“Arkay! Arkay, wake up!”
Retvik and Litvir were admittedly rather concerned, almost scared, as Arkay was lying somewhat unresponsive in a pool of blood, next to another, very much dead Life Goddess. Worse though, there was a shimmering golden ghost standing over them.
“It seems as though you have killed one of my daughters…” the ghost sighed.
Retvik glanced at Litvir, and Litvir telepathically asked to take the reigns of the conversation. Not sure what to do, Retvik nodded, then picked Arkay up, putting pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding. Weirdly, Arkay’s body remained in a Life Goddess shape.
“We have not killed anyone!” Litvir protested. “This Life Goddess tried to kill Arki! She fought back in self-defence!”
The ghost continued sighing, inspecting the scene. “I am pretty sure that self-defence didn’t have to turn to murder.”
Litvir wasn’t sure how to answer. He wasn’t even sure what had happened. The second Arkay had been stabbed, Litvir lost all telepathic connection with him, and he and Retvik had rushed in to save Arkay, only to find him as he currently was.
“Prodota wanted to kill you! Arki wanted to stop her!”
“I know.”
Litvir opened his mouth but paused. “Hang on… did you… did you know that all of this was happening?”
The ghost nodded. “Of course. Prodota’s name is literally a shortened down version of the Zontanian word for “traitor”. She was always a little messed up, and she would not listen to anyone else in the family. She had been trying to plot things for a long time. We always caught her. But I hoped, allowing her to go a bit further, allowing her to run into someone from the outside, she might change her mind. I was under the belief that she could find the strength to get up and leave on her own, if persuaded to do so by someone else, by meeting someone from the outside.”
“Instead, she tried to kill Arki!” Litvir hissed slightly. “Arki tried to convince her, and she stabbed her! And now Arki is bleeding out and we need to help her before we have two dead Life Goddesses here!”
The ghost stared at Retvik and Arkay. She reached forward, shoved her ghostly hand into the stab wound then pulled out a tiny shard of Time Drake tooth. Immediately Arkay began to heal up, but he also briefly turned back into his normal self, before turning back into a Life Goddess again. This seemed to make the ghost curious. Curious enough to switch to a physical form.
“What is that?” Gynesa asked. “That is not a Life Goddess. And the Time Drake fang should have killed it.”
“Please do not call Arkay “it”…” Retvik muttered. “He is a conscious, living being, just like us. And he risked his life to try and protect not just you, a powerful stranger who knew what was going on and just let things play out, not caring if someone got hurt, but he also tried to save your daughter, when we were instructed to kill her by Lady Zizari.”
Litvir turned to Retvik. “If I were a betting Rethan and had anything worth gambling with, I would bet that perhaps Lady Zizari got us to intervene on purpose for personal reasons, not because she believed Lady Gynesa here was at risk.”
“Litvir, you own your own ship, you have things worth real-multiverse value.”
“I would not actually bet something I require for my continued livelihood. Anyway, am I correct, Lady Genesa?”
Gynesa turned back into a ghost and frowned. “Hmph. Somewhat. Zizari had been targeted by Prodota in the past in her various schemes and plots, and probably got sick of her.”
“Are you sure that Lady Zizari is not also plotting against you?” Litvir asked. “She is suspiciously not at this party.”
“Hmph.”
The ghost swiftly disappeared. Retvik and Litvir weren’t sure what to do, whether they could leave or not.
“Do you think we were wrong about Zizari being too obvious?” Retvik whispered.
“I think so. I would not be surprised if Gynesa does not come back with Zizari-”
Before Litvir could finish his sentence, Gynesa returned and dropped a corpse on top of Prodota’s body. It was Zizari’s, and she had been killed by Prodota’s dagger, which was sticking out of her back. Retvik and Litvir stared at the two bodies, then at Gynesa, who was tutting to herself.
“Um…” Retvik stuttered, not sure what to say, while also subtly prodding Arkay, trying to get him to wake up.
“What?” Gynesa tutted some more. “You murder one daughter who had mass-murderous intent and are surprised that I murder another daughter with mass-murderous intent? Little monsters, you were used. And I am quite angry at you.”
“Angry in a “vaguely bemused but you will let us go because it was not our fault” way or angry in a “I am furious and now I will silence you too” way?” Litvir queried. “I am going to guess that it is the latter, yes?”
Gynesa nodded. “Indeed. You are just useful pawns anyway. Stupidly dangerous useful pawns.”
Immediately, Litvir grabbed Retvik’s arm and they began to run. Gynesa blocked the entrance to the cave and turned the walls into spikes, ready to crush the three of them, then smothered all the glowing lights, making the tunnel completely dark. However, as Gynesa lunged forward to grab the miscreants, she realised something was wrong. They had somehow disappeared.
Litvir grasped for breath as he managed to pull Retvik and Arkay through a shadow and into their main bedroom in the Deathly Soulflame, which was still parked below the party dome. Retvik almost threw Arkay onto the bed, then raced off to the cockpit to get the ship moving. And while Retvik did manage to get the ship into the air and out of the parking lot, he came to the conclusion that there wasn’t really anywhere to go, especially as there were Divine Guardian ships everywhere. For the first time in a while, Retvik was at a complete loss at what to do.
“Let me take over.”
Litvir had reappeared behind Retvik.
“You have a plan?”
“Yes but I need to fly the ship.”
Retvik relented and let Litvir take control. Retvik had managed to type in some autopilot coordinates, but Litvir disabled the autopilot, turned the ship around, aiming it at the dark shadows beneath the party dome, then sent the ship flying towards it.
“Litvir, what-”
“Ssh!”
Litvir removed one hand from the controls and placed it on the cockpit window. A shadowy aura seemed to grow out of Litvir’s hand and cover the whole ship. As they reached the shadow of the party dome, Litvir threw on the ship’s breaks then closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could.
The Deathly Soulflame passed through the shadow then immediately crashed and swiftly came to a halt in a vast dark, candlelit space.
They had somehow escaped, but Litvir was no longer conscious enough to notice.