Moonblade was pretty sure he was in the wrong observatory, but this one was quiet and empty and he needed to sit down for a bit. Like many of the Phantai, he was rather tipsy, having had too much to drink while celebrating. But the more Moonblade had to drink, the more he felt that this celebration was hollow. He hadn’t done anything to defeat the Crystal Doom, apart from endless patrols and killing enemies that would just respawn after a while. Still, this was the first proper break Moonblade had had in a while, so he was going to make the most of it.
As Moonblade stepped deeper into the observatory though, he realized it wasn’t empty. There was someone sitting in a pile of cushions in the corner, nursing a drink. Moonblade instantly recognized them, they were one of the Thantir Decaylings, part of the team that had helped blow up the Voidborn mothership. The one that looked ever so slightly like a Voidborn.
No, that wasn’t true. This one lacked antlers. And claws. And they had fleshy bits. They weren’t Voidborn at all.
“Hello.”
The Decayling was talking to Moonblade.
“Hello, Shattershield. Are you well? And may I join you?”
“Yes, you can join me. I’m not doing anything. I’d rather you just called me Akah though.”
Akah reached for something. It looked like a communicator of some sort. But as Moonblade watched Akah fiddle around with it, he was no longer so sure. With a sigh, Moonblade sat down opposite Akah, then sipped his drink. He had admittedly forgotten that he was on his seventh bottle of mint and lime cocktail. He’d been drinking beer beforehand alongside his old friends, but they’d moved on to straight vodka and Moonblade had gotten sick of that.
“So why are you here on your own, Akah? Where are the other Decaylings?”
Akah shrugged, preoccupied with whatever he was holding, while occasionally sipping a bottle of something fruity.
“Not sure. Teekay and Elkay sneaked back off to Teekay’s room to do what they always do, the rest of them I think are getting drunk in our own private observatory. Kinda just waiting for Tahvra to come back so I can rejoin them. But I’m not a fan of being drunk and needed some quiet time on my own.”
“You are drunk?”
“I’ve consumed more alcohol since we made it back than I’ve consumed in the last… hm, ten years maybe?”
Moonblade grunted. “You do not drink then, I assume.”
“No. Wasn’t allowed to when I was a mercenary slave. I’ll be honest, it’s weird that I have more freedom now as a Decayling than I’ve had my entire life. And I’ve not been a Decayling for very long.”
“What did you do before you became a Decayling?” Moonblade found it odd that Akah was willing to talk to him. While he had seen Akah cheerfully chatting with his fellow Decaylings and the higher members of the Thantir, he’d regularly go silent when around the Phantai. Although Moonblade could understand why. While he, Measureblade and several other Phantai soldiers had been helping the Decaylings with stress testing and training, many of the lower rank Phantai had seen Akah as a threat, and he’d been called a Voidborn way too many times. Moonblade had originally called him one when they first met.
“I was a Divine Guardian.”
“You worked for a Life Goddess?”
“Yes. For Kinisis. Not that she needed us or ever actually listened to us…”
Moonblade paused. “You… worked for the Final Mother?”
Akah looked up from what he was doing. “Oh. I forgot that you Phantai think Life Goddesses are famous or holy or something.”
“Uh, yes, we do. I… I would love to know what the Final Mother was like.”
“I, uh, can tell you, if you promise you won’t attack me. And maybe if you tell me what your real name is.”
“Why would I attack you?”
Akah tutted. “Litvir said that Voidblade attacked him when he insulted Kinisis. Litvir isn’t a particularly nice Rethan but he is both blunt and honest. I’m concerned you’d attack me if I was honest. I’ve been attacked plenty, and I’m drunk right now and can’t promise that I’d defend myself in a non-lethal manner if you did attack me.”
Moonblade shrugged. “Fair enough. I wouldn’t attack you anyway. You’re a good guy. Damn good warrior as well. As for my real name, you can call me Fengar Selin, but I never really use it. I’ve always been Moonblade.”
“Were you, like, a god of the moon or something?” Akah asked, glancing at his drink, then deciding to take another sip.
“I honestly do not remember much about my pre-Phantai life. I was given the name Moonblade because all my summoned weapons are crescent-shaped and I am coloured like a cold, dead moon, in silver and grey.”
“Huh…” Akah finished off his drink, then carelessly chucked the empty bottle to one side, before pulling a fresh one out from behind him. He sighed though as he realized he had partially frozen the new drink, and struggled to get the lid off. “Anyway, about Kinisis… She… she wasn’t very nice. She was cruel and manipulative but hid it under a fake aura of kindness and friendliness. Last time we saw her, she possessed Galyn and tried to make him kill us all, then she possessed Seimeni and killed her. And that was when we were Decaylings. When we were Divine Guardians, she’d often get physically violent with us, she altered our memories and abused others to clean up her messes. She also liked having ‘projects’, the last of which was Elkay, who she turned from a Divine Guardian into a hybrid mimic or whatever Elkay is now, without his consent. And don’t get me started about what she did to her own children.”
Akah glanced at Moonblade. Moonblade was clearly astonished by this information.
“So… Kinisis was not a good person?”
“I’m pretty sure she’s the reason our universe died.”
Moonblade leaned forward. “She… she killed your universe?”
Akah fell silent, then tutted, taking a large gulp of his drink. “I’ll be honest, I’m not the right person to speak to when it comes to Kinisis. I managed to keep my head down and avoid her hatred, most of the time, since I’ve been a slave most of my life and I know how to act to avoid your owner hurting you. You want to know how bad Kinisis really was? Speak to Retvik and Litvir and ask them to tell you about Arkay.”
“I cannot just go and speak to the Thantir leaders.”
“Of course you can. Sure, Retvik scares me a bit, but he and Litvir are perfectly approachable. The nicest thing about being a member of the Thantir is that we all treat each other as equals, even if we had bad pasts…” Akah seemed to frown, then stared at the label on his drink. His mood had clearly soured and Moonblade wasn’t sure why.
“Are you alright?”
“I don’t like being drunk. Makes me overly open. And, because of my stupid Lanex biology, makes me feel other awkward things too…” Akah trailed off. “It’s weird. If you asked me five years ago what I’d be doing now, I’d never think I’d be sitting on a spaceship in the vast space between universes, celebrating the fact that I helped blow up some sort of mothership full of Voidborn monsters, while waiting for my best friend, who is a Vohra, to sleep off his drunkenness.”
“I take it the last few years have been… rough for you.”
“No, just utterly insane and chaotic…” Akah sighed. “What about you though? What are you going to do now?”
Moonblade fell silent, not expecting a question to be thrown at him like that. “I… I have no idea.”
“None at all?”
“I have always been a Phantai soldier. I don’t remember what it’s like to not be a Phantai soldier. Although it seems weird to continue working for Measureblade and evaluating my fellow Phantai to make sure they are able to fight when there is not much left to fight. This is all… so… odd…”
Akah nodded in agreement. “It really is.”
The Decayling and the Decay Lord both trailed off, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Akah tucked the small console he had been fiddling with into a bag, then pulled out a communicator. He seemed to smile as he packed up his stuff and climbed to his feet.
“Heh. Apparently Litvir has invited us Decaylings to all play a card game with him. I think I’m going to accept his invite. Have a good day, Fengar.”
Moonblade smiled back and waved as Akah left the observatory. “Have a good one too, Akah.”