“Litvir is down…”
“Where is he?”
“I do not know. I will be honest, I am somewhat lost. I cannot find where Retvik took Litvir, and I believe that Phovos is loose again, despite me having knocked her out and kept her down.”
“Oh. That’s not good.”
Eksi and Teekay both glanced at each other. By their feet were two members of the Dessaron, knocked unconscious via telepathic bolts that stopped them from waking up. However, the bolts required concentration, and Eksi was currently taking his turn to focus on the bolts.
“Relkir, can you come and meet us?” Teekay asked. “Could do with some help here.”
“Are you in danger?”
“Not really, but we need to group up, and we also need your help un-mind-controlling Tenuk and Elksi.”
“Very well, I am on my way.”
Relkir went quiet, leaving Eksi and Teekay alone again.
“I’m scared…” Eksi eventually muttered.
“How comes?” Teekay placed his hands on the heads of Tenuk and Elksi, giving Eksi a chance to speak freely and rest his telepathy briefly.
“Retvik took down Litvir, and Litvir’s the most powerful telepath out of the four of us. How did we manage to take out the rest of the Dessaron when Retvik so easily took down Litvir?”
Teekay tutted, not really sure how to answer. “Litvir and Retvik kinda have a history with each other.”
“I know that, but still…”
“The power of emotion is incredibly strong, I think that the evil Voidborn has tapped into something like anger and multiplied it.”
“So…” Eksi frowned. “So Retvik has a lot of hatred still against Litvir? I thought they had forgiven each other or something!”
“Well, like I said, anger can be insanely powerful. Anger can overwrite things like forgiveness pretty easily.”
Eksi frowned some more, then got up and had a look around. The walls, the floor, the air, it was all cold and damp. Everything smelled and tasted stale. Clearly, no one had ever been down these horrible corridors and hallways. Really, it was quite interesting to have air at all. Eksi was pretty sure that Voidborns didn’t need to breathe.
As Eksi stared off into the distance, he heard what sounded like heavy footsteps. Immediately, he sent a telepathic message off to whoever was making the noise.
“It is me, Eksi,” Relkir quickly replied. “Should have given you both some warning.”
“Are you alright?” Teekay asked. “Did Phovos hurt you?”
“I am fine.”
“Good. So what do we do now?”
Eksi and Teekay both shrugged. “We were kinda hoping you would have a plan.”
“Currently Eksi and I have just been keeping these guys unconscious. If you could take over the whole keeping them asleep thing, maybe me and Eksi can both jump in and see what’s making them so aggressive, and maybe break their mind control.”
Relkir nodded, then got down on his knees, placing a hand on both Tenuk’s and Elksi’s heads. “I cannot hold a telepathic bolt for as long as you both can. How long do you need?”
“Five minutes?” Eksi suggested.
“Oh. That is doable. Go on in.”
Eksi and Teekay both held each other, then placed their free hands on the two Dessaron. As they did so, the world around them seemed to fall away, melting into the mental landscape within the Dessaron’s minds. At first, they floated through a cloudy space, before finding themselves at the end of a long, pearly road, with sprigs of purple and blue grass scattered between the gaps. Directly ahead of them, Eksi and Teekay could see a large cage, made out of black chains. Inside were familiar faces.
“Oh thank fuck, I was hoping someone would find us!” Tenuk exclaimed. “He put us in boxes and dialled up our emotions to eleven so we’d do as he wants!”
While Tenuk appeared to look normal, the same could not be said about Elksi. She sat on the floor, looking more like her original Vrekan self, rather than the Vrekan/Time Drake hybrid she normally used.
Eksi and Teekay rushed over to the cage, tugging at the cell walls.
“You can’t break them…” Elksi hissed. “Not unless you kill him.”
“Kill the Voidborn?”
“Yes.”
Tenuk nodded. “We tried to break ourselves out, but he’s got the key, and he’s got a finger in all our emotions.”
“So what do you want us to do?” Teekay asked. “Is there something we can do to get you out?”
This time, Tenuk just sighed. “Elksi and I don’t have the same adaptability that Phovos has. Given enough time, she can probably break herself out because she can control her purest instincts with pieces of logic. We’ve managed to get ourselves to pause, but the second we wake up, our instincts and the desire to kill will take over again and we’ll be back to square one. But if you kill him, these chains will fail instantly, because he made them.”
“He as in the Voidborn, I assume?” Eksi asked. “What even is his name?”
“Couldn’t tell you. He never told us. We just know that he’s evil.”
“Oh.”
Teekay stepped towards the cage, inspecting it. It was made out of some sort of magic metal that pushed Teekay away as he got too close.
“So we need to knock you both out for a good few hours, kill the Voidborn then come back and pick you both up?” Eksi exclaimed. “That sounds… both easy and really hard at the same time.”
“It is…” Tenuk admitted. “But that’s the only option we really have.”
“Alright then!” Teekay clapped his hands together. “Let us put you into a deep sleep, then we’ll get on with the task of murdering the Voidborn.”
Tenuk and Elksi both bowed. “Ready when you are.”
Teekay closed his eyes, then waggled his fingers. Suddenly, two small bolts of lightning flicked through the air, striking the two Dessaron. Immediately, they both collapsed in a heap, snoring loudly. Once he was satisfied, Teekay clapped his hands again, and he and Eksi both returned to the real world.
“I take it that it was you two who put them into a deeper sleep?” Relkir grunted. “How do we save them?”
“We need to kill the Voidborn.”
“I thought as much…” Relkir leaned Elksi’s and Tenuk’s bodies against the wall, tucking them up so that no one could bother them or trip over them. “Shall we get going then?”
Eksi and Teekay both sighed. “Yeah, we’d better get going. We’ve got a deity to murder…”