“Is my darling Helkas going to be okay? Is he…”
Syklas blinked her four bright purple eyes several times as she took a moment to inspect her surroundings. The last time she had asked for help from the tiny team of Decay Lords, they only had one ship, and it was pretty small. But this time round, they’d appeared on a much larger ship, with their own ship and a third, similarly sized ship, docked on top. More curiously, Kal seemed to have picked up some… friends.
“I’m sure Helkas will be fine!” Tah, the friendly red and silver leader, clicked as he approached Syklas and the large, black container that contained her favourite death god. “I apologise for having to push back your appointment, we kinda got attacked by a rather nasty Voidborn and-”
“That’s what happened!” Syklas’s voice went rather high-pitched all of a sudden. “Helkas went outside the universe to deal with an approaching Voidborn and it brutally stabbed him and left! We put him in a stasis pod and called you!” After a quick deep breath, Syklas’s attention was drawn to the large, purple and black armoured Decay Lord by Tah’s side. Sure, Syklas towered over them both, she was a colossal Life Goddess after all, but the reason she always used Kal’s services was because they were so tiny but also very good at what they did, as well as almost completely harmless. At first glance, the Decay Lord didn’t seem too threatening either, but they were still an… anomaly. “You got some… body guards?”
Tah nodded. Behind him, the rest of his team were setting up their apparatus, while being accompanied by what was clearly some sort of former fire god and a Life Goddess that Syklas was pretty sure she recognized from somewhere. The Life Goddess seemed to be annoying the other members of Kal more than she was helping.
“I have a feeling the same Voidborn that attacked you happened to attack us. The Thantir Decay Lords helped us out and we helped them out and now we’re official members, and we’re also training them up in order to do more purification work. In the mean time, they’re offering us a bit of added protection while we work!” Tah turned to the armoured purple Decay Lord. “Syklas, this is Decay Lord Litvir, Litvir, this is Elder Life Goddess Syklas.”
Litvir bowed his head. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Life Goddess Syklas. Please, do not fret, Kal will get your deity back to full health in no time.”
Syklas tilted her head to one side, inspecting the Decay Lord. He seemed young. Too young to be a Decay Lord.
“Hello, Litvir. How long have you been a Decay Lord for?”
Litvir glanced down at Tah, who telepathically suggested that he be honest and answer the question. In hours, preferably.
“Oh, not for the longest amount of time. I would say, approximately 35000 hours.”
“And what services do you offer to Kal?” Syklas had questions. She’d come to Kal quite a few times in the last 10000 hours, but this was the first time they hadn’t come alone. She was curious, more than anything else.
“Currently, transportation and protection, as well as some latent telepathic assistance. The appearance of Ahkron in this sector caused far, far too much damage, and the Thantir simply could not allow Kal to continue their work unattended, especially considering what happened to their ship.”
Syklas eyed the Decay Lord some more. The name ‘Thantir’ sounded familiar, but the last time Syklas had run into them, they were a larger organization and their members also much larger creatures. Sure, Litvir did tower over the six Cleansers, but he was much smaller than Syklas, and the leaders of the Thantir that Syklas had met were her size.
“So what happened to Itaviir?”
Litvir shrugged, deciding to be blunt. “Itaviir temporarily retired and returned to the nearest Deathven sector a while ago. Galyn, our current leader, is currently recovering from an injury, so I am temporarily in charge.”
Syklas allowed herself a small smile. “I like you. You’re honest. Can you now tell me why my niece is working for you?”
The Decay Lord hesitated, then turned around, trying to work out who Syklas was talking about, before turning back to the Life Goddess. “Do you mean Seimeni? She has been working for the Thantir for longer than I have, ever since her last universe faded away.”
“You’re not forcing her to-”
“Of course not! Seimeni wishes to be here. You may ask her yourself, if you do not believe me, but I believe she may be busy assisting Kal right now. Still, Seimeni has been a dedicated member of the Thantir for a while.”
“So why is she not in charge?”
“She does not wish to be in charge.” Litvir glanced at Syklas. “I sense something is wrong. You are not hurt, are you?”
“No. I am on edge. My best guardian is hurt, and I have not felt safe since Kinisis died… And I have just realized why you bother me, Litvir. You are from her universe. So is your little fire god friend over there.” Syklas lowered herself down to Litvir’s level, snarling in his face. “What happened to Kinisis, little Litvir? What did you let happen?”
The Decay Lord hesitated but remained firm. He could feel tendrils of dark energy slowly encroaching. “I let Epani into the Life Oasis, as Kinisis desired. Kinisis specifically informed us that we were to always allow Epani to enter the Life Oasis whenever she wished. It is not my fault that Kinisis did not treat her children well, to the point that they desired to harm her. You though, you are not quite here. Are you sure that your Helkas was not the only being that Ahkron harmed?”
Syklas blinked, then backed down, flicking away the dark energy that she had inadvertently summoned. She then pushed past Litvir and stomped towards where Kal and the other Decay Lords were standing. However, the fiery Decay Lord put itself between Kal and Syklas, clearly protecting them.
“Oh, hello Syklas!” Gah, the blue and silver Cleanser, would have smiled cheerfully if he could as he patted the Decay Lord on the leg. As he spoke, the other Cleansers started moving around, reaching for different equipment. “We just finished with Helkas! Just a little Kenic spore, good work on putting him in stasis, made the extraction nice and easy! Are you well?”
“Do you…” Syklas hesitated. She knew something was wrong. She had… ill intentions. “Do you do checks for Voidborn manipulation?”
“We do, yes!” Koh, the white-painted Cleanser, clicked as he approached, holding some kind of scanning device. “Please, may you, uh, sit down so we can attach these sensors?”
Syklas did as she was asked. While Koh attached the sensors to her head, she noticed that Litvir had approached. Two other beings also exited the ship, a creature that looked like Kal except weirdly organic, and a being that looked like a smaller, yellow and cream coloured version of Litvir. They had a silent conversation with Koh, Leh and Tah. They all then turned to Syklas.
“Syklas, may I place my hand on your head?” Litvir politely asked.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” Litvir did as he said he would, and very gently placed his hand by Syklas’s right eyes. Syklas noticed that Koh and the two smaller beings were all holding Litvir’s other hand, while Tah was now running the scanning device. After a couple of seconds though, Litvir let go, and it felt like a fog had cleared from Syklas’s mind.
Syklas blinked her eyes one at a time, then bowed her head. “I… I feel better now. Thank you. And my apologies for snapping at you, Litvir.”
Litvir bowed in return but didn’t say anything. Instead, everyone moved to one side, revealing Helkas, the skinny, red-plated being with white rings of light running up his body, who had gotten up and was now approaching Syklas. After a moment of hesitation, Helkas grinned, then ran up and wrapped his arms around Syklas, embracing her tightly. Syklas smiled and hugged her child back.
Syklas stood up, still holding her son, and waved at the Decay Lords. “Thank you so much. Your services have been excellent, as always. Now, I must go, we have some holes in our universe that Helkas needs to help fix.”
With that, the Life Goddess and her death god disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.
It took a moment for anyone to speak.
“Good job spotting that, Litvir!” Koh eventually exclaimed. “Seems that Ahkron left a small mental nodule in her mind, to make Syklas want to eventually want to attack any unknown Decay Lords she saw as a threat.”
“Also, good job distracting her while we worked,” Tah added. “We got that done way faster than normal. Actually, good job everyone, you all did great!”
“You seem quite happy…” Litvir grunted.
Tah clicked happily. “Oh, definitely! We’re onto a great thing here, I can’t wait until we’ve properly trained you up, we’re going to make this sector so much safer!”