“Do you remember when we first met?”
Elkay thought to himself as he stared out the window in the Decaylings’ private observatory. No one present had said anything in a while, not since they’d rejoined with the ship Shield Six and the bad news about Seimeni’s death had spread around.
“You talking to your girlfriend or you talking to everyone?” Eksi interrupted, answering Teekay’s question with another one.
Akah decided to add to the list of questions. “Eksi, Teekay, why do you refer to Elkay as a girlfriend when Elkay is the largest, strongest and least killable of us remaining Guardians?”
“Because Elkay has a vagina!” was Eksi’s blunt reply. “Plus, he IS the female in the relationship, since he proposed to Teekay and kinda has always been Teekay’s bitch.”
“That seems… somewhat mean.”
Elkay though didn’t seem too upset. “It would hurt me more, Akah, if it was not true.”
Akah raised a finger, then paused. “Oh. I forgot you Vohranics have strange biology.”
“Actually, we’re Panthreanics, which evolved from Vohranics,” Elkay corrected Akah. “Which is why Tahvra is physically a juvenile male while the three Rethans and two Skyans on board are hermaphrodites. But I would like to go back to Teekay’s original question, because I would like to hear the answer from everyone else as well. Surely most of us did not meet because of Kinisis?”
“I mean, we all somehow met Arkay…” Tenuk grunted from the corner. “And he was Kinisis’s, I dunno, adopted kid or something. Kinisis made and ran the entire fucking universe and was somehow a massive cunt about it all. But how DID you and Teekay meet, Mr Former High General of the Rethavok? Elksia and I met you via Retvik, but Teekay’s no one special.”
Teekay tutted loudly. “I was the Ksa of the K-Class, not only did I keep All-Ksa Kayel’s suicidal ass alive, but I was also in charge of the Skyavok military.”
“Oh…” Tenuk trailed off, but didn’t apologize. “So, uh, why did you retire?”
“A building fell on me, I broke both my legs and then someone set my house on fire because I used to worship Arkay instead of Kenon, as a handful of high-ranking K-Class secretly did…” Teekay sighed. “I suppose, it’s not so bad, I started working at the age of five, what with also being a genetically modified super soldier. So retiring early did mean I got a brief moment of peace before the universe died. But yeah, Elkay, I met you the same time I met King Ver, right? On my birthday.”
Elkay allowed himself a small laugh. “You came to save face after All-Ksa Kayel attempted to sexually harass me, yes…” However, Elkay’s vague amusement quickly disappeared. “Although, in hindsight, All-Ksa Kayel got exactly what he wanted, not just the Skyavok joining the Reth-Vrekan Union, but the Skyans having high standing in said union, he got rules on interspecies relationships relaxed and he got a Rethan to sleep with a Skyan…”
“You act like that’s so weird when us Kronospasts have been fucking anything that can consent for centuries!” Tenuk butted in. “Elkia’s literally in the shower right now because we fucked and she’s a Vrekan, and I tried to make moves on both Phovos and Akah here.”
“Yeah but wouldn’t that make you gay?” Tahvra hadn’t really been following the conversation. Anything about relationships confused him, mostly because relationships weren’t a thing among Vohra. But Tenuk’s statement made no sense. “Like, you play with Elksia, she’s a Vayra-female, but Akah has always been a Vahrga-male, and so are you?”
Tenuk smirked. “I’m bisexual. Most Kronospasts are. And I spent a lot of time shapeshifted into a Rethavok so that just adds to the experience.”
“But Akah is still male?” Tahvra was still confused.
“I’d be female for Akah, if Akah wanted to. I even looked up how Lanex sex works so I could make myself into a reasonable-looking girl Lanex. Totally see why Lanex birth rates were so damn low though, no wonder none of you wanted kids.”
The icy Lanex glared at Tenuk, then shook his head, utterly disgusted and rather insulted by what Tenuk was saying.
“I’m just saying, if it wasn’t for the Anexartan and Kronospast breeding programs we had to force on you, the Lanex would have gone extinct the same way the Toanex, Glatornex and Allanex went extinct. And they were even more Voidborn-y than you are.”
Akah scowled, then got up to leave. But he found he couldn’t do so, as the exit was blocked by his boss, Decay Lord Retvik. Retvik had also brought with him the other Decaylings on board. Phovos and Elksia both nudged past Akah and sat down, but Retvik remained in the doorway.
“Is something wrong, Akah?”
“No, sir.”
“You seem unsure about that. And there is no need to call me ‘sir’.”
Akah hesitated for a moment. Retvik was a scary being, doubly so because Akah’s elemental affinity was ice, and Retvik was permanently on fire. They’d clashed once, when Akah was a Divine Guardian and Retvik was both smaller and a Decayling himself, and Retvik had decidedly won that battle.
