Retvik was struggling. Not only was he not sure where he was going, but he wasn’t sure what he was doing. The very nice Life Goddess that was now his new boss had told him to kill Litvir. But did he want to do that? Not really. Yes, Litvir was a menace to existence, he was a horrible being who had committed horrendous acts in the past. Some of those atrocities had been done to Retvik. But he was genuinely trying to redeem himself. Didn’t mean that Litvir deserved to die.
Something in his mind though was pushing him onwards, against his will.
All of this felt rather familiar to Retvik. He had been on… no, not the receiving end, but in a similar position like this before. Except, that time, he had been the prey being hunted, not the mind-controlled fool. Retvik wanted to stop and just go back to his ship, but no, that voice was still squeaking in the back of his head.
On the plus side, at least Retvik had some footsteps to follow. His ability to sense heat maps was coming in useful. Up until they suddenly no longer were. The residual heat from Litvir’s footsteps had disappeared. That meant that he was probably hiding now and covering his tracks.
“Ugh…” Retvik groaned as he slowed down. “I hate searching… wait…”
Something didn’t look right. Retvik could see some more footprints, but they didn’t seem to belong to Litvir. They were a little too small. And they seemed to loop back around Retvik, almost as if someone was following him. Curious, Retvik followed the footsteps, only to be even more confused as they led to a dead end, a small broom closet. But someone was…
“Oh, hi Retvik!”
Retvik blinked and rubbed his eyes. Standing in front of him, rummaging in the closet, was someone Retvik thought he’d never see again. Someone who had also been… a victim of Litvir’s past.
“Trismit..?”
“I did not know Miss Calohxaa hired someone else!”
This being looked a lot like Retvik. The same species, except wrapped up in blue and yellow armour. Trismit had been Retvik’s friend, who had helped him out when he first got his fire powers.
“What… are you doing here?” Retvik stuttered, taken aback. “I thought… I thought you were… gone… left behind…”
Trismit shrugged. “Nah. There were a bunch of nice Life Goddesses after it all blew up and Miss Calohxaa hired me! What are you doing here though? I thought the Decay Lords took you?”
“I…” Retvik closed his eyes, a vague attempt to compose himself. Seeing Trismit here, somehow alive and well, was rather shocking. Almost as shocking as Trismit and his electrical powers. “I… She… she told me to kill Litvir.”
“Litvir is here?” Trismit asked. “And you want to kill him?”
“Yes… Wait, no… Calohxaa wants him dead.”
“Do you?”
“… No. He has… changed… I doubt you would even recognize him if you saw him.”
“Curious!” Trismit seemed… not particularly angry. “And he is here? You are looking for him?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let me finish up here and I will come help you!” Trismit smiled. “He cannot be here anyway, this corridor does not lead anywhere.”
Retvik nodded, hesitantly walking back down the hallway, the way he came. “I guess I will look elsewhere…”
As soon as the fiery deity disappeared around the corner, the electric Rethan took a deep breath. With a wave of his hand, the blue and yellow armour faded away, and Litvir removed his telepathic disguise.
“I am a genius…” Litvir muttered, rubbing his throat. “But this voice is bloody hard to keep going…”