Tenuk wandered around the room in his new, Beh’evok form, with blue skin, red eyes and dull grey armour, a short crown of horns sticking out of his skull and thick, stubby blades poking out of his forearms.
“So, Ret, what do you think?” Tenuk asked, watching as the shimmering, permanently on fire Decay Lord entered the room, dragging Elksia and Phovos in with him. Retvik sat Elksia and Phovos down, then gently closed the door, before sitting down himself.
“I hate it!” Elksia hissed. “You should go back to being a Kronospast! Or pretend to be a Vrekan! You’re a sexy Vrekan, you’re a good Rethan, you’re a boring Beh’evok! You just look like Itaviir except smaller and more blue!”
Phovos hesitated, then nodded in agreement. “I think I’m not used to it yet, Tenuk, but you look weird.”
Tenuk frowned, then changed his shape. But he didn’t turn back into his normal Kronospast self, he used the Rethavok persona that Tenuk had spent years crafting before their universe had exploded. Tenuk felt defensive and wanted to show it, even as he sat down on a seat that was a bit too big for him, despite being 2.9m tall.
“Hmph. You two are no fun. Anyway, Retvik, why have you dragged us old Dessaron in here?”
Retvik grunted and immediately turned his attention to Tenuk. “What did you do to Elkay?”
Tenuk crossed his arms. “I did fucking nothing to Elkay. Not my fault he’s a fucking freak.”
Phovos raised her hand. “Uh, what happened to Elkay?”
“He broke himself while shapeshifting. I do it all the time. He needs to get over himself!” Tenuk tutted.
Elksia felt somewhat bad, and decided to explain further. “Well, uh, Tenuk challenged Elkay to turn into a perfect Beh’evok so they could test their shapeshifting and acting skills and Elkay kinda went a little TOO hard. Accidentally gave himself a bunch of internal organs that Rethans don’t have, and Elkay’s telepathy started convincing him he WAS a Beh’evok so he kinda ran off and hid, stuck in a half-and-half form, and the extra organs Elkay created kinda turned to mush inside him. Like, Elkay’s a Rethan though so he kinda just ignored the pain until he couldn’t walk any more.”
Phovos blinked, utterly horrified by what she had just been told. Sure, Phovos did have adaptating powers similar to Elkay, but Elksia’s description was beyond words.
“Is he… alright?”
Retvik nodded. “With some rest, a quick surgery to remove the offending organs and some time spent with someone the same species as Elkay, he will be fine.”
The door to the observatory suddenly screeched open. Standing in it were Eksi and Teekay, two of their fellow Thantir Decaylings.
“Oooh! Are Litvir and Elkay gonna fuck like they used to? Because that’s definitely one way to reaffirm your species!” Eksi nearly shouted. “Same way Teekay and I are doing things, because Elkay’s sudden bout of asexuality is fucking with Teekay’s sexual desires! I… I’m totally doing that thing again… Sorry…”
Retvik glanced at Eksi. “Do you need some assistance in controlling your powers, little one?”
Eksi shook his head. “I’ll work it out. It’s just… there’s so much damn noise around here that I forget I’m speaking out loud. Sorry… Anyway why are you all here, is this about that insane idea thing that Tenuk and Elksia had? I thought we were supposed to be having a lesson or something right now.”
“Nah, that’s in like 23 minutes from now!” Elksia smiled. “Plus, we weren’t supposed to tell Retvik about it. Not yet.”
Tenuk sighed, then turned back into his normal Kronospast self, feeling utterly defeated. “Way to spoil everything.”
Teekay and Eksi made their way into the room proper and sat down next to Phovos, who seemed both confused and concerned. She’d been the last person Elksia had suggested her plan to and Phovos didn’t want anything to do with it.
“Actually,” Retvik grunted. “I worked out you were planning something via Nuh, who caught Akah rummaging around on their ship, looking for spare masks. That would have not been a problem, but Akah admitted the masks were not for him, but for Tenuk.”
“Damn, I forgot Lanex suck at lying…” Tenuk frowned some more.
“You kinda told him to lie to a telepath!” Eksi found himself defending their currently-not-present fellow Decayling. “Even if Kal’s telepathy is pretty shit, being an honest, truthful being is hard to hide!”
Retvik nodded in agreement. “Nuh was reasonable though and let Akah go with a warning to ask to borrow things next time, and Nuh then directly informed Litvir and myself, believing that you Decaylings were up to no good.”
“Well, that little robotic bastard was right…” Tenuk muttered, before straightening himself out. “Either way, I’m going to do a completely not at all Kronospast-like thing and take responsibility for this. Even if it was Elksia’s idea. I know I’m in trouble.”
Much to Tenuk’s surprise though, Retvik smiled. “You are not in trouble.”
“Wait, what?”
“In fact, I want to help.”
Tenuk glanced at the other Decaylings, not believing what he had just heard.
“Uh, Retty…” Elksia stuttered. “Are you alright?”
Retvik nodded. “I am fine. In the time we have spent here with the Phantai, I have come to a conclusion similar to the one you all have. The Phantai are stupid. They are fighting a never-ending war. Sure, one day, they might actually win, but I want to speed things along a bit. And just like Elksia has predicted, we need data to do so. Your plan is not that insane, but it requires refinement and less secrecy.”
Phovos blinked some more, then hissed somewhat. “Retvik, this is fucking stupid.”
