“Not very often that you have four Trios around a table!” Telin beamed as he got out the fancy tankards, a collection of specially made drinking vessels with a button on the side. Pressing the button and concentrating on what drink you wanted would automatically fill the tankard with the fluid of your choice. These tankards were very expensive to maintain though, so Telin rarely used them, but this was a special occasion, so it was worth it.
However, Telin’s smile faded slightly as he handed a fancy tankard to Orion, who was way too small to hold it. The tankard Telin had handed to Eta Carinae had the opposite problem, being too small for her massive, draconic claws. “Uh, sorry, we rarely get small beings around here.”
Orion didn’t seem too bothered. “It’s fine, mate! You Phantai guys are built for a specific job, you’re not used to change.”
“Hah, you can say that again!” Phos was also smiling. “The last year-string has been insane for us! So much has happened, and now we are facing even more change with a fresh, new future! I mean, after so long having been fighting on our own, not only do we abruptly get some temporary reinforcements from a resurrected sect, but we meet TWO Hidden Named Trios!”
Psehon nodded in agreement. The Three Great Blades were all pretty damn happy right now. “Well, technically one and two thirds, but still, it is nice to have company for once. Even if it is pure chance that the Wanderers just happened to be wandering through.”
Eta Carinae struggled with her tankard briefly, before managing to get it to fill up with something bright orange. It turned out that her only desire was to drink liquid cheese. “It is only of the good chances that we sees the yellow lights!” she grinned, licking up strands of gooey cheese.
“What yellow lights?” Vikalos asked. He and his fellow Tattered Navigators had been quiet the whole time. Itaviir and Galyn in particular were almost completely silent. They were the lowest ranked beings here, they were only a Named Trio because they’d formed the Thantir, but they had passed leadership down to Retvik and Litvir.
The Great Blades seemed equally confused. “The flares on our ships are always red, so they can be seen better!” Phos tutted. “Although Souldr… Litvir did disable all our tracking gear.”
The two young Decay Lords eyed each other nervously. After a very quick telepathic conversation, Retvik decided to explain.
“We had some contact with Arkay, mostly via a video game, and we managed to get him back onto Wyvern, using the text-only version. Although the… scum who keep him in chains have taken away his ability to communicate, when we would talk, Arkay made a promise to us. He promised that he would do everything within his power to protect Litvir and I until we can be reunited. And so far, he has managed to. Arkay saved me from the explosion that destroyed the Crystal Doom and its leader, and he created the yellow flares you saw when you discovered Litvir.”
The Great Blades and the Tattered Navigators all shrugged.
“That’s sweet!” Vikalos smiled.
“That’s… incredibly dangerous…” Ziital muttered. The Wanderers were not amused at all. “We know very little about Mimics, but a Mimic making promises… tends to break things. Because they are both Life Goddess and Voidborn at the same time, they can manipulate matter and void, bend both to their will.”
Litvir crossed his arms and tutted in annoyance. “Arkay seems to already be aware of that, but he is also aware that broken promises break him, and he has to put the work in to make the promises stick. And what is wrong with SOMEONE actually keeping a promise like the one Arkay made to protect us?”
“What did Arkay specifically say to you?” Orion asked.
Again, Retvik and Litvir glanced at each other. Retvik pulled out his communicator and scrolled back through his messages. He eventually found what he was looking for and read it out.
“I promise, I will find a way to reunite with you both. I promise you’ll both be alive for me to reunite with you. One day, the three of us will embrace, the way we embraced each other when we completed our trial and became Decay Lords.”
Orion, Ziital and Eta all muttered to each other. Eventually, Eta looked up and grinned.
“Well nows, yous two is of the invulnerables nows!”
“I very much doubt that they’re completely invulnerable, they could still be killed and resurrected and maintain the promise…” Ziital grunted. “It is a well-worded promise though. As long as you didn’t promise anything back.”
“We-”
“ALRIGHT!” Itaviir, who had said absolutely nothing up until now, slammed his armoured hand on the table, scaring everyone but Galyn and Vikalos. “Can we bloody stop going on about that poor little broken Decayling? Why is Arkay so stupidly special? Why is he not just the Decayon/Life Goddess hybrid we originally thought he was?”
“You do not like Arkay? And you knew him?” Orion asked back.
“I pity Arkay. He just wanted to be a normal Decay Lord like everyone else here, and because the Overlord hates a rare subspecies of Decayon more than he hates Voidborns and Corruption, all Arkay did was suffer! And on top of that, Deathven cut us back not because we did not have the gear to deal with a super-massive, vastly expanding black hole, or because we struggled with the Golden Protectors and the Golden Defenders ravaging our territories, we were forced to downscale completely because Deathven detected we had a Mimic among us and demanded that we hand them over to be imprisoned and most likely executed, and we refused. Mostly because we did not know that Arkay was the Mimic.”
