After some hesitation, Asher decided to ask his mom about Phalaris. His mom was half demon so surely, she'd know more about cognivores. He still felt a bit of resentment about being kicked out, but she ended up divorcing his father over it, so she at least was on his side. He just wished it happened before he ended up on the streets.

"Hey, mom? It's me." Asher said quietly.

"Ash? You should really call home more often." She said. "It's been pretty quiet here lately."

"Yeah... I know." Asher whispered.

“How's my baby girl?” She asked.

"I’m a guy now, mom.” Asher reminded her. He didn’t blame her for forgetting, it was only mentioned in passing and this was the first time he’d contacted her in the past few years.

“Oh right. How’s my baby boy?” She swiftly corrected her statement.

“I’ve been… okay lately. I've been seeing this guy, but he's uhh… got some problems. I actually wanted to ask you about it.” Asher replied.

"What kind of problems?" She asked.

"Do you remember those things out in the woods?" Asher asked.

"Oh, don't tell me you're dating one of those. You have too much human blood, that's dangerous!" She warned him.

"No, no! The guy I'm dating is something else. But he's being uhh... stalked by one of them and it's really messing him up." Asher explained.

"Well, that doesn't make sense. If he was a human, he'd be brain dead, and they don't really prey on anything else.” She said. "Hmm... Do you have any idea what your boyfriend is?"

"He's a shadow. He's got some memory problems on top of it all. The whole situation has gotten kinda messy." Asher said, "I'm really not sure what to do."

"Really? They haven't really left seclusion up in the North since the war though." She speculated. "Even if it is true, cognivores are just bugs. I can't imagine a shadow having trouble with one of them. Are you sure that it's not a demon?”

“I saw it myself. It's definitely one of those things.” Asher said then thought a bit about the situation. “But there is one thing… I know cognivores sometimes lure out humans, but do they normally have human forms of their own?”

"No, they usually use illusions, if that’s the case they might be working with a demon. I can look into whether anyone had affiliations with cognivores.” She said. “It shouldn't be too hard to track.”

“I’ll call you up if I manage to figure out anything else on my end. Thanks mom.” Asher said.

“You should still be careful, Ash, if that thing starts coming after you, you might have a problem.” She warned, “Is it really worth sticking around for this one guy?”

“I love him. I couldn’t possibly leave him to that thing.” Asher smiled somberly resting his fingers on the edge of his collar.

“Always keep your knife on hand to protect yourself,” She added.

“I always do… I’ll talk to you soon, love you, bye.” Asher ended the call.

Orion suddenly hugged Asher from behind. “Who was that?”

“Just my mom, what are you doing home?” Asher said perhaps more confused that he managed to make it home without getting lost or wandering in circles again.

“I didn’t think you were on speaking terms.” Orion said. “I’m home early because I… may have caused damage to the laboratory.”

“Oh god what did you do?” Asher asked he tried to look at Orion, but something was obscuring his peripherals.

“I left something on the heater too long and it caused a moderately sized explosion.” He laughed nervously.

“Shit, are you ok?” Asher quickly turned to look at him.

The majority of Orion’s face looked normal but outside whatever face shield he must've been wearing and on different parts of his body was a number of sections covered in shadowy tendrils. Some of the sections didn’t really look like the kind of injuries from an explosion. It seemed more like a fight happened first and then the explosion.

“I’m alright. It doesn’t hurt much.” He said.

“I don’t believe that at all.” Asher took a closer look at the shadows coming from his wounds. Instead of blood it was just small shadowy masses wrapping the injuries like a makeshift band aid. “Why does it look like that?”

“My regeneration hasn't been very good since the project started. It’ll take a bit longer to heal than it should, but I’ll recover just fine.” He explained then grabbed a blanket off the sofa, “I’m going to go up on the rooftop to stargaze.”

“Shouldn't you be resting? It's cold out.” Asher asked.

“I’ll heal slower if I don't.” Orion said matter-of-factly.

“Why?” Asher raised an eyebrow.

“Light source stuff. If I don't do this every once in a while, I’ll get sick anyway.” Orion continued to speak like it was supposed to be obvious information as he started toward the rooftop.

“More than you are already?” Asher followed behind, mostly worried he might fall down the stairs.

“I guess? I start feeling really gross when I haven't been in contact with my light source. Going feral isn't really ideal in this situation.” Orion shrugged wrapping the blanket around himself and opening the door to the rooftop.

“Light source? What do you mean feral?” Asher asked.

“Shadows get energy from their light source, if they run out of energy they go feral. It’s not something I want to experience ever again if I can help it.” Orion sat down on the roof and looked up at the sky.

Asher sat down next to him and looked over at Orion only to find small lights floating around him. Orion tried to swat them away, but they didn't stop gathering around him.

