For some reason, Venus hadn't gotten the hint. She still wanted us to come to dinner with her. So, we were forced to sit with her every night.

"You have been studying a lot," Venus said.

"Yeah, we're trying to figure out how we get the fuck out of here," Astral replied with a fake glee, smiling sarcastically at her.

Venus sighed and turned to me. "How about you Mars? Studying something fun?"

"How to make acid to melt these chains," I muttered without looking up from my plate.

"Ah," she replied and I heard a soft bump against the backrest of her chair. I glanced up to find her looking a little deflated. "You both want to leave that badly?"

"Take the chains off and find out," Astral growled and held his wrists out towards her.

And that's when things started happening very fast. One second there was a chain around Astral's right wrist and then there was a bronze arrow embedded into the table, having cut the chain right off and fastening it to the table as well.

I stared at it for a good while before turning towards the direction of the arrow. In one of the windows was a person in a cloak with a golden bow. Keefe removed the hood from his cloak, jumping down from the windowsill, and pulling the bow once again. A golden arrow appeared this time.

"Release my friends," he said with an almost polite tone.

Venus seemed entirely dumbfounded but then she snapped out of it. She almost sprung to her feet and summoned something very black with purple lightning surrounding it. She threw the black ball after the elf, but he dodged it gracefully by simply rolling to the side in the air. He looked more like a dancer than a warrior in that moment and I watched him move through the space with awe.

He tightened the bow once again, releasing a golden arrow, hitting Venus in the shoulder. She cried out and threw out her hand, the table flying directly towards Keefe. It never made it far as it burnt into a crisp in seconds.

Astral appeared from behind the smoke, his freed hand encased in green fire. "We're leaving with our friend."

"You're going nowhere!" Venus screamed, her perfect hair for once not so perfect.

Zeke popped up out of nowhere next to me grabbing my hand. "We gotta go. Let the magical freaks take this one."

I was about to cry, and I wanted to hug her so bad, but there was no time. Servants streamed into the room from the two doors on the side of the room.

"I guess that would've been too easy," she growled and held her hands out. Lightning sprung out of her hands, hitting the servants. But they were all mages as well and recovered too fast. One summoned a golden shield and spear, throwing the spear towards us. An arrow flew through the air hitting the spear off course. It landed on the floor with a clatter before disintegrating again.

Pain sliced through me as the necklace and bracelets burnt through my barely healed skin. I couldn't hold back a loud whimper.

It brought Keefe to my side. He forcefully grabbed my arms, getting me to hold them out from my body. He held an arrow in his hand and cut the bracelets off with it.

"The necklace," I cried and grabbed it, burning my fingers.

I didn't understand what he said but I was sure he was cursing as he cut the silver. Relief washed over me as I got the burning metal unstuck from the back of my neck.

I looked up to find Astral desperately trying to burn down the castle while also dodging Venus' attacks. One of the black balls hit him square in the face, and it was as if it sucked something out of him. Black clouds sprang from his right eye before he managed to block the spell. His eye was back to normal. Venus was trying to recanter her gift.

Astral screamed in a way I had never heard before. Pain sliced through me hearing it.

I didn't even think. I started towards her grabbed her and turned her towards me. Rage was the only feeling I had in me. She had hurt Astral. She had hurt the one person that could not be touched in my world.

"Stars explode," I said, circling my arms around her and opening up for the white. The white that encased me every time I died. It wasn't a stage before the afterlife. It was the inside of an exploding star. And I had that within me all these years. I had no idea how it all clicked for me in that moment, but I couldn't have chosen a better moment. The words: Deux ex Machina, kept going through my head and I knew I had read about it somewhere. Both as a plot device for fiction novels, but also as a last resort within magical theories. When you push a mage enough, they'll harness all their power in order to either protect themselves, which is the most likely situation, or for the ones they love.

Seeing Astral getting hurt was too much for me. It had always been him. He had always been the one person for me. My entire world so if this was to happen for anyone, it was of course him.

I smiled as I died for the fifth time in my life. For once my death wasn't an accident or something stupid. This was meaningful and I didn't mind giving it up for him.

