“Relkir, Litvir, are either of you busy currently?”
The two Rethans turned and stared at the doorway where Retvik was standing somewhat awkwardly.
“We are on our break, so no, we are not busy,” Relkir shrugged, approaching his titanic half-brother. The three of them used to be of similar sizes, but now that Retvik was a fire god, he had grown a lot taller and now towered over both Litvir and Relkir. “What do you need?”
Retvik stepped inside, sighing loudly. “I am rather embarrassed to ask, but I need your assistance. You both saw first hand how I was back in that Voidborn’s keep. I was under his control and had no real way to combat it. We were lucky that Phovos managed to break out and that you managed to neutralize Tenuk and Elksi. But I was completely spellbound and unable to fight back. I am still disgusted with how weak I was, and I need to make sure that I am never mind-controlled again.”
“So you want us to teach you the ways of telepathy and mind control?” Litvir asked.
“No. Not in its entirety at least. I just want to make sure I cannot be mind-controlled again. In case I cause further damage.”
Litvir and Relkir glanced at each other.
“Well, we can help. Unfortunately, defending yourself from mind-control is actually rather tricky. Even more so when Kenon broke the Secret,” Litvir explained. “In fact, the best way to learn defences against mind-control is to repeatedly get mind-controlled.”
Retvik frowned. “Really?”
“Indeed. While Litvir and I can help you build some rudimentary walls, it is up to you to maintain the walls and upgrade them.”
“The same way you build muscle by exercising, you have to build up mental ‘muscles’ as well.”
This revelation bothered Retvik slightly. “So you are telling me that this will take a long time? Are there really no shortcuts? Because I am… rather unwilling to wait.”
“Impatience gets you nowhere!” Litvir smiled. “You know that already.”
“I know, but I also wish to not be an obvious weak point among the Dessaron. Goodness knows how many other telepathic Voidborn there are out there.”
“Well…” Litvir stood next to, then leaned on Relkir. “The good news is that you already have some defence against Voidborns. Between Kenon breaking the Secret and that asshole hovering over a holiday villa, you have already taken some unintended steps towards building your telepathic walls.”
“I have?” Retvik blinked.
“Yep.”
“How do you know?”
Litvir smiled. “When you stepped into this room, I had a… little rummage around in your head. The building blocks are there, you just need to stack them higher.”
“What?”
“The wall is short enough for me to climb over.”
Retvik blinked again. “I do not underst-”
With a loud thud, Retvik collapsed into a heap of armour and muscle.
“That was mean…” Relkir tutted.
“Well, I did say he needed to build up those walls!” Litvir laughed, picking Retvik up off the floor, before unceremoniously dumping him into a chair. “Come on, let us get started. He has a lot of training to do…”