Aren chuckled nervously. “What are you on about? The cube dissolved on its own. There’s no way I’m a Solver.”

He was a shit liar.

“And the fence melting away at your touch? And don’t think just because I was half-dead, I didn’t notice the entire fucking warehouse collapsing. The priests never care about collateral, but there’s no way they would bring it down on their own heads.” I adjusted my grip on him and huffed. “I get wanting to keep your secrets safe, but something as important as you being a Solver is something I needed to know. It would have affected our plans, probably giving us a safer route.”

“Yeah, sorry. Thanks for protecting me.” I heard him mumble.

I sighed. I’m sure the kid had his own reasons. “Which quadrant’s Orphanage are you from? Silver didn’t recognize you, so you’re not originally from around here.”

“Oh, uh…” Aren hesitated. “I can’t tell you that,” he finally said before adding another mumbled “Sorry.”

I shrugged. “Alright, keep your secrets.” The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to the Orphanage’s lobby. Mrs. Rogerton was still there and just as hostile toward me, but she let us through as soon as she saw me carrying Aren minus one leg.

As soon as we entered the main hall, I saw Silver sitting with some of the younger kids, helping them fill out a coloring book. She looked at peace. Then she noticed us and calmly stood up. She walked slowly towards us, her posture rigid, as if trying very hard to appear calm.

“Follow me.” She said.

Aren and I glanced at each other and nodded, and I did as I was told. As soon as we were in the office and the door was locked, she turned around and looked over Aren. When she saw his leg had been patched up with an injector, she sniffed with distaste.

“Don’t worry, Kornok apparently has a regeneration chamber,” I said, still shocked by that revelation.

I could tell she was about to unleash one of her infamous rants on me, but that brought her up short. “What? How can he afford it?”

I shrugged. “Dunno.”

Her eyebrows were drawn together, and she let out a dissatisfied hum. “That sounds like something worthy of investigation.” She led us to the two plush chairs in front of her desk. I set Aren down on one and sat on the other as she took her own seat behind her desk.

“Thoron is already on that,” I said, settling into the comfortable chair with a satisfied sigh. “Ask him if he needs help.”

She nodded in confirmation as she rested her elbows on her desk, her slender hands clasped together. “So. What happened?”

“We did it,” I grunted.

She looked at me with overexaggerated patience. “I should hope so. How bad was it?” she glanced at Aren’s leg again.

“Bad,” I said. “We had to fight all of them on our way out.”

Her face paled. “How many?”

“Twelve.”

Her face went from pale to white. “Twelve fucking priests?”

“Twelve fucking priests,” I repeated, nodding slowly.

“Razel, what the fuck did you steal? Am I going to hear of another sector being excommunicated? And how did you escape?” At this point, any joy at our return had been replaced with incredulity and horror.

“I have no idea. It was a glass box with a small red gem in it. We got the gem, but the box, not so much. As for how we escaped…” I gave Aren a long look. “Do you want to tell her?” he hesitated a few heartbeats and nodded.

“I’m a Dissolver. I made the building collapse by eroding some load-bearing pillars,” Aren mumbled.

“A Dissolver?” Silver leaned back, her demeanor immediately cooling down as she looked Aren up and down. “Curious.” She hummed and steepled her fingers, deep in thought.

“Why curious?” I asked, surprised at her reaction. I expected something more explosive, to be honest.

“Because Aren doesn’t exist in our files.” She said, looking at the kid with a grave look.

“What files?” Aren asked, looking very nervous as he fidgeted in his seat.

“All Fluxborn have to come to the Orphanages if they want to leave the Otherworld. We patch their Novas with a cloaking program that conceals their true nature. If we didn’t, they would be instantly discovered by any Priest who passed them and promptly excommunicated.” She turned to me. “You said you met Topside, right?”

I nodded.

“Then how come none of the Orphanages have a file on you, kid?” Silver turned back to Aren and stared hard at him. “Fluxborn children are either taken to a Cloister by Priests or brought to the Otherworld, where they are safe from the Ecclisiarchy. No Fluxborn can live Topside or Underside without our patch. The few that tried died within a year.”

He looked down, shaking a little. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that. The boss would actually kill me.”

I narrowed my eyes. Kornok would go that far for this secret? Interesting. I turned to Silver. “Well, since Aren is here, how about I leave him with you, and I go deliver the goods? We should be safe from the Priest’s ire. As for seeing a sector excommunication, I sincerely doubt it. They could justify their slaughter of Sector 11 because the Godfall rebellion had taken over the entire place and somehow found a way to kill an Archbishop. They won’t start excommunicating sectors to try and find two people they don’t even know the appearance of.”

Silver huffed. “Alright. Well, keep your eyes peeled. You somehow managed to survive a dozen priests but-”

Pain.

I screamed.

Pain.

