“Phovoula, I need to have a word with you.”
Theocydes was a regular Voidborn visitor to Savepoint. He never needed purifying though, he often just stopped by to check on things. But Savepoint also used to be within Theocydes’s territories, and he had relinquished his claims on the area so that Phovoula, who was both a Voidborn and a member of the Thantir, could grow her strength and better protect the floating island and the Athata Rift in general.
“By the tone of your voice, I’ve done something wrong…” Phovoula grunted, unamused by Theocydes’s presence. “Is this because of that Stenonarkon guy I was jice to?”
“Yes, and also the former Goldblessed you spoke to at the Pink Paradise. You are-”
Theocydes suddenly paused. He’d spotted someone he hadn’t seen in a while.
“Hi, Theocydes, how you doing?”
Vekeus was an old friend of Theocydes, even before he left the Goldblessed. A former Golden Protector, Vekeus’s territory touched the edge of Theocydes’s territory, and since Vekeus was both young and pure, Theocydes didn’t consider him an enemy.
“Where… where in the Void have you been for the last month or so?”
“Right here.”
Theocydes eyed Vekeus. “You have been here at Savepoint the entire time?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
Vekeus crossed his arms and tutted. “I told you and I told Kesistatiir and Staton. I wanted to shelter for a bit since the attack.”
“What attack?” Phovoula interrupted. “You were attacked?”
Vekeus’s cheerfulness swiftly faded. “I… yeah. I was.”
“You never told anyone the details,” Theocydes grunted. “You just told Staton to look after your territories and a couple of parts of your ship and disappeared.”
“I did, yes. I… I’m kinda embarrassed by what happened, so I haven’t told anyone. I’m not sure if I want to spill the beans, but after the attack, I feared for my continued existence and decided that it’d be safer to come here to Savepoint, which has always been Voidborn-friendly, and I also decided that I wanted to become a Decay Lord. The month I’ve been here, I’ve been undergoing the exams as a Decayling and am working my way towards doing a Decay Lord trial, officially.”
“But… but why?” Theocydes was confused now. “You’re a Voidborn, How bad was the thing that happened?”
“Very bad.”
“Really? You have little to fear out here. It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“Oh, I have plenty to fear!” Vekeus’s amusement had been replaced by anger. He didn’t want to have to explain what happened, but he knew Theocydes would probably keep on asking. “A Life Goddess saw me while I was doing a solo corruption purge at the edge of my territory. I’d literally just managed to talk some Pentathax Decay Lords out of attacking me and I was already on edge, and it’s a damn good thing because she immediately tried to capture me, wanting to use me as a slave for her next universe! She literally sealed me in diamond, and the only reason I managed to get out was because I turned my ship into a nuke and threw it at her as a distraction! It didn’t even hurt her much, it was just a distraction so I could slip into the darkness and escape. I came here to lick my wounds and find new ways to protect myself.”
Theocydes and Phovoula both stared at Vekeus, then remained silent for a little too long.
“I… I can totally see why you’d be terrified by that…” Phovoula eventually muttered. “And… like… that’s also kinda why I wanted to get a bunch of Voidborns together and make some sort of alliance. Because, sure, there’s Voidborn-controlled territories out there, but we live in Decay Lord territories, and only the Thantir are friendly to us.”
“We are not making a cult…” Theocydes sighed.
“It’s not a cult, it’s an alliance!” Phovoula tutted. “You, me, Vekeus, Staton, Kesistatiir, Stenonarkon who I met the other day, that Tasocydus guy and maybe that Lyssandros who keeps on coming back here, we can form an alliance and protect each other so that what happened to Vekeus doesn’t happen again! I don’t want a cult, I don’t want any sort of crazy religion thing…” Phovoula briefly trailed off. “I… probably shouldn’t call it a crazy religion thing when I worshiped Arkay for most of my life… and I somewhat worship Phovos… Either way, that’s beside the point. I want to establish some sort of network so we can keep each other safe, so we have places we can go and people to talk to when we need help. If Decay Lords can do that shit, then we can too.”
“Well… fair… but it would very quickly end up looking like a cult.”
Vekeus shrugged. “At first? Probably. But if we pick a decent name for ourselves, set up the whole alliance as nothing more than a bunch of Corruption Purgers doing the same stuff those Pentathax guys are doing, stay far, far away from the Justarian Circle and the Goldtorn Remains and avoid doing stereotypical bad guy Voidborn things… maybe we’ll finally get some breathing room. And also, we can look after each other better as well. Like, I felt like I couldn’t tell you why I ran off and hid. We shouldn’t be like that with each other. An alliance or even just a support group would go a long way.”
Theocydes sighed, then relented. “You are right… I don’t like it, but you are… I guess… I guess we should arrange something. But I don’t want to bring everyone here. I think the Pink Paradise is… less risky. I don’t want those Pentathax and Phantai to think that the Thantir are plotting and hiding something.”
“Agreed. I have exams in the next few hours but I’m mostly free, so… work out a time between yourself and the others, and Phovoula and I will come and join you.”
With another sigh, Theocydes bowed, then started heading off. “Will do. In the mean time, don’t be scared to talk to me, alright?”
Vekeus and Phovoula both bowed back. “And the same to you, Theocydes. We’re all in this together…”