“Dear, we have done all sorts of stupid things in the past. How is this any different?”
“True…” Phovos trailed off. “I can’t shapeshift though. And I can’t just snap my fingers again like I did with that Krohniak bastard. Like, maybe I could do that with one or two Voidborns but…” Again, Phovos trailed off. “Uh, you guys never told me what happened to that bastard.”
“You teleported them into Kuta’s living room, where Arkay killed Krohniak.”
“Wait, Kuta’s alive?” Eksi exclaimed. “Can I talk to him? He was a pretty cool guy. Kinda feel like I owe him since, had he not swapped placed with me, I’d be trapped in a new universe with no memory of my past.”
“I do not know if Kuta remembers you or not, but I will give you his contact details…” Retvik returned to the original topic. “But yes, I want to end the Voidborn menace around here, I am sick of all these pointless injuries and ceaseless conflicts and I want to prove that the Thantir are a genuine threat to everyone, in a much more public way.”
“We’ve kinda already done that though!” Phovos interrupted. “We survived Ahkron and we killed his son!”
“Yeah but Arkay kinda did all of that…” Elksia countered. “Retty wants to paint the Thantir’s name across Phantai territory, and do so with the blood of the Crystal Doom. Which is what me and Tenuk wanna do too. And Elkay and Akah. And Eksi and Teekay, if you two want. And probably Litvir too, but he’s weird…” Elksia paused. Standing in the doorway behind them were Tahvra and Akah, who were clearly here for the same lesson the other Decaylings had arrived for.
“Hi, you two, you in particular, Akah!” Tenuk snapped. “Retvik worked out our plan.”
“What plan?” Tahvra asked. “The weird shapeshift into Voidborn plan?”
“Yep.”
Akah muttered an apology but didn’t say anything else. Tahvra patted Akah on the leg.
“We just saw Elkay, he’s doing better! Is mister Retvik angry at us?”
Retvik shook his head. “Not at all. In fact, I want to further it.”
“Neat!” Tahvra beamed as he sat himself down. “Akah’s a bit sad. He feels like he’s to blame for Elkay being ill and Retvik finding out the plan and Nuh finding him borrowing their spare Canoh!”
“And he should be!” Phovos snarled. “Elkay had to have surgery because of this stupid plan!”
“Phovos, if you do not want to be a part of this, that is fine. But I do. At the very least, we have the ability to gain information in a way the Phantai could not even consider-”
“They could, but their lone shapeshifter is a cunt…” Tenuk tutted at Retvik. “Never fucking found Ahra, and if they have someone who is THAT good at shapeshifting, the Phantai could have done what we were planning, like, fucking ages ago. We’re better than these bastards, that’s why Galyn and Itaviir left, because they thought they could do better. We’re gonna BE better, right, Retvik?”
“Indeed. With some refinement, this plan could work. However, there are some caveats. The first being that we cannot let the Phantai know what we are planning…” Retvik sighed somewhat. “This also means none of you can speak to Galyn or Itaviir about this either, and I will have to discuss this with Kal and Vikalos and explain the situation to them. And as much as you like Kaytee and the rest of Loopblade, Eksi, you cannot them them either.”
“Wasn’t gonna, but sure thing, boss!”
“Second thing is, we need to take this slow. We currently have very little information. Heck, very few of us have gone particularly far off this ship. Teekay, Eksi, you two are on navigational duty, I need you to find some maps of the area. Tenuk, Tahvra, you two will gather as much information as you can on where the Voidborn and the Phantai are the most active, since you two spend the most time among the more talkative Phantai. Elksia, Akah, I need you both to volunteer for as many patrols as you can, so we can not only establish some patterns, but also work out of there are any key Voidborn elites we can track or take out. Elkay will join you when he has recovered, and I will volunteer myself to assist you three.”
“What about everyone else?” Elksia asked.
“Itaviir and Galyn will need to be kept out of this. Kal will most likely assist Tenuk and Tahvra in data gathering, and I am certain Tah and Koh will help Litvir and myself gather and process all the data we collect. Vikalos is a bit of a wildcard, but I will speak to him myself before we get him involved.”
“You… you didn’t mention me though…” Phovos stuttered. “You gave everyone else jobs.”
“Do you want to help?”
“Well, no. But everyone else is taking part. I should as well.”
Tenuk put up his hand. “May I?”
“Of course.”
“Voidblade’s still injured and recovering, but he’s also the biggest source of information around here. Sure, no one apart from his butt-buddies have been able to access him, but Phovos is a Life Goddess and her blood heals pretty much anything. Girl, you could get in there and get ALL the information from Voidblade, while also actually kinda helping him as well.”
“Are you willing to do that, Phovos?” Retvik enquired.
Phovos hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. But if he gets too touchy, do I have permission to hurt him?”
“Indeed you do.”
Phovos smiled, ever so slightly. “Alright then. I guess I’m in too.”
A heavy knock at the door caught everyone off guard.
“Oh, everyone is here!” Vikalos smiled kindly, flicking back one of his fluffy ears. “Are we ready to start our lesson?”
Retvik got up and made his way over to Vikalos. “Everyone is ready, yes. Unfortunately Elkay is still recovering, so he will not be present. When you are done, may I have a word with you?”
“Of course!” Vikalos smiled some more, patting Retvik on the shoulder. “I must do this lesson first though. I will meet up with you when I am finished.”
Retvik smiled back, then left the room. “Wonderful, talk soon.”