“Hey, Arcbearer, kiddo, you busy?”
Arcbearer sighed as he looked up from his work. He was currently holding a bucket and a sponge, in the middle of cleaning gunk off a ship. The ship was parked outside the Shifting Bastards Inn, which was unofficially the main base of the Ekthris, and Arcbearer spent most of his time there, cleaning and maintaining the Ethris’s fleet. Considering that the Ekthris consisted of about 40 Decay Lords, each one having their own private ship, it was a lot of work.
Standing in front of him was Ignasi, codename Voltshift, one of the Exalted Shifters and the leaders of the Ekthris.
“Ah… hello, Voltshift…” Arcbearer muttered. “Do you need me?”
“Kinda. It’s more Tahnaiious is in need of things, and a cute little Beh’en like you should be able to help.”
“Oh…” Arcbearer didn’t like the sound of that sentence in any way. But since he was the lowest member of the Ekthris, he didn’t really have any say in, well, anything. “Can I finish what I am doing first, ser? This ship is dirty and I need to have it cleaned and ready to go before our shifts start tomorrow.”
“Yeah, sure, you can finish that off!” Ignasi had no real visible emotions, but his tone was chirpy. Arcbearer had problems with judging sometimes. “You got an hour, then come in and speak to Tahnaiious.”
“Is he in the pub again?”
“He is, yep.”
“And… what does Mimicblade want from me?”
Ignasi shrugged. “No clue. He didn’t mention anything in particular. Anyway, crack on, you got work to do.”
Arcbearer did his best to not sigh too loudly and went back to cleaning. Ignasi turned invisible then sped off. For a moment, Arcbearer wondered if his boss was still around, but he swiftly remembered that Ignasi had a very short attention span. If it wasn’t for the other two leaders keeping him in line, Ignasi would have probably done something done a long time ago.
Now the coast was clear, Arcbearer sighed properly and quickly finished up his job, then headed into the inn to wash himself down. Most of the Ekthris did live inside their private ships, but what Arcbearer had been found in wasn’t flightworthy in the slightest. So he lived at the Shifting Bastards Inn all the time, in a small side room on the top floor.
Admittedly, Arcbearer wasn’t sure why the Ekthris kept him around. They had only found him a few year-strings ago, trapped inside the wreckage of an unknown ship, clinging on for dear life, a massive cut across the side of his face and very clear head trauma. The Ekthris had assumed that he was an adolescent Beh’evok, but Arcbearer was never sure. There had been nothing in the wreckage that seemed to match Beh’evok architecture and Arcbearer’s armour didn’t seem like normal Beh’en armour either. Not that there had been much of it left. All of Arcbearer’s fabric clothing had burnt off. The only identifying thing to survive on Arcbearer’s body was a broken silver wrist band with the number 606 and the letters TK-DE.
Arcbearer could only remember a few things about his pre-Decay Lord life. A name that wasn’t his, someone who had been in charge, and what they were doing, their duties. He didn’t even know his own name, but he was aware that the nickname folks gave him, Teekay, was ill-fitting for his kind. But out in the Void, he had been found by the Ekthris, trained to become a Decay Lord under the Alsyr then handed back to the Ekthris, because they didn’t deal with Decaylings.
Thinking back hurt, so Arcbearer stopped thinking about himself and picked up the pace. Arcbearer washed himself down quickly, then put on some clean armour and made his way down to the Shifting Bastards Inn’s main focus, the dark, seductive pub. The Shifting Bastard Inn was owned by Tahnaiious, but he mostly farmed out the running of the pub to several underlings, all higher, older members of the Ekthris. Tahnaiious himself had a corner in the pub where he watched over things and spent a long time managing communications and sending Ekthris out to the right places, and most of the time, he had a large jug of beer on him. That being said, Tahnaiious had gone off to do things outside of the sect lately, and he’d been happier since his return.
As Arcbearer approached, he bowed somewhat. Tahnaiious, codename Mimicblade, didn’t notice at first. Sure, he was in charge, but he didn’t care much about hierarchy. He glugged down his drink and only spotted Arcbearer as he put the jug down and refilled it with a hose he kept nearby.
“Ah! Kiddo!” Tahnaiious grinned. “How are you?”
“Normal. Same as always.”
“Working hard?”
“Yes, ser.”
Tahnaiious patted a seat next to him. “Come sit down. I want to talk.”
“Have I done something wrong?” Arcbearer immediately asked.
“Not at all!” Tahnaiious beamed. “Tell me, kiddo, when was the last time you took a break?”
Arcbearer thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I do not think I have taken a break. Why are you asking me?”
Tahnaiious leaned forward, smiling ominously. “Well, I think you need one. I like to make sure all my staff have time off work, and you haven’t taken one yet. So I’ve planned a trip for you.”
“I… I do not follow.”
I’m heading into the Kinigian Wilderness and the Ventra Expanse in order to see some old friends of mine. And I’m taking you with me.”
“Uh… why?”
“I need a designated driver. And I also have some… curious thoughts about you. Thoughts we are going to explore together.”
Arcbearer leaned back. “I… I am not interested in… anything like that…”
“I don’t want to fuck you, if that’s what you’re thinking!” Tahnaiious tutted. “You ain’t had a break in a long time. I’m combining jobs by giving you a break and also having you be my designated driver, because you’re lame and don’t drink. And maybe we’ll meet some interesting folks.”
“Oh. I see. When are we going?”
Tahnaiious went back to smiling. “Next ev. I gotta clear my schedules a bit first, and we gotta wait until Yatre is back. In the mean time, get some rest, alright? Your shift’s over. Go take a break.”
Arcbearer sighed, then stood up and bowed. “Thank you, ser.”
“No worries. Now fuck off. I got work to do.”