“So Lucian was an outcast in the spirit realm?”

  At this point, late afternoon had become evening, and Skye had sent a message to her parents that she’d be coming home late. She had also received a missing child alert on her phone and had unexpectedly been added to a group chat with Ivan and a few other people that she didn’t recognize at first. However, just from reading the texts in the chat, she already got an idea of who the unknown contacts were:

  Unknown number: (picture of Cayto’s face from an unflattering angle)

  Unknown number: (another picture of Cayto sitting on the couch in front of the K.O. screen from Firezone, his head buried in his hands in exasperation)

  Unknown number: (yet another picture of Cayto awkwardly standing in front of a TV screen playing karaoke lyrics while looking absolutely mortified)

  Unknown number: (yet another picture featuring Cayto, this time a selfie with Ivan and Alexis in the frame and Cayto looking away, blocking the camera with his hands)

  Unknown number 2: wtf Alexis I told you to delete those pics

  Unknown number 2: why are you sending them to the chat

  Skye laughed. Yeah. That must be Cayto, she thought while her phone vibrated again and a new message appeared in the chat:

  Ivan: If your friends don’t spam embarrassing pics of you in the gc, are they really your friends?

  Skye laughed again. Bit of a strange way to define friendship but okay, she thought while she updated Alexis’s and Cayto’s contacts and more notifications hit her phone. One by one, she read them off:

  Ivan has changed the chat name to Spud Man and Co

  Cayto: Ivan change it back

  Ivan: No you change it

  Cayto: I can’t. Alexis didn’t give me permissions when she created the group chat

  Cayto: No idea why she would give you permissions but not me, but either way it seems unfair

  Alexis: Don’t worry Cayto, I can change the name for you!

  Alexis has changed the chat name to Cayto’s harem

  Cayto: that isn’t any better

  Alexis: I’m sorry, what did you want me to change the chat name to?

  Cayto: idk something normal?

  Ivan has changed the chat name to something normal

  Alexis: haha Ivan. Very funny -_-

  Cayto: I guess that will work for now

  Alexis: No. I’m not gonna let the name of the gc stay as a lame pun. WE SHALL NOT BE SENTENCED TO THAT FATE!

  Alexis has changed the chat name to Cult of the Undead Garbage Monster

  Cayto: Srsly?

  Ivan: ALL HAIL OUR LORD AND SAVIOR GARBAGE MONSTER

  Alexis: AMEN

  Cayto: Why do I hang out with you ppl

  Alexis: Because of our irresistible beauty and charm?

  Cayto: Yeah, right. That’s totally the reason and not because I’m f**king scared of you guys

  Ivan: But if you really were scared of us, you’d be trying to avoid us extra hard instead of hanging out with us, huh? :/

  Cayto: It's because I'm scared of getting on your bad sides

  Cayto: idiots -_-

  Ivan: If you really were scared of getting on our bad sides, you wouldn’t be calling us idiots

  Alexis: Don’t worry about Cayto, he’s just a tsundere. Give him some time, one day he’ll admit how much he loves us ;)

  Cayto: NO

  Alexis: Ooh did I strike a nerve? ;)

  Cayto: How many winking emoticons are you going to send

  Alexis: As many as I feel like! ^^

  Cayto: -_-

  Alexis: And anyway, about your claim that you’re scared of us…

  Alexis: (picture from the party of Cayto blissfully resting his head on Ivan’s shoulder while Ivan has one arm wrapped around him and his other hand on Cayto’s)

  Alexis: Is that the face of someone who is scared?

  Cayto: YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO SEE THAT

  Ivan: Damn, Alexis exposing you fr

  Cayto: WHY WOULD YOU TAKE A PIC OF THAT YOU WEIRDO

  Alexis: C’mon, it's just a cute picture! You’re acting like I caught you doing something a lot worse.

  Alexis: Unless that's what you would’ve preferred to be doing? ;)

  Cayto: ALEXIS.

  Cayto: THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING.

  Alexis: For what?

