“What’s that?” Jaiyra asked around a mouthful of some green jelly-like substance Rai Hela’s crewmate had claimed was food. It tastes decent, if not a little bland, and he hasn’t collapsed from poison yet, so he assumes it is.

Rai Hela clucks her tongue at him, hitting him in the back of his head with a reprimanding fist. “Mind your manners,” she tutted, as she always did, before peering out at where his hand was still outstretched. Jaiyra would’ve told her where she could shove his manners, but his curiosity won over, so he sat silently as the Rai identified what it was that had caught his attention. “You’ve never seen a Spyre kid?”

Jaiyra gave her a bland look. “We don’t get many on Wruunk.”

Eyes flashing in recognition, and then poorly concealed pity, the Rai cleared her throat. “I suppose you don’t,” she mused, shaking her head slightly and then saying, elusively, because she was a good Rai when it came to that, “It’s something to avoid,”

Jaiyra can’t imagine why. The speck in space is of bright pinks and purples, like a magical powder adding a bit of glitter to the black abyss around it. It’d probably be prettier up close, and most Rais’ couldn’t resist a pretty thing. Even if it was useless, someone must’ve tried bottling up the mesh of colors and selling it.

Rai Hela’s sigh brings his gaze back to her. She gave him a pointed look, reading through him in the creepy way she tended to be able to. “You shouldn’t ever go near one. We stay in the center of this galaxy for a reason. In the past, Rai used to span across dozens of different star systems; we weren’t confined to just three planet systems.”

Jaiyra, at the time, who was still more street rat than a potential candidate for Raidom gave her a bland look. When he asked about the pretty color mist, he wasn’t asking for a history lecture. Rai Hela met his look with a raised eyebrow, daring him to do something about it, before she continued on with her teaching. Jaiyra wouldn’t stop her. He couldn’t if he tried.

“The Spyres started popping up only a few centuries ago. At first in the Maeis galaxy, to the north of this one, then in the Ty in the south. And though they were beautiful at first, drawing onlookers from all across the known universe, they quickly gained notoriety for being extremely dangerous as well.” At this, Jaiyra arched an eyebrow, turning back to the speck in the distance, glowing prettily. “You see, kit, the Spyres are portals, wormholes–well, allegedly.”

“To where?” Jaiyra cut in, eyes still on the speck in the distance. With how pretty they were, he imagined it must be someplace nice. A wonderland of pinks and pastels, somewhere far away from the raging wars and dull lifeforms in Prioxis.

Rai Hela paused, letting a speculative silence set over them for just long enough for Jaiyra to begin to ache to know more, before smiling and saying flatly, “No one knows.”

Jaiyra glowered. “What do you mean no one knows?”

“Once you go in, you never come out. No one’s ever been able to escape a Spyre, and no one knows what’s on the end of one.” Jaiyra would learn later in life that there were theories. Beings had built whole religions out of the Spyres, saying they were Gods watching over them, and that if one got too close they’d burn to a crisp. Beings that said it would shoot you out another Spyre millions and millions of lightyears away, and that the people who went through them were just lost, bouncing through Spyres in hopes to find the one to lead them back to Prioxis. There were beings that said you’d phase yourself to oblivion going through one, all your atoms would split and never return together.

But Rai Hela had said, “Don’t be one of the idiots to try and find out, okay, kit?”

Enoch Gris ugly cries for over an hour after Jaiyra not-so-gently tells her where they are and what it means. Then she attacks him and Jaiyra gets knocked out again for a while and when he wakes up, the sky is black again.

For a moment he thinks it was all a dream. He imagines he never took up the Braus Straus hunting mission and that he was on his own on the ship, alone and at peace. He had less funds than he would’ve liked, but at least he wasn’t hurtling through a mysterious hole at top speed with no hopes of being saved.

Then Enoch Gris speaks, breaking his blissful silence. “I’m not paying you for this, you dumb Rai!” she sobbed from somewhere behind him. Jaiyra turns to find the being cuddled up next to the prince, who rubs her back consolingly. Great. Annoying and Annoying-er have teamed up. “You were supposed to get me to safety! Where even are we?!”

