“When you said “flying lessons”, I thought we were going to learn how to fly a ship or something!” Tanos exclaimed as he and his fellow Decaylings all lined up in front of Elkay and Saahro.
“Flying a ship?” Ret laughed hesitantly. “Kuta does not even have a driving license.”
“To be fair, most Rethans do not have a driving license…” Kuta tutted. “But, admittedly, I did not have a drivers’ license in my first life either…”
“That is fine!” Elkay smiled kindly. “While yes, later on, we will give you ship flying lessons, right now, we need to refine your Decayling abilities. And one of the most useful abilities is movement in the air, some form of flight.”
Phovoula glanced around, then crossed her arms and snarled. “How the fuck am I supposed to fly? How are any of us supposed to fly? I mean, apart from Thassalin, because he’s a fucking Thraki. And Tanos can shapeshift… I don’t know about the rest of us!”
“Not all of the Thantir have access to wing-based flight, but we all try to have some form of advanced movement!” Elkay explained some more. “Teekay cannot fly, but he can teleport. Kaytee is the same. Eksi has weak telepathy which allows him to levitate, Litvir does the same, and Retvik uses bursts of high heat to get himself airborne. Today, the plan is to help you all work out your own forms of higher mobility.”
“Does shadowjumping count?” Kayel asked. “Because I’ve always been able to do that. Before Arkay accidentally made me immortal.”
“Oh?” Elkay seemed curious. “How did you get your shadow powers?”
“About 1% of the Skyavok population has shadow powers, as part of the Silent Blade’s blessing and our elemental affinity. I was a Phantasma, the best of the best, and was trained to be an assassin. Every race had an elemental affinity, but I’m pretty sure us Skyans got the best one.” Kayel paused briefly. “Actually, speaking of elemental affinities, that probably explains why I got fire and ice powers too. I got the powers of the three races Arkay was the protector deity of. Tenuk got the elements Kairos believed were his, Retvik got the Panelix’s favourite elements and Nyssi got the powers of Sini’s chosen races.”
“I see…” Elkay didn’t really see, but he wanted to move things along. “For now, what we want to do is just get off the ground. For more than just a simple jump.”
“Actually, I have a quick question!” Nyssi suddenly raised her hand. “How comes there’s gravity here? This place isn’t that large, it doesn’t have nearly a large enough mass for it to have gravity close to the gravity a planet or even a moon would have!”
“That… is a really good question, one I do not have an answer to…” Elkay frowned. “Either way, do any of you have an idea of how to get airborne in any way?”
Immediately, Thassalin, who was currently in a winged-Temthan-like draconic form, flapped his wings and hovered on the spot. “Yes.”
“Can you do that without your wings?” Elkay asked.
Thassalin stopped flapping his wings, but remained in place, using his generic Time Drake powers. “Yes.”
“Alright then…” Elkay turned to everyone else. “How about the rest of you?”
Talok and Kuta both glanced at each other, then used their telekinesis to get themselves airborne. Tanos considered shapeshifting, but changed his mind and summoned a current of air that lifted him up. Surprisingly, Ret was the next person to lift himself into the air, and he did so with ease, to the point that he showed off and started floating cross-legged.
“Gravity powers do make this somewhat easy!” Ret smiled.
Nyssi and Kayel both took a moment longer. Nyssi worked out that she could use her telepathy too, but Kayel found himself lost in thought. His first attempt at making a floating ice platform didn’t quite work out, so instead he used concentrated bursts of flame to lift himself up. Kayel’s flight was far less stable than everyone else, but he was at least airborne.
Phovoula however had no idea what to do. She remained on the ground, tutting angrily.
“Do you need help, Kyr Raptor?” Ret politely offered, changing his position so he was lying seductively, to make Kuta snicker.
“I have no fucking clue how you can help me.”
“I think I can alter gravity around other people, not just myself.”
Phovoula tutted again, with genuine fury. That anger only got worse as Ret smiled some more, swished his clawed fingers and made Phovoula float about 10cm off the ground. The Raptor growled, and Ret immediately dropped her back down.
“Fuck off.”
Ret stood back up properly. “I was just trying to be nice.”
Phovoula didn’t apologize and instead turned to Elkay. “How comes I’m the only fucker who can’t fly?”
“Advanced mobility is not just flight, and it comes in many forms. Kayel here can shadowjump, my wife can teleport, and Akah does not have any obvious advanced mobility at all until he makes ice slides everywhere. That being said, you are a Voidborn, I do believe telekinesis is a typical Voidborn ability.”
