“Oh thank heavens, are you here to take me back to the ship?” Arkay exclaimed as he spotted Galyn approaching. “Like, this place is nice, but there are only so many draconic time references I can take before I start going more insane!”
Galyn looked down at Arkay and quietly nodded, before leading him back to the ship. It wasn’t far, but Arkay could tell something was off. Mostly because Galyn had come and picked him up, not either Litvir or Retvik as originally planned. As soon as they reached the Thantir Two, Galyn pulled Arkay inside, closed the door behind him then sat Arkay down in one of the observatories.
“Uh… is everything… alright?” Arkay’s rather chipper tone had quickly soured.
“No. I feel that you and I need to have a talk. But first, I do have to explain a few things.”
Arkay immediately started to feel worried. He tried to get up, but Galyn hinted that he should stay put.
“As part of the job of being a travelling Decay Lord, we have to take… performance reports. While yes, the Thantir is technically its own organization, it and almost all other Decay Lord groups ultimately answer to Deathven. And in doing so, we must submit reports based on our performance, to make sure things are running smoothly. So far, I have been doing these for you, so that you three can focus on honing yourselves…”
“Let me guess…” Arkay interrupted. “My performance reports are bad.”
“You could say that, yes.”
The little Decay Lord sighed. “How bad.”
“They are… just barely above a passing grade. To the point that Deathven may request that you return and take more… vigorous testing.”
Arkay sighed some more. “That doesn’t sound good. How do I… improve, so that doesn’t happen?”
Galyn tutted. “No more tantrums, no sleeping in, none of your hiding away when you are upset. A couple of weeks of following your schedule perfectly, with no flare-ups and no one attempting to kill you. That will put you back on a Gamma-ranking. The problem is, we may get a call before then, before you get the chance to improve yourself.”
“I take it… that’s a bad thing…”
“Well…” Galyn hesitated. “Normally, for an average Decay Lord, it would be fine. But if Deathven proper got a hold of you…” Galyn rubbed his face. “You might end up spending the rest of your life in an isolation block, deemed too much of a risk to be allowed to roam free. The whole point of my keeping you out there was to allow you to try and be normal. But I do not know if that is even… right for you.”
Arkay blinked. “Wait… are you suggesting that maybe I shouldn’t be a Decay Lord?”
“No, I am saying that it is possible everyone else might decide you should not be a Decay Lord. And if that happens, you need to have options.”
“Like… like what?”
Galyn noticed a tremble in Arkay’s voice.
“Well, you could sign up for work as a Time Drake, perhaps work on Voidborn or Corruption detection systems… Maybe start your own space station… Heck, you could be a Life Goddess yourself.”
“You think I…”
Galyn grunted, shaking his head. “Arkay, I believe you can be a fine Decay Lord. We are just in a rocky patch right now, but we can fix this. I just wanted to warn you that, well, Deathven might intervene…” Galyn shook his head some more. “I am sorry, Arkay, I did not explain this well, and have worried you rather needlessly.”
Arkay didn’t say anything at first. He stared at the floor, mulling over this thoughts, before finally speaking.
“You’re all as bad as each other. Decay Lords, Voidborns, Life Goddesses, you’re all bad guys.”
“Yes. We are. We definitely are. All our factions contain utterly barbaric practices, that we cling to for our own self-preservation and self-pleasure. But at least, out here, you can at least try and be yourself.”
“At least you are honest about it…”Arkay sighed, then sat up. “Alright, tell me what I need to do, so we can fix this…”