“You won’t let us try and fix him?” Kuta protested he and Litvir followed Retvik, who was carrying their fellow unconscious Decay Lord towards their ship. Ahead of them, their boss, Decay Lord Galyn, was waiting for them. “Why can we not try and fix him? Why-”
Litvir hissed at Kuta, harshly suggesting that he be quiet. They were clearly in a lot of trouble. They could tell, since Galyn had hardly spoken to any of them since he arrived. In fact, he had already set up a special plasti-glass containment pod in the cargo bay, especially for them to place the still-sleeping Arkay into.
Retvik was not careful with Arkay’s body as he flung him into the containment pod. Galyn took over, sealing the door with an expanding foam, before turning his attention to his students.
“Litvir, take Kuta to the observatory, close the door and wait for further instructions. Retvik, you and I are going to the cockpit, and you will tell me EXACTLY what happened.”
“But ser!” Kuta exclaimed. “We could try and help him!”
Galyn stared at Kuta, immediately making him fall silent. Litvir bowed as an apology, then tugged at Kuta, dragging him away. Once they were out of sight, Galyn double-checked the containment pod, then grabbed Retvik. The two of them headed up up the stairs, out of the cargo bay and into the main corridor, They marched into the cockpit in silence.
“We fucked up…” Retvik muttered as he stood by the door. “Actually, no, I take that back. Arkadin fucked up. He lost control. We were doing fine, looking after the Life Goddess, chasing away the asshole Voidborns who wanted to pester her.”
“What caused Arkay to lose control?” Galyn asked.
“Athanatea kept on asking him to be part of her Xanagenysis project. To be part of her next universe in some way. She was rather pushy and he kept on saying no. She then insulted, I guess, the fact that Arkadin chose to be a Decay Lord rather than a Life Goddess. This triggered him enough to kill her and change into Arkidetelos.”
“He killed all the Voidborns and most of the island in this form, yes?”
“Yes. He also threatened Litvir, Kuta and myself.”
Galyn fell silent, taking a moment to think.
“What do we do, Galyn?”
“I think… there is nothing we can do. I have exhausted all our options when it comes to dealing with him.”
“Does that mean…”
Galyn nodded. “We will have to send him to Deathven, where he can be properly treated. He will not like it, he will fight it, but he has left me with no other choice. Arkay is simply too dangerous to stay with us…”
Retvik couldn’t help but agree. “We cannot ignore his problems any longer.”
“You are not upset about this?”
“No. I am done defending him and his ill-minded actions. Sending him away will be better for all of us. Himself included…”
…
“But why…” Kuta whispered, pacing around nervously, hovering by the observatory entrance “Why can we not do anything?”
Litvir pulled Kuta back into the observatory proper and sat him down by the window. “Because we do not know Arkay well enough, nor do we accidentally want to wake Arkidetelos up again.”
“But! But!” Kuta protested some more. “But we are vastly powerful psionic beings! With my sheer power and your delicate manipulations, surely we could do something to help!”
“Stop saying but. We may be powerful, but we are not powerful enough to perfectly split entities. Sure, we could theoretically make Arkay his own person, rather than an external personality keeping Arkidetelos bound, but we cannot unbind him without Arkidetelos creating its own form. We are skilled with dealing with Rethavok, but not really anyone else.”
Kuta gave in, realizing his brother was right. To Kuta’s surprise however, Litvir sat down next next to him and patted him on the back.
“Still, you did very well, brother. I dare to say that, perhaps we make a good team. We should… work together more, to hone our skills further”
“Like back in the old days?”
“Yes, like the old days. If you will accept me.”
Kuta took a deep breath, then glanced at Litvir. “You are… serious? I thought you hated me.”
“I never hated you. I was just angry. You had so much untamed power and you used it unwisely. But that does not excuse me for what I did to you. I was very much in the wrong.”
“Yeah but…” Kuta sniffed. “I… I wasn’t perfect either. I was the reason why everyone was in a coma in the first place. I always conveniently leave out that bit. We both fucked up.”
“We did. However, we are better than that now. Or, rather, we could be. If we worked together again.”
Kuta eyed Litvir, who had outstretched his hand.
“As equals?”
“As equals.”
The younger sibling smiled as he took Litvir’s hand, holding it tightly. “Sure. We can work together again. Might even be fun…”