Orthon clapped his hands with glee as his soldiers finished the last few decorative touches on the massive hall. Everything had been delicately decorated with a vast array of beautiful golden ornaments, freshly re-planted fir trees, meters upon meters of sparkly lights and more tinsel than was probably necessary. It was all probably a bit too much, but it was necessary in Orthon’s eyes. He wanted this Macromera banquet to be absolutely perfect. After all, this was the first the High General had hosted in a long, long time.
It wasn’t so much that the tradition had been put away, quite the opposite. When High General Elkay was in power, he seemed to prefer much smaller, far less extravagant banquets. He’d rather travel from Legion to Legion, offering various nice foods. General Rethais continued that tradition when High General Elkay was… uh…
Orthon trailed off for a moment, trying to remember what had happened to the old High General. Elkay wasn’t exactly very old. In fact, he was younger than Orthon himself. For some reason though, Orthon’s mind was blank. This happened quite a lot. Probably too much. Ever since they got a new High General, Lord Kenon, Orthon’s memories had been… off. Although, speaking of General Kenon…
“You are still here?” the High General asked as he ducked under the doorway, his antlers nearly scraping its edge. Trailing behind the Void Lord was a floating platform, powered by magical technologies that Orthon didn’t understand. There were a huge amount of things that Orthon didn’t understand, but he was generally too busy and not interested enough to ask.
“Of course, High General!”
“I need this room emptied.”
“Of course!” Orthon beamed, before turning to his soldiers, clicking his tongue loudly. Immediately, all his soldiers turned to face him. “You are all dismissed, go have yourselves a nice rest!”
As requested, the ten Rethans still loitering around filed out of the room, ignoring the magical platform floating behind Kenon, all oblivious to the strange, covered thing that was on it. Orthon realized that he also hadn’t noticed the contents of the floating platform, which Kenon was now pulling into the room and placing in the room’s centre.
“I need you to go as well, Orthon.”
Orthon paused. “Why, Ser?”
“I need to put the final touches on this centerpiece I made. I do not want anyone seeing it until it is ready.”
Orthon blinked several times. “Why not?”
“Because I want it to be a surprise. For everyone, not just my guests…” Kenon explained. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“I asked two questions, High General. I just want to make this Macromera feast perfect. Been too long since we had a big one.”
Kenon glanced at Orthon. “What do you mean by that?”
“I could not say, Ser. Memory is fuzzy. Has been for ages, ever since you took over.”
“Do you know why your memories are fuzzy?”
Orthon shrugged. “Whatever you did to control us into being your servants, most likely. It completely and utterly fucked with our brains, and the smarter Generals have produced studies on how the Rethan population is legitimately stupider because of it. Myself included.”
The Void Lord eyed Orthon some more, then tutted to himself. “I will have to fix that after the festivities…”
“You can make us smart again?” Orthon’s eyes widened. “Because I would love to be able to hold proper conversations again.”
Kenon smiled, then patted Orthon on the head. “Yes, of course I can. Let me just get this centerpiece sorted out, then we can… discuss this together…”