Elksia had been bouncing excitedly non-stop since she boarded Shield Six and the battered old ship had disappeared into the void. She’d been excited the whole time, because she’d accidentally discovered what Kal’s plans were, and when she told them, she offered to help and they all said yes. Which made her even more excited. In fact, she had been literally bouncing up and down the main corridor, from the cargo bay to the navigation chamber and back again. Admittedly, Elksia was a little too large, standing at 2.35m tall (slightly shorter than Elkay, who was short for a Rethan, but still 15cm taller than Akah, who also happened to be present) but her excited mood was insane. At least, it was until Elksia leaped into the back of the co-pilot seat (and nearly broke it) and saw the small, floating island Shield Six was travelling to.
As soon as the young Time Drake laid eyes on that island, she froze and fell completely silent. Kal had no idea why. She remained like that until the ship landed, at which point Akah very gently patted her on the shoulder to ask if she was alright. Elksia didn’t say anything. Instead, she silently shrugged Akah off, left the ship and wandered around the floating island that Kal had been building the new Thantir base on.
“Uh… did I do something wrong?” Akah asked Kal. Kal all shrugged, then clicked at each other. Eventually, everyone else got to work, and Gah split off to see what was wrong with Elksia.
Elksia hadn’t really gone far. She’d headed towards the remains of the white building, what Gah thought used to be some sort of villa with glass windows. Most of the area had been covered in glass when they bought the place, and all of it seemed to have come from the villa and some kind of twisted metal structure above the villa. For structural integrity reasons, Gah had dismantled the metal structure and moved it all to one side, for it to be recycled later, but they hadn’t done much else with the villa itself.
It did need a lot of work, since the villa had clearly been looted, but what concerned Kal the most was the massive, silver stain across the white floor in the main hall. There were a handful of footprints coming from the stain, as if something had tried to avoid the mess and failed miserably. Not only had Kal not been able to identify the stain, but they also couldn’t seem to be able to clean it without damaging the floor in the process. At least, they hadn’t been able to shift the stain at all with the cleaning materials they had. What bothered Gah right now though was that Elksia was standing at the edge of the horrible stain.
Gah approached slowly, knowing something was definitely very wrong. Time Drakes were dangerous beings, just as dangerous as Life Goddesses if provoked, but also far more difficult to stop. The way Elksia was standing though seemed off. She was clearly looking at something that Gah couldn’t see. However, she didn’t remain still for long. Elksia was muttering things under her breath, as if she was having a conversation with herself. After a little more muttering, Elksia turned around, staring at where the entrance used to be. She cautiously walked through the shattered glass, stepping out onto the island proper.
The route she took from there on was very specific, as if she was following footsteps only she could sense, following a small, gravel path towards a particularly large pile of jagged, broken Voidborn armour that Kal hadn’t moved yet. Gah noticed that there was a small dent up ahead, where something somewhat heavy must have fallen, and that was exactly where Elksia had stopped.
“Elksia, is something wrong?” Gah immediately asked.
Still, Elksia didn’t answer. She sat on the ground in front of the slight hole, then started crying. Gah didn’t hesitate to put an arm around her, to make sure she was alright.
“Elksia, friend, you can talk to us.”
“Why did you believe his agonized words? Why did you not step in? Why didn’t you tell her that he didn’t want to?”
Gah remained where he was, glancing around, realizing Elksia wasn’t talking to him. But they were the only ones there. Akah and the rest of Kal were looking on from a distance, but Elksia obviously wasn’t talking to them either.
“He was scared. He was angry. He needed help. You just watched.”
“Who watched?” Gah asked.
“You watched! You stood there and let her hurt him! He thought she was going to force him to make a universe! He was begging for you to step in! You, the strong voice of reason! But you just stood there as she insulted your best friend! While he was scared he was going to be bound to another universe! Well guess what? He fucking was in the end. All because you didn’t act!”
Gah patted Elksia on the arm, then very delicately touched the feathers sticking out from around her collar. This caused Elksia to immediately snap back to reality. Tears were streaming from her eyes. Elksia wiped her face down with the sleeve of her jacket, then tutted, realizing she’d left a big smear of snot and salt water across it.
“We’re worried about you, Elksia. We’re here to listen.”
After a few deep breaths to settle herself down, Elksia glanced at Gah, then hugged him tightly but briefly, before letting go.
“I know you wanna make this a surprise, but you really need to tell Litty that you bought this place. Specifically Litty. He didn’t know what to do. His telepathy is good but… It used to go funny when around particularly horrible Life Goddesses. Not so much now. Litvir learned past that. Retvik though… He should have done more.”
Gah’s eyes flickered. He made a confused clicking sound. “I’m sorry, Elksia, I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.”
Elksia climbed to her feet, then stretched out her arms. “This place used to belong to Athanatea. One of Kinisis’s sisters. Just as corrupt as she was. This is where she drove my little brother into becoming Arkidetelos. And this spot right here? This is where Retvik broke Arkay’s heart.”
“And, uh… what happened after that?”
“They sent my little brother away. Mister Vikalos tried to help him. But that Deathven prick didn’t let him. Still let Kinisis’s bitch daughter take him away. Trapped him inside a universe.”
Gah clicked, then hugged Elksia again. “I had no idea you considered Arkay to be your sibling.”
“Yeah. We… did a lot together…” Elksia rubbed her eyes again. “You really need to tell Litty and Retty though. Probably Galyn too. Mostly Litty though. Like, I think he’d find it amusing that you bought this place and are building a base for us here. But better you tell him now than you bringing us all here later on and Retvik and Litvir feeling really sad and awkward. And having the memories come back.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll tell them. It’s a shame to ruin the surprise, but you’re absolutely right. But you though, Elksia, we’re worried about you. You seem really sad, and we’ve not seen you like this before.”
Elksia sighed loudly. “It’s… a Time Drake thingy. You go somewhere where the Forward Flow was cemented, you can feel it. Like, history-changing events. One happened here, and I picked it up. And it hit, hard. And… I’m angry at Retvik now.”
Gah shrugged, then helped Elksia to her feet. “I… I can’t comment about that. But I’m going to take you back to the ship so you can relax a little bit and settle down. I know you wanted to help, since you kinda accidentally discovered what we were doing, but right now, you’re stressed and sad and we don’t want you to be stressed and sad.”
“But what about-”
“Don’t worry, we got this.”
“But I said to Akah that I’d help.”
“Akah’s a good guy, he won’t mind you not helping after you said you would. He’ll understand that you’re upset and need a break.”
Elksia took another deep breath, then let Gah lead her away. As they walked, Elksia occasionally glanced at Gah.
“Hey, uh, can I ask a question?”
“Sure!” Gah clicked. “What’s up?”
“Why is your voice ever so slightly feminine?”
Gah clicked again. “My voice is feminine?”
“A tiny bit. Sure, you all got weird voices. Robot voices. But Leh is slightly high pitched, Nuh is low pitched. But you have… a twang.”
“Huh… Never noticed myself…” Gah shrugged. “I think we have some fruit juice on the ship. Do you want some?”
Elksia blinked, then shrugged back. “Yeah, sure. I… I need something to drink while I think anyway…”