Spiritdrainer: I am sorry.
Spiritdrainer: You were right.
Spiritdrainer: It happened again.
Souldrainer is now online.
Souldrainer: Are you alright?
Souldrainer: Can you call me?
Spiritdrainer is now online.
Spiritdrainer: Hello, Litvir. I do not know if I can call you right now.
Spiritdrainer: I have been given medication meant for Vohra that has numbed my telepathy, and I cannot tell if anyone is listening in.
Souldrainer: We need to talk.
Spiritdrainer: I know. But I do not want to out myself.
Spiritdrainer: Then again, I feel like I already have.
Spiritdrainer: Alright, fine. One moment. I need to check that the coast is clear.
Spiritdrainer is now offline.
Litvir sighed to himself as he grabbed his wireless headset, connected it to his communicator then sat down on his bed. He knew he was going to have a long talk, so he made himself comfortable.
Eventually, Litvir’s communicator ran, and he immediately answered the call.
“Kuta, are you safe? Are you well?”
There was a long, drawn out sigh on the other end of the line. “No. No I am not well. I am also surprised that I was able to call you. This app is magic, as far as I am concerned.”
“Are you able to talk me through what happened?”
“I… yes. I need to. But I need to give you context first.”
Litvir telekinetically brought over a bottle of water and took a sip. “No worries. Take your time, Kuta.”
“Alright… To cut a long, long story short, the Torr hate us Rethavok for a myriad of reasons that we do not really understand. To the point that they, for some reason, artificially created some sort of telepathic Rethan assassin and tried to use them to kill the High General. And when that failed, they sent out assassins to target other leaders, in order to make us Rethans look bad and untrustworthy.”
“Were they trying to frame you?” Litvir asked.
“I do not know. I do not think so. I think the plan was to undermine General Rethais so the Torr could replace them with someone they could manipulate or bribe in some way, like they could with the old High General. But the assassins sent to kill the All-Ksa of the Skyavok and one of the Lanex Imperators failed and they managed to get information which directed us to a secret Torr lab. Diplomacy failed, the Torr claimed it was out of their hands and we… somewhat took matters into our own hands.
“Basically, I am the only telepathic Rethan alive who could counter these telepathic Rethan clones, so I, uh, was sent in. To gather data and destroy the cloning facility. Not to kill…”
Kuta trailed off. Litvir could hear them rubbing their eyes. He could feel Kuta’s pain.
“You can tell me, Kuta. I will not be angry. I am here to help, to listen.”
“I am angry at myself. There was an army of clones. They realized I was a telepath like them, but more powerful. They tried to pile up on me, to kick me out of my own body. I lost control. There are a hundred people dead because of me. And… and…”
Again, Kuta trailed off, but they were sniffing. Litvir wasn’t sure if Kuta was crying or not.
“I found this universe’s Siona Kaldieridos. They were made using experimental, stolen genetics. When I confronted them, they were a horrible, bloated corpse. They wanted my body, to be able to… to actually live for once. They would not listen when I said I would try and find an alternate way to help them. Siona died in anguish, having never seen daylight. Their final scream of agony still echoes through my skull.”
Kuta was genuinely crying now.
“And to make matters worse? The Torr are working out who I am and what I did. They do not know currently that it was me specifically, but they are desperately trying to get me expedited so they can declare me a criminal, strip me of my rights, experiment on me and then execute me. And considering how much blood is on my hands? I probably deserve it. Even if a lot of people, including Arkay, said this was not my fault.”
“You, uh, saw Arkay?”
“Of course. The instantaneous death of exactly 100 individuals is going to draw the attention of the Thantophor. He only seemed vaguely aware of who I was. Whispered some sort of lullaby in a language I did not understand to calm me down, then he took me and Elkay to a hospital.”
“And… wait, Elkay?”
“Not at all like your Elkay… That is not important. I… I am scared, Litvir. Not because of what I did, not because of the threat of retribution, not because of the consequences of my actions. I am scared because I believe I should be killed for what I did.”
Litvir sighed to himself. He had heard all of this before. Back when he and Kuta were both mortal, when they where young. A similar event had happened, Kuta had lost control of their psionic powers and… well, it did lead to Litvir becoming the General of the 11th Legion, but it also led to Kuta being locked away. Trapped exactly the same way this alternate Siona Kaldieridos was.
“You do not deserve death.”
“I do. How else can I make up for all the blood on my hands?”
“Come on, Kuta, we are Rethans, we are above capital punishment. Back in our old universe, the only Rethan we executed in the last century was the former High General, and that was because he intentionally let five thousand Rethans die. I assume your new universe is much better…”
Litvir paused for a moment.
“I deserve to die.”
“It was the same as the first time, yes? You were forced into a corner. You or them. You chose yourself. I hate to sound absolutely awful but, well, did you kill anyone important?”
“Um…” Litvir could hear Kuta wiping their face. “Fifty Torr, mostly guards and scientists, 47 Rethan clones, Siona Kaldieridos herself and a single Temthan spy who no one knew was there until their body was later on.”
“You killed one person then.”
“I-”
“Let me guess!” Litvir didn’t let Kuta speak. “Those Torr… I do not actually know what a Torr looks like but anyway… they were guards and scientists. All working for a lab that was keeping a Rethan as a slave and cloning them. And the clones were… well, clones. They were alive, yes, but probably in agony and probably being controlled by Siona. You cannot bring the Temthan spy back to life, but you can secretly do something for their family, like pay for their funeral. But in all honesty? You did your universe a favour for stopping another Siona from existing. Someone with that much anger and power would have caused far, far more death and destruction had they escaped.”
Kuta sniffed a few times. “Well… that is an utterly cold way of looking at things, but… I guess you have a point. But I am still very concerned about what will happen to the Rethans in general. The Torr are currently in a gambling mood, and want to base things on a gladiator match… I feel… helpless, my own fate being taken from my hands.”
“That is understandable, little brother, but people seem to actually like you in your universe, and you know the Thantophor himself. I am certain nothing too bad will happen to you.”
“That… that is a really good point…” Litvir’s words had helped, the tone of Kuta’s voice had changed. “Arkay may not properly remember me, but I think he knows… enough… I suppose, I think I am safe from being executed, at least.”
“Well if they are going to execute you, you have to know in advance. And if they do threaten you with that, you call me immediately, and I will grab one of my resident teleporters, jump into my ship, fly to your universe and get you out of there myself. Got it?”
“You have a ship?” Kuta asked.
“I do, yes.”
“The last time I recall you flew a ship, you hit the only rock in a 1km radius.”
“Hah…” Litvir faked some vague amusement. “I have improved greatly. To the point that I managed to successfully avoid Phantai search parties. Until a universe exploded near my ship and an EMP killed my engines. But that was not my fault. Although I did also somewhat get lost myself…”
“Heh…” Kuta couldn’t help but laugh slightly but that laugh quickly faded. “I think I have to go now.”
“Please keep me updated, Kuta. Despite our storied past, I do care about you. More than you think.”
“Thank you, Litvir. I will keep in touch. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Kuta.”
The call disconnected, and Litvir sighed. He was deeply worried about Kuta, even in spite of their conversation. But he had done all he could do for now, and Litvir had other things he needed to deal with.
“Stay safe, little brother…” Litvir whispered to himself as he got up and headed outside, where his fellow Thantir and their guests were waiting for him.