“This world has stagnated, Emir.Humans arrive and vanish in waves. History shifts. Conflicts rise and fall. Societies reinvent themselves. Even the people change.
But the roles — the roles of humanity — never do.
And that is why we will bring that thing down into this world.
To assume its role.”— Kelane Masistar to the Prince of Princes, during the Sakriyan War
They say the odds of a missing person returning alive drop significantly after the first forty-eight hours.
Solaeo has been missing for over three weeks.
This is the seventh neighborhood we've searched. Milo's breathing grows heavier with every poster he staples to another utility pole, but he never slows down. None of us say anything. We just keep walking.
Part of me wants to stop.
To let go.
To finally mourn Solaeo.
As long as I keep searching, I can't. Hope won't let me.
"Jaggy... enough. He's..."
The words catch in my throat.
If I say them out loud, they'll become real.
Jaggy keeps walking, pressing flyers into the hands of strangers who barely spare us a glance. He heard me. I know he did. He just doesn't stop, and he doesn't look back.
Normally, Jaggy can't stand it when I let a sentence trail off. I used to do it on purpose, just to get under his skin — his curiosity never let an unfinished thought go.
Today, he doesn't ask me to finish it.
He already knows.
Out of me, Milo, Leo, and Solaeo, Jaggy was always the biggest by far. Broad shoulders. Hands like cinder blocks. The kind of build that made people move out of his way without thinking about it.
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He was also the most soft-spoken of us.
The kind of person people meant when they said gentle giant.
"Alex..."
His voice is barely above a whisper.
"I wouldn't think any less of you if you stopped searching."
He picks his next words carefully.
"Knowing you, you've probably gone back and forth on this a hundred times already. If you truly believed there wasn't even the smallest chance he was alive..."
A slow exhale.
"...you wouldn't still be here."
"I can't fault you for that, bro."
He means it.
Maybe that's why he won't look back at me. Maybe seeing my face would crack something in his own conviction.
"But I'm delusional, Alex."
A laugh escapes him — faint, humorless.
"I won't believe he's dead until I see his body."
He stops walking. First time all day.
"Until then..."
He swallows.
"...he's only missing."
His grip tightens around the stack of flyers.
"Until then, I'm not stopping."
He looks up at another bare utility pole and pulls out his stapler.
"You remember what Solaeo meant to this town."
"What he meant to us."
"What he could've meant to the world, if he'd ever gotten the chance to realize his potential."
"He was the kindest person I've ever known."
"The purest."
"He deserves at least this much."
Jaggy presses another poster against the pole.
The first staple echoes through the empty street.
Then the second.
Without another word, he starts walking again.
I take the 32 home — the last bus of the night. Usually that wouldn't matter. Solaeo used to ride it with me. He lived with me.
Somewhere in his childhood, he'd been abandoned. My father took him in, let him stay with us. Even within the group, Solaeo, Leo, and I were the inseparable three.
I walk in to cup noodles scattered across the floor, a pile of clothes dumped on the couch. Everything's a mess.
I'm a mess.
There's an envelope wedged between my feet — the mailman must've slipped it under the door. From the school. They've been trying to reach me for three weeks. I haven't gone since. Given my absences, I won't graduate if I miss any more.
School is the last thing on my mind.
Maybe I should visit my father. He always understood how I was feeling, even when I never said a word. But I could never understand him. Not how he feels. Not how he acts. Not even why.
The next morning, I walk into class and my mood lifts — everyone's here. Then it drops just as fast when I see Solaeo's empty chair, at the back of the room, where it's been for three weeks.
I take my seat next to Leo. I haven't really seen him in a while. He looks pale. Sickly. Like the whole thing has been sitting on his chest and hasn't let up.
"You good, Leo?"
"Never been better." He says it with half a smile, then turns back to his notes.
The teacher walks in and starts attendance. As she works down the list, Leo's watching her too closely — like he's bracing for something. When she calls his name, he answers fast. Too fast.
She reads through the rest, and then she reaches Solaeo's name and stops. Looks down. Says a quiet prayer, almost under her breath, that he comes home.
Leo looks at her. Then at me.
"Alex, I don't know—"
"Don't know what, Leo?"
"I don't know what the hell is going on." His voice is already shaking. "You're my best friend. There's no one else I can even bring this to." A breath. "I think I need help. I th— I think... I think I'm going crazy."
"I get it, Leo. Honestly, with everything that's happened, sometimes I feel the same way."
"NO." Loud enough that half the room turns. "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. YOU DON'T GET IT."
He notices the room looking. Forces his voice back down, barely.
"Alex." His eyes are wide, pleading. "Who is Solaeo?"