Ret glanced up as a familiar flaming face approached, then sat down next to Ret without asking. Admittedly, Retvik was the leader of the Thantir, technically, so he could kinda do whatever he wanted, but Ret found it odd how he’d just… approached.
“Hello, Kyr Ret, are you alright?”
Ret hadn’t been doing anything. He didn’t have much to do right now.
“I am fine. Just restless.”
Ret inspected Retvik some more. “Is it because Litvir and Arkay are not here?”
Retvik grunted. “Yes.”
“Well, I feel the same way. Kuta is not here. It has been a long time since Kuta has not been physically around. I do not know what to do with myself currently. Are you on break too?”
“I am, yes. Thankfully, today’s shift required very few purifications. The Pentathax are clearly doing a great job because things have definitely calmed down now. Most of the purifications we have been doing have been for them as they tackle… the… I do not know what it is called, the horrible pentacluster next door to ours.”
“That sounds like good news!” Ret did his best to be optimistic. He knew that both he and Retvik somewhat needed distractions right now. That was backed up by Nyssi telepathically telling him exactly that. “After all, any dead Corruption is good, right?”
“You would be correct. However, I must apologise, I have not been sending your team out on excursions.”
“May I ask why?”
Retvik grunted some more. “You are a small team, I do not want to send you too far, but all of the tips we have received from the Pentathax have been rather far away. I am not keen on sending you on an 80 hour round trip for not even four hours of purging. Seems unfair.”
Ret shrugged and remained optimistic. “That does suggest though that we have done a very good job in this area!”
“It does, yes. The other issue is, some of the other tips we have received are located in either the Alsyrian Sea or the Justarian Circle, and I do not have the authority to send a team into those sectors. The Phantai are fine with you working in their territories, they would rather deal with… anything but Corruption, and the Ventra Expanse is mostly quiet and without any major ownership claims, but we do not have the best relations with the Justar or the Alsyr, and the Alsyr already have the Ekthris working for them.”
“Who are the Ekthris?” Ret asked.
“They are a small sect, about the same size as us, and they just do Corruption purges. They are led by one of Arkay’s old mortal friends.”
“Huh…” Ret thought for a moment. “Arkay has quite a few friends from when he was mortal. It is surprising how they survived two universes, technically. I always thought you had to be… somewhat magical or something to survive a universe dying. But all the Loopblade people do not seem that magical.”
Retvik grunted. “Well, to be fair, Arkay’s original universe was… very weird. There were literally Voidborn-like beings living inside it. But also, I believe that… leaving a universe does something to you. If you can survive, even briefly, outside a universe, the Periuniversal Void changes you so you can survive forever out here.”
“Makes sense, I guess. But why does that happen?”
“Hm…” Retvik thought for a moment. “Maybe it is because there are no real rules out here. Universes exist because they are spaces bound by laws and rules. Leaving a universe frees you from those rules. Admittedly, from what Kaytee has told me, he and his fellow Loopblades, they were all trapped inside a space ship when they left their universes, and the same thing happened to Psiksi, he was also inside a space ship and managed to survive long enough to be changed and adapt to life out here. I am pretty sure that a non-deity that cannot survive in the vacuum would not live long enough for the void to change them.”
“That also makes sense. But also, I guess, my group, Sini brought us here, I guess that gave us a chance to survive as well.”
“Almost certainly…”
Retvik and Ret both trailed off. The two of them remained silent for a while and constantly glanced at each other. After a while, both of them spoke, but ended up saying very different things.
“You have grown. You are taller now.”
“You are very attractive, I can understand why Litvir likes you.”
Retvik blinked. Ret hesitated, then sighed.
“I am sorry, that was inappropriate.”
Ret expected Retvik to be annoyed, but he… he seemed completely fine.
“Hah. Well, that definitely is not the first or last time I have heard someone say that. I am a very attractive person.”
Ret sighed some more. “You are. You are this big, muscular Rethan who has cool fire powers and a strong, commanding aura. And you have lots of cool scars.”
“I am glad you like my scars. Some folks do not like them at all.”
“Why… Why would someone not like scars?” Ret exclaimed. “They are literally reminders of one’s past, on your body! They are like tattoos but more historical and cool!”
“I definitely agree. After all, I have some cool scars. I have a star-shaped one on my stomach where I was stabbed by a Voidborn and then Arkay utterly murdered them. And that is just above another scar where I was stabbed by Ahkron… It does look rather cool.”
Ret wanted to say something, but he didn’t at first. But he could hear telepathic whispering in the back of his mind. Kayel and Nyssi had felt his embarrassment and were egging him on.
“Ugh…”
Retvik noticed something was wrong. “Is there a problem, Ret?”
“Somewhat. I am curious about those scars. I do not have many myself, mostly because I only really did arena work and they had systems that avoided permanent scars. Alright, I have a few, but nothing compared to you. But it is awkward to ask, and Nyssi and Kayel can telepathically feel that I am embarrassed and they are saying I should ask anyway.”
Retvik shrugged. “Would it be less embarrassing if we were not in the open?”
Ret shook his head. “It is something for another time. I think I need some other sort of distraction right now. But I do not even really want to work out right now because I like it when Kuta watches me.”
“Understandable. Do you want me to leave you to it?”
“No… I suppose… we could work out together. I do not want to miss out on my routine, after all.”
Retvik shrugged some more, then smiled. “That sounds like fun. We can help spot each other.”
Ret perked up as well. “Huh. Good point. Let us do that then!”