  Cayto: FOR TAKING PICS WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION AND SENDING THEM TO THE GC

  Cayto: MAKING THAT JOKE

  Cayto: USING THAT GODDAMN WINKING FACE AGAIN

  Cayto: AND ACTING LIKE SOME WEIRD CREEPY STALKER

  Ivan: I don’t think Alexis in the only stalker in here

  Ivan: Has anybody realized that Skye has been reading all our messages without sending anything to the gc?

  Alexis: Oh shit

  Alexis: You’re right

  While Skye was reading the text messages, Noi approached her from behind. “Did you ask a question?”

  Skye looked up from her phone. “Yeah. I asked if Lucian was an outcast in the spirit realm,” she repeated. “Especially since you mentioned a while ago that he always felt like he could never fit in with others.”

  Noi nodded. “Yes, that is true,” he confirmed. “You see, Lucian was, in a way, screwed upon creation. Because of a spirit’s instant self-healing properties, it is considered an abnormality of sorts for one to have any sort of scars at all, since their healing is supposed to cover for that. So you could imagine how Lucian was treated as a result. Lots of spirits thought he was a mistake, or a freak of nature.”

  Skye’s expression dropped. “But that is unfair!” She exclaimed. “It wasn’t even his fault!”

  “Nothing in the spirit realm is fair, Skye,” Noi remarked. “And if anything, Blanche encouraged this behavior. Right after bringing him to life, she had Andromeda executed, naming “spoiling the creation of the Mother of All Spirits” as one of her crimes. Treason was another crime she was convicted of, as well as “letting inappropriate relations interfere with her duty to her true master.” Then Blanche kept Lucian around as a sort of warning, a reminder of what would happen if one failed to abide by her laws. It was an effective warning, since nobody wanted to become or be associated with a scarred freak,” Noi explained. “So one of Lucian’s earliest memories was witnessing the execution of one of his own creators, and then after that he was never even treated normally. That was because whenever the other spirits looked at him, they would always be reminded of Andromeda. There was no changing his mind about him. He was already born guilty by association.”

  “And Lucian was outcasted because of that?” Skye questioned with a hint of incredulity. “And none of the other spirits spoke up about it? They all just shamed him for something out of his control because Blanche wanted them to?”

  Noi shrugged. “That’s how it is in the spirit realm,” he noted. “Obey Blanche or die forever, and if not that, then your quality of life will get significantly lowered, at the very least. If you’re a “good” spirit who does as you’re told, upholds the law, and uncritically supports whatever the Blanche-enforced popular opinion is, you’re given street credit. You may also get assigned the least dangerous and grueling work and be allowed to live in the nicer parts of the realm by Blanche. Furthermore, she might even give you the job of one of her advisors if you’re particularly good, which is a highly coveted position. But if you dare fall out of line just once…” Noi paused, “then you’re disposed of, or made a pariah like Lucian was. I remember when the only thought on my mind was being a good citizen of the spirit realm. I was Blanche’s right-hand man, who lived in a comfortable part of town, and was terrified of being labeled a traitor. I can tell you that my first encounter with Lucian was not a pleasant one.”

  Skye’s attention piqued at that comment. “What happened?”

  “Well, I had a neatly-manicured, fenced-off orchard growing a variety of crops. Fire apples, sunset oranges, lava fruits on cone-shaped volcano bushes…,” Noi listed. “Those were only a few crops among the many I had. But one day I caught Lucian stealing from my orchard. He had a fire apple in his mouth and was throwing lava fruits at the walls of my compound, which exploded upon impact and left orange splatters all over the place. And while he was doing that, he was running around and giggling to himself as if he was having the best time of his life. Of course I was mad. Most people would be mad at a thief stealing from them and messing up their house. But the way I behaved after that was, frankly, an overreaction, though I believed I was in the right at the time because I was a high-ranking official who viewed undesirables like Lucian as beneath me,” Noi explained.

  “What did you do?” Skye asked him.