“You’ve met,” Jaiyra said, dully. Mostly because he had no idea where they were. No one in the known universe should be able to answer a question like that.

Enoch Gris sobbed louder, and this time it’s the prince who speaks up. There’s a dark, purpling mark on his forehead, probably from one of the times Jaiyra slammed him against the wall, and the Rai takes a moment to appreciate it. So his skin could be marred, he wasn’t as untouchable as everyone said. “Why would you bring someone with the coordinates to Rotch to the Pleiads?” the prince demanded, as though that was the most pressing concern right now.

More concerning than the fact that there weren’t even stars in the sky around them, just black silence.

Jaiyra rubbed at his eyes and considered just caving then. For all they knew, they’d be floating around in this silence for eternity, with only the limited amount of supply the evacuation vessel had available to them (not much at all, especially with three stomachs to feed). He could already see their future panning out before them. One of them would have to be eaten first, probably Enoch–she was small, but Braus Straus were really more meat than anything else (including brains), and he’d heard from several sources that they tasted decent–and then there would be an eventual death match between him and Malvedae. He’d win of course, and then eat the Daea, but then what? That’d only last him a few months. And he’d surely go insane long before any of that.

“Wh-what are you thinking about?” Enoch Gris demanded, somehow sounding firm even with the shake in her voice. Jaiyra blinked back into focus, meeting her terrified gaze.

He wondered if she could tell if he had been contemplating her murder on his face. And then he smirked. He hoped she did.

“Answer the question,” Malvedae said, helping maneuver the Braus Straus against the wall before raising gracefully to his feet. Dusting himself off, he approached the Rai with a tight frown. “Why would you bring the Pleiad access to one of the keys?”

Jaiyra scoffed. “Like you have any room to judge, trying to back us into the ship,” he spat back, standing up to meet the prince halfway. He hadn’t even known that Enoch Gris had access to a key in the first place; it wasn’t as though he was intentionally doing anything wrong. As for the prince himself–the same couldn’t be said. “You were going to get us directly back into danger–”

“I made a deal, and it would’ve gotten us all out of this situation–”

“How gullible can you be?” Jaiyra cut him off, rolling his eyes heavenward. Or just up, he wasn’t sure if they had any heaven–like places within the spires. “That woman was going to murder me and lock you both right back up the second we boarded the ship again. This was the only way we could’ve all gotten out safe and alive.”

The prince bristled, utterly offended at one of the things the Rai had said, and Jaiyra wondered which it was. The woman or being called out for his idiocy? Maybe some malformed mix of both.

“You call this safe?” Malvedae muttered, crossing his arms and turning to face the window.

Enoch Gris whimpered in agreement. “My mother told me that Spyres lead directly to hell… Your fairest, will ever get back home?” There are stars in her eyes when she looks towards the prince, and Jaiyra could barf when she bats her eyes. She looks like she may faint when the prince gives her a pitying look and shakes his head.

The lying, conniving Braus Straus. Jaiyra bet she wasn’t even scared.

“It’s Malvedae, Miss Gris,” the prince correctly, gently but firmly, as someone who’d said it many times would’ve. He then turned to Jaiyra expectantly as he said the next few words, as though expecting confirmation that the Rai couldn’t offer. “We’ll do our best to return you to Braus Straus.”

Jaiyra snorted. “Yeah, and then you both can pay me every credit you have.”

Malvedae’s eyes flashed in annoyance and Enoch Gris straightened, proving her moaning and bitching an act. “The paycheck still matters that much to you?” the prince demanded, as though it was something to be ashamed of.

Jaiyra popped the ‘p’ when he confirmed with a yep!

“I want six billion, plus interest from the Braus Straus.” It was what she was worth originally, even if Braus Straus normally weren’t worth as much. Enoch Gris curled her fist and readied herself to jump at him, but really, she had no reason to be angry. It was what she originally owed him anyway, for getting her out of the Pleiad hands. If anything, he was being kind for not adding a handful of extra billions to the number for the hassle of getting her all the way home.

