When Everie was seven, there was a day when Selena just... left.

Even the hour before, there had not been a single thing amiss about her actions. She had completed the operation requested of her by the cult, beheading some local authority with the same, thorough precision that had grown synonymous with her legendary status in their tiny corner of the badlands. Afterwards, she had used her free time to drag oh-forty-seven, thirty-four, and Everie herself, who at that time had risen one stage to the rank of oh-thirty-two, into the Graveyard.

They had sparred for half an hour, as they always did. But after Selena had thrown Everie on top of forty-seven and flung thirty-two into a sand dune for the sixth time, she had been supposed to tutor them in the subjects they were lacking in, such as literature and mathematics - tools not required by the dance of death.

But instead, she ordered them into the caverns. Everie, thirty- four, and forty-seven had abided, of course, scrambling down the twisting clay and stone tunnels into the catacombs beneath.

Crawling into the tomb of a buried civilization, waiting for their Sister to come after them.

But she never came.

They resolved to keep quiet. The three of them were not foolish; if it really was danger that the illustrious oh-one currently faced, there was absolutely nothing the three of them could do that would change the situation. Unlike the other Sisters, Selena could probably wrestle with men twice her size, and was known for surviving impossibility.

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Even among the ranks of the deadliest killers remaining in their ruined world, Selena was something special. A legend, almost.

In a kinder reality, Everie often thought, Selena would have been a hero.

But the hours dragged on. Day turned to night, and night to day. The three fell back into step with the rest of the cult, performing their daily operations with practiced ease.

But a seed of worry began to sprout in Everie’s heart.

It was the first time she felt fear for Selena. There had been no reason to feel otherwise ever before. To the trio, and practically every other Sister, she was the paragon of perfection - something every child in their ranks strove to be.

It was only when news of her absence had begun to travel across the catacombs when Selena returned, uninjured.

She explained that she had run into a group of Seds - desert pirates that prowled the gray wastes - and had summarily slaughtered them all, as befit her status as oh-one. When questioned how they had found her, Selena had shrugged, stating that they might have followed her back from a previous operation she’d conducted.

Whatever it was, she had never been in any danger.

That answer had been enough to placate oh-forty-seven and thirty- four. But not Everie.

Everie knew Selena better than that.

And the two holes in the back of her robes, each located where her navel would be on the other end, only confirmed her fears.