Koh felt very pleased and proud of himself as he stood in the doorway of the new reception and waiting area of the Thantir’s new base. They still hadn’t thought of a name for the place, and Koh had gone around earlier asking for suggestions, but all things considered, things were great right now. Each of the Thantir had their own personal quarters, they’d already set up work schedules for their new purification duties and they’d already had three clients come in, despite not having officially opened up yet.
And they’d been some pretty good clients. Very happy clients. The last client who came in, who left about an hour ago, was a travelling Decay Lord who had been attacked by Corruption in the Ventra Expanse while on their way to the Stable Abyss, which was on the edge of the old Metrum territories. Luckily, that had been dealt with quickly, it was just a small bite mark on their finger and Vikalos swiftly learned how to deal with minor injuries like that. Having two Flames and also potentially having a third whenever Elkay mimicked his brother’s abilities meant that Pah, who used to be the resident Corruption killer, now had time to start refining his skills further and got to take more breaks.
Their second client though was a regular. Syklas was a Life Goddess who maintained a very, very large universe and had been doing so for a very long time. She was ever so glad that she now had a reliable, stable place that she could come to whenever she needed one of her many demi-deities fixed up. When Syklas originally created her universe on the very edge of the Kinigian Wilderness, the area had been relatively quiet, but these days, her poor creations were constantly bombarded not just by stray lumps of Corruption, but also by groups of newly hatched Voidborns that were needlessly aggressive and just wanted to kill stuff. After losing her bound Voidborn protector, she no longer had anyone capable of removing Kenic Spores quickly and cleanly, and Kal had always been nearby to help out.
The deity Syklas had brought along today was her main god of death, a red, white and silver being called Helkas, who was a wonderfully friendly being despite his dark duties. Kal had removed Kenic Spores from the poor thing before, and he knew what needed to be done. As always, Helkas was very thankful for the assistance, although he did seem to freak out ever so slightly when he saw Elkay, who had gone in to check on Helkas in the recovery rooms. But Helkas quickly calmed down, and he and Elkay spent a long time just chatting with each other. Everyone had suspicions that Helkas was potentially an Amalgam Mimic, but since he was still an intra-universal deity, there was no way of knowing for certain.
Once Helkas was properly healed, he waved goodbye, and Syklas teleported both herself and her son away, back to their own universe.
Their very first client though, they were still wandering around. Kesistatir was a Voidborn that had just lost his universe to Corruption, and was recovering from an amputated limb. Thanks to the fact that Phovos was a Life Goddess, her blood had sped up Kesistatir’s healing, and his arm was slowly regrowing. However, Kesistatir’s presence was definitely troubling the younger members of the Thantir. There were several reasons why.
The first was quite simple. Kesistatir looked very similar to the Voidborn guardian of the younger Thantir’s old universe. In fact, it turned out that Kesistatir and Kenon, whose full name was apparently Kenostaton, were siblings, both former high ranking members of the Golden Protectors, a deadly Voidborn cult. Kesistatir though had been unaware that the Golden Protectors had been destroyed while trying to remove Kenostaton from his universe and kill their resident god of entropy.
While the news of the demise of the Golden Protectors did briefly make Kesistatir smile, that brought on the second reason why the Thantir were uneasy around him. He was less amused when he discovered that Kenostaton was dead, and that he had been killed by the aforementioned god of entropy. A being that also happened to be Retvik and Litvir’s missing partner. Thankfully, Tenuk and Phovos had both been present when Kenostaton was killed, and they explained that Kenostaton had lost his mind and was threatening to kill his Life Goddess partner and the three beings Kenostaton had considered to be his own children.
Kesistatir couldn’t seem to accept that. He countered that Voidborns were ancient beings, they weren’t known to suddenly snap, and he believed someone must have manipulated Kenostaton and driven him insane. The only potential suspect was Kinisis, the Life Goddess Kenostaton had been bound to.
That led to the third reason why everyone felt so uneasy. Kinisis was a Life Goddess, but in a failed bid to resurrect herself, Kinisis had transformed into a rather hideous, highly infectious Corruption. And she was the one who had attacked Kesistatir’s universe and killed everything in it. Or, at least, a slither of her Corruption was to blame. Kesistatir was now torn between anger and confusion. The Thantir, most of them at least, had been deified by Kinisis, the being who had destroyed everything Kesistatir cared about.
And now this Voidborn was just pacing up and down, not knowing what to do with himself. As far as he was concerned, he had no reason to continue, to be alive. However, Litvir, the strange, resourceful being that he was, had made a suggestion. It turned out, Litvir was still in contact with another Voidborn called Theocydes, and this Adogtic Voidborn had told Litvir that he was now working in Corruption Purging in the Ventra Expanse. After a brief chat, Litvir suggested that, although his universe was gone, Kesistatir could avenge his universe by killing Corruption and stopping it from spreading, protecting other universes from harm.
Kesistatir had liked that idea. The only problem was that he had essentially no belongings. He had lost literally everything and, because he was a Voidborn, he couldn’t just go to one the malls in the local pentacluster and buy new gear. That was where Koh had come in. He had just spent the last twenty minutes setting up a temporary single-use debit card and printing off a variety of maps. Sure, Phovos had insisted that Kesistatir remain on the Thantir’s base until his arm regrew, and the Voidborn found it impossible to resist Phovos’s words, but he now had some money to buy new armour and a small ship, as well as directions to both the Ventra Expanse, a handful of areas known to require regular Corruption Purges and several places that allowed cult-less Voidborns to visit. And despite Itaviir having been a massive grump originally, he’d summoned a large blade for Kesistatir to arm himself with.
So yeah, Koh was feeling very proud. The Thantir had done a huge amount of good work, and they’d only just set themselves up. As far as Koh was concerned, this was just the start, and it was everything he had ever wanted.
“Hey, you alright?” a voice asked from behind Koh. Koh turned around to see who it was.
“Oh, hey Tah. Yeah, I’m doing great right now. Can’t believe how good things are.”
Tah clicked as he put an arm around his brother, and the two of them looked out, watching the rest of the Thantir wander around.
“Yeah. Never thought we’d end up like this. I always assumed we’d be on our little ship, chasing patients down forever. But now, well…”
“And to think that we were going to leave this pentacluster entirely when the Metrum split up!” Koh mused. “I know we were a bit… mean to you when you suggested we stick around, but I’m glad you convinced us. Look at how much good we’ve done. And how much more we’re going to do.”
Tah shrugged. “Honestly, it was all mostly just… luck, I guess. But you’re right. We can finally, quantitatively make up for what we did to our own universe.”
“Never thought I’d hear you say that!” Koh chirped. “We’re onto a good thing. We have to keep it like this.”
“Oh, trust me, brother, I plan to defend this place and our sect with my life. This is our new Nest, they are our new Horde, I am not making the same mistakes again…”