The Sacred Forest, Kozantei, Fourth Quarter, Andromeda Galaxy.

A chill crept up Mya's neck, she was being watched. Artemisia stiffened beneath her, tail coming around Mya as if to protect her, its blue flame grew brighter and now flickered to life along the entire length of the kyeet's spine. Mya felt no heat from it even though she was seated on her companion's back. Reaching towards her with her gift she felt protect, it came from her in red hot spikes as if she sensed a nearing danger. Mya did too, she'd been focused on the biggest moon that peaked through the heavy canopy above, Xentos. The feeling or wrongness had caught her off guard but now the stillness felt stifling as if it knew of her and did not approve of her presence. She fixed her eyes on the altar below expecting the Horcus to show there. Her mistake.

There was a shift near her, and Artemisia spun to her left – whipping Mya around causing her neck to strain from the change in trajectory – her eyes blazing and mouth opening into a roar. The air around them crackled with a blue electric current and Mya's hair stood on end. Artemisia was ready to attack, a blue flame roared to life between her exposed teeth but Mya pressed a small hand to her neck and pushed, calm. The flame stuttered out, with Artemisia letting loose a harsh breath of smoke that curled into the cool air.

The thing standing before them was one of the Horcus' pets, she'd been warned by Zogan and Nezerra to follow its instructions, the last thing she needed was for Art to hurt it. The thing had pallid grey skin, almost like rotting flesh. It was a little smaller than her on the kyeet, and Mya was grateful, for the size of her new companion. It had two arms and legs both ending with long clawed digits. The eyes on the man-thing were sewn shut with thin streaks of orange paint over them running onto its sunken cheeks. The same orange paint circled its upper arms. It stood before her naked, but Mya could see no genitalia, only a twist of scar tissue that suggested castration. She winced.

As if sensing her focus by some otherworldly ability it turned and walked ahead, a flick of its curled digits indicating that she should follow. She squeezed her thighs slightly urging Artemisia forward, her tail was still wrapped around Mya protectively and she projected unease and worry. Mya rubbed her side tenderly, already growing attached and feeling affection for her. The thing led them deeper into the forest, there was still preternatural quiet around them.

They followed for a long time with Mya once again glad for the blue flames from Art so she could see the grey figure up ahead. It blended in perfectly with the darkness and the tall tree trunks around them. They came upon a cave that rose out of the ground like a waiting maw. It did not blend into the surroundings and seemed to permeate doom and caution to any who dared to enter. Of course, the grey thing walked straight into the entrance, just her luck.

She climbed down from Artemisia who was too big to fit inside and rubbed her head, leaning forward she pressed her forehead to Art's, who huffed a breath and looked into her eyes with piercing clarity as if to tell her to be careful and that she'd be there, waiting for her when she exited. Hopefully, she would leave the cave alive, this was the Horcus after all. It did not bow to anyone's rules but its own. Not even the elder's rules.

The walkway - carved out of the hard rock - was lit by torches along the wall, the only sounds were Mya's footsteps. The thing leading the way did not make a sound. How did it do that? She squinted, trying to get a view of its feet but the floor was too dense with fog. They reached a hollowed out cavernous room. It was dimly lit, and the stench of rot was strongest there. Darkness hugged the room making sight difficult. A shadowy figure stepped forward to meet Mya, who realized then that her beast-guide had disappeared while she'd been trying to look around the room. She was completely alone with this...thing.

"What do we have here?" a voice reached across the room, and echoed. Its voice was as deep as a catacomb. Like the sound of rocks grinding against each other. Mya tried to shove her growing fear down, she still couldn't see what stood before her, but she'd been told what to do. She stooped onto the floor and reached slowly into her bag to retrieve the offering she'd brought.

"Horcus, I've brought offerings." She whispered the words, voice shaking along with her body.

When one visited the Horcus you had to bring it an offering, or else you die. Not a nice quick death either, one that probably consisted of it gnawing on your bones at the end. She placed the wrapped package before her and hastily unwrapped it. A clump of precious stones engraved with an unforgettable moment in her life. She'd chosen her awakening aboard the Evok ship. A soft hiss filled the air, Mya gritted her teeth and kept her gaze fixed on the ground before her. The Horcus had to take her gift before she could look upon it or ask for anything. The parcel dragged away from her as if it were attached to a string.

"You may look upon me..." the voice paused as if considering something, "Amaryah."

Mya started at the sound of her name, but she wasn't truly surprised, the Horcus was unknowable. It took whatever form it pleased and according to Zogan, it was older than their planet and no one knew of its origins.

"Earth child, why have you come to me?"

Mya stood up slowly and gasped, the Horcus was shaped as a small woman, hunched over, and clutching a long-curved staff. A staff that was wrapped in ...skins. Mya shuddered. "I was sent to complete my trials, great one."