  Noi cringed upon being made to recall his past actions. “I took a particularly long and thick vine from the Hunter’s Trap, scientific name flavus laqueus, growing in my yard and strangled Lucian with it,” he recounted. “Then I brought him to Blanche, dragging him by the neck with the vine, while he clawed at it in a feeble attempt to break free. He couldn’t escape but he did flip me off and threw more than a few mean words and glares in my direction. According to Lucian, I was an “entitled, elitist, upper-class prick who had no identity outside of sucking up to Blanche,” the owl-man quoted. “And perhaps I was, because I do remember those words getting to me. I thought that by turning him over, I was just defending my property and doing my duty of reporting troublemakers, but to Lucian I was a snob who lived in an enclosed compound because I wanted nothing to do with undesirables like him. I had all of these goods in excess and he was poor, hungry, and alone, and I was being greedy by prioritizing my comfort over his lack. It was that day when I realized you can’t please everybody, and no matter how hard you’ll try, you’ll always be the bad guy in somebody’s book.”

  Skye nodded attentively. “That is true,” she concurred. “I’ve been trying to teach that to myself, but it seems that my people-pleasing habits always get back to me somehow.”

  “I’m afraid I’m in the same boat as you,” Noi admitted. “I’m ashamed to say that I still live in that same compound, still censor each one of my thoughts, words, and actions while in the spirit realm to avoid hinting at anything that could potentially disrupt the status quo, and still act like Blanche’s right-hand man to this day so I can keep my status, reputation, and lifestyle. What can I say, I’m a coward who’s afraid of conflict, afraid of change, afraid of making my true beliefs known. Only difference is that I don’t try to rationalize Blanche’s tyranny to myself anymore, but I’ll still do it in front of others to save face.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Skye smiled. “It’s alright, don’t be so hard on yourself,” she reassured him. “I totally get why you’d do that. Maybe it's for the best that you don’t question Blanche in front of her or her supporters for your own safety, but as long as you know the truth, you should be okay.”

  “Thanks Skye. I needed to hear that,” Noi responded. “Oh, and are you still interested in hearing the rest of Lucian’s story, since you asked about what really happened during the Great Inferno? I know we’ve been here for a while, so I’m just checking in.”

  Skye nodded. “Yes, please go on.”

  Noi adjusted his seat and continued speaking. “After I dragged Lucian to Blanche’s palace, I turned him in and laid him out in front of her. Her eyes turned a horrible shade of black, and claw-like, magical figures sprouted out of her hands. She was ready to torture him to her nonexistent heart’s content, but I stopped her. Out of whatever modicum of pity for Lucian or guilt over my own actions that I felt, I convinced the Mother of All Spirits to give him what I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the chance to earn riches and gold, to leave behind his outcast status and become a hero in the spirit realm. All he had to do was go to the mortal realm and kill all of the children of Polaris who remained because of the North Star Prophecy, and there, the greatest threat to Blanche would be eliminated and order would be restored. In return, Lucian would get a generous share of her offerings. That was the deal I gave him.”

  “So, like a bounty hunter?” Skye asked Noi. “Since Lucian was offered a reward if he killed Polaris’s incarnations, whom Blanche viewed as her enemies.”

  “Sort of, yes,” Noi clarified. “Though maybe personal hitman, or assassin-for-hire, would be more accurate since bounty hunters typically don’t kill their targets. But yeah, perhaps the role of bounty hunter describes him better since it kind of sounds more heroic. And in a way, the children of Polaris were fugitives because Blanche viewed them as such, and a bounty hunter’s duty typically involves capturing and turning in wanted criminals. So if we’re equating Blanche to the government and Polaris’s incarnations to escaped criminals, then that would likely be the best way to describe his task.”

  “I see,” Skye responded. “Did Lucian accept the offer?”

  “He did, but not in the way I thought he would,” Noi answered. “He said yes to the deal and left for the realm of mortals. At the time I was congratulating myself, falsely assuming I had “saved” Lucian by transforming him from a troublemaker into a good asset for Blanche, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Unlike me, Lucian was not a sellout. His love of gold was unable to override a lifetime of experiencing the worst of the creation goddess, the spirit realm, and his personal convictions. He didn’t care about Blanche’s offerings and improving his reputation; no, he took the opportunity I gave him and ran— away from the spirit realm. When I saw visions of Lucian laughing and playing with humans that I knew were the children of Polaris, I was confused, to say the least. I thought that maybe this was his strategy of getting close to them so he could kill them, but no, he wasn’t even planning on killing the children of Polaris in the first place. He was too kind for that. Lucian, who had been rejected, excluded, estranged, alienated, beaten down, spat at, and looked upon with contempt for all his life had finally found someplace where he was accepted, and that place was the realm of mortals. All he had to do was say he was a fire-spirit from the spirit realm, and there, he would be welcomed with open arms. Nobody cared about the scar on his face or the fact that his secondary creator was executed for committing crimes against the spirit realm. While they might’ve been surprised by his unruly behavior, it generally got forgiven a lot more than it would have been among other spirits.”

