“The fastest ship in the sector…”
Tenuk couldn’t help but admire the beauty of a ship standing in front of him. He had never really been hugely interested in space craft, but this elegant, sleek design, it was simply gorgeous. And painted black, having come straight from the Skyan military. Or K-Class, as they called themselves. Speaking of which, their Skyavok hosts has been incredibly kind, both to Tenuk and his friends and the Thantophor, who, despite his rather off-putting condition, had been given instructions to everyone all day. He’d noticed that the death god was somewhat enjoying the attention too, but not in a good way. Clearly he was just happy to have beings around him that actually listened for once.
They’d gone through a lot though. The Thantophor had given the four of them a step by step guide on what they needed to do. But not only that, he’d given each one of them personalized weapons to do so. The death god knew straight away what to give the others, but he’d asked Tenuk directly, because Tenuk didn’t know himself. He ended up settling on a trident, mostly because he thought it sounded cool. Not only that, but the Skyavok had also given them some nice space suits, and helped deck them out in some nice armour. Sure, Tenuk’s gear was a little hodge-podged, but that was fine, most Skyans had never met a Spast before. He admittedly crept a few of them out by shapeshifting while standing in front of them. Didn’t mean to do that.
“Are you ready?”
Tenuk spun around, not knowing who was talking to him. It turned out to be the Thantophor himself, and he had gathered the rest of Tenuk’s friends. Something about the death god made him hard to recognize, as if his voice mimicked the voices of people around him.
“Yeah, I’m ready. As ready as I can be, all things considered.”
The Thantophor smiled weakly. Tenuk noticed that, unlike the local Skyans, the Thantophor wasn’t wearing any fabric clothing. He was wearing what looked similar to Rethan armour plating across his back, stomach and waist, but there was a gap on his side, and Tenuk could see a light patch, some sort of scar that stuck out, far worse than all the other scars across his skin. There was a similar, second scar, on his other side, that looked more recent.
“You’re staring.”
“Uh, um, sorry, Mister Thantophor…”
“Please, just call me Arkay. Or Arkadin if that’s too… I don’t know, casual for you…” Arkay trailed off, turning to face the rest of his little team. “I’ll get you as close as I can via a shadowjump, but then I’m unfortunately going to have to immediately ditch you. Epani’s had enough of a head start already, and she can manipulate space to travel far better than I can.”
“You really think we can do this?” Kayel asked. Tenuk noted that he actually looked pretty good in proper, fitting armour. Then again, he’d only really seen Kayel in rather tattered clothing so far. In fact, the entire team looked pretty damn good.
“It’s just stabbing some nasty black stuff. Those weapons I gave you are made out of pieces of my armour and crystallised blood, which means they should kill the corruption no problem. If it’s anything more than that, well, once I know Kairos is secure, I can come back and help you.”
Nyssi giggled nervously. “The Deathbringer, we’re helping the Deathbringer…”
“Yeah, you are, and I’m going to have to find some way to reward you all greatly after this. Assuming we… do make it…”
The Thantophor realized what he had said, then frowned.
“You think-”
“We’ll be fine. We have to be fine. Got no choice. Now get on that damn ship.”
The four mortals glanced at each other, then did as they were told. A small group of Skyans had come to wave them goodbye. Kayel waved back, as did Retvik, although the Rethan’s wave was a bit more awkward.
Once they were on board, Tenuk plonked himself in the captain’s seat, and sat Kayel next to him, with Retvik and Nyssi in the back. There was room for six on the ship, but pretty much no cargo space. Most of the ship was taken up by the large wings and engines, which could swivel at different angles. Below, the Skyans had all backed off, although the Thantophor remained in place, having sprouted a pair of inky black wings, and was now hovering by the ship.
Tenuk glanced at the controls, which looked far too familiar to him. He quickly realized this was a modified Spast ship, which was absolutely perfect, it meant he didn’t need to learn anything. With a smile, Tenuk started the ship’s engines, and got it into the air, rising steadily into the permanently black Skyan airspace. He glanced around, looking for the Thantophor, only to spot Arkay’s tail drooping down at the top of the large cockpit windows.
“Get us into clear space and I’ll shadowjump you. But I got something to give you before we go.”
Arkay had teleported himself inside the ship, and was now standing between the four mortals. He handed each of them a small object, a black, shimmering ring.
“What is this?” Retvik asked as he put the on, only to abruptly realize what it did. “You know us Rethans get funny when it comes to telepathy.”
“Yeah, well, you guys are going to be in a low atmosphere zone. This really basic, limited form of telepathy will keep you close. Normally forcing telepathy on non-Vohra doesn’t work but your weird healing powers protect you from the brain rot. And you can always just take the rings off when you’re done.”
“I didn’t think telepathy would be this easy to use!” Nyssi found herself shouting using her mind.
Tenuk and Kayel both shrugged, before turning their attention back to the ship.
“We’re clear…” Tenuk muttered.
“Alright, I’ll get you going…” Arkay disappeared again, reappearing outside the ship. But he was only there for a brief moment. The navigation console to Tenuk’s side beeped crazily for several seconds, before calming down, noting that the positioning system had updated, and they were now…
Wherever they were, it was even darker than it had been above the Skyan territories. There were no stars, no suns or planets. Instead, what looked like a colossal skeleton just sat there, anchored to the edges of the universe.
“What is that?” Tenuk whispered, not wanting to break the silence.
“The earth bones. The dead anchor Epani, Sini and Kairos built this universe on…”
None of them liked it that the Thantophor was now speaking in their heads, while still being outside the ship. Even though Tenuk hadn’t told the ship to, it was now moving, as Arkay pulled it closer to the nearest bone. They landed quite gently. But before Tenuk could thank the Thantophor for the assistance, they found that Arkay had disappeared.
“Well, I guess we are on our own…” Retvik frowned as he got up out of his seat. “We should get going. We have a lot of work to do.”