“What's all of that about? Are these souls?” Asher tried to touch one, but it fled to Orion's side before he had the chance.

“Oh, I guess I’m dying a bit.” Orion sighed.

“You're what?” Asher spat out.

“I can't actually die but I got a little too close to being dead. So, my soul is giving off celestial energy. Things like this are attracted to it.” He sighed.

“Not dimensional energy?” Asher asked.

“The dimensional strata is interconnected by souls moving through them, most souls push the flow within a dimension while cogs push forward the flow between them. So, the energy they generate in the process of death is different.” Orion explained.

“So, you're a cog then.” Asher said.

“I was born for that purpose. Sometime in the distant future my death will connect what remains of our dimension to the next sector over, given we all make it that far.” Orion continued.

“You said you can't die. So why is your death so important?” Asher asked.

“Despite some setbacks, I have reached a certain level of maturity for a shadow. Any sort of severe damage to my core would only make me go dormant. But shadows still age technically, and at some point I will reach the end of my life.” He explained. “As long as the project is finished, even going dormant would only be a minor hindrance.”

“So, what you're saying is, it doesn't matter what happens to you.” Asher glared at him.

“Uhh, yeah?” He responded.

Asher bit Orion’s ear.

“Ouch. Hey- let go.” Orion yelped.

“You're an idiot Orion.” Asher said.

“I never claimed to be smart.” He retorted.

“What happens to you does matter. Even if it doesn’t matter to anyone else, even if it doesn't matter to you. It matters to me.” Asher asserted.

“Did you have to bite me?” Orion rubbed his ear, “Come on, I’m already injured.”

“Yes, you never seem to learn otherwise.” Asher teased.

“So… Do you even care for this stuff? Stargazing? Or is it just a chore for you?” Asher asked sitting down next to him.

“I did enjoy it at some point but now looking at the sky just fills me with dread for what’s to come.” Orion stated.

“You sure do have a habit of talking like I already know everything.” Asher wrapped his arm around Orion.

“Right. Well… The end of the world is drawing near, from the edges of the universe. It's starting to become visible even from here, if you had a telescope you might be able to see it. Do you know anything about extraterrestrials?” Orion started.

“Like aliens? You believe in aliens?” Asher questioned.

“Believe in? I technically am one, you know the moons right?” Orion asked.

“I dropped out of college not elementary school.” Asher grimaced.

“Lucid is visible tonight, right?” Orion looked around for a moment.

“Yeah, just look its over there.” Asher pointed it out.

“People from Lucid are called Lucidians. You know of them, they aren't just named after Lucid they're actually from there.” He explained. “I was raised there when I was younger so technically, I’m also a Lucidian.”

“I didn't know Lucidians were actually from the moon. Lucid… How much different is it from here?” Asher asked.

“Extremely different, they have much more advanced technology than the humans. Since technically they are themselves technology.” Orion explained.

“So, all those weird gadgets you have are from them?” Asher asked.

“Kinda. It’s made using Lucidian technology. But it wasn't designed by them. A lot of it was designed by Spectra.” Orion stared blankly into the sky.

“Do you miss being on the moon?” Asher asked.

“No. Not anymore. The moon has shitty political factions. And apparently a lot of them hate me.” Orion sighed.

“Moon politics… sounds rough. You have that anywhere I guess.” Asher nodded.

“So, another thing is that they like sometimes live in another dimension that overlaps this one and switch between them.” Orion held his hands up as if he was trying to express something.

“I can see you're not lying but this is starting to sound fake.” Asher chuckled.

“Yeah, it's weird. But just like we need the Facility Project completed for people to go to be protected from the distortion, they too need their dimension. A lot of Lucidians don’t have physical forms outside that space. It's really complicated but that’s the gist of it.” He continued.

“So why do they hate you?” Asher asked.

“I don't know. I nearly died for those bastards to be able to save their kind from the apocalypse. I ended up sacrificing so much of myself. Thinking, if anyone should survive maybe it should be them. I thought they would act in turn here on Earth in my absence.” He sighed deeply, “But they just up and went ‘fuck you, I got mine’ and stabbed me in the back on top of it all.”

“You seem to have a long history of being betrayed.” Asher said.

“You're telling me, it’s always something. It’s my own fault for being overconfident and thinking I can handle the consequences when it happens.” He said. “Hell, you might even be the next one to screw me over, but I don’t think I'd mind it. Not if it's you.”

“That's a really fucked up way to say you love me. I’m not going to do that, you idiot.” Asher kissed Orion's cheek, “I may not have latched onto you with the best intentions initially, but I really care for you.”

“I know, it’s just hard for me to make myself believe that sometimes.” He replied.