Rai washes the plate with a smile beside her husband and mother-in-law, Hamana. Warm water rushes softly over porcelain while the family lounge breathes quietly around them. The place hardly resembles a normal kitchen. Thick trees rise through openings in the floor and ceiling, their branches spreading lazily beneath hanging lights woven between leaves and vines. The scent of cooked food mixes with damp soil and flowers drifting in from the garden patches surrounding the living area. Somewhere nearby, shallow streams built into the stone flooring trickle gently beneath small bridges connecting sections of the room.
The distant sounds of Sebbeh's siblings arguing over a game echo through the lounge.
Slowly, Rai's smile fades.
The shift is subtle, but Hamana notices immediately before Sebbeh can even speak.
"What is it, little kil?"
Sebbeh glances towards Rai quietly. Whatever he sees on her face is enough for him to pull away gently and head towards the lounging area where his siblings sit scattered amongst enormous couches and cushions beneath the trees.
Rai and Hamana watch him walk away.
"So?" Hamana's voice changes from warm to grim in an instant, sensing immediately that this is serious. As far as she could tell, there were only two possibilities heavy enough to shake Rai this much.
Her oldest son.
Or her third.
"Hamm, I..." Rai sighs softly. "I am scared for my little sister, Lia."
Hamana raises her eyebrows sharply.
"What? Allyser gave birth again?"
She stares at Rai in complete shock. She had naturally assumed the younger sister entangled with Myles was Kaelen.
"What?" Rai looks at her blankly before realising the misunderstanding. "Oh, yes, sorry, I should have..." Remembering the way she left things behind, her words trail off abruptly. "Sorry."
She leans against the counter and exhales quietly.
Hamana moves closer, placing a comforting hand against Rai's back, rubbing gentle circles through the fabric of her clothes.
Rai flashes her a small smile.
"It's alright. It happens." Hamana chuckles softly. "After all these years, I'm still surprised every day that that boy of mine managed to sweep a lady like you off your feet."
Rai turns towards her with a gentle smile.
"I still don't understand it myself."
She straightens herself slowly.
"Thank you," she says quietly.
"Anytime." Hamana taps her lightly on the back. "Now then, as you were saying?"
"Well, Lia..." Rai's expression softens immediately. "She's the most adorable thing. Gorgeous white hair and the brightest eyes yet. Might even give Verdure..."
She cringes slightly.
Right. Hamana probably has no idea who Verdure is either.
"I'll tell you about them all later," she sighs, glancing towards the remaining plates from the corner of her eye.
Hamana smirks knowingly.
"Boys?" she suddenly calls towards the lounging area.
A chorus of responses immediately follows.
She flashes Rai a smile and gestures for her to follow as she walks towards the elevator hidden behind curtains of hanging vines.
*************
Hamana sips quietly from a steaming cup of boiled root juice. The room they now occupy is calmer than the lively family lounge below, though still filled with greenery. Long vines trail from the ceiling, and enormous windows reveal the glowing skyline of Vini stretching endlessly beneath the night sky.
She sighs gently, looking towards Rai.
Rai stares silently into her cup with the same troubled expression still weighing heavily on her face.
"You are still a child after all these years?"
Indeed, before Hamana, Rai's usual regal composure seemed to vanish entirely. The poised elegance she carried everywhere else simply crumbled here. Maybe because, as much as she hated admitting it, Hamana felt more like a motherly figure to her than Allyser ever truly had.
And that thought alone weakened her.
Rai looks up and sighs softly.
"Myles... as unbelievable as it may sound, the boy is human."
Hamana grimaces faintly.
So her fears were valid after all.
And immediately her thoughts drift towards her sons.
"Ubum and Guman are not here. They are no longer welcome here."
Rai arches an eyebrow slightly.
What dark things could those two possibly have done to deserve exile? Especially from an unconditionally loving mother like Hamana.
"Leave."
The single word leaves Hamana's mouth calmly.
Every servant hidden throughout the room vanishes instantly in blurs through the doors, leaving silence hanging heavily behind.
Then a tear falls from Hamana's left eye.
Her expression never changes. Stoic. Unflinching. She simply stares off into the distance, avoiding Rai's gaze entirely.
The sight alone makes a painful lump form in Rai's throat.
She rises immediately, walking towards the tall, pale blue-skinned woman before kneeling beside her and wrapping her arms around her gently.
"You... you don't have to tell me."
Hamana turns slowly towards Rai. She wipes the tear from her own face before smiling softly down at her.
