Atuho, the Imperator of the Vast Sands, wasn’t normally considered a particularly menacing Lanex. If anything, most people thought Atuho was a little too friendly. Which was why he dealt with external affairs, and problems with other races. Most Lanex didn’t quite mesh socially with the rest of the Twelve, and a lot of folks weren’t fans of the alternate names the Lanex had for them. Atuho though was diplomatic enough to avoid all that. But that may have been why he, of all people, was meeting up with a member of the Perpetual Abyss, the outcast Lanex tribe that refused to cooperate with the other seven Lanex tribes.
The location was very relaxed though. Atuho had been busy lately, and wanted to be comfortable in what could have been a very uncomfortable meeting, so, after he’d heard about the Perpetual Abyss’s request, he arranged to make use of a fancy lounge room in a Builders’ hotel. Atuho spent a LOT of time dealing with the Builders, the Lanex were somewhat indebted to them, but the nearby Guardian hotels were a bit bleak and boring. There WAS a Trickster hotel nearby, but that was triple the price and also too small – the average Lanex was 2.2m tall, compared to Tricksters being 1.2m tall.
“Hello, Imperator…” Aster muttered as he bowed. He only had two allies with him, compared to the small army following Atuho around. And, worryingly, both Aster’s allies and Atuho’s guards were all outside the room. The room itself was rather comfy and small, just two sofas and a coffee table. “I… did not expect to be meeting you…”
“Well, you are a Crown Guard of the Perpetual Abyss, and we don’t exactly get along, little one. Still, this seems important. Please, take a seat. I won’t bite.”
Aster did as he was told, then opened up his personal computer. “It is, Imperator. I have… data that you need to look at. Because we don’t know what the data is in its entirety, and we are concerned. Yes, I know the Perpetual Abyss are willing outcasts, we look after ourselves and keep to ourselves, but there comes a point where we cannot do everything alone.”
“Figures… Still, you seem pretty spooked. Thought you kiddos would have run to the Builders or the Tricksters before coming back to us.”
“Actually…” Aster stuttered. “We are planning to send our data and warnings to everyone. But it’d be immoral not to talk to our kin first. Even if we are not friends in any way.”
Atuho looked Aster up and down. He seemed young. A little too young. He’d barely even started customizing his own armour, and his black mask was a Vo-Auu, a Perpetual Abyss variant of the default Auu that most young Lanex wore before they designed their own masks. Like all Perpetual Void Lanex, Aster painted his main plating white and red, with gold trims, matching the colours of his blessed Allmaker, and kept himself covered with a hooded black cloak with red edges.
“I do appreciate you coming forth, Aster. I do have a question for you though, before we start.”
“Yes, Imperator?”
Atuho clicked in vague annoyance. “You can call me Atuho. May I call you Aster?”
Aster nodded. “Of course.”
“Good. Now, little one, I would like to know, are you Of Choice or Of Birth?”
“Um… Of Birth.”
“I see…” Atuho trailed off. “Alright. So. What is the problem?”
Aster hesitated, not sure why Atuho had asked that question, but he put that to one side and tapped away at his laptop, opening all the information up on a website Aster had prepared in advance.
“You know the… event at the Great Arena, where our Blessed Allmaker was hurt?”
Atuho nodded. “Of course. That was quite concerning, but the gods worked together and the day was won.”
“Yes, well… we think something similar is approaching the universe, from the north-western universal boundary. A ‘Corruption’, as the Archivists have called it. These Corruptions attempt to, well, corrupt and consume organic matter. The Alltime and the Allender normally deal with these things before they come into contact with mortals like us, and they have been constantly patrolling for a while. The Alltime in particular has almost permanently been in Lanex territories.”
Aster turned his computer around and showed everything to Atuho. He had tried to make everything as clear and concise as possible, because he wasn’t sure how much non-Perpetual Abyss Lanex knew.
Atuho began to scan the screen, but the first thing he did was note the URL of the website and take a photo of the page, using the camera-scanner on the eye piece on his mask. He then made a series of clicks and taps, which silently emailed the photo to a predetermined contact. Atuho clicked once more, then started reading the page properly. As he did so, he got more and more concerned.
“So… according to this… Hm… The White Unknown wasn’t very big, not much larger than a female Temthan, but your data suggests that this Permablack Corruption is utterly colossal…”
“Yes. From what we have observed, by peering through the outer veil, the central mass is about the size of a planet. Perhaps larger. The outer veil could be as large as an entire solar system. But these are very rough estimates though, we don’t have stable telescopes to make accurate measurements. The bigger fear is that, since all of Lanex territory is within this corner of the universe, we would be the first to be harmed should the gods not intervene in time.”