As for the prince. “And seventy trillion from the fairest. I’m sure the Daeadem can offer up that much to get their darling prince back, right?”

Potentially more even. And they could name him a war hero if they saw it fit, it wasn’t every day someone swung by to rescue a prince, was it.

Malvedae bristled even further, arms tightening around his chest, and eyes slanting away. “You can’t take from the national fundings,” he snapped, before his grip loosened and he sighed. “But I have a personal savings, three hundred and sixty-seven million credits.”

Now they were talking. “I’m sure your people wouldn’t mind a small expense to get you back–”

The prince eyes’ snapped back to him, icy and pointed. “I would not ask that of them.” How selfless of him. Jaiyra rolled his eyes in response, but decided not to press, since the prince looked like he would kill him if he did and Enoch Gris looked like she would cheer him on if he tried it. “I could offer a ship as well… unless you’d prefer this one…”

All three of them glanced around the escape pod in tense silence. With all the good morning greetings Jaiyra had been receiving, he hadn’t even thought to observe the ship now that he’d gotten the chance. It’d clearly seen better days, and Jaiyra wouldn’t judge it for that. After all, it had just been under relentless gunfire from the Pleiad army and then made a trip through one of the legendary wormholes you weren’t supposed to make a trip through. Not many would come out looking clean and perfect after such a journey. They were lucky it held on for so long, even if it was creaking concerningly and the control panel had shattered enough that the writing was unreadable and if Jaiyra wasn’t as practiced at configuring, they could be considered dead already.

The same couldn’t be said about his unwilling companions. Enoch Gris looked almost just as bad as the ship, if not worse. There were bandages covering almost every space of her red skin aside from her face and her hand, and Jaiyra was pretty sure that even if she was missing teeth before, it wasn’t as many as she was missing now. The crimson shade of her skin was darkened in spaces and her cuts scabbed over with an orange crust that Jaiyra had to look away from before he barfed in his mouth.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Meanwhile, Malvedae could’ve been worse. There was a bruise on his forehead, and a few lighter ones running up his right arm. His ponytail had loosened slightly, whisps escaping and scraping against his face in a way that had to be distracting. Jaiyra supposed he looked mortally injured by Daeadem standards, since they weren’t supposed to stain.

Jaiyra himself couldn’t feel part of his torso and his head still hurt a bit. But someone had patched him up; there was a crumple of bandages as he stood from beneath his shirt.

“A ship would be nice,” Jaiyra said, distractedly. Passing the other two, he headed to the window, peering out. “The newest version, whatever that is when we get back.”

“If we get back,” Enoch Gris sulked.

Jaiyra afforded her a rare encouraging smile and his voice held no malice when he said, “I always complete my bounties.”

“Not always in one piece though, right?” Enoch Gris questioned after a moment, holding up her stump of an arm.

Jaiyra shrugged. “I’m not paid for the quality of the product.”

Enoch Gris stuck out a slitted tongue at him and then slumped back against the wall, pouting to herself. The prince patted her arm as he passed her, stopping at the window by the Rai and staring out at the darkness with an unreadable expression.

“My people believe that the Spyres are portals to the afterlife,” he said eventually, voice lowered as he glanced concerningly in the direction of the Braus Straus. When she had no reaction, no squeak of fear, and continued to fiddle contently with her three remaining fingers, he continued. “Our afterlife is an eternity of darkness for those who haven’t earned anything better–Naeadem.”

An eternity of darkness. Like the landscape of black laid out before them now. A shiver crawled down Jaiyra’s spine at the thought. Even though he didn’t normally pay any mind to theories of the afterlife, the mysteries around the Spyres had always unnerved him. Being in one now was uncomfortable as it was, there was no need for the creepy folktales to add onto the notion.

“I don’t suppose anyone’s ever clawed their way out of Naeadem?” Jaiyra asked, already aware of the answer before the prince shook his head.

“We only have enough rations to last a month at most, maybe less,” the prince admitted instead, wringing his hands together as he continued to look out at the darkness ahead. The color darkened his eyes, muting the brightness of the silver that had been present before. Jaiyra instantly changed his mind about every color seeming to fit the prince like a glove. This color was far too dark and flushed him out horribly.

