"Would you ever date a Guardian?"
Lethia looked up from mixing a complex tea for a customer in the cafe where she worked. Her coworker, a woman named Sira, smirked at her from the sandwich counter.
"Are you trying to make me vomit?" Lethia replied. "Guardians don't even have souls. Give me one of the Dasa boys any day."
"Or Prince Uldren," Sira added. Both of them sighed wistfully.
They were of the Awoken race - humans with blue skin, glowing eyes, and patterns of Light racing beneath their skin. They lived in Reefedge City: a fair-sized metropolis on the inside of the Reef, a great wedge of interconnected rocks and wrecked ships in the asteroid belt.
Lethia handed the customer their tea, readying her smile for the next person in line. Lethia wore her indigo hair in the latest Awoken style - long on top, shaved on the sides - and selected clothes that set off her unusual blue-green eyes.
The man in line was a tall, broad-shouldered Awoken. He wore a black cloak with a hood, and his pale yellow eyes glowed unsettlingly from beneath.
"What can I get you?" Lethia asked, showing her prettiest smile.
"A plain black leaf, please," he replied.
As Lethia poured a cup from a nearby kettle, she said, "Are you a Techeun?"
"Light, no," the man said, sounding startled. "What makes you think that?"
"The cloak," Lethia replied. "Techeuns are the only ones who dress like that, and we don't see them often."
"Ah. Well." The man pushed back his hood. He had pale blue skin and coal-black hair with white streaks in it. But what interested Lethia the most was the V-shaped birthmark on his forehead.
"Are you a Dasa?" she asked.
The man flinched. "Um, no, I'm not." He slid three glimmer bits across the counter, and she handed him his tea.
As he turned away, his cloak shifted, and Lethia glimpsed the sidearm holstered at his hip. The holster was worked with the insignia of a coiled snake.
She sucked in her breath through her teeth. "Sira!" she whispered. "That man's a Guardian!"
"He is?" Sira craned her neck to peer after the stranger as he left the cafe. "I've never seen one! I didn't know the undead drank tea!"
Lethia looked at the glimmer he had handed her, then stuck it under the faucet to rinse it off. "I can't believe I spoke to one. What did he think he was doing, mixing with Awoken like he was the same as us?"
"He was an Awoken, too," Sira said. "Or he was before he died."
The two made disgusted faces at each other.
They endlessly discussed the Guardian as the morning gave way to afternoon. The radio in the back room ran news reports about the approach of the Hive Dreadnaught, and their manager listened with a grave expression. But Lethia and Sira paid no attention. Meeting their first Guardian was far more fascinating than a distant alien threat.
"So, would you date him?" Sira said.
"No way!" Lethia retorted. "He acted Awoken, but I'll bet if you scratched deeper than the surface, there'd be no personality. Guardians are puppeted by those ghost robots to be killing machines."
"With a taste for tea," Sira added, and both of them giggled.
Their manager emerged from the back room, the Light under her skin swirling in alarm. "Girls, close the cafe. Go home and bar your doors."
"Why? What's wrong?" Lethia asked.
"The Dreadnaught just destroyed our fleet," said the manager. "And it sent out a pulse of energy that-"
A sucking, tearing sound interrupted her. Half the cafe wall peeled open in a black portal with empty void inside. Unlucky patrons nearby fell into it, screaming.
A moment later, they stepped out again, still screaming. But they had returned as the Taken. Their human bodies were consumed with burning blackness that seared white where their feet touched the ground. Their faces were obscured by a blob of white. They moved in a staggering, wobbling way, reaching out to grab other people, their very touch burning away clothes and flesh.
Panic erupted in the cafe. Lethia and Sira escaped out the back door. More portals opened in the walls and ground, tugging at them, trying to Take them. Screams erupted all over the city as people were consumed by the hundreds. They returned as the Taken, swarming the streets and buildings, killing everything in their paths.
Lethia fled with the rest, running down the city streets, trying to avoid the portals as they opened underfoot and in every wall. She screamed as a black Taken emerged a foot away, his body squirming in agony as the darkness burned and burned and burned. The monster reached for her. Lethia twisted aside. The grasping claws grabbed Sira, instead, who screamed horribly as she died. Lethia tried to pull her friend away from the monster, but it was already too late.