  Skye smiled. “Aww, that’s really sweet,” she reacted. “Even if Lucian was wrong to steal from your orchard, he did deserve to be someplace where he could be accepted for once.”

  Noi shook his head. “It doesn’t end there,” he said ominously.

  “Huh?”

  “I didn’t know how to process any of this; I thought my visions were deceiving me. For my entire life, I had been brainwashed into believing that it was impossible to live anything short of a miserable existence outside of Blanche’s rule, and here Lucian was, not only surviving, but thriving, too, more than the rest of us,” Noi described. “So, not knowing what else to do, I told Blanche that Lucian wasn’t doing his job. I really shouldn’t have, but this was completely unexpected, and I didn’t know how else to react. When one is faced with the fear of the unknown, their first instinct is to run back to what’s safe, what’s familiar, and in my case, what was safe and familiar was the order offered by Blanche’s reign. So I reported him yet again, and this time, she decided to punish him for real. No spirits were going to disobey or run away from her, not on her watch.”

  At Noi’s final comment, Skye felt a tightness form in her chest. How exactly did she punish Lucian?

  As if Noi could read Skye’s mind, he continued. “Blanche sent out a spirit— what was her name? Seraphina? Yeah, must’ve been her, pretty sure it was the other fire-spirit Blanche created to replace Lucian. If my memory serves me right, Seraphina’s animal was the fox,” Noi tried to recall, “and she was supposed to disguise herself as a human worshiper and bring Lucian an Elixir of Chaos. He drank it, not knowing what it was, and that was when the chaos-spirit took over him, warping him into the being that started the Inferno.”

  Skye’s eyes widened at the realization. So that was how it all happened? He got tricked?

  “I never wanted or intended any of this to happen to Lucian— I didn’t think Blanche’s punishment would be that extreme,” Noi continued. “But as brutal as it was, it was terribly efficient, because by the time the Inferno was over, every incarnation of Polaris who was alive got killed in the fire. If Lucian couldn’t complete the task himself, then Blanche would force him to, and he would get none of the rewards. Instead, he was left in a much weaker state than he was pre-possession. Lucian not only lost the ability to fly and unlock his dragon form, but his fire magic was weakened a lot, too,” Noi recounted. “And as the fire continued to rage on even after the Children of Polaris were killed, Blanche sent down the other elemental spirits to contain it. The earth spirit Ajax split the piece of land that was on fire away from the rest of Cloudgate, the water spirit Adrian pushed the newly-formed island through the sea and doused the fire away, and the air spirit Aria created a wind barrier surrounding the island to contain the debris that was left behind by the Inferno. That was how Avriya was formed— practically overnight, unlike most islands, which typically take thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of years to form. And Lucian was left stranded on it all the while.”

  “Whoa. Suddenly Alexis's explanations for how Avriya and the Great Inferno came about makes a lot more sense,” Skye responded. “It's an outlandish tale, that’s for sure. But what was the impact on Lucian? There was no way he couldn’t have been extremely messed up from all this.”

  Noi sighed. “Oh, he was. He lost pretty much everything. His popularity took an enormous hit in the mortal realm, that’s for sure, and he went from being loved to being despised. But even more than that, he lost his best friend. Nikolai, that was his name— another incarnation of Polaris, who died in the fire,” he told Skye. “For decades, Lucian was alone, which took a great toll on him because I know he loves people despite claiming that he doesn’t need their approval. Somehow, despite his past, and despite the way he was treated by everyone, he somehow remained cheerful, and somehow found ways to enjoy life. I guess it's only natural to hold close to what brings you happiness when you’re so used to getting it taken away from you,” Noi assumed. “And in Lucian’s case, that was the possibility of a future without Blanche, granted by the North Star Prophecy. True, he got massively screwed over and had two entire realms turn against him, but he never lost hope. And that’s where you, Skye, come into the story for him,” Noi finished. “He wants you to end Blanche and complete the prophecy, since you’re the last Polaris incarnation alive. I still think it's too dangerous, and that you shouldn't do it, or at the very least, wait. But ultimately it's your choice. Would you mind me asking if you made a decision yet?”