I tried to breathe. I failed.

“Razel?” I think I heard Aren ask.

Pain.

I was on the ground. Silver was above me, looking terrified.

Pain.

Was she screaming?

Pain.

It felt like someone pushed a red-hot iron ball into my right palm.

Pain.

The cluster of agony moved from my palm to my forearm. Then, my shoulder.

Pain.

Then, it moved to my chest.

“Bring our best Lodestone! Now!” I heard her shout.

Then, blessed nothingness.

For a while, I floated in darkness, my mind fraying at the edges from the memory of that pain. I didn’t remember who I was or how I got there. All I knew was darkness and the memory of agony beyond my comprehension.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Then I heard a voice in my head so loud that it felt like it made the entire universe shake.

[HOST DETECTED. INTEGRATION INITIALIZED.]

My eyes snapped open. Silver was covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes as wide as saucers. Aren looked like he just saw a ghost. The head of a ten-year-old girl entered my vision, her curly red hair brushing against my face.

“Oh! You’re awake!” I heard her squeak.

“Bwurghl?” I eloquently replied.

The little girl turned to Silver and shrugged. “His vitals are fine. Doesn’t have any brain damage, either. Not any that I could find and heal, at least. Dunno about that weird glow, though.”

“Mfngugah,” I wheezed matter of factly.

“Scratch that. He might have some brain damage. Let me recheck.” She placed her hands on my head, and it felt like a refreshing mist settled on my body. “Nope, nothing. Don’t know why he’s talking like that.” She sounded so cheerful that the incongruity of her chipper attitude and Silver and Aren’s faces jolted my brain back into functioning.

“What… Happened?” I managed to croak out.

“See, he’s fine!” The little girl said again.

“Thank you, Miralia,” Silver said, “Go and rejoin the other kids.”

“Kay! Bye!” She said, and I heard the pitter-patter of tiny bare feet slapping the ground as she ran.

“What happened?” I repeated, trying to sit up a little, resting on my elbows.

“You…” Silver swallowed hard. “You started screaming. Then you stopped screaming and collapsed. I brought our best Lodestone to heal whatever was happening, but…”

“That little girl is your best healer?” I grunted in surprise.

Silver shook her head. “That’s what you’re worried about? Razel… You… It...” She took a deep breath. “Razel, look down.”

I looked down at my own chest. It seemed like someone had opened my chest armor and unbuttoned my shirt. I didn’t see anything for a moment.

Then, a faint red light pulsed from the middle of my chest.

“Um,” I said. “What the fuck?”

Aren shook his head. “When you started screaming, your hand started glowing with a bright red light. Then, it somehow started traveling up your arm. You gasped, opened your chest armor, ripped your shirt open, and passed out. The light moved to your chest and stayed where it's now, pulsing.” Aren shivered. “That was really fucking freaky, man.”

I kept staring at the pulsating light inside my own chest. “What is it?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer. Was it a bomb? A weapon the Priests managed to shove in me somehow?

Silver shrugged. “We don’t know. Miralia couldn’t detect anything wrong with you.”

The light pulsed again, bringing back a faint memory of the pain. The pain. I felt something similar not too long ago.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

I scrambled to my feet, Silver and Aren jumping back in surprise at my sudden movement. It felt effortless. I felt fine, better than fine, actually. Except… I reached into my jacket’s pocket.

The gem wasn’t there.

I took off my jacket, turned it upside-down, and started shaking it with all I had in me.

“Raz, are you okay?” Silver said, alarmed. “What’s happening?”

“It’s gone,” I whispered, dropping the jacket on the ground and feeling my limbs start to shake.

“What is?” She asked, in a placating tone, sounding like someone trying to calm down a frightened animal.

“The gem,” I said, turning to her. “It’s not in my pocket.”

“What?” She said, sounding confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

I pointed at my chest, where that red glow kept appearing and disappearing.

“Because I think it's inside of me.”

They both looked at me like I had lost my mind.

“Inside of you?” Aren said in disbelief. “What are you on about?”

“The pain that knocked me out felt the same as the pain I felt when I first grabbed it, multiplied by a hundred,” I said, becoming more and more convinced in my theory.

“That doesn’t prove anything, Raz,” Silver said, looking concerned.

“While I was passed out, I received this notification,” I said, pulling up the window that had opened in the void of my mind and sending it to her and Aren.

“Host Detected? What?” Silver said before her eyes widened in realization, and she stared up at me. “You don’t think…” She trailed off.

I nodded. “I do. Although I’m not sure how I’m alive right now.”

“And you don’t feel any…?”

“Nope, still hate the bastards. I want to stay as far away from them as possible.”

We stared at each other in mutual disbelief.

“Boy, I sure am glad that being a Dissolver allows me to hear everyone’s thoughts, or else I wouldn’t have a single fucking clue about what is going on right now,” Aren said, his fists on his hips and looking at us with annoyance.

