“Ey! Moonblade!”
Moonblade didn’t expect people to cheer as he entered what used to be the private Thantir Decayling Observatory, but had been recently renamed the “Private Cool Room for Cool People Who Are Both Thantir and Cool”. Apart from a brief hello when the former Decaylings got back from their trial, Moonblade hadn’t really seen any of the eight little heroes, they’d been doing their own thing. Admittedly, he was just here to deliver some post, but Vikalos, one of the Tattered Navigators, the one that wasn’t a former Phantai, had invited Moonblade to come and chat.
“Hello, kids…” Moonblade muttered as he handed a pile of envelopes to Vikalos. “Congratulations to you all.”
“Thanks, dude!” Eksi beamed. The Thantir Eight, as they were currently calling themselves, were all currently doing… something. Moonblade wasn’t very sure. Some of them were writing things down, some of them were scribbling things out, Teekay was tapping and dragging things around on his tablet and Phovos seemed to be drawing things out on her personal computer. “What you been up to, Moonblade my dude?”
Moonblade shrugged. “I just came to deliver this post to you. You are Decay Lords now, you get your four-ev income.”
“Do you want to stick around?” Vikalos almost randomly asked as he sorted through the post and started handing envelopes out to each of the younger Thantir.
“You… are offering?”
“Indeed!” Vikalos smiled. “We are just brainstorming right now. A new logo design for the Thantir in general, branding and advertising for our new purification services, and Teekay is working on building us a website. But everyone here likes you, and I am certain the little ones would like to thank you for your assistance in their Decayling training.”
Moonblade blinked, then shrugged. “I didn’t do much.”
“Mate, you helped us through all the physical training stuff!” Tenuk exclaimed. Moonblade hadn’t recognized the shapeshifter at first, he’d mistaken him for Itaviir, the elder Decay Lord and former Phantai. No, Tenuk was, weirdly, shapeshifted into a Beh’evok, his own, weird, personal Beh’en form. And, to Moonblade, Tenuk actually looked pretty attractive.
“If you say so.”
Tenuk glanced at Elksia, then shifted over and patted the cushion next to him. “Come on!”
With a sigh, Moonblade did as he was told and entered the room properly, sitting down next to Tenuk. He watched as Vikalos wandered around, only for the former member of the Justar to hand an envelope to Tenuk, then abruptly freeze.
“Hey, mister Vikalos?” Tahvra chirped from across the room. The tiny Decay Lord was sitting on Elkay’s lap, being incredibly annoying while Elkay was trying to draw on a large wad of paper, constantly screwing up sheets of bad scribbles and throwing the balls in Eksi’s direction.
“Uh, yes, little one?” Vikalos hadn’t really moved.
“You seem confused.”
“That’s because I am confused…” Vikalos grunted. He’d just realized that he’d been given 11 envelopes, not 8. The last three envelopes, Vikalos tucked them into a pocket on the inside of his jacket, to be dealt with later. “Anyway, dearies, may I have your attention please?”
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to Vikalos. Vikalos may have no longer been the leader of the Thantir, but pretty much everyone respected him. Heck, even the Great Blades respected him, despite the fact that they still held some anger towards his partners.
“What is it, boss?” Eksi asked, with a hint of concern. Vikalos though immediately did his best to dismiss that worry.
“Now you lot are proper Decay Lords, you now get a proper, Deatthven-sponsored income!” Vikalos smiled. “Although the basics are often provided for all Deathven-affiliated Decayons regardless of their rank or status, we all also get a basic universal income, which we can spend on nice things, although, most of the time, that money tends to be spent on fuel, food and ammo. And, rather typically, the first paycheck gets spent on alcohol.”
“Is that what you spent yours on, boss?” Teekay teased.
Vikalos smiled. “Hah. No, actually. Itaviir, Galyn and myself saved three four-evs’ worth of paychecks to buy our original ship, Shimmer’s Plight. We later part-exchanged it for the Thantir One, but, well, that is gone forever now…” Vikalos trailed off. “Hm. Might see if I can buy back the Shimmer’s Plight. Depends on if that garage in the Justarian Circle is still open… Anyway! In those envelopes, there are three pages. The first page is your bog-standard terms and conditions, which you ought to have a quick read through, but there’s not much in them. Second page contains your online bank details, a bank card and your pin number. I assume you all know what to do with those…”
The elder Decay Lord paused. Elkay and Akah were whispering awkwardly at Tahvra.
“No, Tahvra, you are supposed to keep this information secret!” Elkay hissed. “So that other vok cannot steal your money!”
“You three, is everything alright?” Vikalos grunted.
Akah just sighed. “Tahvra is a Vohra, they didn’t really have banks or anything in their society, and he just showed everything to me and Elkay. Sure, we won’t do anything, but we’re… just trying to explain all of this to him.”
“Why can’t I share it though?” Tahvra exclaimed.
“How are you so smart and so stupid at the same time?” Elkay hissed some more. “We just told you! This is YOUR personal, secret information! If you give it to someone else, they will take all your money!”
