“Can’t sleep?” Kaytee asked as Eksi grabbed a drink and sat down. Most of the folks present were the younger members of the Thantir, but Saahro had joined them about ten minutes ago and now Eksi was here too.
“Oh, fuck no!” Eksi snarled. “I felt all those fucking monsters die and it’s fucking keeping me awake, doubly so since Kal have shown absolutely no remorse for what they did!”
“They deserved it…” Akah replied nonchalantly.
“They don’t deserve to have their brains blown up! Don’t we have, like, trials and shit out here? Kal just flat out murdered thirty people!”
Akah shrugged. “They did deserve it. They came here to either enslave us or kill us. They couldn’t have put us on trial or anything. Really, they should be thankful that Kal killed them instantly. If I had that sort of power, I would have made them suffer.”
Eksi swivelled in his seat and glared at Akah. “Dude, you’re being really fucking violent!”
“And why do you think that is, kid?” Saahro butted in. “Your friend Akah here was a slave. For most of his life. Of course Akah would happily kill those who threaten to enslave him again. And I personally agree.”
Eksi growled, but since he was the second smallest person present, it wasn’t particularly threatening. “Am I the only damn person here who thinks killing is wrong?”
Tahvra raised his little hand. “Kinda? I think killing is mostly wrong but… Like old Panelix said, we protect ourselves first.”
Saahro glanced at Tahvra. “Who is Panelix?”
“Epani. Our goddess of space. Now she is a Life Goddess I think? Not very nice, she kidnapped Arkadin and trapped him inside a universe. She also sent a mean message to Retvik saying that Litvir is evil and deserves to die.”
“I mean, Litvir was evil but he does not deserve to die…” Elkay tutted. “He also did not threaten to kill all of us.”
“But Litvir has blood on his hands! He outright admitted to me that he’s killed! Back when he was mortal!” Eksi protested. “Fuck, you all fucking do! You’ve all killed, you didn’t pay for killing others!”
“I fucking did…” Teekay also tutted. “I was attacked in my own home, I was 15 years old but was put on trial for manslaughter as an adult and spent three months in jail because I was considered a threat. If it hadn’t turned out those bastards were behind a spree of break ins and murders, I’d probably have spent my life behind bars and wouldn’t even fucking be here!” Teekay paused, then shook Elkay off him. “Babe, I’m fine, you don’t need to hug me.”
“I know but you are upset.”
“We are all somewhat upset,” Saahro interjected. “Perhaps we should calm down and talk things out rather than arguing.”
“I’ll be fucking blunt, I haven’t really killed anyone before, I’ve only ever felt them die. I don’t get how you can all be so… fine with killing people! You all haven’t felt what I’ve felt, when a life is extinguished!” Eksi continued to protest. “It wasn’t too bad with Voidborns, it’s fine with Corruption, they ain’t even really alive in the first place and they kill without thought. But those guys were normal folks, like us, and Leh just made all their heads explode and Nuh crushed whoever was left to death in an instant! I’m glad it was instant because it meant I didn’t have time to feel them die, but couldn’t we have rehabilitated them or something?”
“There’s no rehabilitation for those who don’t believe that other people are people!” Akah snapped back. “You saw them as normal folks. They saw us as objects. No, they saw us as less than objects, they saw us as things to be killed, or, at best, sold to others for maximum profits!”
“Akah, you seem angrier about this than pretty much anyone…” Phovos frowned. “Is there something you want to get off your chest? Because you escaped slavery. We know, you said Arkay freed you and a lot of others from a slave camp.”
Akah sighed, loudly and with quite a bit of pain. “He did, yes. I was finally freed after I had given up, and was just working as cannon fodder for an enslaved Lanex military unit, after only recently having been killed yet again.
