seen Vurmion traders carrying them and decided he wanted one too.

  “Nice to meet you.” Vernisha stood and dusted the back of her hard green leather pants. They matched surprisingly well with her hard blue leather long-sleeve shirt.

  Even if Kaen wasn’t as stoic or knowledgeable as Farel, he was still a solid teacher.

  Kaen finally reached them. Resting both hands on his cane, he eyed Vernisha.

  “Level 20…” he nodded, clearly impressed. “You’re not from any family?”

  Kaen studied her face, neck, and hands for group markers. Above his eyebrow sat the tattoo of fairy wings formed from tiny letters, marking him as a Fairy Hands corporator.

  Vernisha raised an eyebrow. “Noble family, you mean?”

  “Or Corporator. Seems not… Abella’s been training you on her own accord?”

  She caught the implication immediately. “No. I merely work hard.”

  Kaen was silent for a moment, surprised and maybe a little skeptical.

  Then he glanced at Ferzan.

  Ferzan gave a small nod.

  “Impressive…” Kaen said. “So you’re training with us today?”

  “Just watching… for the most part.”

  He nodded. “I see. Out of curiosity, what life buffs did you go with?”

  Vernisha looked genuinely puzzled.

  Her lips curved into a shallow smile. “[Inspect] and [+100% Mentality].”

  Ferzan blinked.

  If he had to guess why she smiled, it was because Kaen couldn’t read her the way his mother and grandmother could.

  Wait.

  Ferzan frowned.

  “...You didn’t choose [Personal Space]?” he asked, unable to hide his disbelief. “That wasn’t an option? What was the other choice?”

  “Oh, it was. You were spying on me yesterday, so you should know why I chose that and how I was able to do what I did.”

  Ferzan went quiet.

  Truthfully, the dense feathers covering that section of the forest had made it hard to see clearly.

  But her answer made one thing very clear. She could handle the minds of multiple monsters.