When the white encased me this time I wasn't as afraid as I had been before. I knew things now. As if I had unlocked some kind of forgotten knowledge. It was as if I had always known, but it had been just outside my reach. As if I had forgotten it but it had always rested right on the tip of my tongue.

Venus hadn't lied about the whole star-child thing. And deep down I knew that. I had known it the first time someone called me 'star-child'. It was just easier being cursed than a whole different species. I liked fitting in. I liked disappearing in crowds, which was something I was very seldomly awarded, looking like I did and being as tall as I was. I was odd-looking and I had always been. Anonymity was never something for someone like me.

I smiled a little. I didn't mind too much after Astral had started calling me beautiful. He had instilled so much confidence in me. Helped me build it properly from within. It wasn't like he had saved me from myself, but he had supported me for so many years, without really doing that much. He'd just notice when I did something different with my hair. He'd tell me he loved when I looked confident. Subtly encourage me to find my own way. I mean, he had even supported me through figuring out what I was when I was no longer a boy. Or when I could no longer pretend to be a boy.

"He's a nice boy, that Astral," someone said, slicing right through the otherwise pleasant silence.

I didn't even realise I had a body before I turned towards the voice. Sometimes I'd be aware of myself after death, but sometimes I wouldn't. It was hard to explain.

Mercury smiled, her hands clasped in front of her. "Surprised to see me?"

I nodded, stunned to silence.

"I'm the first you've connected with, huh?"

I shrugged. "I-uh... I don't know?"

"We can connect with each other and support each other through our deaths. Makes dying a little easier. And since we don't have to follow the rules of this earth when it comes to life, why should we follow it when it comes to death? This place doesn't have to be lonely for us."

"So... Because we're the same, we can... Go to each other's white spaces when one of us dies?" I asked and scratched my head.

"Yes." She smiled very brightly. "I'm sorry for sending you to Venus. I knew she'd be difficult, but I also thought you needed answers."

"I did..." I muttered.

"And Astral needed a way to be with you forever."

I nodded again and then rubbed the back of my neck. "Yes. I don't blame you. We were stupid and naïve."

"Everyone's stupid and naïve. What makes us less stupid and naïve is simply living. When you live, you learn. Now you know no favour goes unpaid. Nothing in this world is free."

"You don't say," I muttered and plopped down on what would be the ground, but I reckoned it was simply the bottom of the endless white.

Mercury came over and sat down next to me. She was dressed in the robes from the temple, whereas I was wearing what I had been wearing when I died. It was odd, I didn't realise I was wearing clothes, or I had a body at the very beginning. The longer I stayed here, the longer I become an actual person. Or something like that.

"Did it hurt this time?" she asked then.

"No, I exploded."

"Ah, and now you know why I've died so many times," she snorted. "I've got a temper."

"Why didn't you tell me we had powers?"

"You were at the temple for a very short time. You didn't really let me explain anything before you were out of there." She sent me a saying look and I swallowed something.

"I guess I have a habit of running away from what makes me uncomfortable."

"It's not an entirely irrational behaviour." She shrugged a shoulder. "Why be in discomfort? Who wants that? But sometimes we have to, if we want the truth. The truth is often uncomfortable."

"Venus said the truth was more fun."

"That's because she enjoys torturing people. She knows many truths but not the only ones. She knew Astral wanted immortality, but she didn't know he wanted it for you, rather than himself. She expected him to be another arrogant mage wanting eternal life."

"He is arrogant."

"Yes. But can you see what I mean? There's more to the truth than what we sometimes can see. Astral is an arrogant mage who wanted eternal life – but he wanted it so you wouldn't have to be alone after his death."

"There's more layers to the truth," I said and frowned. "So, there's more layers to her having made us?"

Mercury shrugged. "I don't know. But I know Venus is one-dimensional. Very black and white. She doesn't see grey tones and she'll alter truths, so they fit her narrative, without being downright lies. She'll omit the parts she doesn't like."

I nodded again and sighed. "I've got to go now."

"You do. You have a family to care for." She smiled and the white became too bright for me to see anything anymore. The sensation of having a body disappeared and was replaced with pain. Searing pain.