Clicking his tongue, Jaiyra sought to pull his eyes away from the scene ahead. “We can team together and take out the Braus Straus if we aren’t out within a week,” he whispered conspiratorially.

The prince set an aghast look on him, radiating disappointment, but at least it wasn’t dark. After seeming to realize the Rai wasn’t as serious as he initially suspected (though, Jaiyra was), he shook his head chidingly. “She’d eat you before you got a hand on her,” he scoffed.

“I’m a Rai. I wouldn’t get eaten by a Braus Straus.”

“Rai or not, you have three bruised ribs and quite a few missing brain cells,” Malvedae said with a roll of his eyes, confirming that he’d been the one to do the bandaging. Though Jaiyra should’ve already suspected that. Enoch Gris probably wouldn’t get within a few inches distance of his unless to bite off a few of his own fingers. “She’d already be digesting you before you even got close.”

Jaiyra amusement with the subject drained as he realized entirely what the prince had told him. “A few missing brain cells–hey now–”

But the prince had already disappeared into the back of the ship again, and Enoch Gris was giving him a look that told him he’d lost again. He still wasn’t sure what game they were playing.

They decided Jaiyra would drive the ship. Or rather, they argued over it for half an hour until the Rai reminded them that it was his bounty and he took complete responsibility, so he manned the ship. Enoch Gris had words to say to that, but she couldn’t even reach the control panel so she didn’t get a say. Malvedae relented with a groan of frustration after twenty-minutes of back and forth, so Jaiyra counted it as a point to him for whatever their game was.

He lost all the points almost immediately however.

“Just don’t hit anything else,” Malvedae had said, snootily, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall of the ship next to an ever-pouting Enoch Gris.

Jaiyra snorted at the thought. “What even is there to hit here?’

And then he promptly ran the ship into a wall.

“Watch where you’re going Rai!” Enoch Gris shouted from where she’d slammed her head against the ship wall. But Jaiyra had been watching where he was going. And there had been absolutely nothing in the way, so there shouldn’t have been anything for them to run into.

And yet the ship was still vibrating under the force of the crash.

“Are there supposed to be invisible monsters in Naeadem?” Jaiyra called over his shoulder to a prince who was still picking himself back up.

Malvedae pinned an unimpressed look at him. “No. Apparently there aren’t any competent pilots either.”

Jaiyra responded by driving the ship forward again, faster this time.

This time when the ship bounced backwards, harsher, the darkness growled.

“Revisiting the invisible monster question–”

“No,” Enoch Gris cut in, holding one of her three fingers up. A helpless expression had crossed over her features, and she was leaning into Malvedae as she shook. “We will not revisit any questions about invisible monsters. We will not think about invisible monsters.”

The invisible monster roared. Enoch Gris squeezed her eyes shut and let out a squeak.

Jaiyra gave Malvedae a pointed look.

The prince pressed his lips together tightly and rubbed at Enoch Gris’ shoulder consoling. “Naeadem is nothing. The punishment part of it is slowly going insane from the blankness around you. There are no invisible monsters in Naeadem,” he eventually relented.

So they could rule out Daeadem beliefs then. Though Jaiyra wasn’t sure yet if this was any better–a place with no stars where invisible beings roared and shook their ship. At least they’d probably be eaten alive before any insanity could happen.

Frowning, Jaiyra figured with the configurations of the ship, pausing only once when the monster roared louder than before and slammed against them, sending them back into another wall. Once they’d stilled again, and the outbursts softened into a low growl, he returned to the work at hand, focused.

“You’re going to try to phase through?” the prince questioned, stepping up next to him and peering down at his handiwork. Grimacing, he reached out and clicked a few buttons himself that Jaiyra hadn’t even realized he’d been neglecting.

“You can phase?” the Rai asked, somewhat surprised. He couldn’t imagine any reason for the prince to need to know how to configure with how many subjects were willing to do it for him. And from what little he’d seen of their Moons, there was less a reason to phase than there was on other planets. Their ships were made for speeding and dodging more than they were dissipating and returning to their original form.

