“Litvir, Retvik, what are you doing here?”
The two powerful beings stood in front of Galyn’s desk. One glistened with golden flames, the other hid within an ominous aura. Both of them were smaller than Galyn, but they were in his way, blocking the door to his office.
“Can we have a word, please?” Retvik politely asked, holding the door to one side. “In private.”
“What is this about?”
“Please, Galyn.”
Galyn grunted. Litvir and Retvik both moved, allowing Galyn into his office, before letting themselves in and closing the door behind them. Galyn made his way over to the large desk in the back of the room and sat down, but the two younger Decay Lords remained standing.
“So, what is this about?” Galyn didn’t like repeating himself.
“We are staging an intervention!” Litvir smiled, two silver fangs sticking out from his jaw. “Galyn, we have been wandering around this sector for a while, circling this little universe. You said we were going to leave and go exploring, but you keep on bringing us back here.”
The elder Decay Lord sighed, putting his head in his hands. “You do not understand.”
“Then explain to us, Galyn!” Retvik snapped, losing the politeness in his voice. “Because we cannot just hang around this little universe forever. There are things we need to do, places to be documented, other Decaylings to find and train.”
“I failed the poor thing… And now he is trapped inside that damn universe, where I cannot help him at all.”
Retvik took a deep breath, but Litvir gently put a hand on Retvik’s shoulder, suggesting that he do the talking. The Flamebearer didn’t relent though, and continued growling.
“We get it, Galyn. You failed Arkadin. We sent him to Deathven and he slipped through the cracks, never got the help he needed and he came back and killed Kinisis, before getting himself trapped. But that is not your fault!”
“No, no…” Galyn snarled. “It is worse than that. When we briefly tried to pull Arkadin out, he spoke to me and mentioned what Kinisis did to him. I… dug into some records, made by Kinisis herself, documenting what she did over the span of multiple universes… She documented how she originally created Arkadin, first as an enslaved demi-god known as a Veth, and then later into a death god proper. And it is… indescribable…”
Retvik frowned, but Litvir seemed somewhat understanding.
“You do not just feel guilty for what happened to Arkay. You feel guilty for having romantic emotions towards Kinisis. But you had no idea she was keeping secrets, that she was a manipulative monster.”
“I should not have…”
Litvir raised his claw, silencing the elder Decay Lord. “My dear Galyn, there was no way you could have known. If my quick napkin calculations are correct, when Kinisis was in the process of creating Arkadin, you would have been a fledging death god yourself, or at most a Decayling going through your training. You were not to know, and there was nothing you or I or Retvik or anyone could have done…” Litvir trailed off for a moment. “Well, I guess the Whenvern could have done something, he IS about the same age as Kinisis, but I do think he had been enslaved by Kinisis for a lot longer than even Arkay was a slave for.”
“Still…”
“Still what?” Retvik tutted. “You thought she was a better being when she was not. You need to move on. We need to move on. We cannot do anything for Arkay now, not until this new universe ends.”
“Actually…” Litvir’s voice dragged on for a little longer than necessary. “There IS something we can do. I recently had a… rather small idea that we could use that could also be helpful to Arkay, should he need it.”
“What are you on about, Litvir?” Galyn gazed up at the shadowy, vampiric Rethan. Retvik also seemed rather confused.
“Simple. We set up a hotline, for deities to call when they are in trouble. While we cannot stop what happened to Arkay from happening again, since us Decay Lords are often not allowed inside existing universes, we can at least offer a listening ear and a helping hand to young deities that end up in Arkay’s position, trapped or hurt by their Life Goddesses. Help them to help themselves.”
Galyn didn’t say anything at first. Litvir could tell that he did like his idea though.
“Fine. We will… work towards that. But we have work we need to do here first. We need to build up the Thantir before we can offer such a service.”
“It should not take too long!” Retvik appeared more optimistic now. “We have four Decay Lords here already, between ourselves and Seimeni. Elksia needs to continue her Time Drake training but she is already nearly there, and Phovos does need to get herself registered as a Life Goddess, but everyone else on board is already a Decayling, ready to be trained into a Decay Lord themselves. And while this sector is now mostly empty, there are almost certainly nearby dead universes we can salvage Decaylings from.”
“Not to mention that we can call back to Deathven, have a chat with Vikalos and Itaviir and see if they want to help!” Litvir added. “Vikalos in particular always wanted to do something like this.”
Galyn took a rather short breath, then sighed again. “You are both right. I… I should not have… I apologise…”
“Save your apologies, Galyn!” Retvik tutted. “Hopefully, when this universe ends, you will be able to apologise to Arkay in person. For now, promise us that you will stop bringing us back here, and that we will leave this universe be, so we can better work on helping others.”
Galyn lowered his head, then stood up. “Yes, I promise… We should get started right away then. We have a lot of work to do…”