“So why are you here?”
Ksatah’s question had caught Arkay off guard. Both of them, as well as their fellow friends Kalis and Vetal, were playing a video game together. They were all located in different apartments, using voice chat, since they weren’t really allowed outside.
“Me?” Arkay asked.
“Yeah, you.”
“Why are you asking?”
Before Ksatah could reply, Vetal interrupted with his own opinions. “The three of us here are Decaylings. But you are a fully-fledged Decay Lord, with a certificate and everything.”
Arkay still wasn’t sure how to respond. “Do you mean how I ended up here with you three?”
“Yes.”
“What makes it even more weird is that technically Arkay sent me here!” Kalis suddenly perked up. “We had a fight, horrible things happened and I was sent here for rehabilitation. Which, thankfully, is actually working.”
“You two knew each other before this?” Ksatah exclaimed. “How?”
“Arkay and the Decay Lords he was with, they ran into my… old master. Helped me kill him.”
“But how did Arkay end up here as well?” Ksatah repeated himself. “Makes no sense, since you are a Decay Lord.”
“And a hybrid,” Vetal added. “They really like keeping us hybrids under control. We’re a dangerous bunch. But Arkay, you seemed to escape that for a bit.”
Arkay sighed, then decided to explain. “The simple answer is that I killed a Life Goddess who was pressuring me into doing some sort of ritual with her. The more complicated answer is that I have always been an unstable mess, and that Life Goddess pushed me over the edge.”
There was a brief pause in the voice chat. Eventually though, someone spoke.
“You really don’t seem like a killer…” Ksatah muttered.
“I’m a former death god, I’ve killed plenty.”
“Actually, this all makes more sense now…” Vetal lowered his voice a bit. “We are hybrids. One of the few entities that can outright kill Life Goddesses. The best and worst of both life and death. We’ve all threatened or harmed other beings, so they want to keep us all in one place.”
“It makes sense, but I don’t know why you and Ksatah are here either…” Arkay tutted. “Unless you both killed Life Goddesses too.”
“Killed people? Maybe. Killed Life Goddesses? No, not at all…” Vetal grunted. “I’m not that soaked in blood. Sure, I ended up murdering part of a Voidborn army after they destroyed my universe, but they, uh, managed to capture me and…” Vetal trailed off. “Well, I was saved by some Decay Lords and they sent me here.”
Ksatah lowered his voice too. “I was being kept as a slave by a couple of Life Goddesses running a blood sport. I was saved by Decay Lords too, but I… was made to kill a lot of beings as well…”
Arkay took a deep breath. “Seems we all have troublesome pasts…”
“Yeah, but at least it’s better here!” Kalis chirped. “Sure, we’re kept in our own little space, but-”
“Do you ever feel you are being kept prisoner?” Vetal butted in. “They do control most of our lives.”
“We’re playing video games right now, Vetal!” Ksatah exclaimed. “Things are pretty good right now…”
Ksatah trailed off for a moment, then tapped the lamp on his desk, which had flickered oddly. Ksatah then checked his headphones. The call had briefly disconnected, then reconnected again.
“Did you all see that?” Arkay immediately asked. “The flash, the power going off and on again?”
“Yeah.”
“Was weird.”
“Don’t like it.”
“Does that normally happen?”
“Occasionally…” Kalis muttered. “It’s been happening a lot more recently…”
Vetal growled. “It’s really annoying. We should speak up about it in the morning.”
“Yeah…” Arkay agreed. “I just hope it’s not something bad.”
“Oh I doubt it!” Ksatah shrugged. “Probably just like a loose wire or something.”
“Probably, yeah…” Kalis trailed off. “Nothing we can really do about it right now. We’ll get some answers in the morning…”