In less than ten minutes, the street was empty of everything except burning Taken that wavered about as if swimming through reality.
Lethia clawed her way up a steep hillside and crouched behind a rock, shaking so hard she could barely keep her feet. Portals kept opening and closing like huge jaws. The city echoed with the screams of the living and the damned. It was only a matter of time before a portal found her.
Lethia had never seen Darkness like this before - the Techeuns spoke of it, and she'd seen pictures of blights. But for it to occur like this, everywhere, devouring what had once been a sanctuary protected by the Queen - it was the apocalypse. Lethia could only hope to survive for one minute at a time, because the next might be her last.
"Hello!" said an improbably cheery voice.
She spun around with a gasp. Floating behind her was a little robot, shaped like a star with a single blue eye in the center.
A ghost, Lethia realized. One of the spawn of the Traveler, the great machine floating above Earth that had created the Guardians.
"What do you want?" she said shakily.
"I, uh, well ..." The ghost gazed at her, then down the hill at the portals Taking the entire Awoken race. "Is this a bad time?"
"Yes!" she shrieked in a whisper. "They're Taking us! It'll Take me, too! Go away before they quench your light!"
The rock beside her opened with a tearing sound, a black portal gaping wide. Lethia scrambled backward with a scream. The portal sucked at her, tilting her center of gravity, turning all directions into down with itself at the bottom. She struggled, clawing at the ground, gasping, sobbing, trying not to slip down and down into the hungry void.
The ghost shot her with Light.
Light flashed behind her eyelids and under her skin, making the native patterns swirl and blaze. She glimpsed stars and heat, green forests and sparkling water. Alien strength poured into her.
The gravity well vanished. Lethia collapsed to the ground, now blessedly flat. The portal sucked itself closed. She lay there, panting and whimpering.
The ghost flew down to her. "Come on, I'll guide you out of here."
She was too dazed to argue, or even understand what happened. She struggled to her feet and staggered after the ghost. She may not trust the Traveler, but it wouldn't actively destroy her. Not like the Darkness.
The ghost led her out of the city and into the surrounding mountains. The number of portals diminished as the city fell behind. It seemed that the Taken King was targeting the population centers and ignoring the scattered dwellings among the hills.
As they traveled, Lethia's initial panic subsided. But she kept watch as they walked, expecting portals or Taken to appear around every bend. She could not have made it so far if not for the alien power pulsing through her. It felt like adrenaline, yet at the same time, something other.
As they followed a narrow trail up a tree-clad mountainside, Lethia asked, "Why are you helping me?"
The ghost glanced at her, then looked away without answering.
"You're of the Light," Lethia said. "You wouldn't be leading me to harm."
"You didn't even notice, did you?" the ghost said.
"Notice what?" Lethia glanced all around for enemies.
The ghost made a sound like a sigh. "This isn't the time. Let's find shelter, first."
The sun began to descend as the Reef revolved. Lethia watched the oncoming shadows. Terror prickled along her spine. Taken ... in the night ... when she wouldn't be able to see them.
The ghost gave her a concerned look. "What's wrong?"
She licked her dry lips. "It'll be dark soon."
"Yes," the ghost said. "There are several houses within walking distance."
She nodded violently. "Yes. I want a roof and walls. I don't want them to find me."
"They can't Take you now," the ghost said soothingly. "I'm here."
Lethia stared at him, uncomprehending. A tiny robot made no difference at all to the Darkness and the Taken. She had no weapons, no fighting skills. She was a lowly cook in a cafe. She knew food, not battle.
The ghost guided her up a steep, rocky path and to a tiny shack built into the mountainside. It was unoccupied, the front door standing open when the occupants had fled. Lethia went inside, locked the door, and drank as much water as she could force down. Then she curled up in a chair and stared out a window, watching the sun set, waiting for monsters.
"What's your name?" the ghost asked gently.
He asked her twice before the question registered. "Lethia Mar." The question seemed small and unimportant compared to watching for Taken.
