For a brief moment, Litvir felt completely safe as Retvik wrapped his arms around him. As the Flamebearer let go though, that feeling completely vanished, and Litvir was swiftly reminded of his present location: a slaver ship full of dead beings.
“What happened, are you alright?”
“In all honesty? Not at all…” Litvir sighed, glancing around the room. Retvik had come looking for him through the crowds of former slaves, many of whom were marching down towards the hanger. Those that had reunited the quickest were already taking ships and leaving. The atmosphere was eerily calm and patient, despite the carnage that had transpired.
“Did you find Arkay?”
“Yes. He did all of this.”
“All of it?”
Litvir frowned. “He mimicked my psionic prowess then amplified it all. Every vok here is just following his mental echoes to remain calm, find each other and then leave. Good thing there are a lot of now empty ships here, I guess.”
Retvik put a gentle hand on Litvir’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk?”
“Not here. Not in the open. I want to find Galyn and-”
“Galyn is by the ship, waiting for us while he helps other vok sort themselves out. He sent me to find you and Arkay, as he assumed we would have… problems with him.”
Litvir grunted, brushing off Retvik’s hand, then turned around, retracing his steps. He had admittedly not gotten very far, mostly because, despite his injuries being healed, Litvir felt sore all over. It made sense though, considering how he had been nearly beaten to death.
Retvik swiftly followed, keeping a stern eye on Litvir and his rather strained movement. The pair stepped over dead bodies that littered the various hallways as they made their way back to the main control room. However, the control room was rather… tidy. The bodies had all been pushed to one side, clearing some space to walk on. Floating in the middle of it was Arkay, staring off out of the large, glass window pane.
“Arkay!” Retvik did his best to be perky. “Are you alright? That is some… cool-looking armour you are wearing!”
Arkay muttered a thank you, his eyes not straying from the view outside.
“Are you going to come back to the ship?” Retvik asked, not sure whether to approach or not. “You seem like you are… waiting for something.”
“I’m just waiting for everyone else to sort themselves out and leave, so I can set this infernal ship to autopilot and fly it into a sun or something.”
“Oh that makes sense-” Retvik paused as he heard footsteps pattering behind him. Both he and Litvir turned around to see a familiar face, plus three unfamiliar faces. “Oh, hello little Retvik.”
The small, yellow, electrifying being waved gleefully. “Heya! We were about to leave but I wanted you guys to meet the rest of my firesquad! Guys, these are Retvik and Litvir, they were the ones who helped us riot!”
Litvir and Retvik eyed each of the beings in turn.
“Uh, hello…” Litvir grunted. “We did not really succeed in anything though. Arkay was the one who killed everything.”
The other three beings waved too. Arkay glanced at them briefly, then tutted. As he did so, the small group of beings immediately turned to leave.
“Nice meeting you! Hope to see you around some day!”
Litvir and Retvik both waited until they had all left, then both rather angrily turned to Arkay.
“What was that for?”
“I need them gone. I need everyone gone.”
“Because you are suicidal due to your actions, you plan on killing yourself and do not want us to see?” Litvir asked, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, basically…” Arkay admitted rather abruptly. “I heard Retvik and Galyn talking. We’re going to Deathven because our time out here has been a shit show. We’re going to the one place you all said was a bad place for me, a place where I’d be locked away or lost in red tape and would otherwise suffer. Because I’m a fucking freak with powers beyond my control and nowhere near enough responsibility for my actions. I’d rather go out in one final blast of glory, after having killed a bunch of evil bastards, than be imprisoned forever because I’m different.”
“So you are going to leave us with guilt then?” Retvik grunted. “Because if that is your plan, then I am not getting off this ship either.”
Arkay paused. If he blinked or not, Retvik nor Litvir could tell past his armoured plating. With a sigh, Arkay stopped floating and lowered himself down, turning back into his normal, only slightly armoured form. He then turned his attention to one of the consoles and tapped it a few times.
“Fifty hours should be long enough for everyone to get off this ship, right?”
“Most vok are already gone.”
“I’ll set it to a hundred hours then, just in case…” Arkay sighed as he joined Litvir and Retvik. “I’m sorry. I’m overreacting.”
“Yes, you really are,” Retvik rolled his eyes. “Especially since you failed to listen in on the part where Galyn said that he has an ‘in’ for you, since he has a friend working in the “strange Decaylings” department. It is not like you are helpless either. If things really do go to heck, well, you can just…” Retvik gestured around the room. “Well, you have options. But suicide is not one of them.”
Arkay started at the floor, obviously embarrassed and shaking a little. To his surprise though, Litvir took Arkay’s hand, leading him down the steps towards the hangar.
“This has been a rough experience for us all. But I feel things will be better from here on…”
“You think so?” Arkay whispered.
“Yes, I do…”