“The reason I was a slave for so damn long was because I kept on breaking out and going back to try and save others. And because I was an idiot, I’d end up saving a few folks but get killed or recaptured in the process because I’d sacrifice myself to make sure they escaped. Any time I died, I’d freeze up then de-age into a teenager or young adult and the Deiton slavers would just pass me on as cheap trash that needed too much maintenance.
“More than once, I was sold to meat farm, where I had my organs cut out and my corpse was just dumped in a heap to rot. I was considered no better than livestock, no, worse than livestock, because at least all of an animal gets used. Lanex flesh is unsuitable to eat but a pate made of Lanexian organs was considered a delicacy among Anexartans.
“When Arkay freed me, that was the first time since my brother died that I realized I needed to be selfish and just run away. Sure, the Kronospasts did eventually free the Lanex, but that wasn’t until after the war when everyone else was dead, they didn’t apologize or anything, they were just annoyed they’d lost their property. I was not a person in their eyes.
“Some people believe that other people have no value, they are possessions, not individuals, and should be treated as such. Can you unlearn that belief? Yes. Eventually. Tenuk did. It took him a long time, he tried to convince others, but Tenuk failed and ended up betraying the Kronospasts. And out here, were someone like Tenuk is considered a child, where the average lifespan is, what, millions of years? They had their chances to learn to respect others and they chose not to. So yes, they deserve to die, if they don’t think other people have the right to be free and alive.” Akah paused, realizing he had said a lot all at once. He crossed his arms and tutted. “You sly mistress, you got me monologuing.”
“I did, yes,” Phovos admitted. “But you’ve been wanting to say all that ever since those pirates all exploded. Admittedly, many, many races go through a period of enslaving others, there are speed bumps as races grow into societies. But society is a contract, a promise to treat others as you want to be treated and to treat each other as equals. If you break that contract then you don’t deserve to be protected by it. Same goes for tolerance. Eksi, do you understand now, that those pirates didn’t adhere to the contract of society, of fairness and the value of others, and were killed because of it?”
Eksi sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, I get it now. Not everyone is capable of being put on trial and judged, because, I guess, they don’t respect that. Guess I should have realized it sooner because I’m well aware of just how spooked Retvik and Litvir are right now.”
“It’s fine, little one. It is tempting to want want to believe that all lives have value, but as you grow, you realize that some people have more value than others, and those that think you have no value at all as a person and only exist as an object are the most valueless of them all. You are insanely young, so these things haven’t quite hit you yet…” Saahro hesitated. “How old, approximately, are you?”
“I don’t really know…” Eksi shrugged. “Litvir had a timer that kinda matched time from our old universe but it broke, and Elksia only has a rough year-based approximation. I’d say I’m about 28 years old, which I guess is like 30 year-strings? Year-strings are a bit shorter than our old in-universe years, I think.”
Saahro eyed Eksi, then snorted. “You are a baby! The universe where I came from, time flowed differently and literally everything was dragon-related. You weren’t considered an adult until the age of 500 aykra, an aykra being about 2 year-strings.”
“Ugh, different time scales… I had enough damn troubles dealing with interplanetary time zones!” Elkay grunted. “Either way, the assholes are dead, we are safe and sound and, fingers crossed, maybe those Deathven bastards will do their jobs and make sure they do not come back.”
Saahro nodded in agreement. “Indeed. Anyway, we should have a few more drinks to settle our nerves. And Akah, you should talk more. You bottle everything up. It’s pretty common of ice elementals, but still.”
“I don’t like talking. It’s depressing.”
“Better than letting it all build up and then spilling it all over a discussion like you just did though!” Eksi chirped. “We don’t judge though. We all… well, most of you all had fucked up lives. It’s good to air out the lungs occasionally.”
Eksi’s comment made Akah frown, but he relented as Teekay teleported off and brought everyone some fresh drinks.
“We’re cool. And they deserved it!” Teekay smiled. “How fucking dare they touch my damn wife. Anyway, here’s to less stupid piss happening for a bit, and to the fact that no one important died. Cheers.”