"I'm alright, little kil." Her voice remains steady despite the redness gathering faintly in her eyes. "Those boys have broken my heart, but I am a grown woman after all. I can handle it."
At this point, Rai is mortified.
If she had worries before, they pale compared to the ones tightening around her chest now.
If Myles dies, Lia will lose all will to live.
And yes, it is truly that serious.
Myles does not know it, but somehow his criole amplifies all of Lia's emotions towards him to terrifying levels. The problem is nobody understands why. Why Lia specifically? What exactly is causing it? It was not merely criole. Kaelen and Thia had already confirmed that much. Something else existed beneath the surface, amplifying everything further, but none of them could identify what it was.
Long ago, the girls actually considered killing him.
Not out of cruelty.
Out of fear.
They thought perhaps if Myles died early enough, Lia would crash out, but it would die with time. If there was one thing they possessed, it was time itself.
Fortunately for Myles, murdering innocents is not something Rai wanted staining her conscience.
Then there was Lia's reaction whenever he was harmed.
Myles had never been awake long enough to witness the devastation his suffering caused. Entire places ruined. People torn apart. Lia was reduced to something terrifyingly unstable.
Berserk is the only word capable of describing that crazed state of hers.
This is bad.
No, worse than bad.
Rai can already imagine Lia hunting down the brothers herself before they ever get the chance to harm either her or Myles.
"Kil?"
Hamana's voice gently pulls Rai from her spiralling thoughts.
"I don't know if it is worth much, but we have five years."
Rai arches an eyebrow.
Hamana lifts her teacup calmly.
"Silly girl. It takes a hundred years to assimilate with the splier weapons unless you are human or have access to human blood." She takes a slow sip. "By my count, they have five more years to go."
She pauses thoughtfully.
"Could be six."
**********
Far off in the distance, somewhere deep within the endless dark of space, two figures drift amongst fractured debris and dying starlight.
One is tall and slender, though his lean frame still carries tightly packed muscle beneath pale skin marked with faint glowing lines. The other is slightly shorter, broader, built much like Sebbeh, possessing the heavy physique of someone born for war rather than grace. Both men have long white hair resembling roots more than strands, thick flowing tendrils shifting weightlessly around them in the vacuum like living extensions of their bodies.
Each holds a weapon.
The taller one, Guman, grips a spear forged from magnum epoc alloy, its metallic surface dark and smooth like polished obsidian. Veins of violet-white light pulse through cracks running along the weapon's body, illuminating the engraved word:
July.
The second, Ubum, holds an enormous great sword against the neck of a humanoid green-skinned woman. The blade is grotesquely beautiful, jagged near the spine yet unnaturally pristine along the edge. Light drains visibly from the woman's body into the weapon itself, travelling through glowing channels carved throughout the steel like blood being siphoned through veins.
Inscribed across the side of the blade is a single word:
September.
"Ubum! She is not our enemy."
Guman's voice cuts sharply through the silence.
His spear suddenly splits apart into several floating sections held together by streams of crackling purple light, the energy whipping forward and wrapping itself around Ubum's sword before forcing it slightly away from the woman's throat.
Ubum barely reacts.
"She holds human DNA. As far as I am concerned..."
"Ubum!!!"
Guman's roar echoes violently.
"We in the Dark Core all hold human DNA. She and her ancestors simply chose not to fight to purge part of our lineage."
The green-skinned woman coughs weakly, trembling as energy continues bleeding from her body into the sword.
"Th... thank you..." she whispers painfully towards Guman.
His expression twists instantly.
Not pride.
Shame.
He grimaces and turns his face away from her gratitude as though unworthy of hearing it.
Then suddenly:
Squelch.
Guman's eyebrows shoot upwards.
His knees buckle slightly.
Warm blood splashes across his face.
Slowly, he turns.
The woman stares forward silently, eyes trembling in shock as Ubum's blade protrudes through her chest. Blood pours from her mouth in thick choking streams while the glowing channels inside September greedily devour the remaining energy left within her body.
"How many..." Guman says quietly, voice hollow. "How far..."
He watches helplessly as the woman collapses soundlessly into the void.
Ubum pulls the sword free in one smooth motion. The weapon hums faintly, almost satisfied.
"Our lives, like theirs, will come to an end one day." His voice remains calm, grimly matter-of-fact. "So will our father, mother and siblings."
He pauses.
For a moment, only the distant glow of dying stars reflects across his cold expression.
"Our existence is an abomination."
The words leave him heavily, without rage or madness. Just conviction.
Then Ubum turns and walks off into the darkness of space, long root-like hair drifting behind him like pale tendrils disappearing into the void.