“Oh…” Tahvra suddenly worked everything out. “Oh. Sorry. I get it now. Thanks, mister Elkay.”
Elkay rolled his eyes and sighed. Normally he was more patient, but today, he seemed on edge. “It is fine… Sorry for interrupting, Vikalos.”
“Not a problem, dearies!” Vikalos smiled, glad that the brief problem had solved itself. “Anyway, yes, as Elkay just explained, keep your information to yourself. While the Deathven payment system is mostly timely, they can be… rather slow when it comes to dealing with stolen information. Moving on, the last sheet shows you how much you will get per four-ev, as well as your starting balance. Now, because all of you were mortals and you are fresh, young Decay Lords, your initial four-ev paychecks will be somewhat small. Over time, you’ll get more money, and we’ll be able to earn more money by, well, doing our own jobs.”
“We… don’t plan to be charging anything above cost for our purification work though?” Akah asked. “Are there other jobs out there or something?”
Vikalos nodded. “Not so much any more, but before Life Goddess Kinisis was killed… the first time… there used to be local bounty boards and part-time job offers put out by Life Goddesses, Decayons and occasionally even Voidborns, and us older Thantir used to send out crews to accept various bounties. When the Kinigian Wilderness becomes more populated, or if we travel to the surrounding sectors, you can pick up some bounties, if you wish. But for now, your main money will come from Deathven. I ought to point out, there will be some… differences here and there. You will not all get the same initial paychecks, as the amount you get is partially based on the Righteous Death Index, and is partially calculated on your feats while you were mortal and during your time as Decaylings.”
Everyone started scanning their sheets of paper and they started discussing how much they all had. Vikalos took this as a chance to look at the extra envelopes he had. Weirdly, they were addressed to Itaviir, Galyn and himself. Vikalos assumed this meant that they’d had changes to their own four-ev incomes. While Vikalos expected to see yet another pay cut listed in his income, he was genuinely surprised to see that his income had been returned to its original value, back when he and his partners had properly established the Thantir. Sure, this was good news, but it irked Vikalos somewhat that it seemed that Litvir and Retvik hadn’t gotten income increases, as they hadn’t been sent letters.
Before Vikalos could ponder that further, he noticed that Eksi had gotten up and approached him.
“Hey boss, what’s considered a low amount? Because, I’ll put it blunt, I didn’t kill anyone until I became a Decayon, and even then, I didn’t really kill anyone as a Decayon either. I want to know if the 4000 Deathvenbucks I am getting is a small amount.”
Vikalos blinked. “You are getting 4000 Dlires a four-ev?”
Eksi nodded, showing Vikalos his third sheet of paper. “Is that bad?”
“That… that is more than what Retvik gets.”
“Huh… That’s… both good but… also pretty shitty for Retvik…” Eksi paused, then turned back to his fellow Decay Lords. “Hey, any of you bastards getting less than 4000 Deathvenbucks?”
Everyone shook their heads, but Elkay seemed even more annoyed now.
“I get 4500, but I have also been given a one-off compensation amount of an extra 4500. Which I find very insulting, considering they were going to lock me away inside a canister for all time…” Elkay snarled.
“Considering that Overlord wanted you dead, I’m surprised you are getting anything…” Moonblade frowned. “He is… a very vindictive person, I have heard. But I became a Decay Lord a long, long time ago, back when mimics weren’t even considered real things.”
“Oh, he’s a right cunt…” Teekay tutted as he patted Elkay on the head. “Although I’m getting 4500 as well. But I only killed a couple of people while I was mortal and both times were in self-defense. Pretty sure Elkay killed a LOT of people since he fought in the war against the Whenvern.”
“4500 is what I get as well, and I was on the bad side of that war…” Akah muttered.
“I led the charge and I’m only getting 4500 as well!” Tenuk shrugged, not really that bothered. “I’m 99% sure though that Elksia and Phovos are getting 100,000 each simply because they’re not Decayons and the Overlord prick wants them to stick around.”
Eksi seemed somewhat upset. “Am I the ONLY person here who’s getting 4000? You’re all getting 4500?”
Everyone else nodded.
“That’s a load of piss!” Eksi exclaimed.
“Maybe it’s because you’re not even 30 year-strings old yet?” Moonblade suggested. “Then again, you ARE getting more than Flamebearer and Souldrainer.”
“Ugh. Probably…” Eksi trailed off, then perked up. “Either way, we should totally go back to that mall and have a big old spend up. Last time we went, we had like 700 Deathvenbucks each, and Arkay gave us 200 of those. Now we can actually buy the shit we want.”
“I’ll speak to Litvir and we can arrange a trip before we leave!” Vikalos smiled. “Anyway, I need to pass these two letters on to my partners. Moonblade, dear, feel free to stick around, the Thantir Eight like your company, and maybe you can help them with their work.”
Moonblade blinked in surprise, then shrugged. “Sure. Have a good one, Firestorm.”
“See you later, boss!”