Silence was the first thing Elyra noticed. She woke to an unnatural stillness in the safe house, a complete absence of the subtle energy hum that had become as constant as her own heartbeat. Azar was gone. Not just absent, but vanished so completely it felt as if he had never been there at all.
Naira stood in the center of the room, her small hands pressed against her chest as if holding herself together. "He's gone," she whispered, her voice trembling. "The stars... they've gone quiet."
Elyra rushed to the window, her scientific mind already calculating possibilities, but her heart knew the truth. Azar hadn't just left physically; he had withdrawn completely, severing the connection they had all come to rely on. The city outside looked ordinary but felt empty, like a painting whose colors had lost their vibrancy.
For Naira, the loss was catastrophic. First Varos, taken by violence. Now Azar, vanished into silence. She curled into a ball in the corner where Azar usually stood, her body shaking with sobs that seemed too large for her small frame.
"He promised," she cried into her knees. "He promised he wouldn't leave."
Elyra tried to comfort her, but her own hands were shaking. Without Azar, they were vulnerable. Exposed. The protection his presence had provided was gone, and she felt the weight of their situation crashing down upon them.
"He'll come back," Elyra said, trying to sound convincing. "He just needs time."
But Naira shook her head, her eyes wide with a knowledge beyond her years. "No. He's hiding from the noise. From all the people who want to use him. He's... scared."
The realization struck Elyra with surprising force. Azar, the cosmic being who had faced down governments and manipulated reality, was frightened. Not of any physical threat, but of the emotional maelstrom that humanity had become for him.
In his office at JAXA, Tanaka received the news from Orlov personally. The Russian's voice was calm, almost pleased. "The asset has disappeared. Your American and Chinese friends are scrambling, but we have... alternatives."
Tanaka's knuckles turned white as he gripped his desk. "What alternatives?"
"Our tracking systems detected his energy signature before he vanished completely. We know where he went to ground." Orlov paused meaningfully. "And we know how to draw him out."
The implication was clear. Russia had capabilities the others lacked, and they were willing to share them, for a price.
Meanwhile, Sarah Mitchell's approach to Elyra had failed. The American offers of research freedom and protection had been met with silence. Elyra was too preoccupied with Naira's deteriorating condition and Azar's disappearance to consider political maneuvering.
Professor Sato found himself summoned to Tanaka's office, where Orlov stood waiting like a predator.
"Your daughter's university application has been approved," Tanaka said without preamble. "Full scholarship to Cambridge. But we need your help."
Sato's heart sank. "What kind of help?"
Orlov answered instead. "The woman, Elyra. She trusts you. We need you to bring her to us."
Naira's collapse began subtly at first. She stopped eating, speaking only in single words when absolutely necessary. Then the nightmares started, violent, screaming episodes where she called out for both Varos and Azar in the same breath.
"He's coming back for me, isn't he?" she asked Elyra one night, her eyes glassy with fever. "Papa said he'd always come back."
Elyra held her close, feeling the child's small body burning up with stress and grief. "We'll be okay, Naira. We have each other."
But she knew they weren't okay. Without Azar, without Varos, they were two fragile beings in a world that wanted to use them for parts.
The breaking point came when Sato visited, his face pale and hands shaking. "Elyra, you need to come with me. There's been... a development with Azar."
Hope surged in her chest, blinding her to the guilt in his eyes. "Where? Is he okay?"
"Just come quickly," Sato said, avoiding her gaze. "I'll explain everything on the way."
In her desperation, Elyra made the fatal mistake. She left Naira with a neighbor, promising to return soon with news. She followed Sato into the waiting car, her mind so filled with thoughts of Azar that she didn't notice Orlov in the driver's seat until the doors locked.
When Naira realized Elyra wasn't coming back, something in her shattered completely. The careful control she had maintained over her emerging abilities evaporated.
The neighbor found her standing in the middle of the living room, floating several inches above the ground, her hair streaming with invisible energy. All the electronics in the apartment had fused into molten lumps of plastic and metal.
"He took her too," Naira said, her voice echoing with multiple tones. "Everyone I love gets taken away."
Outside, the sky began to darken prematurely as Naira's grief reached out and touched the very atmosphere around them. Streetlights flickered and died for blocks around. Car engines stalled. Communication signals dropped.
The child who had once been the hope for humanity's evolution now stood alone in a circle of destruction, her heart broken one too many times. And in her pain, she began calling out to the only family she had left, the stars themselves, and whatever might be listening in the spaces between them.
The void children, she remembered Azar saying. They were coming. And now, she thought with a terrifying certainty, she would make sure they found what they were looking for.