“It is an issue between Tenuk and myself, we will sort it out later.”
Retvik grunted, turning his attention to Tenuk. “What did you say?”
“How did you-”
“I have known you for most of my adult life, Tenuk, you certainly said something cruel, cruel enough to upset our normally rather stoic Lanex friend here. Whatever it is you said, once you are dismissed here, I want you to write an apology to Akah and deliver it to him, alongside an offer to make up for what you did.”
Tenuk sighed and lowered his head. “Alright, fine…”
Retvik nodded, suggesting that Akah sit back down with his fellow Decaylings, then entered the room proper. Another Decay Lord, the tiny, black-painted entity known as Nuh, had joined them.
“You alright, boss?” Eksi asked, picking up on Retvik’s emotions. “You seem sad.”
“I am fine. What is more important is that we discuss what will happen when we enter Phantai territory. Because it is very likely that the Phantai will want to conduct tests on you all. While level laws are no longer a problem for Decaylings, they will still want to assess your strengths and weaknesses and see what you can offer them.”
“Who ARE the Phantai?” Teekay asked. “Like, you said they’re another sect or something, but what do they do?”
“They specialize in Voidborn eradication!” Nuh answered in Retvik’s place. “And they’re pretty good at it, aside from beings like that Ahkron that we met. The Thantir used to do it as well back when there were lots of them, and we used to constantly be back and forth doing Kenic Spore removals for them.”
“The Phantai are also the Decay Lord sect that Galyn and Itaviir studied under before they became Decay Lords,” Retvik continued. “Either way, while we will try and keep the Thantir as a separate sect, we cannot make any promises, and it is likely that we will end up working for them. Most of you are combat-ready, and those of you who are not, you will have the option of staying with Kal and working with them, at least until you become Decay Lords yourselves and will be able to make your own decisions.
“Unfortunately, in the mean time, we may have some complications, which you all need to be aware of. Tenuk, Akah, you may not be Voidborn, but the Kronospasts were always influenced by Kenon, Kinisis’s Voidborn partner, and the Lanex were made in Kenon’s image. We will make this clear to the Phantai, but you may not receive as warm a welcome as the rest of us, and they may not immediately believe mine and Litvir’s words, even with Kal here to back us up.
“At the same time, we do not know how they will react to Life Goddesses and Time Drakes. The Phantai should be fine with Elksia, but Phovos, I recommend keeping quiet and keeping your Life Goddess power usage to a minimum. No matter what though, all of your safety is more important, so if the Phantai cause us any problems, we will not be sticking around.”
“Does that apply to Galyn as well?” Tenuk piped up. “Because, well, he has fucked up royally.”
Retvik hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, this does apply to Galyn as well. Doubly so since Eksi and Litvir have successfully removed the last traces of Life Goddess influence from him. But as Galyn handed over leadership of the Thantir to Litvir and myself, at the end of the day, we feel that protecting our own is more important than anything else. Even if we have not done a very good job of that so far.”
The Decaylings all glanced at each other.
“To be fair…” Phovos muttered. “We were attacked by a stupidly powerful ancient Voidborn and were then attacked by a stupidly powerful ancient Life Goddess, two beings that, well, pretty much everyone seemed to fear, and we’re all still alive. Uh, mostly.”
The fiery Decay Lord grunted. “If you say so. Do any of you have any questions?”
A brief, awkward silence. The Decaylings all just seemed to shrug. Retvik turned to Nuh, and asked the tiny Decay Lord if he had any comments.
“Oh… uh, a couple…” Nuch clicked. “Firstly, the Phantai REALLY like their codenames, so be prepared to be referred to by your codenames whenever you’re officially working. They kinda tend to get them wrong sometimes as well.”
“How so?” Phovos and Elkay both seemed uneasy, since their codenames weren’t particularly cool.
“Well, their boss, Voidblade, keeps on calling us Spiritpurger 1-6, even though we got ourselves individual codenames three yearstrings ago…” Nuh clicked again, with a lot of annoyance. “The second thing is, the Phantai are big, heavily armoured warriors, most of them are Retvik’s size and shape. Elkay, Elksia and Akah should be fine, but the rest of you, get used to everything being way, way too big. Even bigger than things are on this ship.”
“Anything else, Nuh?” Retvik grunted.
“Nope, that’s it…” Nuh’s eyes dimmed slightly. “Leh and Koh say we’re nearly there, so we should all get ready.”
Retvik nodded in acknowledgement. “Very well. All of you, return to your quarters, put your best armour on, then meet up in the cargo bay in half an hour. Are we clear?”
All eight Decaylings stood up and bowed. Satisfied, Retvik clapped his hands and dismissed the Decaylings, before making his way to his office, where Litvir was waiting for him. There were a few things they needed to discuss before they met with the Phantai…