Universe's End

“How do I look?”

Rory stared for several seconds before shaking his head.

“You look like a person,” Rory answered. Astra stood there, hands on her hips, feet on the ground, and around five foot ten.

Which was to say, she wasn’t a floating little pixie anymore.

“Also… why are you tier eight?” Rory asked, genuinely baffled. It had only been around thirty years since she’d crossed tier seven, and the last time he’d seen her, roughly a week back, she had been far from peak seven, only around two-thirds of the way through tier seven, which was already at a rather rapid pace.

“I ate a lot,” Astra said, hands still on her hips.

Rory paced for several moments before he lifted a hand.

“You’re a stellar, were, a Stellar Unseelie Fae. The forces of the Bird weren’t technically aligned with the physical aspect of stars, but there was a whole lot of crossover. Add in the stigmata infused in so many of his forces...”

“Stigmata?”

“Not important,” Rory waved it off. He had no doubts that if Astra learned of stigmata, she’d be the exact type to try to start a cult worshipping herself. “They fed you once they saw the crossover.”

“Mostly,” Astra confirmed. “Since you were asleep, I can fill you in. Tsarina had issues with her hive trying to bring in too many of the corpses; their brilliant nature apparently causes some issues if they try to assimilate too much.”

“I’m surprised you cared that much to learn about Tsarina’s details,” Rory said. Astra did not like Tsarina, and Tsarina did not like Astra. Tsarina being so much more ‘no nonsense’ seemed to be at odds with Astra, who was about as serious as a whoopee cushion.

“Duh,” Astra rolled her eyes. “It’s for that reason that they gave me so much to eat. To the point that it sort of… forced a change, my prior state couldn’t contain it all.”