“This feels wrong.”
Kinisis had spotted Galyn wandering around in the water garden, a place he almost never visited. Normally, Galyn spent his time divided, either doing office work or patrolling the outskirts of Kinisis’s Oasis, his appearance alone being enough to scare away potential intruders.
“What feels wrong?” Kinisis asked. The Decay Lord turned around abruptly, unaware that Kinisis had been watching him.
“Oh, hello.”
“Hai!” Kinisis chirped. “What you doing out here all on your own?”
Galyn grunted. “I wanted some time on my own to contemplate some things.”
“You want me to leave?” Kinisis asked.
Galyn looked Kinisis up and down, then sighed. “No, you can stay, if you want.”
Kinisis shrugged, then leaped over to Galyn’s side, placing her dainty hand on Galyn’s arm.
“You seem upset.”
Galyn tutted. “For once, no, I am not upset. I am… perplexed, I guess. Things have genuinely become calm and stable around here. I am not used to this… normalcy.”
“Huh…” Kinisis shrugged some more. “Have things really been that chaotic?”
“Yes, very much so. I used to be in a triad, looking over a team of 30 Decay Lords and a handful of Decaylings that had huge potential. Now, we are anchored to your Oasis and the majority of the original Thantir have gone and joined other organizations.”
Kinisis remained silent for a bit. “Um… Well, I am sorry for causing any trouble…”
“We had disagreements, but you are not the reason why any of this happened. Well, you are not the exact reason. The Thantir were already struggling with various Voidborn cults and the one that decided to attack you was hideously bad. That was all then followed by a corruption breach in the next sector over and we had to bring in a larger faction to help us. After the corruption breach, the Thantir were reduced to a single navigation duty… I now know why Vikalos and Itaviir wanted to leave and split up…”
“Hm… do you miss them?”
Galyn sighed and nodded. “I miss Vikalos a lot. I miss Itaviir too, but not as much as I miss Vikalos.”
“So why not just invite them here?”
Galyn immediately fell silent, staring off into nothing. After a little too long of a moment, he blinked and stared at Kinisis.
“Why did I… not think of that?” Galyn muttered under is breath. “Would you have issues with them being here?”
Kinisis smiled. “As long as they behave the same way you do. Last thing I need is to be fixing holes made by angry Decay Lords.”
“Neither Itaviir nor Vikalos are like that.”
“Good!” Kinsis beamed. “You should invite them! Even if it’s just for a visit.”
“We would need to see if they even want to come, and when we could schedule it around our breaks and-”
Kinisis raised herself up and put a gentle finger towards Galyn’s mouth.
“No need to overthink it, my dear. We’ll take it one step at a time.”
“But I have duties-”
“Your duties can wait for a bit. You need to be, well, not in a bad mood so much. We’ll contact your buddies and see what they want to do! No big deal!”
Galyn relented. “Alright, fine… But I am calling them, not you.”
“No problem!” Kinisis giggled as she fluttered off. “Just let me know what you need and we’ll sort it out!”
“Of course…” Galyn grunted, then waited for Kinisis to disappear. He then tutted and sat down. “Darkness help me, why does she make me feel like this…”