“Oh no…”
Retvik tutted as he examined the navigation console.
“What’s wrong?” Phovos asked as she steered the ship over a meteor field. Rather than fly through it, they had opted to fly over the meteors, but there was still the odd meteor that needed deflecting.
“I have just realised where we are going…” Retvik rubbed his eyes. “I should have realised sooner.”
“So what is this place?”
Phovos peered over to the navigation console, checking to see if she recognized the location. It was a small, floating island with what seemed like a fine mist and a black, spiky wall surrounding it, and what looked like a single household in the middle. Above were several floating orbs, connected to a glass elevator from within the building.
“We should not be here…” Retvik grunted. “This place was too recently abandoned. Nearly two years ago.”
“How do you know that?” Phovos looked perplexed. Their destination was too far away to see properly, but the model island on navigation looked pretty dead and abandoned.
“Give me a moment, then I will tell you.”
With a sigh, Retvik got up from his chair and exited the cockpit, edging to one side so he could let Elksi and Tenuk pass.
“What’s up with him?” Tenuk asked.
“Are we nearly there yet?” Elksi giggled.
Phovos glanced at them both as they sat down, with Tenuk sitting in Retvik’s empty seat. “I honestly don’t know. He just said that he knows this place. But I don’t know it and I don’t think you two know either.”
Tenuk played with the 3d model on navigation, rotating it a bit before turning it back to normal. “Nope, I don’t have a clue. Looks like a nice place though.”
“Maybe Retvik knows the place from when he was working with Litvir, Kuta and Arkay?” Elksi suggested. “They did do a lot of adventuring until the Boss decided to make his deal with Kinisis!”
Out in the hallway, Retvik listened in on what the rest of the team were discussing. Elksi was right, he did remember this place. A mansion belonging to a Life Goddess, with constant Voidborn beings constantly pestering her. That was why they had gone there, to act as bodyguards while the Life Goddess had worked. Now the place was abandoned, empty and mostly dead. And Retvik knew exactly why.
“So, for serious, how much further is it?” Elksi asked, sitting in the chair behind Phovos. “Do we need our seatbelts yet?”
Phovos glanced at navigation then altered the ship’s direction slightly, moving somewhat downwards, and also decreasing the speed. “We should be able to see the place soon. Look out for some mist and something sparkly.”
The door behind the crew creaked open, and Retvik reappeared.
“You alright?”
“Hmph…” Retvik sounded upset.
“I’ll take that as a no. What’s bothering you?”
Retvik lowered himself into the last seat in the cockpit, sighing to himself.
“Hey Ret, you need to speak to us,” Tenuk demanded. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell us what’s wrong.”
After sighing one last time, Retvik finally spoke up. “This was where Arkay turned into Arkidetelos, killed the Life Goddess living here and went on to destroy the place. Where I disowned Arkay and let them send him away.”
“… Oh…”
“Yes, ‘oh’. It still bothers me a little.”
Phovos glanced over her shoulder to look at Retvik. “Do you want us to turn around or something? Give you some time?”
“No.” Retvik’s answer was strict. “I will get over my feelings, I just need a few more moments to re-digest being back here…” Retvik paused. “At least I know where the valuable things are…”