One day, a new Shadowrunner was summoned during a meeting with Miphana, one she hadn’t seen before. 

“Mother,” the boy called, hinting a questioning tone as she felt his gaze drift to her at times, as if he was interested in what she could be. “Is this the person you wanted me to adopt?” he asked, Nayrorei flinched at the unknown word, hearing Miphana step down from her seat to make her way towards them. 

“Yes. From now on, you will be her brother,” she said, “she is the 7th Lightrunner, it can be quite lonely without a sibling - as you had lost yours, I just thought you two could get along.” Her soft voice caressed Nayrorei’s ears to comfort her speeding heart when she heard ‘brother’. She feels Miphana’s hand stroke her cheek, as she looks up to see her give a heartwarming smile. 

“You’ll be safe with him, Little Light.” She strokes her thumb on her cheek, gently leading Nayrorei’s head to come closer to hers as their foreheads meet. Her nose prods Nayrorei’s as they both close their eyes.

And safe she was, until the times she’s alone with Pharys. Her adopted brother, Dante, wasn’t allowed near the Warzone brigade as he worked for Miphana’s faction - Kon Pha’ara. Nakorand took up most of Nayrorei’s time, so once her job was done - that’s when she could return to him…

Which wasn’t very often.

Miphana wasn’t able to protect her, never leaving her quarters due to the threat hovering over her; her quarters are what keeps her and this Domain safe. She was on her own, she could never pick a fight with a Voidrunner. 

Definitely not with ‘Father.’

Now that she looks back at it, she sees it as abuse - verbal and physical abuse to be exact. But if she was to think about this at that time, she would think that she deserved every single bit of it. 

Nayrorei was sure some of the other Voidrunners were disgusted by the way Pharys treated her out in public, but none of them ever did anything to stop him. Except one day, when Azure scoffed in his disgust when Pharys had physically mocked her in front of his Voidrunner brigade. 

Azure, out of all people, stood up to Pharys to protect her. 

Pharys wanted to force more energy into her to heal the few bunch of Voidrunners left but Azure grabbed his hand to forcefully make him face him straightforwardly. 

She felt the gravity near them become significantly heavier, before Pharys just yanked his hand away and walked off with an annoyed huff. 

She wanted to thank him, but her words never came out, she couldn’t talk to him, Pharys would get mad. She wanted to ask why he would stick up for her? She’s just a lowly Lightrunner, but even as Pharys walked away to bring the Shadowrunners of the brigade to the meeting point they resided at, she couldn’t utter a single word to him.

She doesn’t deserve to talk to him…

Her thoughts are interrupted as Azure yelled to his fellow Voidrunners in anger, “REALLY!? Not a single-fucking-one of you?!” he scoffed. He visibly glared at Cloud, as if he was showing his major disgust and disappointment at the lot of them that stood by him. Azure’s aura was spiking a lot, which intimidated Nayrorei a bit, but she didn’t want to seem crazy as she knew she was the only one who could see auras of living things around her.

“Oh no, I get it. So we allow that clown to bully anyone he feels like?” he sarcastically snarled, “sure, you all keep on being ignorant shit-holes, don’t mind me who actually has a brain not to bully the Lightrunners like they’re some tools for us to use!” and with that, everyone looked among each other and Azure went quiet. 

He sighed, turning back to Nayrorei, “are you okay?” He asked softly, she felt like crying right then and there. All she could muster was nod, bowing a bit as a way to say thank you without speaking. 

She never saw him smile before, but as he huffed a small chuckle before heading back to his group, she did feel a tear drip down her cheeks.

He never questioned why she was covered, why she wasn’t allowed to talk - it was as if he respected that she might get in trouble because of it. The others would always tease her by trying to rip the clothing off her but Azure, Cloud, Keyoji or Keishou would simply thank her for everything. 

Most of the time it was Keyoji who'd stick up for her when her fellow Shadowrunners would try to take Nayrorei's cloak off as a joke. They would always come back injured of some sort and Keyoji would always get lectured by Pharys for hours. 

So you could imagine her worry when one day, only Cloud, Keyoji and Keishou turned up for the brigade meeting at the end of a mission. She did want to ask where Azure was, she really did, but again her voice was taken away by her fear of Pharys. 

And it wasn’t like Pharys cared that Azure was missing… Not even Cloud seemed to bother.

Keyoji and Keishou were forced to lead their Shadowrunner groups back to Homeland, so it wasn’t like they had the time to look for him either.

But her eyes… She was able to see those who she knows’ aura from a great distance, allowing her to see a familiar aura slowly drifting away in a mile radius from her.

She could only imagine the worst. 

She turned and ran as fast as she could to that dying aura. She ran and ran, sometimes shifting into her fox form to gain extra speed through the rough terrain. As she got closer and closer, the aura drifted further and further, as if it was a candle flame slowly dying out. 

When she finds it up personally, fear bolts through her like a lightning strike shocking her whole being. 

There lies a chipped blue crystal, glowing faintly and dying; the same type of blue Azure shared.

Before she even knew it herself, her body acted, she quickly scooped up the crystal and all the shattered pieces she could find. She held it close to her chest and ran back to the portal back home as fast as she could, trying her best to focus all her healing powers to keep that faint glow from stopping completely. 

As she returned from the other side of the portal, she continued her pace to the one place she truly felt safe. She bursted through the door, screaming out for Miphana to help, Miphana takes a moment to analyse the situation before she also bolted over to help her. 

Unlike Pharys, Miphana’s energy share was soft and gentle, letting Nayrorei sit on her lap as Miphana comfortingly hugged around her - humming a soothing lullaby to calm Nayrorei’s racing heart and panicked state down. Nayrorei held the blue crystal close to her chest to transfer the energy Miphana sent through her to it. Sometimes Nayrorei would fall asleep from constantly being drained of her own energy, but Miphana would continue soothing her, stroking her hair and supporting her energy transfer. 

A few days later, the crystal reformed again, and to Nayrorei’s mixed feelings about it, she didn’t know how to react. Azure was reformed, but empty. Azure was in his humanoid form once again, but he never responded to anything, his eyes were dulled and it was as if he was just an empty rag doll. 

A mindless, damaged, rag doll.