“Everything has been checked?”
“Yes.”
“Double checked?”
“Yes.”
“Triple checked?”
“Yes.”
“… Quadruple checked?”
“Yeah.”
“… Quintuple checked?”
“Uh… not everything. But most of it has been quintuple checked.”
Galyn shrugged, crossing his arms as he looked up from a large pile of sheets of paper. “Eh, good enough. Normally only go to quadruple checks anyway after a big wreckage. Feel free to go and buy yourself some candy and we can head off in a bit.” Satisfied, Galyn returned to whatever it was he was doing. Arkay remained where he was, staring somewhat blankly. From what Arkay could tell, Galyn was busy reading through sheets of paper, all nearly as big as Arkay was, each one covered in various symbols and dots. They kinda looked like maps, but not ones Arkay recognised.
“So, uh, what are you doing?” Arkay eventually asked.
“Plotting.”
“Like, a course?”
“Yes.”
Arkay looked at the maps some more, still trying to figure things out. There were so many of them, stacked on top of each other.
“How does that work with four-dimensional space?”
“It does not, really. I just end up with hundreds of two-dimensional maps, each one a slice from a three-dimensional plane.”
Arkay was still clearly confused. He had seen maps like this before – after all, he used to live in a four-dimensional universe. But the idea of such a map covering a vast expanse like the Periuniversal Void made very little sense.
“Do we… not have… those cool holographic 3D maps? The ones we normally use?”
Galyn nodded. “Of course we do. I even downloaded some additional data banks to fill out some holes in the mapping, after I uploaded the navigational data we have collected. But before we even set up the Death-Net system, we used to use these ancient piles of crap.”
“So…” Arkay felt like he was missing something. “If we have a huge map system, that all of us contribute to, and is accessible to all Decay Lords… why are you looking at paper maps?”
The elder Decay Lord grunted. “Some asshole did not add the “Voidborn territory” data to the maps that we had. This area is only loosely charted, so I am checking over these original copies. I do NOT want to accidentally wander into dangerous territory again. Even if you did happen to catapult that Voidborn prick across the Sympan.”
Arkay shuddered. “Yeah… about that… I’m still worried that he’ll come back and try and hunt me down again…”
Galyn stopped what he was doing and turned to Arkay. He got down on one knee to get closer to Arkay’s level, only to find himself still towering over the tiny Decayling.
“You are still concerned?”
“Yeah.”
“Understandable. Is there any way we can make you feel less concerned?”
Arkay sighed, then shook his head. “I can’t… think of anything. Like, he came and tracked me down here, can’t he just do it again? And again and again? Is that asshole going to just follow me forever?”
“Probably.”
“That… is not helpful.”
“No, it is not. Unfortunately, some beings are just scum, and will not stop until they have ruined everyone else’s day. And you cannot always just murder your problems away. We already somewhat tried that and he came back.”
“So what do we do?” Arkay asked.
“If he comes back, we kill him or yeet him. If he does not, then we do not worry!” Galyn smiled as he put the top map away and pulled out another one. “Speaking of which, we should be good to leave soon. So go grab Retvik and Litvir and bring them here, so we can choose where we will go next.”
Arkay hesitated, then did as he was told. Galyn was right, all they could do was plan ahead and play things by ear. But that didn’t make Arkay feel any better.