The Horcus-woman smiled, rotted dagger like teeth lining its mouth. One of its hands was clawed and scaled, a knotted mess of black hair hung around her face and all Mya could see was a hooked nose, and glowing white eyes surrounded by a violent stroke of red paint. It was clothed in a deep red dress that sloped off its hunched shoulders and a heavy gold chain hung around its narrow neck.

Mya blinked and the Horcus was suddenly right before her. Mya's back went ramrod straight – she was actively resisting the urge to flee. She was here to complete her training, not knowing exactly what to expect from the Horcus but knowing that whatever it presented to her or proposed to her had to be overcome. She had to succeed. She would succeed.

"A human girl to be a Kozan warrior?" the Horcus smiled again, eyes glowing brighter, "How intriguing."

It slowly circled Mya who stood with clenched fists and a rapidly increasing heartbeat. The atmosphere was so thick, so full of otherworldly power and malice that Mya was once again dumbfounded by her insignificance within the universe. She felt like prey that was about to be trapped and feasted on for the Horcus' enjoyment.

"What are you afraid of girl?"

The unnatural woman still wound around Mya, looking intensely at her as if it could see her soul, the very molecules that made her, the thoughts running through her mind. She felt naked, exposed, stripped of all that she was under the gaze of the Horcus.

Mya lifted her chin and swallowed, "Nothing." Her voice was a soft whisper, but it echoed in the room.

The Horcus angled her head in such a way that chills ran down Mya's spine, "You lie."

It came to a stop before her, almost three heads taller than her and gazed down into her eyes. Mya's muscles weakened and she slumped to her knees, trying to stand again she realized her body was no longer her own. She could only gaze up into the milky eyes that held her captive as she felt the Horcus' dark presence within her mind, searching and seeing her most private thoughts. She felt invaded, the Horcus' parasitic claws raked across her hidden dreams and fears bringing them to the surface. A small whimper escaped her lips. Mya was plunged into darkness, darkness so vast and deep that she could not feel herself. She panicked. Lights began to flicker around her.

She was in a room, a spark of familiarity shot through her, but she still could not feel her body or see it. A warm rectangular room, decorated with hologram screens that blasted a news feed channel and a bed with a huddled figure on it. Bright green plants hung from the roof, giving the room an almost tropical feel. The huddled figure groaned and clenched into a smaller ball of misery. Dread settled into Mya's stomach as she realized what she was about to see.

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A younger her walked into the room, clutched between her eighteen-year-old hands was a large bouquet of blue orchids. Her mother's favorite flowers. Mya'd picked them up from a shop on her way home from her combat lessons. She walked toward the bed and gingerly placed the bouquet on a small nearby glass table, the now empty bottle of pills on it caught her eye. Her face twisted in fear, she sat and pulled down the covers to see her mother sweating furiously, eyes glazed as if she were unaware of anything around her.

"Mom..." she said stroking her hand across her mother's coarse curls, copper colored just like Mya's. Her mother shivered clutching the covers back to her body. "Did you finish the pills today?"

There was no response, her mother had retreated to wherever she went when the pain was too great for her body to bear. Mya ran frustrated hands through her loose hair. She needed to find a way to get more pills, they were only available on the black market. The cursed pills were the only means through which her mother had been able to maintain working for as long as she had while being sick. They could not go to the medical bay. People who went in and were not of the upper levels had a way of disappearing if they didn't have the right name or the right number of credits. Which they did not. Her mother had worked herself to the bone to ensure that they were given a place on level three, the lower middle class. The system would not be kind to them. No, she'd have to find a way to contact Shadow. He was her link to the underground market where anything could be attained if the buyer had the credits. Mya had to be careful who she talked to though, even in the underground where many illegal things were done, the credits given by the Cleanser bot program was a big temptation, any desperate person could whisper her mother's name and be paid handsomely.

The wheezing breath of her mother brought her out of her racing thoughts, Mya clasped a water bottle and held it up to her cracked lips. Her heart broke as her mother took small sips; it was all that she could manage in her diminished state. The need to scream her agony and pain at the injustice that had been done to her mother welled up inside her. That damned engineering plant that didn't care for their workers, sending them out into the gods forsaken lands outside the dome. She wanted to make them pay for the pain that they'd caused for both her and thousands of other lower-class families. But first she had to see about mother's needs.

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Mya looked on from her shadowed place, it was as if she were seeing her life through someone else's eyes. She knew what was about to happen, but her eyes refused to obey her command to shut against the vision. She was still held firmly in the Horcus' formidable power. Terror and grief billowed through her, and in her state, she could see it tinge the blackened air around her. A red cloying energy.

