“Did we pass?”
This little table was now a classroom. When the Thantir had eight Decaylings, it made sense to use the much larger room next door, doubly so because Thassalin was pretty large. Now there were only two Thantir Decaylings, the furthermost table of the canteen was now the classroom, with Elkay-En and Vekeus facing each other and whoever was teaching them sitting at the end. Elkay-En had never liked this arrangement, but Vekeus enjoyed it, because he got to see what everyone else was doing while they did exams and stuff.
Today though, they didn’t have any exams or tests or anything. They were just going over a few things, apparently. And sitting with them was their brother Arkay.
Arkay was the middle brother between Elkay-En and Vekeus, but because of weird time stuff, Arkay was also technically billions of years older than both of them. The fact that Arkay was their superior right now, that bothered Elkay-En slightly. Vekeus though didn’t care. He was just happy that, despite him being a Voidborn (alright, technically half a Voidborn), Arkay accepted him. Arkay accepted both of them.
“Did we pass what?” Vekeus asked, not sure what Elkay-En was on about.
“The really hard time exam.”
“Oh, the folded time one?”
“Yeah.”
Arkay was flicking through sheets of paper in a folder and, eventually, he pulled out two specific sheets of paper. He read both, then put them in front of Vekeus and Elkay-En.
“Alright, follow-up question, who actually marks these?” Vekeus muttered. “I doubt you did.”
Arkay smiled. “There’s a guy who works for Lord Kengana who we send these all to. I just scan them in, they go to this guy called Scoremaker, he marks them all and sends them back in two hours… I actually think that’s all this guy does. I wonder how much he likes his job?”
“Probably quite a bit, if he gets these exams back to you so fast!” Vekeus smiled. “But yeah, is this about the folded time exam?”
“Indeed…” Arkay pushed the sheets towards his brothers. “Congratulations, you both passed, first try!”
“From your tone, that sounds… like not a good thing.”
“The opposite, it’s a good thing. Most folks generally have to take this exam a few times because they mess it up that badly. Out of our last set of Decaylings, six of them took the test twice.”
“Huh…” Vekeus looked at his score. “Oh. I only got 45 out of a hundred? That… that kinda sucks.”
“Believe it or not, 45 is a good score. The passing score is 35/100. Most people only just scrape by…”
“So wait!” Elkay-En exclaimed. “My score of 66 is good? Like, really, genuinely really good?”
Arkay nodded. “Congratulations, you got the fifth highest score among the Thantir overall.”
“Really?” Elkay-En seemed briefly excited for a moment. “Ugh, let me guess, you got the highest score.”
“I am tied third with Vikalos, we both scored 69/100. Fourth place, weirdly, goes to Kuta, they scored 67, and not even Kuta knows how they managed that. But we’re miles behind Elksia and Thassalin. Thassalin scored 91. Elksia scored 90 on her first attempt and wanted to do it again and she has a nearly perfect score of 98/100.”
“They are Time Drakes though…” Vekeus muttered.
“They are, which is why Elksia wanted to do the test again. Apparently Thassalin only really lost marks because he was lazy and didn’t show his workings out. But still, in all honesty, you should both be pleased with yourselves. You got past the worst exam and now we can get onto the fun stuff, such as the combat training and the trial preparation.”
“Can I take a moment to bask in this glory though?” Elkay-En hissed slightly. “It’s the one thing I’ve done better than Veekay, I want to make the most of it!”
“It’s not a competition!” Vekeus tutted. “We’re not here to out-compete each other or anything, we’re just doing what we have to do to become Decay Lords!”
“I thought you were trying to outdo me this entire time!” Elkay-En tutted back. “I’ve been at the bottom ever since I bloody got here. I-”
“Elkay, brother, you’re not at the bottom…” Arkay interrupted. “If you had joined another sect with a stricter hierarchy, then sure, feeling that way makes sense. But among the Thantir, we’re all equals. The only people technically at the top are Vikalos, Itaviir, Galyn, Retvik, Litvir and I, because we’re parts of recognised Named Trios, but we’re all still on the same level. We all treat each other the same.”
“I’m a Decayling though. Not a Decay Lord.”
“So?” Arkay shrugged. “I was a Decayling at one point. Vikalos, someone who is nearly as old as Kinisis was, he was a Decayling at some point. All Decayons start as Decaylings and work their way up.”
“Some don’t make it though…” Elkay-En frowned. “I’ve read up on history.”
“Yeah, some didn’t. Some folks quit and remain as Decaylings forever. Some choose to just do the written examinations, never do a Trial and only become Deathven-aligned Decayons, or they just live within Deathven Sectors, living a basically retired life. Some leave Deathven’s society and do their own thing. In the past, some died, yeah. But, well, things change. These days? Pretty much everyone makes it, one way or another.”
“And I will?”
Arkay went back to smiling. “Yeah. You two will definitely make it. If anything, you two will be pretty unique. It’ll be the first time a Zontanian and a Voidborn will do a Decay Lord Trial together.”
“Well… thank you for calling me a Zontanian… I don’t like being called a Life Goddess… But you really think I can do this? Despite my weakened state?”
“Of course we will!” Vekeus rolled his eyes. “This stuff isn’t hard. Just confusing and new to us. And we’ve probably already been through way more shit than what a Decay Lord Trial will throw at us, doubly so since Arkay here did the hardest trial ever, a trial which was designed to be unwinnable, and he beat it with relative ease AND trials aren’t that hard any more. Plus, he did that before he unlocked his more Synaisthyn-y stuff. He was way weaker then than we are now. Right, Arkay?”
“Pretty much!” Arkay shrugged some more. “Anyway, I didn’t really have much to go over, I just wanted to give you guys your exam results, and let you know that you’ve only got one exam left, and it’s mostly just a general knowledge exam. After that, it’s just training.”
“Ah… alright…” Elkay-En sighed. “So… do you need me?”
“No, not really. You’re free to go.”
“Alright… Have a good day, brothers.”
Vekeus and Arkay watched as Elkay-En wandered off. After a moment, Vekeus turned to Arkay.
“You think he’s alright?”
“He’s got a superiority complex. But I think he’ll be fine once you’re Decay Lords proper.”
“Ah, good…” Vekeus trailed off briefly. “And how was your trip?”
“It was nice. For once, one of Deathven’s stupid secret missions didn’t go badly for me. And I got to have a nice meal with my boyfriends, and Litvir got a new communicator. He won’t admit it, but he does like his new shiny toy.”
“Hah!” Vekeus smiled. “I need to get a Decayon-based communicator at some point. As for how much time I’ll spend here once I’m a Decay Lord, I don’t know yet, but I’ll need a better way to keep in touch with you.”
“Whatever you need, we’ll help you sort it out!” Arkay smiled back. “It’s good having you around, Veekay.”
“Honestly, it’s been great spending time with you too, Arkay. I just wish I’d known about you sooner.”
“Eh, same, but we weren’t to know. And we can always make up for lost time.”
“Of course…” Vekeus shook his head, then turned back into his old Threan-type Retha shape. “Anyway, I think Kaytee and Psiksi are arranging another snuggle party. You want in?”
Arkay’s smile turned into a grin. “Definitely.”