“I see…”
Admittedly, Atuho wasn’t really sure what he was looking at. That was why he sent the URL to someone who knew better. While he waited for the voice in his ear to get back to him with more information, Atuho decided to ask Aster a few questions about himself. After all, Atuho hadn’t spoken to a Lanex of the Perpetual Abyss in person for a long time.
“It is… worrying, yes? Am I right to be concerned?”
“I don’t know for sure…” Atuho glanced at Aster. “You seem more concerned than most.”
“I don’t want people getting hurt.”
“Do you follow Perpetual Abyss paths out of want, need, tradition or blindness?”
Aster blinked, not expecting that question. “Uh, what do you mean by blindness?”
Atuho tilted his head to one side in curiosity. “Normally, you follow a tribal path because you want to, you need to, or because of traditions, due to family and friends. I do my duties as Imperator of the Vast Sands because I need to, because I believe I am best suited for this job. But some people follow a tribal path because they don’t know better. They are blind to their own reasons.”
“Oh…” Aster thought about the question some more. “Well… sadly, I was going to say tradition, but I guess I am blind to my own reasons. The Perpetual Abyss is all I know.”
“Do you ever wonder what it would be like under another path?”
“Sometimes. It isn’t fun being an outcast. I wonder what it’d be like if we all were one united society again, if the Perpetual Abyss weren’t… afraid to talk to others.”
“Well, I’ll be blunt, we’re all just waiting for you to make the first step. The elders of the Perpetual Abyss like to think the door to unity has always been shut, but that door can be opened again, if you are willing.”
“R-really?” Aster’s eyes lit up.
“Of course!” Atuho smiled. “Sure, Kua and Athu are stubborn, but Kama and I both believe we can have an eighth seat at the table. And, amazingly, Akah too would be accepting of the Perpetual Abyss, if only so he can stop having to have an entire division dedicated to keeping an eye on your idiot leaders. Wena and Tau might be harder to convince, but there is a chance, if you change your leadership…”
Atuho’s smile completely faded away. He was getting an urgent phone call.
“Do I need to leave?” Aster asked.
“No, no. But I do need to take this…” Atuho grunted as he stood up and tapped a button on his mask, to activate his earpiece and speaker. “Akah, dear friend, what is wrong? I was just talking about you!”
“Is the servant of the Perpetual Abyss still there?” As always, the Imperator of the Frozen Scythes was straight to the point.
“Of course. We are still talking.”
“I need you to get them to send everything to both Kama and myself, right now.”
“Uh… sure…” Atuho turned back to Aster. “Do you have all of your data in a transferable format?”
“Yes.”
Atuho quickly opened up a notepad on Aster’s computer and typed in two email addresses. “Akah asks you to send all of your data to these two mail accounts. Can you do that, please? You can use Transfernex if the files are large.”
Aster immediately did as he was told. Satisfied, Atuho returned to his call.
“Is something genuinely wrong, Akah?”
“Yes. I need you to contact General Hasvik of the 9th Legion and Vinicius Melanthios of the Torr Cabinet, and request as many spare transport ships as they can muster. As soon as possible. I am already in correspondence with the newly founded 1044th Legion and the 10th and 11th Legions, and am also trying to arrange temporary housing and facilities on Phantok and Nikah.”
“Uh…” Atuho was rather shocked at what he was being told. “Why?”
“I am calling for an evacuation of planet Matai. Whatever this thing is, it is heading straight for us.”
“Oh… Alright, dear Akah, I’ll put on my nice voice and get this all sorted. Thanks for letting me know, nice and quick…”
“Of course.”
As always, Akah closed the call without saying goodbye, but Atuho understood why. Once more, he turned back to Aster, who had only caught part of that conversation.
“I take it… things are bad…” Aster stuttered.
“Very bad, yes. I know you Perpetual Abyssians don’t normally accept advice, but this time, I want you to listen. Get off Epanasa, get your ships away from the Northern Corner, and head to the nearest neutral world. Turns out, your data was good, but your predictions were far too… slow.”
Aster frowned. But Atuho put a hand on his shoulder.
“I should have stepped forward sooner.”
“You should, but you weren’t to know. I am thankful you stepped forward at all… Unfortunately, I really must go, I have… a lot of work ahead of me…”
“Sure… Thank you…”
Atuho patted Aster on the back, then lead him out of the room, doing his best to hide his concerns.
“Stay safe, Aster.”
“You too, Imperator…”