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It didn’t take long for Axiolis to show up, nor did it take long for Octavia to start laying into him.

“Axiolis, you old secret-keeper! What’s the matter with you?! How have you not been talking Zeff’s ear off about this whole astero situation with our new friend?! I know you must have some rather strong opinions about it, and yet Zeff tells me you’ve said ‘surprisingly little’ about the matter! Explain yourself!”

‘I’m glad to see you so spirited, Octavia.’

“Oh, thank you, darling. You know me. Can’t keep me down for long.”

‘Heh.’

“Now answer my damn questions.”

But apparently, the reaper was not going to be rushed. He took his time as he circled around the two of them, perhaps mulling over his next words. ‘...Could you ask something more specific? What exactly is it that you want me to tell you?’

“Hmph. Well, to begin with, how about the precedent for this whole thing? You must have seen countless asteros over the course of your life. Have you ever encountered a more extreme case than this one?”

‘...Not more extreme, no. But comparable, at least.’

Zeff perked up at that. “You never mentioned that.”

‘Mm. While I can understand your fascination with the subject, I am also... not so interested in discussing them anymore, myself.’

Octavia seemed to lose most of her fire. “Why?”

The reaper paused for a silent sigh. ‘Because never have I known their stories to progress happily. And their endings...’ Axiolis just shook his piscine head.

Zeff and Octavia were both quiet.

‘It is in their very nature, of course,’ said Ax. ‘Their shocking growth is due to their turbulent and terrible lives. But the world is vast, and eventually... well, eventually, what luck they have--if any--finally runs out.’

“You’re afraid, then,” said Octavia.

‘Absolutely, I am.’

Hmm. Zeff had to pick him up on that. “The rain fears not the torch, Ax.”

‘True. But it is not for myself or any of us that I am afraid, Zeff. Hector and Garovel are not of the rain.’

That was a fair point, Zeff supposed.

Octavia spoke next. “What else can you tell us about asteros? Is there some other... common denominator between them all? Besides their troubled lives, I mean?”

‘Oh, indeed. In fact, I would say that their troubled lives are--especially in the most extreme cases like this one--not merely a product of misfortune. In medical terms, one might call their lives... symptoms of the problem, not the cause.’