“Kyr Elkay, I have a question, that is only semi-related to this topic…” Kuta admitted. “Why is Kyr Phovoula a Voidborn? Talok and I are standard Decayons, Thassalin has always been a Time Drake, and those four are… half-Synaisthyns, because Arkay deified them. But Phovoula’s Periuniversal Void Entity Type is different.”
“It’s because I was conceived while the Life Serpent was technically dead, and the fucking Space Whale kidnapped my mum from a Lanex hospital and made it so I was born outside the fucking universe!” Phovoula snapped. “Made me into a freak!”
“Phovoula, dear,” Elkay did his best to try and calm things down. “Out here, we are all freaks. But, in all honesty, you are a Voidborn, yes, but you are not a freak.”
“Theocydes thought I was weird because I have a vagina.”
“Perhaps, but there are billions of Voidborns in the multiverse. Even if only 0.1% of all Voidborns are female, that means there are millions of female Voidborns out there.”
“How many Synaisthyn thingies are there?” Nyssi asked.
“As far as Deathven is aware, three!” Saahro answered in Elkay’s place. “Arkay and Elkay are the only known registered Decay Lord Synaisthyns, and there is a third one called Vryda who has eluded capture for three year-strings.”
“Four, if what Arkay said is true and Panthon is alive…” Elkay added.
Saahro gave Elkay a funny look, but decided to alter the subject. “While there aren’t really any Decay Lords who are pure Voidborns like you, Phovoula, there are a handful of Voidborn and Decayon hybrids who definitely are Decay Lords, and there’s also a small Voidborn cult allied with Deathven.”
“While we are asking questions, I have a very awkward one…” Ret’s confidence suddenly faded. “If, just as an example, Kuta and I had an egg, would that egg hatch into a Voidborn because it was born outside a universe? Or would it be a Decayon? Or would it be a one-quarter Synaisthyn?”
Elkay raised a finger, lowered it, tried to think of an answer, then turned to Saahro, only to realize that Saahro had no idea either. “Uh… I… I will ask Vikalos about that… But to go back to Phovoula for a moment, it is worth pointing out that you can manipulate the Void itself. The same way a Life Goddess tells the Void what to do, the same way I have to tell myself what to do so I do not, uh, explode, Phovoula, you need to tell the Void what to do. And since you are part of the Void as well, I guess telling yourself that you can levitate will give you the power to do so.”
Phovoula stared at Elkay as if he was insane, but after a moment of thought, calmed down, shrugged and decided to just do as Elkay suggested. She closed her eyes, growled to herself and muttered under her breath.
“I can levitate.”
Amazingly, when Phovoula opened her eyes, she was doing just that, floating a few centimetres off the ground.
“Ey!” Nyssi cheered. “You did it, sis!”
Phovoula grunted, told herself to stop hovering and straightened herself out. “I guess I did.”
“Indeed!” Elkay smiled. “Dear, out of all of us, you have the potential to be the fourth most powerful person here.”
Saahro nodded in agreement. “You’re a baby Voidborn, but, like, Voidborns are stupidly powerful. The only thing that trumps them are Life Goddesses and the fact that Elkay and Arkay are fucked up monstrosities.”
“I am not that bad.”
“No, but Eksi is totally right when he says you have too many bullshit powers.”
Elkay found he couldn’t really argue against that. Instead, he lifted himself into the air with his own demonic wings and flew off over the lake. Mimicking some ice and psionic powers, Elkay then made a series of large, floating ice rings, creating a silly racing and obstacle course for the Decaylings.
“Oh come on, I literally just worked out how to get off the fucking ground!” Phovoula hissed.
“Eh, don’t worry!” Kayel shrugged. “You’ll get the hang of it. Plus, this might be fun.”
Saahro grunted, then gestured to the pier at the other end of the beach. “Of course. In the mean time, while Elkay shows off his mimicking powers, you lot can start practising. I want you all to get to the pier, without touching the ground. We’ll do a few practice runs, but fastest wins. I will time you. And Thassalin, no cheating by manipulating time.”
The Decaylings all glanced at each other and most of them darted off. However, Phovoula, Tanos and Kayel remained in place.
“I hate this.”
“It’s alright. We can practice!” Kayel was optimistic, but he quickly turned to Tanos. “You’re not racing, mate?”
“Heh…” Tanos lowered his voice. “That’s what’s funny. You can shadowjump. And I’m pretty sure Phovoula can teleport, same way I can. Pretty sure it’s a Voidborn power. That Theocydes guy teleported away when he left.”
Phovoula blinked, then started thinking to herself. “Huh… Well… time to experiment, I guess…”