“Eat up, we have a big day tomorrow.”
Four plates appeared on the table, and Retvik sat down to join his friends in their meal. Nyssi eyed her dish suspiciously, while Kayel glanced awkwardly at the meal Tenuk was happily tucking in to.
“Not hungry?”
“No, just… confused… What is Tenuk eating?”
Retvik smiled. “A 50-50 mixture of porridge and pure sugar syrup. With some sprinkles on top for decoration. Tenuk’s dietary needs are quite different from ours. I spent a little bit of time researching your diets and prepared meals accordingly.”
Kayel stopped staring at Tenuk and shrugged. His meal was perfectly normal, a pile of pasta with minced meat and a cream sauce, with some grilled vegetables to one side. Retvik’s dish looked similar, but without the vegetables and with vastly more pasta and meat. Nyssi’s meal on the other hand was an entire roast chicken with crispy skin.
“Nyssi, is something wrong?”
“You took out the insides and shoved a lemon inside it.”
“Was I not supposed to?” Retvik asked. “I admit, I have not cooked for Temthans before.”
Nyssi tutted. “The liver is the best bit.”
“Oh I did cook up the liver, it is in the fridge if you want it. I do not know where the other organs went though.”
The look on Nyssi’s face faded. She realized she was being rude. “It’s alright. You’re not to know. And you didn’t have to cook for us.”
“Well, as I said, we have a big day tomorrow, so we need to eat well. Plus, I wanted to discuss some last minute tactics with you all!” Retvik smiled, ready to spoon pasta into his open maw. However, he paused, as Kayel was now giving him a funny look. “What?”
“That is a lot of pasta.”
“I am 2.5m tall, weigh over 150 kilos and am a powerful gladiator, I need to sustain that somehow..”
“Fair…” Kayel trailed off. “So we’re fighting a team of Rethans. That use telepathy. I thought you Rethans didn’t like telepathy.”
“That is very true!” Retvik replied between mouthfuls of pasta. “But we can be trained to use it if you start at a very young age and follow a strict hierarchy of who is in control. Which is why we need to focus all our energy in getting Vel out of the fight before anyone else, as he acts as their central hub, and all telepathic communications come from him only.”
“But why don’t you like telepathy?” Kayel repeated himself. “Like, I know Vohran telepathy rots your brain but the artificial stuff, you seem to hate that too.”
“I… cannot physically explain it to you…” Retvik’s tone changed. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, as if the idea of simply comprehending telepathy was painful to him.
“You don’t seem to have a problem with our telepathic link though!” Tenuk exclaimed, having already finished his meal. “Can I have some more?”
Retvik nodded over to the kitchen. “I did make too much, so feel free… And you are right, I can just about tolerate our telepathic link, but it does somewhat hurt. As if it is interfering with my other senses.”
Tenuk quickly came back to the table, this time with more syrup than porridge. “Actually, now that you mention other senses, I read this article once about why Spasts can’t convincingly shapeshift into Rethvaok, and one theory was that you lot had your own telepathic network similar to the Vohra, that Spasts can’t duplicate.”
“I think I would have noticed if I could telepathically communicate with other Rethans!” Retvik laughed, before changing the subject. “Anyway, tomorrow. Our match. I have a very simple game plan, but it is a risky one. You see, Retha Squad Three have no idea what so ever what they are going up against. The most they know is that they are fighting one Rethan, and they do not know that said Rethan happens to be the Lightbearer. At the same time, they will see me as the immediate threat, and they will almost certainly focus on me.”
“So when they all dogpile on you, we use that as a distraction to take out their boss?” Nyssi asked.
“Well, Tenuk will. I will need you and Kayel to-”
“You’re giving ME the most important job?” Tenuk very nearly spat a mouthful of porridge across the table. “I’m the least experienced here!”
“Vel does not like to get his hands too dirty. All you have to do is sneak up on him and take him out with your pistol. You can do that, yes?”
Tenuk sighed. “I… I guess… Still, you’re putting a ton of pressure on me, Retvik.”
Retvik grunted, swallowed another massive mouthful of pasta and meat, then continued. “I think you can do it, Tenuk. Especially if you first disguise yourself as anything but a Spast and disappear from the battle, so they forget you are there.”
“Yeah but… then it’ll be a three versus four fight.”
“Eh!” Nyssi grinned, licking her lips. Kayel quickly noticed that she had utterly demolished that roast chicken, and was now tearing the carcass apart looking for more meat to nibble on. “I can take on a Rethan, at least for a short bit. And Kayel has speed and shadow powers on his side. Assuming Retvik doesn’t mind taking on two Rethans at once.”
“Psiksi took two of them on at once. I am certain I can do the same.”
“You mean the Happy Cold?” Nyssi’s eyes widened. “He’s like, my favourite non-Temthan house fighter! Can we meet him one day, please?”
“Of course!” Retvik replied, hiding his dismay that Nyssi was more infatuated with his long-time friendly rival than with him. “But we need to win this match first. And we also need to win any other matches the Raptor throws at us. Because we need to make a very good first impression as the first mixed species Dessaron team.”
“Eh, I think we’ll be fine!” Tenuk felt more confident now. “After all, the Raptor knows who she’s hired.”
“What do you mean by that?” Kayel asked.
“She…” Tenuk hesitated. “She seems to somehow know that I’m not who I say I am…”
“Yes, she does that…” Retvik patted Tenuk on the back. “When I first started out, I was trying to keep my head down, I used a fake name and everything, and the first thing she said to me was that I smell like a Rethianos.”
“She instantly blew your cover?”
“Yes.”
Kayel tutted as he finished off his plate of pasta. “The Raptor doesn’t seem like a particularly nice person.”
“And she’s scarier than the Thantophor. And we met him in person!” Nyssi added.
Retvik sighed a little, before getting up from the table. “Well, she is not… the nicest being around, but she does know how to get things done. But do not fret. I think we will be fine. I have faith in us.”
“I’m glad you do!” Kayel frowned. “Because I’m nervous as heck.”
“Eh, what’s the worst that can happen?” Nyssi’s smile returned. “We lose? Nothing wrong with that!”
“Yeah, we… lose…” Retvik repeated those words, then shook his head again. “No, we will not lose. We will be fine. Absolutely fine.”