“Hey, I need your help.”
Timik had a rather horrified look on his face as he slammed a pile of leaflets on Phovos’s coffee table. He, Kohra and Kayen had all been staying at her place for the last few weeks, simply because it was the most secure place around. True, it wasn’t safe and secure in the case of a deity attacking them, but at least it had a nice fence around it and an alarm system should any weird cultists try and break in.
“What’s all that?” Kayen asked as he picked up a flyer. It was written in Temthscratch, the messy, claw mark-based script that most Temthan species used for written communication. That meant it was insanely hard for Kayen to read, as he had to convert it into standard Panglish in his head.
“Leaflets. Advertizements. I found loads of them at the local Temple of the Allbirther!” Timik explained. “One of my cousins messaged me on EyeSpace asking about this thing. She’s totally enthralled by the Allbirther and wanted to sign up for this…”
“Yeah but what is this?” Kayen repeated. “I don’t know if I’m just reading this wrong or something, but it seems like they want people to get pregnant for the Goddess of Life?”
“I’m just amazed they managed to get flyers to Portalia so quickly…” Phovos muttered as she scanned the flyer. As she read it though, her jaw fell open. “Okay, what the ever-loving fuck is this? Kayar herself is going to fucking impregnate anyone who signs up for this bollocks? The Allbirther is literally asking female Temthans to get pregnant with the Allbirther’s seed!”
Kohra and Kayen stared at Phovos, then glanced over to Timik, waiting for him to confirm or deny Phovos’s statement.
“Yeah… That’s what I thought…” Timik stuttered. “There’s a centre in Portalia City, just set up. I think they actually are impregnating females with something, I just don’t know what. And I can’t even go and spy on these places to confirm what’s going on because they are female-only.”
Phovos growled, ripped up the flyer she was holding then shoved several more into her mouth and tore them apart with her teeth, before spitting them back out. “I AM NOT GOING TO ONE OF THOSE CENTRES ALONE! I REFUSE!”
“Not with a disguise? You just need to get inside and see what’s going on. Maybe you can talk some Temthans out of it?” Timik cowered slightly. He may have been the largest being here but he was genuinely afraid of the Raptor. “I swear, I don’t want you to go through. But I think they are hurting female Temthans and brainwashing them into doing something more than just getting pregnant in Her name…”
“Like what?” Kayen asked. “Like, maybe, doing eugenics or something? Or, like, just flat out murdering them?”
Timik sighed. “I don’t know… I managed to talk my cousin out of it, but still… it’s scary… Like they’re preparing for war…”
Phovos hesitated. “Yeah… that’s kinda scary… I just don’t know how we can pull it off. I might get recognised or something. I mean, I’m a Ksithan, not a Temthan, even with my adaptive powers I can’t quite pull that off…”
“I could.”
Everyone glanced at Kohra.
“Pardon?”
“I could be a Temthan!” Kohra beamed. “After all, I’m a Kronospast, I can shapeshift. I’ve not really done Temthanic beings before but with some coaching, I could pull it off.”
Timik shook his head. “You’d have to be female.”
“I can do female. I’ve done that before, spent time being a female. I just need to look up how Temthans look, biology-wise, so I can get the details right!” Kohra clapped his hands together. The idea of going on a secret mission and putting his shapeshifting skills to the test made him a little excited. “Plus, if there’s two of us, we can just talk off little inaccuracies as a joke. Two liars are way more plausible than one.”
Phovos sighed. She didn’t like the sound of any of this, but there were innocents in harm’s way. She had always called herself a defender of the fair, so now was her time to prove she was who she said she was.
“Okay, fine. We’ll try it. But if anyone tries to impregnate me, I will fucking murder them.”