“General Elkay…” Retvik stifled his yawn as he answered his communicator. “How are you, ser?”
“Please, Retvik. Just call me Elkay. We are family, we should talk as such.”
“Only if you insist.”
“The line is secure. I can talk freely.”
“Ah, I see. I assume you are calling me for an important reason as it is rather early…”
“Multiple important reasons…” The High General took a deep breath. “Is Tenuk with you?”
“He is training currently. He received the species-wide message from the Whenvern and has been working out ever since.”
“I assume you know to prepare…”
“We already are. Psiksi may not be as powerful and godlike as Arkay ever was, but he has other traits which will help us greatly. A huge amount of power, a huge amount of contacts and… well, he can use magic. As the Ksithanai can. Healing abilities. Quite extraordinary. I just hope that his newly acquired pote-partner does not distract him. Then again, his choice of… that is not necessary. You have my word that we will be ready.”
“His choice of what?”
Retvik tutted. “That solar explosion a couple of weeks back? Well, we were not out of range. We were saved. By the Lord of Death. Who revealed that he was Arkay and Arkay was him…”
“Excuse me, Retvik, are you suggesting that Arkay of the Dessaron was-”
“He was the Thantophor in disguise. Which explained why we should have died so many times yet did not.”
“Also explains why I thought he looked familiar when… Oh. I should tell you. We are not making this public yet, but since you already know of him, the Thantophor has pledged his assistance. He wants to help the Reth-Vrekan Union. Because he likes us. Which both impresses and scares me.”
Retvik hesitated. “When you saw him… Did you feel… anything? After you got over your initial fears?”
Elkay fell silent. “Like… like what?”
“Romantic urges. I noticed it when the Thantophor saved us. Those feelings were around during the high points of our Dessaron years but I assumed that was stress-induced. But when we were saved recently, I noticed it again. Romantic urges. That affected Psiksi more than the rest of us, since Elksia, Tenuk and myself I assume have developed… a resistance to it.”
“Are you suggesting that…”
“I am just suggesting that you be careful. From what I have seen, the Thantophor tends to cloud one’s mind. Unintentionally. He is also… a bit of a matchmaker. You know how Arkay got Gath and myself together. He may… target you.”
“Target… how?”
“Young, single, attractive, powerful Rethan, what is there not to like?”
“Tell that to my enemies…” Elkay grunted.
“The Thantophor does not care about politics, he cares only about lessening his work load. He does not want war, he does not want unnecessary deaths, he does not want anything that increases the number of dead things he must deal with.”
“Arkadin seems like a very strange being… Especially as he is just wandering around the throne room looking at things…”
“Just be careful…” Retvik sighed.
“I will. And you be careful as well. Keep an eye out, as you are on a neutral world. Those are always the first to turn…”
“I will. Have a good evening.”
“You too, Retvik.”
Elkay closed the connection, then took a deep breath. He had things he needed to do.