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Young Mya made to lie down next to her mother, gathering her to her chest as if the roles were reversed and she was in fact the child. She'd shrunk so much from her sickness, as if a poison were eating her from the inside, using every resource that was once provided by her body. Tears slid down Mya's face as she held her mother. The only family that she had, the only one who cared for her, the only one that she loved or ever would. It was supposed to be them against the world. Her mother's hands tightened marginally over her daughter's. Both of them fell into a sleep, her mother's plagued with fevered dreams and Mya's filled with memories of her once healthy mother.

A strange whirring filled their apartment, accompanied by a scent that Mya was not yet accustomed to, as sheltered as her mother had kept her. It was cloying, medicinal and reminded her of unpleasant things. She slowly opened her eyes to see two figures before her, one a middle-aged woman, clad in a black power business suit and the other ... skeletal and with a metal head. Cleanser. The thought clanged through her and she sprang from the bed putting herself firmly between them and her mother who was still asleep on the bed.

"P-please!" Mya began but the woman who held a transparent net pad in her hand tutted at her, giving her a sympathetic look. Anger coiled into Mya's limbs, she wanted to wipe the look off the woman's face. The cleanser stood near to the woman, motionless as if waiting for a signal.

"Are you Amaryah Quinn, daughter of Shirina Quinn?" the woman's voice was clipped, no emotion conveyed, as if this despicable thing she was about to do were an everyday occurrence. Mya bit her lip, fists clenched tightly, "Yes."

She was trying to figure out how to save her mother. Sure, people did not escape from cleansers, but there was always a first, and she would do it. The woman clicked away on her net pad. Mya tensed. The woman's emotions reached her, they were slimy with distaste as if Mya and her mother were not humans but animals that she would rather not have to deal with.

"Alright, let's get this over with, you know why we're here."

She snapped her fingers and three things happened at once. The cleanser started forward, its skeletal body moving quickly towards her mother. The woman turned her back to leave the room without a backward glance confident that the matter would be dealt with easily and Mya... Mya who was closest to her grabbed her from behind and using her shoulder as a lever heaved her into the cleanser with a body throw. She was not one of the best in her mixed martial arts classes for nothing.

The woman screamed and writhed on top of the cleanser as she struggled to stand, collapsing over and over again as she tried to put her feet under her. The cleanser pushed her off - not gently - and sprang up. The lights on its metallic hammer head blinking fiercely as it began to track Mya.

Her mother was in her arms. Holding onto her tightly she noticed her mom's eyes were clear for once as if she knew everything that was happening around her. Mya's breathing came harshly as she ran from the room, stopping to pick up escape bags that she'd pack for moments like this. She'd lived in fear of this exact thing happening and had prepared as much as she could.

In the living room area stood another cleanser who was now advancing towards her, she clutched her mother tightly who murmured something under her breath. Mya could not hear her words. She glanced sharply towards the exit; it was strategically blocked by the second cleanser.

"Fuck."

A weight hit her from the side and she fell to the floor thrown off balance from the impact and her mother's form in her arms. She twisted at the last moment to prevent her mother from hitting the floor. The impact jarred her bones. Lying in a heap on the floor, she finally heard the words her mother had been trying to tell her.

"Run!"

She looked down at her mother then, their eyes locked.

Her mother, grip stronger than Mya'd ever felt before, grasped her hand and she shook her head. "They will kill you for this, leave... me."

Her words were choppy with struggling breaths.

"No, No, No!" Mya whispered tightening her grip on her mother. Her one and only.

She would get them out or they would die together. She could not live without her mother by her side.

Struggling to get up she made towards the exit trying to use surprise to her advantage, but the cleansers were ready. She was gripped sharply from behind, pulled off her feet, a bony but brutally strong arm wrapped around her throat. She could feel the ribs and unnaturally cool flesh of the cleanser behind her. Mya started to scream and thrash – grasping the now empty air in front of her - when her mother wiggled out of her arms and was seized by the other one. She twisted and bucked, using her nails, feet, head... nothing worked. The cleanser started to squeeze her throat, pain bloomed behind her eyes and she scratched at its arm struggling to regain her breath.

The woman entered the living room then and shot her a murderous glare, seeing the cleanser bot squeezing the life out of Mya she grinned, her teeth colored with the blood she'd coughed up from Mya's throw. She would not call off the cleanser to save Mya.

Mya's eyes were on her mother who was thrown unceremoniously over cleanser number two's shoulder. Her mother, who looked at her once more and smiled, a clear smile, a smile that conveyed so much love and devotion that something within Mya broke.

RUN.

Reaching back, she pulled at the tubing connecting the cleansers head to its body, wrenching it from its socket, the arm around her throat dropped away and wheezing filled the room. She dropped to the floor and made to sprint for her mother, but the cleanser dragged her back and flipped her over, a wail of rage on her lips. The cleanser climbed over her mounting her, using its knees to sink her arms into the floor. Mya's legs found no purchase on its skeletal back. Two needle like claws protruded from a pair of its fingers. This was it; she was going to die.