The limousine was unlike anything Arden had ever traveled in, although considering his main vehicle of choice had been his legs, and the occasional magicarriage, it wasn't a high bar to clear. The soft seats felt grand for someone who mostly made do with sitting on the floor. The smooth ride didn't exasperate any of his wounds, which he was certainly thankful for.

  Sitting directly to his left was Vera, leaning into him, after having realized that he didn't shy away from physical contact despite his injuries.

  “Are you sure you don't want a healing potion?” She asked.

  Arden smiled and shook his head.

  “I have a bad history with healing potions.”

  Sitting across from him and Vera, Savish spoke up.

  “Bad history or not, you should still drink one. If you are going to appear in front of a crowd celebrating you, you should try to look human.”

  “I think it's a better message to look like the fight was a struggle. If I come out of it looking fine, they'll say that Yaan was weak. I look more heroic, and it makes our host look better for raising such a strong Starborn.”

  All eyes fell to the fourth Starborn in the limousine, sitting next to Savish, who had thus far not said anything. Chorzo had returned to his stoic self, electing not to say anything. Arden believed it was because he had too much to worry about at the moment. Or he just didn’t want to get involved with Arden anymore than he had to, something everyone in the car could sympathize with, even Arden himself.

  “The plan is to immediately head to whatever the Miasma equivalent of a hospital is where I can rest and heal,” Arden said. “I’m not photogenic enough to mesh with the crowds. You are though,” he said, looking at Vera.

  “Says you,” said Savish. “You were the most popular waitress tonight.”

  Chorzo opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, and finally spoke for the first time since the drive began.

  “Waitress?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Arden said, cold sweat rolling down his hideously burned face. “Moving on, what do you want me to do when we arrive? Your house, your rules.”

  “You strike me as the kind of person to not care about what others want you to do.”

  “I don’t. But I also believe in reciprocation. You’re helping me, so I can play nice. What do you want me to do?” Arden repeated.

  Chorzo pulled a healing potion from his inventory and handed it to Arden.

  “Drink it. You don’t need to look perfect, but you need to look like a fighter, not a victim. Plus, you’re staining the upholstery with your wounds.”

  Arden reluctantly accepted the potion. With a sigh he uncapped it and brought it to his mouth. If the others were speaking to him, he didn’t hear it. He could only hear the rapid pounding of his heart. He shut his eyes, and downed the red liquid.

  The familiar taste of strawberries lingered in his mouth and he took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. Vera’s comforting touch did wonders. He opened his eyes and saw everyone staring at him with intrigued expressions.

  “You were being serious,” Savish said.

  Arden nodded his head.

  “Back in my trial, someone forced me to keep drinking potions. Potion fatigue’s a bitch.”

  Arden’s wounds started rejuvenating at an incredibly quick pace. Faster than his ability, that was for sure, and it didn’t take any of his stored biomass. Not that he had much anyway. He already used most of his biomass from devouring Yaan’s hands to turn him back from a charred corpse to a burn victim.

  The rough burnt skin and blisters began to fade away. By the time the potion effect had fully run its course, he was still burnt, but it was only skin deep. His body was covered in second degree burns now, making him look much more alive. For some reason, there were no blisters, but Arden was fine with that.

  What he wasn’t fine with was the pain that came with the healing process. He felt most of it located around his chest next to his heart.

  Arden felt the need to bite down on something to stop himself from shouting in pain. It was less than what he felt during the fight, but it still sucked hard.

  “Focus on healing now,” Chorzo said. “If you manage to gain some level of burn and pain tolerance, that will help in the long run.”

  Savish grimaced seeing Arden’s expressions of displeasure.

  “You look worse than when you were charcoal,” she observed.

  “I…feel…worse,” he said, grunting between each word.

  “That’s understandable,” Chorzo said. “Your nerves were destroyed by my nephew’s flames. The potion reduced the intensity of your burns, but your nerves were returned to their previous state. Just deal with it for a little bit. We’re almost there.”

  Arden felt Vera with him. Hers was one heat that he would never shy away from. He focused on the feeling as he healed.

  Savish turned to Chorzo.

  “What are you going to do with your nephew when we get there? We all saw you create ash coffins and put them in the trunk. I didn’t think you would turn the limo into a hearse.”

  “What happens to him will be decided by the board. If I had to guess, incarceration is the most likely. Though, it wouldn't surprise me if they went harder.”

  “Do you think a star seal is out of the question?”

  Chorzo frowned and shook his head slowly, solemnly.