Telin blinked, then removed the plastic visors that protected and hid his eyes, so he could better look at Itaviir. “We… pretty much everyone was told you were dissolved because of the Golden Defenders.”
“We DESTROYED them!” Itaviir hissed. “Arkay and Retvik blew up their mothership, and we exterminated the rest of their armada after they attacked the Thantir One!”
It was now Psehon’s turn to cross his arms and tut. “Well that is bullshit of the highest order. Sure, us Phantai and you Thantir, we have our differences, same differences we have with the Justar, the same ones we had with the Ventra and the Metrum, but we have always somewhat respected you. You did your duties as navigators and Decayling collectors and you did it well.”
“I will be honest, I find that… problematic…” Normally, Phos was a very optimistic and powerful person, but the tone of his voice suggested a hint of fear. “What is stopping Deathven from shutting the Thantir down again, for harbouring a Mimic, a young Mimic that didn’t even know he was a Mimic until recently, even though they are working towards new duties as purifiers? What is stopping Deathven from shutting us Phantai down for also harbouring a Mimic? I know they are still looking for Vryda, but does that really give the Overlord the right to shut down well-meaning sects, over insanely rare entities that had nothing to do with both Vryda’s attack on Deathven Sector Alpha and Lifean Sector Alpha, and the whole… Everlord death thing?”
“Arkay and Elkay had nothing to do with either of those anyway…” Vikalos grunted. “Arkay was in a therapy session with myself and my co-workers in Deathven Sector Ypsilon when Vryda attacked, and Elkay only became a Mimic after he was no longer a Divine Guardian, which happened after the attacks.”
Eta made several clicking and licking sounds, then sighed. “I likes little Elkay. He seems of the harmless. Only promises to do the protects of the others. Is not of the fairs that he be punished for things that he not of the controls! I thinks we should go of the backs to Deathven. Do speaks to the Overlord. After alls, he cannot be of the hurts if we has the informations of the Mimics and where they ares. Also, these Thantirs, they is all of the very nice. Heroes. Deserve of the betters.”
“Do you Thantir have a base of operations?” Ziital asked.
Retvik shook his head. “No, we do not have a proper base, which is why the Phantai have been graciously hosting us. We have… plans to build a base, but funding is a problem. The Tattered Navigators all took a large pay cut, none of the Decaylings are getting an income yet, Arkay cannot access his funds and can only send us a small trickle of money and Kal have been generously keeping us afloat the entire time.”
“You two are in a Hidden Named Trio though!” Orion exclaimed. “You should be loaded. How much do you guys get every 4-ev?”
“About 4000 Deathvenbucks each…” Litvir frowned. “Well, I get 3200, Retvik gets 3600 because he murdered more bad people than I did when we were mortal.”
Eta and the Great Blades all snickered at the term Litvir used, but Ziital and Orion were shocked.
“You get… barely above the minimum for a normal Decay Lord, Litvir?” Orion’s eyes were wide open. “Hidden Named Trio members are supposed to get at least 500,000 Dlires every 4-ev… Ziital, I think Eta’s right, we need to have a chat with the Overlord. The whole point of Named Trios is that we’re, well, better than everyone else, but Named Trios are supposed to be treated equally as well. The Tattered Navigators should be getting the same amount the Great Blades do, and the Missing should be getting what we get. Do you know how much Arkay earns?”
Retvik shrugged. “I do not remember, I just know the number is large because Arkay was both a Death God and he has killed more than one universe. Apparently Kinisis used to loan Arkay to other Life Goddesses with nearly-dead or corrupted universes so he could destroy them and spare the Life Goddesses the pain of doing it themselves. Not that Arkay can access his money anyway.”
“Hm… Well, yeah I have to agree with Orion and Eta. You do not deserve to be treated badly just because you stumbled on a rare version of a rare thing. What we know of Mimics is that they are dangerously unstable, but Elkay seems perfectly fine, and Arkay HAS to be stable because he survived the strictest of level laws. I think our trip to the Justarian Circle can go on hold for a bit…” Ziital turned to the Great Blades. “Do you mind if we leave a tele-beacon here on your flagship, so we can teleport back once we’re done in Deathven?”
Telin nodded. “Of course! You are welcome here whenever you like!”
“Wonderful!” Ziital smiled as he, Orion and Eta all got up. “We’d better get ourselves sorted out then. It’s been wonderful meeting you all, genuinely nice to have met three other Trios all at once. Keep up the good work alright?”
Everyone else also got up too and bowed.
“Thank you for your help, Wanderers!” Telin beamed. “It has been an honour.”
“Yes, thank you, and thank you for saving my stupid partner!” Retvik smiled weakly.
Ziital waved his hand dismissively. “It’s the least we can do. Stay safe, everyone!”