Malvedae hummed in affirmation, batting Jaiyra’s hands away from the part he’d been working on to adjust it. Jaiyra didn’t mind a little help, but no one liked a backseat driver. Correcting someone’s configurations was basically an insult to their ability to configure. And yeah, Jaiyra had accidentally phased away bounty’s leg that one time, but accidents happened occasionally and he learned from his mistakes. Nudging the prince back just as well, he took over the controls again to the sound of a scoff from the prince.

“Is this another one of your ego things?” the prince snarked, though he did step back enough away that he wasn’t breathing down the Rais’ spine over it. “You can accept help, you know?”

“I rarely need it, fairest,” Jaiyra tossed over his shoulder with a smirk.

A flat, almost expected correction follows, “It’s Malvedae.”

And then gets immediately ignored by Enoch Gris who seems to hear only what she wants. “I, for one, think you should let the fairest go over your configuration… They’ve been shaky,” the Braus Straus admits, dropping her fear in favor of criticizing him in the way she seemed prone to as of recent. When the prince turns to nod at her in appreciation, the whole facade is back, quivering and all, and Jaiyra rolls his eyes skyward.

“The driver configures. It’s a Rai thing.” It really wasn’t, but clearly Malvedae and Enoch Gris don’t know enough to deny it since they both shut up long enough for him to finish and propel the ship forward.

Straight through the invisible creature and into a sky full of stars.

“Huh,” Jaiyra said, pulling the ship to a slow stop before the horizon before them.

The patterns were different then they were in Prioxis, but they were the same color, same brightness, same old stars. There wasn’t a single Spyre in sight, nor a Pleiad ship waiting for them around the corner. It was a glimpse of home, but different in a way that the Rai couldn’t quite put his finger on. And he didn’t have time to turn and ask the other two what they thought before the roar was back and the ship was spinning involuntarily.

“What the fuck, Rai!” Enoch Gris screamed, like it was his fault they had suddenly turned into a top. His hands hadn’t even been on the wheel, and the second they moved, he’d been flung away from the controls.

Yesterday’s breakfast, lunch and dinner was clawing at his throat by the time the prince reached the controls and stop the ship. A bit of it escaped, splattering against the floor before them, at the sight that greeted them.

It wasn’t anything Jaiyra had ever seen before, and he would’ve preferred to keep it that way if it were up to him. The creature stood amongst the stars, a meaty mesh of flesh and gross, contorted warts. Upon a second glance, there were faces and various body parts peering out of the warts, of all types of beings from all over the galaxies–not just Prioxis beings, but the Snake People of the Ty Galaxy and the Gigs from the Aurro. Metal pieces of ships jutted out of the skin in between the warts through grotesque cuts, as though many had been crammed into it and there wasn’t enough room for them to stay contained.

The meatball-like creature was bigger than even the Armegeddon, eclipsing their ship entirely.

“We-we… We were in that?!” Enoch Gris exclaimed, hysterical. And once again, Jaiyra was surprised at the strength of her lungs, since the only thing that could probably escape his mouth at the moment, was even more of his last few meal’s remains.

“Did the Spyre lead us into that…” Malvedae’s question followed, far less fearful and more intrigued. Rather than scrambling away from the window to look away from the hideous being, he stepped closer, silver eyes glazing over with interest. “Or did we phase into it when we crossed through accidentally somehow…”

“Does it matter?!” Enoch Gris vocalized Jaiyra’s thoughts exactly. For once they were on the same page.

Malvedae frowned at the question, but didn’t get the chance to answer by the time the monster growled again. A clear warning, followed immediately by it lunging forward towards their ship, faster than anything of its size should’ve been capable of.

The prince was faster, but by a thin margin, pulling the ship backwards a split second before they were slammed into again. Unfortunately, it left them with less a distance than there had been before, the surface of the creature now far too close for comfort.

Enough for them to make out the moving mouths of a few of the faces. Their lips curling around different words for help in various languages, their eyes wide and glossed over with tears, snot leaking out of their noses. Hands stretched out for them, legs kicked, ears twitched–desperate motions trying to call for their attention.

