“Hm, not what I expected.”
There was a vast, smoke-ridden being standing in the middle of Savepoint. It had a horrible aura about it. Not aggressive, just overall scary and stern.
It took the Thantir a moment to actually work out what was going on. Some of them were busy doing purifications for a Life Goddess and her Divine Guardians, some were helping a silver Voidborn from a black goo that had eaten its arm and some of them were busy repairing ships. But the creature had somewhat faded in and hadn’t announced its presence yet. Not until a familiar purple Psion made their way over to greet the being, with an even more familiar yellow-plated monster floating by their side.
“What are you doing here, Deathven?” Litvir immediately asked. “Shoo. You are not supposed to be here!”
The gigantic being with a billowing cape of darkness smiled as he looked down at Litvir. Litvir’s statement had caught the attention of everyone who wasn’t working on purifications currently.
“I can go wherever I please. Where is your fellow Missing?”
Having noticed the commotion, Retvik left one of the purification rooms and stomped over to join his partners.
“Hello, Deathven. You do realise that your presence here goes against our dealings, yes?”
Deathven nodded. “I do, yes. But I have an offer for you. Well, not quite an offer, more of a light demand with some wriggle room. Come now.” Deathven snapped his fingers, and all four of them disappeared, reappearing in a familiar room. A room shrouded in darkness, lit with tiny candles, with a throne and a table of food before them. “Please, have something to eat or drink.”
Retvik and Litvir both growled, and Arkay tutted.
“This feels like a trap.”
“Maybe it is a trap.”
“Either way, it’s a deliberate breaking of our agreements, done out of my control.”
“Not at all!” Deathven may have smiled, but there was no way of knowing. He admittedly did look rather Voidborn-y, but he was rather solid, and muscular hands could be seen. Arkay thought that Deathven looked a bit like a truthtalker, with a dog-shaped head and perfectly fitting armour covering the rest of him. “This is not a trap. And we are not in a Deathven sector. You are in my personal domain, where I converse in private with all my Hidden Named Trios, not just you. Please, sit and have some food and drink.”
Retvik and Litvir relented and sat themselves down. Arkay seemed a little anxious as he sat down, making sure he was between Retvik and Litvir, and he wrapped his tail around Retvik’s leg.
“So… what do you want?” Arkay asked.
“I have a duty for you.”
“What sort of duty?”
Deathven grunted, then held out his hand. A shiny orb appeared, and in it, one could see images of other Decay Lords that were in Hidden Named Trios. “It is time that my last Hidden Named Trio starts doing things to benefit more than just one pentacluster. While I am genuinely impressed with your work so far, despite a… handful of bad words, I want you three to join the Hidden Trio ranks proper, and start a new duty.”
“What… what sort of duty?” Litvir was curious. “Because, while we are admittedly happy as we are, running the Thantir, we don’t want to abandon our fellow Decay Lords and our current duties.”
“Indeed. Our duties as purifiers is vital to the local environment!” Retvik added. “The eniapent is surrounded by massive pockets of Corruption. We need to constantly assist those who push back against that hideous menace.”
“I understand. The Thantir do do an excellent job, and I am happy for them to continue to do so. But leading a sect in some backwater eniapent is ill-fitting for you. You could do so much more as a proper Hidden Trio. You could help so many others. After all, each of you has destroyed a Voidborn cult. Souldrainer, you tricked the Goldblessed to destroy themselves. Flamebearer, you severed the head of the Crystal Doom. And Deathbringer, you have killed many, many monsters.
“On top of that, you three compliment each other perfectly. To the point that we can throw any situation at you and you WILL come out on top. Your power, your strength, your passion, all of that should be shared with the rest of the Periuniversal Void.”
Arkay crossed his arms, not convinced. “Can’t we do all of that while spreading our reach from Patagenic, assisting the nearby pentaclusters and going from there?”
“I feel you can make more progress and help more beings if I give you guidance and nudge you to where you need to go. Home is nice, home is safe, you will never really leave Patagenic.”
“I see what you are trying to do, Deathven…” Litvir frowned. “But you want us to make ourselves uncomfortable and face the complete unknown. This will be very dangerous, and we are still somewhat recovering from past disasters. Your offer is interesting, but I want to know what us three get in return. I want you to bribe us.”
Deathven turned his head to one side. “You want incentives?”
“Very much so, yes. We have met the Travellers, they live in a massive ship filled with all they desire. I would not want such a large white ball to be my ship, but I want comfort between the chaos and the unknown. I want.. things.”
Deathven’s posture changed somewhat. He seemed happier all of a sudden. “Whatever material needs you have, you will get. We will give you your own proper ship, one capable of fast travel, one with all the amenities you need. You will also be given a large home within a Deathven Sector and access to a lot of out-of-Deathven-sector goodies, such as free teleporter pods, access to exclusive hotels, oases and restaurants and so on. You will be treated like kings.”
“That sounds nice and all…” Arkay hesitated, “but it feels really weird that you’re offering this to us. Especially since you hate my guts.”
Deathven nodded in agreement. “Yes, I do dislike you, Deathbringer, but I am putting my anger to one side because I have been keeping an eye on you three, and you have the potential to be utterly legendary beings. And I want to push you closer to that legendary status.”
“And there’s no… secretly sending us into a trap or anything? No attempt to kill us?”
“No, no. We are grown ups. We are allowed to change and become better beings. And I believe that, despite your strangeness, you three can do genuine good for a lot of people.”
Retvik, Litvir and Arkay all glanced at each other, and had a very short telepathic discussion. After a few moments though, Retvik turned back to Deathven.
“Can we think about your offer, please?”
“You are not getting that much choice to decline. Your options are mostly in what material objects you would like me to bribe you with, and where in the Periuniversal Void you want to start.”
“I gathered. But I am genuinely intrigued by what you want us to do, and I have always been an adventurer at heart. But if we are going to be doing these things, then we need to speak to the rest of the Thantir, to let them know what is happening. They will most likely want to know about everything, and may want to hire some more people to fill out the gaps Litvir, Arkay and I would be making.”
“Ah, of course. Yes, please have a chat with your fellow Decay Lords and make the required arrangements. But I want some sort of answer within an ev. Are we clear?”
Arkay, Litvir and Retvik all nodded.
“Good. See you soon.”
With a snap of Deathven’s fingers, the three Missing suddenly found themselves back at Savepoint. And, immediately, Vikalos approached them.
“Are you all alright?” Vikalos asked.
“We are, yes!” Litvir shrugged. “We do have… some things we need to discuss though…”