“I swear, they are fucking with us on purpose!”
Arkay had never seen Galyn so angry. He had just been sneaking by to the kitchen when he’d caught a glimpse inside Itaviir’s office, where the three elder Decay Lords were quite busy arguing and clearly not paying attention to the slightly ajar door. Normally, Arkay would have left well alone. He knew better than to listen in on private affairs. But Galyn’s anger had caught him completely off guard, to the point that he was compelled to stay put.
At first, Arkay wasn’t sure what they were arguing about. Both Vikalos and Itaviir, the older of the Decay Lords, didn’t seem angry at all. There was a look of vague defeat in Vikalos’s stance, and a hint of annoyance in Itaviir’s voice, but neither Lord’s emotions matched the fury Galyn was emanating.
“First they treat us with disrespect, then they push us away, they take our toys away and try to kill our students, and NOW they want us back? This is an INSULT!”
“I do not understand why you find this so insulting, Galyn…” Itaviir sighed loudly. “Did you not want to retire? Did you not want to return to Deathven and finally relax?”
“That is NOT what I fund insulting, and you know it!” Galyn snapped back. “I have done so much damn work on trying to better secure the lives of unstable Decaylings! Millions of hours of research and development! And what do the High Lords do with it all? Nothing! Only now do they accept my work! After I had to get personal!”
“You know the Overlord and High Lords work in odd ways. This is an invite back, an apology for what they did and a chance to-”
“To what, taint my work with their beliefs? I have had to pass on so many damn potential Decaylings because of their outdated, draconian laws! And now that I have three Decaylings that might actually make it to the top, Deathven wants me to abandon them and go crawling back!”
“Is there no way we can compromise here?” Vikalos muttered, putting an arm around Galyn in a vague attempt to calm him down. “It will take a long time to get back to Deathven if we go the long way. Would that be enough to finish training, so you can retire happy?”
Galyn growled, crossing his arms. “I do not want to go back to Deathven. I do not want to be entwined in those politics again. For some reason, the entire omniversal void is against me wanting to spend my days raising Decaylings…”
“I always thought you were in it for the adventuring and exploring…”
“I was in it for both!”
Galyn’s fists slammed down on Itaviir’s desk. The impact was loud and sudden enough to make Arkay fall backwards. Of course, him falling on his butt caused enough noise for the Decay Lords to notice Arkay’s presence.
“Did you not close the door?” Itaviir hissed, lowering his voice.
“I thought I did…” Vikalos grunted. “A bit too late now. We should, uh, probably tell them what is going on.”
Galyn sighed, straightening himself out. “I should tell them. This mess mostly concerns me and them, after all…”