  “No. I hope that the board won’t go that far, but my instincts tell me that they will. If they do, I’ll have no choice but to accept the outcome. Yaan has done too much, and if I come forward, he won’t learn, and I’ll come across as weak.”

  “And you can’t have that.”

  “Not when I’m the leader.”

  The limousine came to a slow stop, so gently that Arden didn’t even realize they stopped. Chorzo exhaled a breath and spoke.

  “We’re here.”

  Arden opened his eyes when the door was opened from the outside by a man in a suit with a boyish face and short black hair.

  “Welcome back, sir,” he said to Chorzo. “I trust everything went well.”

  The man’s eyes flickered between the four people in the limo. Aside from his boss, there was Savish, a semi well-known Starborn, an unknown beautiful woman in a ripped cocktail dress leaning against a man in dark grey armor with a hood covering his blistered face.

  “As well as it could have gone,” Chorzo said, stepping out of the car.

  The man extended a hand for Savish, who took it and was helped out of the car.

  “It’s good to see you as always, Madam Savish.”

  “It’s good to see you too, Laurent. I just wish it were under better circumstances.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Laurent’s gaze again turned to the two people still in the car.

  “Do these circumstances have to do with the newcomers?”

  Chorzo spoke, buttoning up his jacket.

  “And the two in the trunk. These two are to be treated with respect.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  Laurent helped the woman out first, and then the man. Both of which had the attractive appearance of Starborn, though the man was a little bit lacking. Although that could have been because of the burns.

  Arden looked around from under his hood. He would definitely have to rescind any previous thoughts about Miasma’s headquarters.

  Thanks to Yaan, Arden had the belief that it would be a dull office building, similar to the old municipal building. He was expecting the only parts of it to contain the feeling of life to be the tags of graffiti, but it couldn’t be further from reality.

  A high-rise building jutted into the sky in front of everyone. Like a resort, there was a circular drive-up where other people were coming and going, giving the group strange looks, before noticing Chorzo and heading on their way. In the center of the asphalt drive, a large fountain sat, throwing up water into the air.

  “I didn’t expect a penthouse,” Arden said. “Miasma can afford this?”

  Laurent laughed.

  “This, and the rest of the block. Having the backing of the Association has its perks.”

  Arden leaned back and looked to the left and right, noticing smaller buildings of different sizes, but all of them of the same grandeur.

  “Holy hell.”

  Laurent returned to Chorzo’s side.

  “As per your order, the victims are waiting for you in the lobby of the main hall. The ones with more severe injuries are being treated in the infirmary, though there are very few of them.”

  “That’s good. Prepare space for our three guests. As you can probably tell, the mundanes weren’t the only ones injured by the events of tonight.”

  “Yes, sir,” Laurent said, before heading into the building ahead of everyone else.

  Vera smiled and grabbed Arden’s hand.

  “Game faces, Arden. Lesson one of being a real Starborn. Accepting praise without getting a big head. There are about to be a lot of people in there thankful for what we did. You have to be gracious. And humble.”

  “I can do that.”

  “Ha!” Savish laughed.

  “According to everything I’ve heard about you,” Chorzo said as he approached the automatic doors that opened. “You are not humble at all.”

  “Hate to break it to you, Arden, but you aren’t,” Vera said. “You’re a fan of the flair and the dramatic.”

  “I mean…yeah, but still,” Arden was cut off by Vera continuing.

  “When everyone’s eyes were on you before the fight, you had that guy slit your throat so you could have a fake-out death just so you could say a one-liner to start the fight.”

  Chorzo and Savish looked at Arden with a small amount of disbelief that this was the man responsible for defeating the Miasma heir and saving people in the process.

  “This morning you talked about wanting to be a supervillain rather than an evil person because they have fun with their antics. I’m pretty sure your exact words were ‘they are fans of the dramatic.’”

  “…Alright that did happen,” he admitted.

  Vera didn’t stop, though.

  “You say you don’t like the spotlight, but anytime you take center stage you look like you’re having fun. Remember the Maverick?”

  “I remember.”

  “Was that the one you fought naked?” Savish asked.

  “That’s the one,” Vera replied.

  “You fought naked?” Chorzo asked as they entered the building.

  Vera shook her head.

  “I didn’t. He did.”

  “She couldn’t handle it,” Arden said in explanation.

  They entered the building, and Arden found that everyone currently in the lobby doing their work or simply chilling looked at him like he was insane. They had apparently overheard them.

  “I see what you mean,” Arden said, as they continued through the lobby to the next building in the complex.

  “You know, Vera,” Savish said. “I know you’re trying to get Arden to have a good image, but it's kind of a moot point. We’re going to see the people from the restaurant. If he goes out there trying to be all stoic, it won’t work. Remember what he was to them a little while ago.”