  Skye smiled nervously. “About that…” she started before trailing off, fidgeting with her hands, “I’m letting fate decide!”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, if there’s a prophecy saying I’m gonna kill Blanche or whatever the equivalent is for void-angel gods, it's probably gonna happen some time sooner or later,” Skye stated. “But still, I’m only a beginner 2 in my magic classes and have just leveled up; I’m on my way to making one of my biggest dreams a reality, and I don’t want to throw away my life just yet. I’d rather wait for the time to come to fulfill the prophecy instead of just rushing into it,” she reasoned. But then her eyes darkened. “But in the scenario that I do come face-to-face with Blanche, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw hands, either.”

  “Even though she could be infinitely more powerful than you are?”

  “I have the prophecy on my side, remember?” Skye reminded him. “And in the event where we have interpreted it all wrong and by some small chance I was never meant to fight Blanche and win, at least I can die knowing that I’ve done what I could for Lucian.”

  “Don’t say that!” Noi exclaimed.

  “Hey, I’m just saying, you never know,” Skye responded. “In short, I don’t plan on seeking out Blanche, but if she comes to me looking for a fight, she’s getting what she’s looking for.”

  Noi shrugged. “I guess that’s a reasonable-enough compromise,” he remarked. Then he looked at the clock on the wall. “My, it's beyond late. Don’t you think you should be heading home right now?”

  ***

  Skye would not end up heading home that night.

  Though that was her original plan, when she checked the public transport app for Avriya on her cell phone, it gave her a new alert. Apparently, the ferry leaving Avriya for the pier of Winterbay on the mainland got canceled after 8 pm, when the storm picked up and the waves on the water made conditions for travel dangerous. In addition, it definitely wasn’t safe for Skye to go outside at all. The wind speed outside had reached a frightening 60 mph, and the deafening clang of the windows could be heard all throughout the house.

  Skye closed the transport app and opened her text messages. She sent a text to her parents alerting them that she’d be staying overnight at “a friend’s house” due to unsafe weather conditions, which her father responded to. A new notification popped up on her phone, and Skye clicked on it:

  Dad: Which one?

  Oh. Shit, Skye thought, faced with the prospect of her parents discovering her location. Not knowing what else to say, she figured she might as well tell a believable-enough white lie:

  Skye: A friend from school

  Her response came a moment later.

  Dad: What’s this friend's name?

  Uh-oh. This was bad. There would be no ending to the questions if Skye answered with “Noi” or “Lucian” since those were both guy’s names. Well, Noi was actually a unisex name, but Skye didn’t know any girls by the name of Noi, and it still sounded masculine enough to raise questions. Who knows, maybe her well-intentioned if not somewhat overprotective father would start doing extensive research on this supposed guy friend of hers and find some concerning results online. Either he would browse through the student directory at Newham High and question her further when Noi or Lucian’s names did not appear on the list, or he would ask for more information such as Noi’s or Lucian’s last names so he could know who exactly he should be searching for… come to think of it, Skye did not know if Noi or Lucian even had last names. Do spirits have last names? None of the Holy Scriptures or spirit realm myths or legends mentioned anything about spirits having last names, and if Cole asked for a last name and Skye couldn’t come up with one, then he would definitely get suspicious. And if she did make one up on the spot and her father did a search and found some random guy with the same first name as Noi or Lucian but whom Skye otherwise had no knowledge of, then her father would ask her to bring her friend over, and that would definitely lead to an awkward situation. What was she supposed to do, message afforemented random guy “hey, so one of my friends is actually a spirit who may or may not have a last name, so when my father asked me about him I had to make one up so he wouldn’t be suspicious of me, and now he’s asking me to bring my friend over but I don’t want him to question me further when the person I bring home looks different from you because he found you when searching up the name I gave him, so can you come home with me and pretend to be my friend, please? Thank you.”