Ah, right. Aren was still there.

I licked my lips and turned to the kid. “It’s a rare thing, but priests have been killed a few times on the surface of the rings. In the Otherside, killing them is easier since they collapse in a heap, but any Priest that dies immediately dissolves. But there aren’t any recycling clouds on the Topside or the Underside. Priests are much harder to kill out there, as you saw, but if you manage to kill one, you can loot them and try to remove items from them.”

Aren looked like he didn’t know why I was telling him this. “So?”

“So, some people have tried taking the gems that are all over the Priests’ faces, hoping to sell them for a profit,” Silver said, crossing her arms. “Turns out, if a Fluxborn touches one of the gems, even with protective equipment, it instantly attaches to their body, and they go insane. The gem slowly crawls up their body as they desperately try to get to the nearest Cloister and go berzerk if you say anything negative about the Ecclisiarchy.” She shuddered. “Nobody knows what happens once they get to the Cloister, but the results are pretty grim if they can’t access one for any reason. The few times some poor wretches were captured and detained to observe what happened, it was always the same. Once the gem reaches one of the eyes, it drills into and replaces it and immediately starts absorbing nutrients from the host, forcibly keeping them alive. A day later, all that is left of the Fluxborn is a dried husk. Only then does the gem let them die.”

Aren looked alarmed as he stared at my glowing chest. “And if the person isn’t Fluxborn?”

I grimaced. “They simply die.”

“Exactly! Why the hell did you touch it, Razel?” Silver rounded on me.

I put my hands up in a placating manner. “It didn’t look anything like a Priest Gem! Those are angular and big. This was a small, smooth red stone, half the size of the smallest Priest Gem I’ve seen! How was I supposed to know?”

Aren helpfully butted in. “Because it was a gem guarded by Priests?”

I opened and closed my mouth several times, trying to think of a response. “Fair enough!” was the best I could come up with.

Silver shook her head with a smirk. “At least we know you are still yourself.” She fell back into her armchair and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palm. “Oh, what are we going to do?”

“Well, I need it out of me as soon as possible. I have a delivery to make.” I said, getting up with a grunt. “Aren, stay here. Silver can hook you up with a temporary leg so that you can move around.”

“Wait!” Silver said, jumping up. She suddenly looked nervous. “I, uh. I have something to give you.”

“Oh?” I said, “Something that will help?”

She hesitated and nodded. “Hopefully.” She tapped on her desk terminal, and I saw her go through half a dozen biometric checks. Eventually, I heard a faint click, and she opened one of her drawers.

She hesitated again, looking down at whatever was inside as if it were a live and very hostile snake. In one quick, fluid motion, she picked it up and placed it on her desk.

It was a revolver. One that I had never seen before yet knew all too well. After all, I still had the drawings and idea documents I made for it as a kid, squirreled somewhere in my hab.

----------------------------------------

[Rail-Revolver]

Rank: Uncommon (Unique)

A unique hybrid between revolver and rail-gun, created by Sister Silver for Razel Ibicas. Its [Adaptive Growth] subroutine allows the weapon to connect with a user’s neural implants to improve and adjust its function and shape based on their needs. Comes with a standard ammo-fabricator.

Identity-Locked.

“A promise kept.”

----------------------------------------

“Woah,” I whispered. “You finished it?” I looked up to see her staring at me with hard eyes, a sea of hurt hiding behind them. I wasn’t sure why, but I’m sure there was a good reason.

“I did. Take it,” Silver said as she pushed it towards me.

I obliged and picked it up, examining it. It had a dark gray metallic body, with faintly glowing orange lines ornamenting the side of the grips, the trigger, and the cylinder. On the back, there was a display that showed the ammo count. Eighty bullets for every magazine. The barrel had thin electromagnetic cells on either side accented with the same glowing orange lines.

“I know the rank only says Uncommon, but that’s only because the gun starts as a sort of… blank slate. As you use it, the [Rail-Revolver] will scan your mind and grow stronger and more versatile according to your perceived needs, both in shape and function. Your imagination is the limit, so don’t underestimate it.” She said, crossing her arms.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s perfect. Thank you, Silver.” I looked up and nodded gratefully at her.

She nodded back once. “Now, off with you.”

I started heading to the door, but Aren’s voice stopped me.

“Wait, where are you going?” he said, looking at me as if I was abandoning him.

I shrugged helplessly. “To the only person who has ever successfully managed to extract a Priest Gem from someone who’s not a Priest without that person dying, even if it was only once, and with help.”

“Who’s that?” he asked, his eyes lighting up with curiosity. He probably expected me to say some legendary mechanical augmentation specialist like Roger “Six Arms” Haltey.

I chuckled, and right before I closed the door, I turned to him and winked. “My stove.”