Phovos wasn’t sure what she was looking at as she stormed into the private training area for Xeno Dessaron One, favourite ever House Fighter arena team. She’d expected the four of them to either be sparring or sitting around chatting, but no, currently Retvik was just wandering around the room, carrying Kayel in one hand and balancing Tenuk on his other hand, while Nyssi was trying to throw rings over their heads.
“What the fuck are you all doing?” Phovos snarled as she slammed the door shut behind her.
“Training!” Kayel smiled as Retvik put him and Tenuk down. “What’s up, boss?”
“How is that training?” Phovos asked.
Everyone shrugged.
“Strength training for Retvik, aim training for Nyssi, balance training for me and Kayel, I guess?” Tenuk suggested. “You seem kinda upset today!”
Phovos adjusted her hood, then took a deep breath to steady herself. “I am confused and disgruntled and I feel awkward, all emotions I don’t like. But I have questions that need answering, and I hope you can answer them.”
“We will do our best, as always, Kyr Raptor…” Retvik seemed uneasy. Nyssi noticed that he only seemed uneasy like this when around the Raptor and deities, which she found weird. “How can we help you?”
“Alright, that stupid party we all had to go to?”
“The fun one with Arkay!” Nyssi beamed. “That was tons of fun! We had an awesome time, right, guys?”
Retvik nodded in agreement. “I has a very nice time. I even made a new friend, Captain Taliv was very nice. And I forgot how good I look in a cape.”
“You should wear a cape more often! It suits you!” Kayel was still smiling. Phovos didn’t like how chirpy everyone was.
“Hmph. I would, but capes are only casually worn by Generals, unfortunately. Did you not enjoy the party, Kyr Phovos?”
Phovos closed her eyes and tutted. “It was… fine. Did not think I would run into another Akairon Healer during the party, but General Kuta seemed tolerable. But I have a problem, a question I cannot answer. Did any of you see a pale blue Ksithan at the party?”
Xeno Dessaron One all fell silent.
“Uh, Ksithans can’t be pale blue…” Nyssi eventually muttered. “You all only come in, like, five or six colours. I did catch a glimpse of a pale blue Temthan with dark blue scales though, just as we were leaving. Didn’t think anything of it though because it’s a rare not not impossible colour for us.”
“Well there was a pale blue Ksithan!” Phovos hissed. “I saw them! And General Kuta saw him too! He was astoundingly beautiful and I went off to try and find and talk to him and… he just… I never found him.”
“I didn’t see a pale blue Ksithan, but I did see a light grey-skinned Skyan with ice blue plating though, that no one else seemed to know…” Kayel muttered. “Didn’t speak to me or anything though, but I did catch them looking at me a few times. Did you see anyone, Tenuk?”
Tenuk shook his head. “I definitely didn’t see a pale blue Spast, or any other Spasts. But the Banikans I was chatting with, trying to get them to teach me a few words, they did all at one point stop, turn around and stare at a random Ksithan that stopped and spoke to Arkay. The Ksithan I saw though was that dark ‘metru’ blue that’s kinda standard for some Ksithans, I would have noticed a pale blue Ksithan.”
Phovos grunted, then turned to Tenuk. “Did the Banikans say why they stared at the Ksithan?”
“Not really, no. They all just said something in their language, asked if I knew the Ksithan then mentioned that they felt uneasy upon seeing that Ksithan. I asked them if I was making them feel uneasy, they said no, but I turned back into my normal Spast self anyway, and they all seemed fine once the Ksithan disappeared into the crowd.”
Retvik frowned, thinking back to the party. “Now that you mention it, while I was chatting with Taliv, a rather pale Rethan with blue plating and silver armour did wander by, and both Taliv and I felt uneasy as well. I felt that weird uneasiness other Rethans sometimes get with me when they realise I am an exile. Maybe there was a Spast wandering around the party, messing with us all?”
“If there was, I would have been able to smell them!” Tenuk exclaimed. “Our sense of smell isn’t like the super nostrils of a Temthan or a Ksithan, but we can definitely smell each other, we all have our own scent. I mean, you need something to be able to tell each other apart, when you shapeshift.”
“But if you have your own scent, why has no one apart from Phovos and your brother recognized you?” Nyssi asked, looking confused. “Like, you make your own scents and pheromones when you shapeshift, but you still have your base scent. Surely someone would have picked that up?”
“Huh… I… I kinda don’t have an answer for that…” Tenuk admitted. “I’m not really aware of my own scent, and you can only really smell it when you’re in the same room. That Ksithan did wander by close enough for me to have been able to smell him if he was a Spast in disguise. But also, most Spasts don’t bother with changing scents, the same way most don’t bother with voice mimicry.”
Phovos sighed. “While I do not like this mysterious entity that was wandering around, I do have an answer to Tenuk’s scent problem. Your scent is actually slightly different now, compared to when I picked up your scent as a child. All four of you have a slight… off scent about you, like the smell of freshly cut grass.”
“Or the smell of death…” Kayel muttered. “We smell dead to you.”
“I have sensed death, I have tasted it, I have caused it and I have found it. You do not smell dead.”
“We do though. You said we smell like freshly cut grass. That’s one of the first smells you get when someone dies. It’s brief, but it’s fresh. And it… kinda makes sense. Because we’re all supposed to be dead. The problem is, we died during the brief milliseconds that the Thantophor was also dead, so we didn’t die and Death Itself forgot about us. Or, at least, that’s what Arkay said to us.”
Phovos eyed Kayel, then went back to sighing. “As interesting and… utterly insane as that is… and… terrifying…” Phovos trailed off. “I wonder if the same applies to me? And maybe to General Kuta?”
Kayel glanced at his team mates, tutted, then shrugged. “Maybe. So anyway, are you all thinking what I am thinking? That we all saw the same person, messing with us?”
“It was probably just a Spast…” Tenuk frowned. “I mean, I can’t be the ONLY Spast who is super good at shapeshifting. And we are known for being trickster-like and blatantly wandering into parties to hang out. Kinda weird that he had the guts to just waltz over and talk to Arkay though. Pretty much everyone else did that same awkward stutter thing they always do when they first meet Arkay.”
“Maybe this mysterious blue entity already knew Arkay?” Kayel suggested. “Surely Arkay has relationships with more than just Phovos, his vampire girlfriend and us four idiots.”
“We should just ask Arkay!” Retvik proposed. “He spoke to the mysterious blue entity, after all. Also, stop calling Kuta a vampire, that is mean.”
“Fair, I guess… But Retvik’s right, this person clearly knew Arkay, so we’ll just ask him.”
“And how do we do that?” Phovos snarled.
All four members of Xeno Dessaron One immediately smiled, pulled out their various communicators and tapped away at them, before putting them away again and turning back to Phovos.
“We just did!” Nyssi grinned. “Might be a while before he gets back to us though, Arkay’s a busy boy!”
Phovos snarled again, but that snarl turned into a sigh of defeat. “You are all very weird. Anyway, I have work to do, so I will leave you to your training. Let me know when the Thantophor gets back to you.”
With one last sigh, Phovos made her way back to her office, feeling more confused and disgruntled than ever.”