“Psiksi!”
The voice on the other end of the communicator was almost as squeaky as Psiksi’s own voice.
“Eksi! How you doing?”
Psiksi hadn’t been expecting any phone calls for a bit. Especially since the power was a bit flimsy. They’d had multiple power cuts over the last few days, and Psiksi was certain that the cause was a monster going around knocking down power lines. Luckily, telecommunications were always available, due to being satellite-based.
“Oh I’m doing amazing! I’ve been practising making weaponry as part of my blacksmithing studies and I thought you’d be the perfect test subject for my next project!”
Eksi was always the sort of just jump straight into things. It used to be that he was the quietest of Psiksi’s siblings, but ever since they were relieved of their duties as Ksa and he’d been able to do what he always wanted to do, Eksi was basically a brand new Rethan. That and having a boyfriend had really turned him around.
“Your next project?” Psiksi asked. One of the lights were flickering. Maybe the power was about to go again. “What are you making?”
“I’ve got to make a whole armour set as part of my course, but I’m allowed to practise on individual pieces and do smaller projects to prepare for the final. Since you’re doing that fight-y arena-y sort of thing, I thought you’d appreciate an awesome sword. Like, a pretty one that you can actually use to fight with too. How is the fighting thingy by the way?”
Psiksi hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether to tell Eksi the whole story. But after a second thought, he decided to. After all, Eksi wasn’t the sort of person to go telling everyone everything one would say.
“Well it started off fine, then it got really good, but then there was some Cassid thing and now the DBA’s shut down, because the Cassid government has to investigate the area or something like that. So I’m like, not getting paid much and am just sitting around. Luckily Kass has some equipment I can train with but still, it’s annoying.”
“Oh, I heard about that!” Eksi’s excitement echoed down the line. “I heard it was a big monster they made.”
“That’s the rumour.”
“Just a rumour?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been indoors for what feels like an eternity…” Psiksi sighed. “Sorry, I don’t want to bring you down. How are you?”
“I am absolutely brilliant!” Eksi squealed down the line. “Like, seriously! Alright Thitaksi and Arksi went to work with the Θ-Class folks and I’m living this awesome life, and I have a partner now who loves me dearly and it’s all… it’s all amazing. I honestly think my only complaint is that Teekay’s a bit of a workaholic, but really he’s softening up too. I bought him this stuffed arkoud the other day and he loved it. And I know he’s changing because yesterday he mentioned something about a holiday. Turning points!”
“That’s really good to hear!” Psiksi was both pleased and impressed. He’d never heard Eksi sounding so happy. “If you decide to go on holiday, you could come to Portalia and we could meet up some- oh… Oh piss.”
“What?”
“The power just went off again.”
Eksi seemed not at all bothered. “Don’t worry brother! It’ll come back soon!”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just annoying.”
“Yeah… But that means I can talk to you about the sword I’m gonna make you!”
Psiksi perked up. “Can it be a greatsword? I always wanted a greatsword. I mean, the DBA’s going to be providing me with weapons but they always want me using a sword and shield or a gunstaff and that’s boring.”
“Oooh! I’d love to make one of those! A broad one, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Silver and black?”
“Yeah.”
“And a leather-bound handle?”
“Sounds cool.”
Psiksi could hear scratching as Eksi began writing all of this down.
“You want a sleek, smooth motif? Or I was thinking something like the fancy dragon blade things we got in the post?”
“Oh…” Psiksi had forgotten about that. The unknown Macromera present he’d gotten, the fancy dagger with a Thraki-like design on it, and his name carved into the blade. Apparently all four of them, Psiksi, Eksi, Arksi and Thitaksi, they’d all gotten one. And Arksi said they were super rare and expensive, so he’d kept it in the leather wrappings it came in. “You know what? Actually, nah. I already got a bunch of Thraki-like stuff. I may be fighting in a Thanatian-run arena, but I’m still a proud Rethan!”
More scratching could be heard. Eksi was sketching something.
“Cool! I got a ton of ideas already! I’ll draw them up and send them to you, see what you think!”
“Awesome!” Psiksi smiled.
“Ooooh! Teekay got back! I’ll call you later!” Eksi beamed. “Thanks for chatting!”
“Always good speaking to you, brother!”
“Hope the power comes back! Baiiii!”
The line went silent. Psiksi grinned as he put his communicator away. Even though the power was off, chatting with Eksi had cheered him up immensely.
With a final smile, Psiksi decided to cook some dinner while he waited for the power to come back on. After all, there was always time for work and stuff later…