Elkay wasn’t too surprised to find himself in a hospital bed with Litvir by his side. Despite the psionic mastermind having been quite a horrible person in the past, Litvir had consistently been kind and respectful to Elkay. Weirdly though, his partner Teekay wasn’t present, and the only other being around was the colossal Itaviir, who was standing guard by the door.
“So, where did you go?” Litvir immediately asked as he noticed Elkay waking up.
“What do you mean?” Elkay asked back. “I was unconscious.”
Litvir grunted. “You scared the absolute piss out of your partner and were, as far as the Phantai medics could tell, brain-dead for an hour. Of course, us Psions quickly worked out that your mind had gone… somewhere, but we do not know where. So I would like to know. Before Psehon demands to know.”
Elkay yawned as stretched his arms out. He could feel something on his neck, a bandage and a plastic wrap so he couldn’t touch where he had clearly been operated on.
“They did to me what they did to you.”
“They did, yes. Faster-acting though. Telin and Phos are looking up whether we can sue Deathven or not. They still have all the records for when this happened to Kaytee, plus records for the three of us. Since Kaytee and Arkay are both Threan-type Retha and technically the same species as us, we might be able to get a class-action lawsuit or something.”
“Hmph…” Elkay tutted. “They will just throw it out by claiming I am a mimic and thus deserve it.”
“Kaytee was completely unaffiliated with us when he had the same issues,” Itaviir interrupted. “While they will definitely try and dismiss your case, Kaytee, Litvir and Retvik are all standard Decayons and Kaytee in particular is a standard Phantai soldier who has diligently served his sect for six year-strings. Kaytee in particular does have a chance.”
Litvir glanced at Itaviir. Itaviir grunted, then fell silent.
“Sorry, we did not want anyone trying to mess around with you, so we put Itaviir on guard. Still, we do somewhat need to know where you went, mentally, in case you did actually briefly die from a nuclear-accident-induced fever and we need to bring you back again.”
Elkay hesitated, not really sure how to answer. He knew exactly where he’d gone. The problem was, he didn’t know how to put it in a way Litvir would understand.
“It, uh, turns out that us mimics can… astral project while we are comatose…” Elkay eventually muttered.
Litvir was clearly unsatisfied with that answer. “I assumed as much, but you went somewhere. We need to know where. Can you describe it?”
“Uh… It was dark. Spherical, I assume. I could see dots of light but they were brightly coloured. The seven colours of the rainbow. My physical form was different though, I was more lithe, my armour was smoother, my tail was so long I could barely find the end of it and my wings were far larger than normal. And Arkay was there.”
Litvir blinked. Itaviir blinked too, but Elkay couldn’t tell because Itaviir was wearing those plastic translucent eye protectors he (and a lot of Beh’evok) always wore.
“You saw Arkay?”
“Yes. He looked almost exactly like me but in his traditional yellow. I admit, I think I had a concussion or something because I found him very attractive…” Elkay paused briefly. “I think I still do, because I am definitely having some thoughts about you, Litvir.”
Litvir snorted with amusement. “I appreciate that, but I do not wish to be shanked by your partner… Actually, I take that back. Retvik would more likely shank me than Teekay would. You two do seem to have a somewhat open relationship. Still… you saw Arkay, I assume you spoke to him?”
Elkay nodded. “He was… upset. Apparently his plan backfired and he was attacked by the Whenvern, who broke a promise to him, and now he is trapped in some sort of coma. Arkay is under the impression that us mimics can travel to some sort of safe space to protect our minds while our bodies recover, but I guess two mimics have never been comatose at the same time for Arkay to have tested that theory until now. I… I find it weird that he was not a Skyavok. And I did consider kissing him.”
“Haha, well you are not alone there…”
“Still… We did speak. I told him what was going on with us. He appreciated the recap, but I am pretty sure Arkay has all but given up, and plans to just sleep for a while to try and pass time more quickly.”
“That is depressing…” Itaviir muttered. “Someone broke yet another promise to the poor thing. And there I was, thinking that Time Drake Kairos was a somewhat honourable and trustworthy being.”
Litvir glanced at Itaviir again. “Itaviir, dear, you KNOW that anyone connected to Kinisis is untrustworthy.”
“YOU are connected to Kinisis!” Itaviir grunted back.
“And I am particularly untrustworthy.”
“Actually, Litvir, I will be blunt, you are actually insanely trustworthy for a Psion!” Itaviir smiled ever so slightly. “Most Psions, you cannot trust them as far as you can throw them. Not only can I potentially throw both you and Eksi pretty far, but you are weirdly honest and open. However, you do have a point that Kinisis’s direct deities are… messy.”
“Do you include Arkay in that?” Litvir asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. But Arkay was only ever messy because Kinisis and her cronies made him messy. And to make matters worse, despite my suggesting to Galyn that you all return to Deathven when things got rough, well…”
Itaviir sighed. Litvir and Elkay sighed as well.
“Was Arkay physically healthy, at least?” Litvir eventually turned back to Elkay and asked.
“I do not know. I assume so, apart from the being in a coma. Arkay seemed to imply that his consciousness was being held hostage until Epani was set free from… something, but he also suggested that he did not want to wake up again, that he considered being unconscious was better for everyone.”
“I see… Did you… give him a hug?”
“Of course I did.”
Litvir frowned. “Of course you did. I admit, I am a little envious and I would have loved to be able to see him. But at the same time, I do not wish to put you in danger in order to see Arkay again, and I do not think I am capable of following an astral projection.”
“You are a powerful Psion though!” Itaviir protested.
“Actually, all things considered, my skills are average. The difference is, because I designed my own telepathic systems, the way my psionic powers work is so strange and confusing that the majority of other Psions simply do not know how to counter me.”
“You waltz into Deathven Sector Alpha and blatantly ignored all their anti-Psion security. There is definitely some power there!” Itaviir continued to protest. “The old Thantir, we didn’t actually have any pure Psions, you are one of the first, and you are a blatant reminder as to why we never had any.”
Litvir stared at Itaviir yet again.
“What?”
“You do not like Psions?”
Itaviir shrugged. “You and Eksi are the first proper Thantir Psions. A lot of sects are wary of them unless they have one in charge. Soulblade keeps the other Phantai Psions in check… I apologise, I am getting you sidetracked.”
Litvir shrugged. “It is not a problem. You are normally not that talkative, it is nice to hear you opening up a little. That being said, dear, could you go and grab Teekay? I am sure he wants to see his poor, ill partner.”
The hulking Decay Lord nodded and left the room, giving Elkay and Litvir some peace and quiet.
“Where is Teekay, by the way?” Elkay muttered.
“Eksi and Kaytee are looking after him. You did somewhat fall on Teekay and crush him, and he did panic quite a bit when you were not properly responding to, well, anything.”
Elkay sighed. “I ought to make things up to him then.”
Litvir got up and patted Elkay on the back. “You should. Before we leave, we are doing one more little mall trip. When we do, take Teekay to one of the fancy restaurants and treat him.”
“I will… In the mean time, can I have a glass of water or something? I am parched.”
Litvir smiled, then went off to get Elkay a drink. “Of course. I will be back in a moment. Try not to do any more astral projection while I am gone.”