Galyn watched as the last ship faded into the distance, before turning his attention to his own ship, where his three crew mates were waiting for him. He didn’t really want to call them students or anything any more. In fact, lately, the three of them had proven to work incredibly well together, showing a mastery of a large range of talents and abilities and, frankly, Galyn felt pretty worthless.
“You told Retvik that we’re going to Deathven?” a small voice asked behind Galyn.
“You are supposed to be inside, preparing the ship for take off…” Galyn sighed. “But yes, Arkay, we are going to Deathven.”
“Why?”
Galyn grunted, not answering Arkay’s question. Instead, he made his way inside the ship, forcing Arkay to follow him.
“Galyn, you said Deathven was a bad place for me!” Arkay exclaimed as the two of them entered the cockpit.
To Galyn’s surprise, everything was ready for take off, just as he requested. Galyn also noticed that he’d walked in on Retvik and Litvir, who had been having a moment to themselves. Nothing more scandalous than simple hand-holding, but still, Galyn felt a bit mean, interrupting them.
“Galyn!”
“Arkay, sit down and I will explain.”
Arkay sighed, then did as he was told. Galyn sat down as well, spinning his chair round to face his crew mates. He took a deep breath, then started to explain.
“I will be blunt with you three. Aside from the small Kiniseon cluster where we were originally based, it turns out this whole damn sector is, well, hellish. Things were fine when we had a crew of fifty Decay Lords, plus extra assistance from the local Life Goddesses and Time Drakes. But for us three? Out here? The last few months have proven that it is way too dangerous for us here, and if it was not for you three being highly skilled and, in Arkay’s case, insanely powerful, we would all be deader than door knobs.”
“So we’re going back to Deathven because we can’t cope out here?”
Galyn nodded. “When we get a bigger team, we’ll come back out here. We have done a good job charting these areas so far, but it is simply too dangerous to keep on going, to keep on dipping our feet in these death-infested void-waters. That is why I made the decision to head back to Deathven, hopefully recruit a bigger team and then, after a break, come back out here.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Retvik shrugged. “But you have not really explained how this affects Litvir, Arkay and myself.”
“For you two, everything should be fine. You will be given proper Decay Lord IDs, which should allow you to roam freely around the sector we are assigned to. For Arkay, things would be a little more complicated had Vikalos not wormed his way into the “Decayling Rejuvenation Sectors”, thus meaning that Arkay can get himself safely checked out. Vikalos is someone we know and trust, and he is dedicated to his work.”
Arkay took a deep breath. “Alright, fine, that seems… somewhat reasonable. But what if I do get stuck? What if I do just disappear-”
“If you keep on saying “what if” then you cannot focus on what is actually happening, little one!” Galyn tutted. “We are taking precautions. This will be a chance for you to get yourself fixed, gain proper control over your powers and just all-round better yourself. Once we are all better, we can come back.”
“Plus, it may be a fun experience for all of us!” Retvik smiled. “But… how are we going to get there?”
Galyn’s face dropped. “That… is the harder part. We can be somewhat instantly teleported to Deathven. But there is a long queue that we have to wait in, and we have to find an ideal location. And doing so may take a good fifty hours or so. The finding an ideal location, that is. The queue could be, well, anything.”
Retvik though seemed unbothered. “Not a problem. We can be patient. In the mean time though, shall we get out of here?”
“Of course!” Galyn’s smile returned as he started the engines. “Strap yourselves in, let us leave this horrible hangar…”