“Uh, Nuh, sorry to bother you, but can you help us with something?”
Nuh dimmed then lit up his crystalline eyes as he looked up from the tablet he was drawing on. Since Kal didn’t have much work to do lately, they were drawing up designs for a new base on the large chunk of land they had recently bought. Currently, Nuh was looking at different floor plans for operating rooms, trying to work out what was the most efficient way of laying things out.
“You do realize I am the strong but stupid member of Kal right, Akah?”
Akah clicked with vague annoyance. Nuh found it somewhat endearing that this silly, somewhat lanky, organic being clicked the same way Kal did.
“You’re too harsh on yourself, Nuh. You are plenty intelligent. But also I really don’t think Koh, Pah or Leh know anything about rips in the fabric of space. Not like you do anyway. I think Phovos kinda broke something and we need your help fixing it.”
“Oh…” Nuh got up from his desk. “Lead the way, then.”
The icy Lanex clicked again, then left the room. They made their way down to the observatories, to the private Decaylings-only one that had been kindly set aside by the Phantai. Present in the room was Phovos, as predicted, as well as Elksia, Elkay and Eksi, a combination the lower Phantai had dubbed “The Three Dangerous Es.” Admittedly, they all were pretty dangerous despite being Decaylings. Eksi was a stupidly capable Psion, more powerful than the Psion member of the Great Blades, with the ability to subliminally control a lot of people at once. Elkay was only considered dangerous because he didn’t really know the limits of his Mimic abilities, but he was also known for being very, very hard to bring down. Elksia though was a Time Drake, capable of manipulating time, but for some reason, she didn’t seem to be doing that right now. Especially since, in the middle of the room, there was a small, shimmering portal, about as large as Nuh was.
“So, Elkay, can you replicate whatever the fuck Phovos has done?” Eksi asked as he poked the vaguely annoyed Rethan in the side.
“I have no idea what Phovos has done!” Elkay tutted. “How am I supposed to replicate something I do not understand? And is the rest of my life going to consist of people doing weird things and then asking me if I can copy them?”
“Probably?” Elksia shrugged. “No one knows what you Mimic guys can do. Gonna ask a ton of questions. What HAS Phovos done anyway?”
Phovos was standing in front of the portal, as clueless as everyone else. She found that, if she moved her arms in a certain way, she could open and close the portal, which always appeared 30cm in front of her hands. She opened the portal, inspected it, closed it again, opened it again, then turned to Nuh.
“What the fuck have I done?”
Nuh approached slowly, looking at the portal, before clicking several times. “You worked out how to create a hammerspace.”
Nuh’s explanation did little to lift Phovos’s confusion. “A what now?”
“A hammerspace. It’s basically a miniature pocket dimension where you can store things for later. Pretty typical ability for Life Goddesses.”
Again, Eksi turned to Elkay. “You know what it is now, can you do it?”
Elkay looked down at Eksi, tutting at him. “Probably not. And I still am not 100% sure what it is.”
“You haven’t even tried, mate!” Eksi protested. “Come on, you’re a mimic! Do mimic-y things already!”
Akah wandered over and patted Eksi on the shoulder. “Friend, leave Elkay alone. He’s spent the last few days being constantly questioned and told that he’s weird and stuff, give him a break.”
“I do not even know how to borrow Life Goddess stuff anyway…” Elkay added. “Other Decayons’ abilities are fine, Time Drake stuff is hard but doable, but I do not understand Life Goddess things. And to be blunt, Phovos does not seem to understand any of this either.”
Phovos though was not interested in this argument in the slightest. She was still inspecting the portal. After a moment of thought, she shoved her hand through it and waggled her hand around, feeling around the edges. To her surprise, there seemed to be solid walls inside the portal. As if she had created a small room.
“Nuh, is it supposed to be a physical object?” Phovos asked.
Nuh approached the portal and glanced inside. “Hm. I actually don’t know, if I’m honest. Never seen one this close before. I just know that Life Goddesses make them on the regular, and I think Arkay had a miniature one? I wouldn’t recommend you going inside it, but since you can open and close it at will, we can send someone else in to see how large it is.”
Elksia and Eksi immediately looked at Elkay. Nuh and Akah also glanced at him.
“I hate all of you…” Elkay grunted.
“You’re called Unender!” Elksia chirped. “Don’t worry! If things go wrong, I can undo them!”
With a disgruntled sigh, Elkay relented and approached the portal. Phovos made it a bit larger, so the 2.4m tall Rethan could more easily climb through. As he stepped into the portal though, fur immediately grew across Elkay’s body wherever he didn’t have armour plating, his adaptation powers kicking into gear.
“By the Light it is fucking cold in here!” Elkay hissed. “Absolutely freezing!”
“Well, yeah, it’s hammerspace, there’s nothing in there to warm it up!” Nuh explained. “How big is the room?”
Elkay felt his way against the walls and quickly found each of the corners. “Uh… About 3m by 3m? Retvik would not like it in here. Too tight. Could probably just about fit all six of Kal in here though…” After a brief wander around, Elkay stepped back out of the space, shivering slightly and his wings wrapped around himself. He moved to one side so that Nuh could get a good look.
“Well, seems like a perfectly normal hammerspace to me!” Nuh seemed pleased. “What are you going to store in here, Phovos?”
“I can store stuff in there?”
“That’s the whole point of a hammerspace. A pocket dimension where you can put things, to summon them at will.”
“Huh…” Phovos fell silent, thinking to herself. She glanced around the room, at her fellow Decaylings, then smiled. “We should fill this weird room thing with weapons and food and survival gear.”
“Why?” Eksi asked. “I mean, it makes sense, I guess, but why?”
“The Decay Lord Trial we’re gonna do? We’ll only be allowed to take our weapons and our armour. But we could have a backup via this space thingy.”
“Wouldn’t that be… cheating?” Akah hesitated. “Like, one of the reasons Retvik, Litvir and Arkay had problems was because they did the trial early to stop one of them from being, like, taken away or something?”
Elkay growled. “That was the lie they were told. It turns out that the Overlord just wanted them dead because Arkay is a Mimic and Litvir briefly broke some sort of stupid level law. And I am genuinely concerned that the same thing will happen to us because I happen to be a Mimic. Which is why I am intentionally not borrowing anyone’s powers right now. Even though I want to.”
“Yes but Orion the cat deity said you would be fine?” Akah did his best to comfort Elkay, pausing briefly to feel Elkay’s soft fur.
“All the more reason to use Phovos’s hammerspace!” Eksi exclaimed. “If they can change the rules at will, then we can bend the rules and adapt around them! Sure, you can’t use Life Goddess powers, but Phovos IS a Life Goddess, she has no choice but to use Life Goddess powers.”
Phovos and Elksia both nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry, Elkay, we won’t let them fuck you up. Well, fuck you up further…” Phovos did her best to be optimistic. “We stick together, we always do. This stupid trial will be no different… Anyway, want to help me fill up this hammerspace with cool stuff?”
Elkay sighed, then relented. “Fine, sure. I can work out how to do this stuff myself AFTER our stupid trial…”