“Hello again, Missing.”
Today, Deathbringer seemed to be wearing clothes, but Souldrainer and Flamebearer seemed to be rather bare. Flamebearer in particular didn’t have his normal flames. That was unusual.
“Hello, Overlord…” Deathbringer tutted. Their normal, vaguely annoyed attitude. “What stupid mission do you want us to go on this time?”
“I shall explain in a moment, it is not actually a hard mission but… Flamebearer, where are your flames?”
Flamebearer was half asleep again. He blinked a few times, looked down at his arms, then sighed and snapped his fingers. The flames reappeared, providing some light to Deathven’s strange, dark domain. Souldrainer blinked erratically, not really paying attention and caught off guard by the sudden burst of light. Clearly he was half asleep too.
“I turn them off when I want to sleep. They can get a bit bright, even if they are not very warm.”
Deathven eyed Flamebearer, then shrugged. “Fair enough. Still not sure why you waste time with sleep, but oh well.”
“I was having a very nice dream about being covered in fluffy animals!” Souldrainer exclaimed. “Dreams are fun. You ruined my dream by dragging me out of it before I was ready, and now I can no longer recall the details and did not have the chance to save the dream for later…” Souldrainer also seemed almost as annoyed as Deathbringer. “Anyway, what do you bloody well want?”
“Wait… you save your dreams?” Flamebearer muttered to Souldrainer.
“Yes. I also write the best dreams down in my diary.”
“You have a diary?”
“It is on my cleat tablet.”
“I want to read it. May I?”
“No. It would bore you anyway.”
“You are not boring, Litvir.”
“Still…”
“Are you two done?” Deathven tutted, ending their conversation.
Souldrainer rolled his eyes. “Annoyingly, yes. What is our stupid mission this time.”
Glad that the Missing were no longer distracted, Deathven leaned back and sipped his drink, before starting to explain.
“I am getting some unusual reports from within your Pentacluster. Unusual activity from sect leaders. It seems the Black Storm, the Great Blades and the Claws of Justice have all reported some sort of unease among themselves and their troops. So, my first question is, have you had any unease among you Missing?”
Deathbringer, Souldrainer and Flamebearer all glanced at each other and started chatting telepathically. That chat was brief though.
“Honestly, we’re doing better than ever.”
“Good. How about the Tattered Navigators?”
More telepathic chatter, followed by more shrugs.
“They seem perfectly fine as well. They are very happy right now because we recently picked up two new Decaylings!” Souldrainer smiled. He quickly stopped smiling though, wondering if perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned that last thing.
“Ah… more Thantir Decaylings… Are either of them Decayons?” Deathven asked.
“Uh… no…”
“Another Voidborn? And another Time Drake?”
“An older Adogtic Voidborn and a young Life Goddess,” Deathbringer answered. “They’re my half-brothers. They’ll behave.”
Deathven immediately turned to Deathbringer. “You have siblings?”
“Half-siblings. Don’t worry, the Synaisthyn stuff isn’t genetic. That was something Kinisis did to me and Elkay, it’s not repeatable now because Kinisis is dead and Elkay and I don’t want to make any more full Synaisthyns.”
“Alright… good… So things are well with the Thantir… What are your communications like with the other sects? Do you speak with the Ekthris?”
“Occasionally. They seem fine as well.”
“I see…” Deathven trailed off, then grunted. “I guess this is just an issue with larger sects… Well, while I do have larger problems with the Claws of Justice and the Justar, I want you to deal with the smaller problem with the Great Blades first. You are friendly with them anyway, and I want to see how you solve this unknown problem.”
“Hang on… you don’t know what the problem is?”
Deathven nodded. “I need you to find out.”
“So how do you know that there’s a problem in the first place?” Deathbringer asked. “Wait, do you have spies in these sects?”
“No, no, not at all. Not with the Phantai at least. My associate, Featherlord, I believe you have met him before. He informed me that the Great Blades seemed oddly unsettled and unwilling to talk. But the Phantai don’t really trust my associates, so I am asking you to look into the situation for me, to work out if I need to intervene properly like I did with the old Thantir and the Justar. I hope not, I believe you three can solve whatever their problem is diplomatically, but, well, you are Higher Lords and a Missing Trio, you have my blessing to do as you please.”
“I… do not think we need to do that…” Flamebearer muttered. “The Great Blades know and respect us. We are allies, I am certain we can work out what is going on. We cannot say the same about the Claws of Justice though.”
“How comes?”
Flamebearer glanced at Deathbringer, then grunted. “Truthtalker does not like us at all. We… do not know why.”
“I… I see… Either way, I need to do more assessments on the Claws of Justice and the Justar overall before I do anything, but it is possible that I may need to send you there as well, to do an in-person check-in. Or perhaps to do some undercover work if my associates are denied access. In the mean time, I want you to deal with the Great Blades first. I may need you to also speak to the Black Storm, but I will let you know in the future, and all that should be is a simple conversation. Do you have any questions?”
The Missing all glanced at each other, then shrugged.
“Just the one!” Deathbringer smiled. “Is there a time frame for this?”
“I would like you to head off into the Goldtorn Remains as soon as possible, but you may take several hours to sort yourselves out and prepare. I have faith that you will fix this issue.”
Deathbringer smiled some more. “Alrighty. Can you send us home now? I would do it, but me borrowing your powers annoys you.”
Deathven smiled back. Not that the Missing could tell. “Of course. Stay safe, Missing.”
With a snap of his fingers, the three strange Decay Lords vanished, off to their new mission.