“You seem happier!”
“That is because I am happier!”
Elkay-En was waiting for Tanos, Fengar and the Vohra to finish work, so he could play bricky toys with them. He had wanted to chill out with Akah as well, but Akah was currently out on a quick job, so Elkay-En was content to just chill on his own until everyone else was done. But he was also fine with Arkay approaching him, holding an envelope of some sort. Both Elkay-En and Vekeus had some free time since they had just become Decay Lords and were somewhat celebrating.
Arkay glanced around before sitting down. The thing he focused on was the remains of a familiar Voidborn ship. Sadly, the being trapped inside it had to be put down, the Corruption had gone far too far, but the Thantir had at least put the poor being out of its misery.
“How comes?” Arkay asked.
Elkay-En leaned back, smiling. “It’s all over now, I’m a Decay Lord and I am finally embracing my… rather grotesque powers. It turns out, I had nothing to worry about the entire time. And Rethan Elkay was correct, my powers really aren’t that bad.”
Arkay smiled as well. “You’ve accepted yourself then?”
“I have, yes! I am a Zontanian and a Decay Lord. My powers are… fucking horrible, but I’ve worked out how to use them, and I am also slowly working out how to make my creations less ugly. While I’m not really creating actual, sapient life, or, well, anything permanent, I can now put skin on my creations.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Elkay-En hesitated for a second, then held out both hands in a bowl-like shape and concentrated. After a moment, a lump of flesh appeared and sprouted tendrils. The tendrils then grew skin and turned into bat wings, and the rest of the lump was no longer bloody and was covered in skin too.
“My meat-sprites are less hideous.”
“Your meat-sprite is also glowing.”
Elkay-En paused, then looked up. Someone had approached, and Elkay-En had guessed it was Vekeus, from the colour of the sprite.
“Huh, that’s way less awful than the last little flying monster you made!” Vekeus also seemed oddly optimistic. “Maybe if you gave it fur, it would be almost cute.”
Elkay-En blinked. “Why… why have I not considered that before?”
“I mean, it’s not exactly obvious. You’re busy working on the important stuff, and making the flesh stuff work. The silly details like making your creatures cute always comes later. Also, have you shown your little sisters what you can do?”
Elkay-En blinked some more. “I… I have sisters. And brothers. My family tree is… all over the fucking place.”
“Oh, definitely. I mean, your dad fucked your half-brother at one point, then let herself get fucked by my dad at some point so she could have two other kids…” Vekeus muttered.
“Um, I don’t think Epani or Sini are actually Kenon’s kids!” Arkay exclaimed. “I think Kinisis kinda just… make them on her own. Immaculate conception and stuff like that. Either way… please never bring up the fact that Kinisis used to sexually abuse me ever again, because I have managed to lock away most of that agony and you will definitely accidentally open the floodgates if you’re not careful.”
“Oh. Sorry, Arkay. Didn’t mean it. But yeah, we’re Decay Lords now, and I don’t know what we do now.”
Elkay-En though went back to smiling. “I know what I want to do.”
“You do?” Arkay asked.
“Yep. I’ve been thinking about it since I got back. In my experiments, I’ve… discovered a few things. Things Sini ought to know about. So I’m going to head back to Sini’s island and inform her of these discoveries, and, in the process, I’m hoping I can assist her in her plans to create life that is resistant to Corruption.”
“That…” Arkay wasn’t sure how to respond. And he didn’t mean to frown. “That’s awesome! But you’re not sticking around?”
“I mean, I’ll be around, kinda. I’ll come by and visit… I kinda have to, because I like spending time with Akah, Tanos and Fengar. But I’ll be honest, I have made friends here but here doesn’t feel like home. I felt safe and comfortable living at Sini’s place.”
Arkay frowned some more, but quickly stopped. “That is completely fair. You need to go where your heart tells you to go. Before you leave though, you ought to let me help you set up proper Decay Lord comms and stuff. And I need to give you your new Decay Lord bank info. So you can get your wages and stuff… Admittedly, that is why I came here.”
With a small smile, Arkay nudged an envelope to both Elkay-En and Vekeus.
“Oh, is this the bit where we find out how much money we get as Decay Lords?” Vekeus asked.
“Yeah. Gonna be blunt though, Vekeus, you’re a Voidborn, you’re gonna get less than Elkay-En.”
“That’s… uh… racist.”
“Oh, totally. But Deathven likes sucking up to Zontanians who want to become Decay Lords. So he pays them more money to stick around. But you’ll get plenty as well. Also, those envelopes also contain your private identifiers and PINs and stuff like that. You ought to read through it all and also not do what Tahvra and Talok apparently did and instantly tell their friends all their private info.”
Elkay-En snickered slightly as he opened his envelope. “I can definitely see those two doing that. The mortal lives of Vohra were so vastly different from our mortal lives… Oh… Oh darn… That… Deathven REALLY wants me to stick around… Is a hundred thousand Dlires a 4-ev a lot?”
“Literally double what I am getting…” Vekeus tutted.
“Fifty thousand is still excellent! More than most. The average just-became-a-Decay-Lord income is four thousand a 4-ev, you get way more than that!” Arkay was more optimistic. “And maybe you can use some of that money to get yourself a new ship…” Arkay trailed off briefly, then inspected Vekeus. “Huh. You have horns today.”
Vekeus sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, my ship was made from my horns. I destroyed my ship, my horns grew back. When I remake my ship, I’ll rip off my horns again.”
“And I thought I was weird.”
“HAH!” Elkay-En laughed. “Arkay, you are the weirdest of the lot of us. But that is fine. After all, being weird is what makes us Thantir, right?”
Arkay smiled back. “You are absolutely right, bro. Now, you guys want to go on a shopping trip?”
“Sure, why not?”