  Arden remained silent.

  “Don’t spin it to where he’s a stoic warrior.” Savish looked at Arden. “Just be yourself. It's a rarity for Starborn to act so human. Just look at him,” she said, pointing to Chorzo and his expressionless face.

  “That’s a good point,” Vera said. “Don’t follow what I said, but keep it in mind. Just play to your strength, being human to almost a flaw. Just try not to take it too far.”

  Arden nodded his head with a smile.

  “I’m a lot more confident in doing that.”

  They stopped at a set of wooden double doors. Inwardly, Arden wondered why a family of firestarters would have anything made of wood.

  “I’d hope you are,” Chorzo said. “Because we’re here.”

  Just before Arden realized what a terrible idea this was, Chorzo swung the doors open wide. Arden couldn’t just ignore it now. Cursed with the weight of societal expectations, Arden walked out behind him with Vera at his side.

  The lobby burst out in cheers of gratitude and clapping.

  “Is it too late to back out?” he asked.

  With the noise of everyone else there, only Vera heard him. A smile spread across her face seeing how nervous he was.

  “Get used to this,” she whispered. “This happens to Starborn all the time. This is what you wanted.”

  Vera stepped forward to wave to everyone with a radiant smile, bewitching everyone, including Arden all over again.

  He smirked to himself.

  ‘I can’t let her have all of the spotlight.’

  He joined Vera's side and waved as well. Just like earlier, Vera appeared confident, while Arden looked uneasy and nervous. He scanned the crowd and his eyes settled on the group of women he was working with earlier. When their eyes met, Arden couldn't help but smile.

  When Savish appeared next to him, her employees surged forward. It was fortuitous that there weren't that many people caught up in the events at the restaurant, because the employees would have trampled everyone to greet their boss.

  Arden noticed Staz lingering at the back of the room, but beyond seeing that he was unharmed, he didn't really care. Staz did tell everyone to put makeup on Arden, and Arden wouldn't forget so easily.

  “Boss!” her employees yelled as they came face to face with her.

  “You’re okay!” Tesh said relieved. “We were so worried!”

  Arden and Vera didn’t say anything. This was Savish’s moment. Tesh, Lyzia, Kelkis, and all of the other workers were shedding happy tears of relief. Savish did her best to ease their worry, but most of the worry was already assuaged simply by Savish being there. When they were finally calmed down enough, they pointed Savish to the infirmary where Cayde was resting. Wasting no time, Savish leapt over the crowd towards her husband.

  The workers turned their attention to Arden who was standing there with a lopsided smile.

  “I told you I could be a good distraction.” he said, this time in his natural voice.

  Lyzia looked him up and down, as did the rest of their coworkers. He looked like he had literally walked through hell. His burnt appearance with the armor, when mixed with his obviously male voice left them wondering how the hell they had ever seen him as a girl.

  “You look like tonight’s signature special,” Tesh said.

  “I’m fine with that. I’d rather look like a cooked steak than the black char that falls into the grill. This is already a step up from how I was a little while ago.”

  “Doesn’t it hurt?” Lyzia asked.

  Arden shook his head.

  “Not really,” he lied, not really knowing why. “Just a few burns. The boss said that I’ll be receiving treatment for them. Something about Starborn burns being more prone to infection. I’ll be going now.”

  Arden slowly walked away from the group, deliberately hiding the pain he was in. He hadn’t experienced much physical pain of late. Most times it was spiritual, like when he used the legacy ability, or when he heard the words of god. But now having experienced what many people thought was the most painful way to die, he could say for sure that they were correct. Death by fire sucked.

  As he sauntered down to the infirmary, he heard Lyzia yell his name.

  “Arden!”

  He turned around and saw all of them except for Vera, giving a deep bow of gratitude.

  “Thank you for keeping us safe!”

  Despite the pain, a wide smile spread across his face.

  ‘Maybe this isn’t that bad after all.’

  He gave a casual wave and spoke. Despite him speaking softly, his voice carried across the entire room.

  “Anytime.”

  He turned around and continued out of the grand hall in the direction of the infirmary. Most who saw him thought that he was strong. Only Vera could see through it.

  Despite the joking words and the nonchalant attitude, she could see through the facade. It was a good mask, created from years of experiencing and hiding pain, but she had known him long enough to know the truth.

  “I’m going with him,” she said.

  For as good as Arden was at hiding things, the same could not be said for Vera. Lyzia saw her red cheeks and smiled, getting out of the way of the infatuated Starborn.