“Hey, Vekeus, long time no see!” Vick waved while he was wiping down tables. “How are you?”
“Oh, you’re not closing, are you?” Vekeus asked as he checked a band on his wrist. “Have I not set up my watch correctly? Also, where’s your friend Letharus?”
“Nah, not at all. Still got another hour or so, but I’m happy to make exceptions for you! As for Letharus, he’s having a nap. Poor guy hasn’t been sleeping well lately, he keeps on having nightmares, so I told him to try and get some catch-up sleep. Anyway! What have you been up to?” Vick paused, then peered outside. “You got a new ship?”
“Kinda, yeah. I didn’t really tell you guys about all the Decay Lord stuff I was doing, but that ended up with me wrecking my old ship, and I haven’t got round to making my new ship how I want it yet.”
Vick didn’t quite understand. Instead, he finished what he was doing, then brought Vekeus inside proper and sat him down at the bar, handing him a drink as he did so. One of those familiar fruity energy drinks.
“You build your own ship?”
“Kinda. I’m a Voidborn. I can summon stuff out of nothing. But only specific stuff. It’s weird and I barely understand it myself. Anything over a certain size though, I break off part of myself and turn it into what I want. So technically my ship is part of me. But I keep on reabsorbing my ship, growing back my antlers then snapping them of to make my new ship again because I don’t really understand what I’m doing.”
Vick blinked. “That… that is weird.”
“Yeah, but I’m a Voidborn. I’m weird. I’m a particularly weird Voidborn as well. But I’m also a Decay Lord now, so I can actually pay you in Decay Lord money!”
“OH!” Vick immediately perked up, fetched another energy drink and put it in front of Vekeus. “Congrats! It’s on the house.”
“Uh, thanks…” Vekeus hesitated briefly. Vick noticed that hesitation.
“Is… is something wrong?”
“Um… Do you have, like, a diet soda or something?”
“I… I thought you liked energy drinks.”
Vekeus glanced around, making sure the room was empty, then sighed. As he did so, he switched from his Voidborn form to his old mortal form. “Turns out, fleshy me prefers drinks with less sugar in them, since I can actually taste them now.”
Vick wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at at first. Well, he did know, he was looking at a Threan-type Retha, but Vick was feeling a few things he didn’t quite understand at first.
“You’re one of Arkay’s brothers. Veekay, right?”
“Half-brother, yeah. Same mother, different father. My dad was a Voidborn called Kenostaton.”
Vick paused again. “I… I am pretty sure that Voidborn ripped an unborn child out of me.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. He was a monster. I’ve always done my best to be anything but.”
Vick leaned forward, tutting. “In the mean time though, you served Elkay-En most of your life. You were a Ksa. A child soldier. Same way Arkay was.”
“Yeah.”
“Hmph. Elkay was a good leader but I never liked how he used you all. He was 20 years older than you and kept you as his Ksa, as his little pets, basically. I’m pretty sure he freed you in the end, but… I don’t know. It was weird.”
Vekeus shrugged. “I guess, but I don’t really care much. I’m a Voidborn now, my mortal life is kinda inconsequential.”
“I guess, but you never got to be a kid.”
“What do you mean?”
Vick leaned forward some more. Vekeus wasn’t a tall Voidborn. Vick wasn’t that tall either, but he was taller than Vekeus.
“You never had a childhood. You were a child soldier. You didn’t go through all the insanity Arkay went through, but you were still stripped of any chance of being, well, normal, and loved and cared for. And then you ended up out here, turned into a proper Voidborn and turned all metal and stuff and you’re, well, cold.”
“It’s… not that bad.”
“Could be better though.”
“Alright, I get what you’re implying, but you were kinda like a dad to Arkay, because you were the Exaron in the past you fixed and the Dessaron in the present. I don’t have that sort of connection to you.”
“Would you like that though? Maybe not as a parent, but as a cool uncle who treats you to cool things?”
Vekeus thought for a moment. He thought a little too hard. But he did quickly relent. “You know what? Sure. I would like that. My family was full of assholes, my dad was the worst person ever. I’d like a family member who cares… I mean, Arkay cares, but Arkay is… Arkay is Arkay, he has a lot of other crap going on. And I’m here half the time anyway-”
A heavy knock interrupted the conversation, and was followed by heavy footsteps. Vekeus instinctively shifted back into his Voidborn form, then realised that maybe that was a bad idea as the colossal metal-armoured being known as Kahlos stomped into Vick’s pub.
Kahlos immediately lifted his visor and stared at Vekeus, but Vekeus held his ground. Despite the intensity of the glow of Kahlos’s eyes.
“Don’t get pissy at me. I know you hate Voidborns, but I am both Voidborn and Decay Lord.”
“He’s also my nephew!” Vick added.
That statement confused Kahlos, and he found himself disengaging. After a moment, Kahlos lowered his visor, then stomped into the bar proper.
“Sorry.”
Vick shrugged. “It’s fine, my Ventra Lord. What are you doing here?”
Kahlos grunted, made his way over and handed Vick a piece of paper.
“Checking in and a beer run, eh?” Vick smiled. “How are our other Ventra Lords?”
“Fine.”
“Not in the mood to stick around and chat?”
“No.”
“Fair enough!”
Vick reached under the counter, grabbed sixteen large cans of beer and shoved them into a bag. Kahlos took the bag, left a large pouch of gold coins (clearly from Thyel’s stockpile), muttered a thank you, then silently left.
“He doesn’t seem right…” Vick muttered.
“I wouldn’t know…” Vekeus replied. “Anyway, uh, you planning on doing some, uh, kid stuff soon?”
“I want to take Arkay on another camping trip, but he’s busy with his new Decaylings, so we’ll see.”
“If you do do another trip, can I tag along?”
Vick’s unease turned into a massive grin. “Of course, kid, whatever you want…”