  Skye shook her head. Yup, that would be incredibly awkward, at the very least, or in the absolute worst case scenario could put her in a dangerous situation. There was always the chance that the random guy her dad would’ve found by searching up Noi or Lucian’s names online could be some creepy old man, or live on the other side of the world, or be a kidnapper or serial killer or some other bad person. Maybe it was for the better if she didn’t tell her father she was staying over at Noi and Lucian’s. She could give him another name instead.

  Skye: Alexis, is it okay if I lie to my father and tell him I’m staying over at your house so I don’t have to tell him I’m actually at Noi’s and Lucian’s? I don’t want him to interrogate me for staying at a guy’s house.

  Skye: Also, you’re registered with Newham High, right? Just wanted to make sure, in case my dad does a search and doesn’t find your name in the directory

  It was fortunate that Alexis was a quick responder.

  Alexis: don’t worry I’m also registered with Newham

  Alexis: and yeah, that’s fine by me

  Skye let out a sigh of relief. Thank the spirits, she thought as she re-entered the chat with her parents and typed “Alexis” into the chat bar. Then she pressed send.

  Skye: Alexis

  A minute later, her dad answered.

  Dad: Come back home by tmrw, ok?

  I will, Skye typed. Then she exited the chat, grateful to have averted another crisis.

  In her contacts list, the other chat Skye was in showed up, the one she just got added to with Ivan, Cayto, and Alexis. Its name got changed to I know you’re watching us Skye, and it had one new notification. Skye clicked on it. Apparently it was just from Ivan changing the group chat name, so there were no new messages. She shut off her phone.

  A few moments later, Noi re-entered the study room. “Skye, I’ve prepared your bed,” he announced. “You can go to sleep now.”

  Skye followed Noi to her room for the night— well actually Lucian’s room, which the thought of staying in got her somewhat flustered. The walls of the room and the “bed” on the floor, which was really just a mattress, have seen better days, that’s for sure, but Skye wasn’t complaining. It was almost a privilege, being given the opportunity to stay the night at her dear friend— friend? Was that even the right word for someone you’ve known for a little while and is mildly obsessed with, perhaps slightly more than most people are with their friends, but you’re also not sure whether aformentioned friend feels the same way about you or not?— ‘s house. Briefly, Skye thanked Noi and headed to the bathroom to shower, but upon hearing the crack of thunder, she turned around and went back to her bedroom-for-the-night. It probably wouldn’t have been that great of an idea for her to shower in this storm, anyway. Too much of a risk for electrocution.

  Before going to sleep, Skye switched off the lights and stumbled in the darkness to Lucian’s mattress-bed. Then she pulled the blanket over herself and closed her eyes to the sounds of the wind and the rain drumming against the bedroom window. But just as her head hit the pillow, she had a horrifying realization— since she arrived at Noi and Lucian’s house, Skye had not seen Lucian at all. There was a raging storm outside, and he was nowhere to be found.

  Where did Lucian go? How was he putting up with such a violent storm? And why did the impact of his disappearance only hit Skye just now? The house was awfully quiet without him— too quiet, to the point where it frightened her. It was unsettling, really, and her previous excitement about getting to stay in his room rapidly turned to fear. How was Skye going to sleep if she didn’t know where Lucian was, or if he was safe?

  Hesitantly, Skye rose out of bed and tiptoed down the hall to Noi’s bedroom. “Noi?” She asked, and he opened his eyes groggily, two yellow glowing discs in the dark. “Where is Lucian?”

  “This morning, he told me he would go out to the river valleys at Misty Glen so he could practice flying again,” Noi answered. “He thought it would be a good idea because it was a windy day. I tried to stop him because of the storm warning, but he refused. There really is no stopping Lucian once he has his mind set on something, I’m telling you,” the owl-man continued. “But anyway, now I’m even more worried. The weather has only gotten worse, and I haven’t seen him since then. I sure hope he is okay.”

  Skye nodded, a lump forming in her throat. Hearing Noi’s answer did not make her feel any better; if anything, it just made her anxiety worse. She didn’t even know whether it would be foolish to say what was on her mind right now, considering the weather and how long Lucian has been gone, but with nothing else to say, she mumbled out a weak reply to Noi:

  “I hope he is okay too.”