Jaiyra forced his vomit down his throat enough to yell, “Move the ship back!”

But Malvedae was stunned still at the controls, all interest gone in favor of sheer horror at the sight before them. At the few gray and green faces of Daea stuck in the mesh of flesh before them, a few crying out for help and a few crying out for the Fairest Grace specifically.

“Fairest!” Enoch Gris cried, to no avail. This time when the meatball lunged at them, it made contact.

But they didn’t bounce off this time. Instead, the ship’s hull sunk into the monster, the iron of it bending and contorting under the pressure. The growling was back, only this time accompanied with faint screams for help.

Jaiyra cursed, pushing to his feet and towards the prince. Pushing him to the side, he configured faster than he ever had in the entirety of his life, fingers flying over the keys, not caring if he lost a few body parts for whatever mistakes he was making. Eventually, towards the end, Malvedae joined him, fixing a mistake every now and then at his side with shaking fingers, and Jaiyra didn’t complain about co-pilots at all. There was no time too, with their already beaten up ship creaking under the strain of the monster.

Behind them, Enoch Gris had jumped to her feet, racing to a particularly large bend and tackling it. Pushing all over herself against it, she tried to force the bend back into place, but she was no force against the meatball, no matter how hard she pushed or sobbed at it to please not crack.

In the end, it did crack. But not the piece she’d been yelling at.

A red flashing light alerted them that one of their engines had burst just as they phased.

“Fuck,” Jaiyra shouted, slamming his fists against the button the moment their atoms reconnected and they had completely glided through the darkness that was the inside of the being.

Losing an engine could’ve been a death sentence at this point, with how quickly the monster moved. To lose that meant to nearly lose entirely, succumbing themselves to being consumed within the insanity of a monster, their faces being shoved through one of the disgusting warts, and their ship being broken apart like a toy inside the stomach of the thing.

When the monster lunges forward at them again, he reaches for the controls still, never one to cave even in a situation like this. But Malvedae grips the controls tighter at the last instance, moving them only gently, and then they spin away again, further this time.

Gripping the prince, and the control panel, Jaiyra manages not to throw up. There’s a bunch of crashes behind them and then a moan and gross splattering that proves the Braus Straus wasn’t quite as lucky, but they’re at least further away from the meatball when he looks up.

Under the tightness of his hold, Malvedae trembles, hands loosening from the controls and his silver eyes downcast.

“Let it hit us again,” the prince said, reaching up to grip where the Rai had held him still, cutting him off. When he met Jaiyra’s eyes, his were dark again, but it couldn’t be attributed to the sky around them this time, as star-speckled as it was. “But make it make contact with a spot where there aren’t any… where there isn’t anyone sticking out.”

Jaiyra frowned. “We don’t have the luxury of being kind,” he said, trying to keep his words light in spite of the meaning. “Beings are going to be crushed whether we like it or not–”

“They’re pulling us in,” Malvedae cut in, staring down at the control panel.

“I–what?”

“They’re probably just trying to pull themselves out, but it’s–” he cut off then, shaking his head. When he stopped, his own eyes had glossed over and his lower lip trembled, tragically. “I can’t–”

“Okay,” Jaiyra cut him off, tightening his grip on his shoulder. It really wasn’t but Jaiyra couldn’t come up with anything else to say at that moment. He’d never been any good with tears, as evident by his handling of Enoch Gris, and trying to learn now, and in the midst of a battle with a meatball flesh monster probably wasn’t the best place to learn. “I–okay. Okay, Enoch, hold onto something!”

Enoch let out a garbled sound from behind him that Jaiyra decided to take as a confirmation despite the fact that it sounded like she had just thrown up some more instead.

Malvedae’s eyes squeezed shut when the monster lunged towards them again and Jaiyra did as told, shifting the ship slightly so they slammed against the steel edge of a ship instead of a patch of screaming horned Bulls from the Daada galaxy.

They spun again, and Jaiyra only became dizzier, but he never released the controls, and he never released the prince’s shoulder.

They spun for three and a half more hours after that.