The ghost activated a scanning beam and swept it over her. Comforting warmth washed through her, easing the ache in her legs and back, relaxing some of the stress in her brain.
She sighed. "Thank you. I didn't know ghosts could do that."
"All ghosts can heal their Guardians," he replied.
Lethia barely registered his words, let alone their meaning. The ghost watched her nervously, hoping she would catch on. She didn't.
"My name is Niki," he told her. "In case you wondered."
"Thanks," she said absently.
Niki hung in the air beside her for a while, waiting for her to realize what his presence meant. But she was too terrified, too focused on survival, to attend to anything he said. After a while he phased himself, hanging invisible in hyperspace, and kept watch from there.
Lethia got up and paced from window to window as the sun sank and stars sprang into the sky. Her blue skin swirled with motes of restless Light, giving her a muted glow in the gathering twilight. Her blue-green eyes gleamed in the darkness as she paced.
Niki phased back into reality. "There are no Taken or portals in our vicinity, Lethia."
She flinched away from his voice and movement. "Oh! It's you again. I thought you left. How do you know? That there's no Taken?"
"They emit a certain type of radiation," the ghost said. "Easy to detect. The city is overrun, but there's nothing out this far. We should try to find a jump ship. Get to Earth."
Lethia stared at him. "Leave the Reef? I can't leave the Reef. This is my home. I'm Awoken."
"Lethia," Niki said as gently as he could, "the Queen is dead. So is the Reef leadership. The Prince. Everyone. We need to get as far from here as we can."
She stared at him in silence for a long time. Her hands curled into fists. "I don't believe you."
"It's the truth," Niki said. "I've been monitoring transmissions. So many Guardians died in the attack on the Dreadnaught. Permanently dead, their ghosts killed."
Lethia gave a hard little laugh. "What's that to me? Let them die. Guardians were never alive to begin with."
Niki stared, aghast. "How could you say that?"
Lethia ignored this and returned to her chair to keep watch. "Is the Queen really dead?"
"As far as we know," Niki replied. "Her ship was destroyed. They all were. She may have escaped, but ... nobody knows. It's a terrible defeat, and it's still happening. If the Dreadnaught reaches the Reef, we won't survive. You must escape before that happens."
Lethia didn't answer. She kept her attention on the window, trying to decide if she believed the Traveler spawn or not. Ghosts were supposed to be truthful to a fault, due to being made of Light. But if he was telling the truth, then Mara Sov was dead. And everyone else the Awoken looked to for leadership and protection. She was on her own.
She drew a slow, deep breath. "Suppose I do steal a ship and ... and leave. Would Earth accept me?"
"Plenty of Awoken live in the Last City," the ghost assured her.
She shot him a look. "But isn't that city all Guardians? I won't live among the dead."
"The - live among -" Niki sputtered. "No! Guardians are alive. And the City is mainly the survivors of humanity who gathered under the Traveler for protection. Guardians live in the Tower and serve in the Vanguard."
Lethia gazed out the window for a while. She could see distant stars, the tiny moons of the asteroid belt, and the reflection of her own eyes. Nothing else. Her world was ending, and she didn't know how to cope. Fleeing to the Earth she had been taught to despise sickened her.
"Why are you still here?" she said, flashing Niki a disgusted look. "I'm Reefborn Awoken. We don't commune with the Traveler or its spawn. We are of both Light and Darkness. I don't need you."
"Yes, you do," the ghost said softly.
"No, I don't," Lethia said, rising to her feet and facing him. "Now get out of here before I knock you out of the air."
"Lethia," Niki said. "You're my Guardian."
She gave that ugly little laugh again. "Don't insult me, Traveler spawn. I was never dead. I'm not one of your enslaved warriors." She stepped forward, one fist clenched. "Now go."
The ghost disappeared. Lethia watched the spot where he had been to make sure he didn't reappear. Then she returned to the chair. The light spawn better not show up again. Claiming she was a Guardian - he must think she was stupid. What game was he playing?
The minutes became hours. No Taken appeared. By degrees, the terror and stress of the day took its toll. Lethia fell asleep with her head on the windowsill.