“So what does being a Decay Lord entail these days?” Thassalin asked as he fiddled around with his physical form, ignoring the fact that Nyssi was giving him looks. Now the old Time Drake was free from the confines of a universe he had little power in, Thassalin’s strength had returned in its entirety. And it turned out, not only was Thassalin wise and powerful, but his longer duration time powers complimented Elksia’s short duration thread system very nicely.
Looking over the eight new Decaylings was Elkay, the Thantir’s resident jack of all trades. Since the Decaylings all had wildly different abilities, Elkay’s ability to mimic those powers meant he could help them all settle down. And since he was a Synaisthyn the same way Arkay was, the Decaylings all felt weirdly more comfortable around him.
“Currently, the Thantir work in purifications, we help vok recover from infections from Corruption, Voidborns and occasionally Life Goddesses. But since we have more people here now, Retvik wants to start getting into Corruption purging as well, which is what the Decay Lord sects further north all do.”
“We’re already pretty good at that!” Kayel chirped. “Especially us four. Our blood seems to hurt that stuff really bad.”
“That is very good to know!” Elkay smiled, glad that maybe he would no longer be alone in his blood donations. “But before we just send you out there, we do need to have you trained up. Becoming a Decay Lord means becoming part of… an admittedly rather strange society. There are rules, guidelines and traditions to be followed, and you will need to learn how to properly and safely use your powers. The final step in becoming a Decay Lord is doing a dangerous trial, where you will need to use all you have learned to complete a test, while also shedding your last connections to intrauniversal existence.”
“What, like, a gauntlet or something?” Tenuk asked. “Is it hard? Did you do one?”
Elkay nodded as he went through several sheets of paper and began to hand them out, alongside some pens. “Yes, the last set of Thantir Decaylings, myself included, we all did a trial where we had to destroy a source of Corruption.”
Tenuk glanced at Kayel, Nyssi and Retvik, then shrugged. “Sounds easy. We’ve kinda already done that before.”
“You have?”
“Yeah… Well, Kayel and Retvik did the hard stuff. Nyssi and I mostly just distracted that evil white monster thing, then Retvik tackled her, Kayel dragged her head through a shadow portal and decapitated her and Arkay finished her off.”
“Huh…” Elkay trailed off. “You all seem rather combat-ready in the first place, that is good. Most Decay Lord trials tend to be combat against Corruption or Voidborns or something similar, so it is good that you have experience already. Despite only just becoming Decaylings…” Elkay paused. “You have a question, Phovoula?”
“Yes, I do. Several, actually. Is it a problem that I am a Voidborn and that Thassalin is a Time Drake? I get the feeling that most beings seem to dislike Voidborns in general.”
“All things considered? We might have a few roadblocks, Phovos and I had a couple, as did Arkay, but those were all fixed. As for disliking Voidborns, to be fair, most Voidborns are not… nice. But you are an Adogtic Newling, basically a baby Voidborn that does not belong to a cult, and you do not look obviously like a Voidborn, so you should be fine.”
“But… the really big horned Rethavok beings… they…”
“They mean you no harm. Before Itaviir and Galyn left and formed the Thantir with Vikalos, they were part of the Phantai, and the Phantai spent a very long time at war with several aggressive Voidborn cults. They know you are fine, Itaviir just needs a bit of time to get used to your scent.”
“Oh… Okay…” Phovoula settled down, then glanced around. “Uh… Can I ask more questions?”
Elkay nodded. “Of course. That is why I am here, to answer your questions. And if I cannot answer them, then I will ask up the chain.”
“So, uh, first question, why do you have the same name as Kayel?”
Kayel tutted. “Dude, it’s not nice to dead-name people. I’ve been calling myself Kayel for five years now and had it legally changed a year ago… Hang, on, your name is Elkay Theanon?”
Elkay sighed, then nodded some more. “Yes. My full name is Elkay Theanon-Rethianos.”
“So you’re of a bloodline tradition like Retty was?” Nyssi asked.
“Technically, no. Retvik and his brother Rethais were of the tradition proper, but their mother was a cheating bastard and got some poor, unsuspecting vok egg-ridden, and I was abandoned before I had even hatched.”
“Oh… That is why your voice and mannerisms remind me of my sibling Relkir…” Retvik (younger Retvik) muttered. Admittedly, he hadn’t said very much at all since he’d arrived.
“Why do you have Skyavok surname?” Talok added.
“It’s not that bad!” Kayel interjected. “Rethavok and Skyavok kinda share a long-ass list surnames from back when we were one species. Sure, it’s very, very old-fashioned for a Rethan and insanely common for a Skyan, but I think it suits this guy! Although your colourings kinda remind me of the All-Ksa. He was called Elkay too, but, like, TONS of K-Class Skyans were called Elkay. Doesn’t explain why weird winged Rethan Elkay here is wearing a Skyan wedding necklace AND a Rethan partnership dagger though…” Kayel paused. “Uh, who are you married to?”
“I married Teekay.”
To Elkay’s surprise, only Phovoula and Tenuk seemed surprised by Elkay’s answer, but Tenuk eventually just shrugged and kept his mouth shut.
“Well, I assume there aren’t really any other Rethavok out here for you to marry, so there’s probably a good reason.”
“The reason is because we love each other…” Elkay grunted, not liking these questions and comments and decided instead to move things along. “Anyway, we need to fill out these forms. There is a lot on them, and I recommend being as honest as possible. For questions requiring units of time, please answer in hours, since things like days, weeks and years are inconsistent across the Periuniversal Void. If you need help, please ask.”
Phovoula sighed, then raised her hand again.
“What is it, dear?”
“Fuck… you’re another Rethan that calls people ‘dear’…”
“What is wrong with calling people dear?” Elkay and Kuta both accidentally asked in unison.
“It’s… weird. Like you’re being condescending.”
“We mean it in a nice way though!” Kuta tutted. “You are going to have to get used to it.”
Phovos frowned. “Whatever. Either way, why does Kuta have different sheets of paper to us? You’ve given all of us six sheets to fill in, Kuta only has two.”
“Kuta is already registered as a Decayling. Technically, Kuta has been a member of the Thantir longer than I have!” Elkay explained. “His… sorry, their forms are for Kuta to update the information we already have.”
“Was I not presumed dead the same way Arkay was?” Kuta suddenly exclaimed. “After all, I… admittedly forgot I was a Decayling for a long time. I basically re-lived my life.”
Elkay didn’t really have an answer for that. “I think you were just reported as inactive or unavailable, because Deathven overall had no data that suggested otherwise, and you were active on Wyvern once you remembered who you were.”
“I also assume this means I will not get a new Decayling codename?”
“Unfortunately, no, you cannot change your codename until you become a Decay Lord… But Spiritdrainer is not as bad as my stupid codename, and because I am, annoyingly, a person of special interest, I cannot change mine.”
“What IS your codename, and who choses our codenames?” Nyssi asked. “Because I don’t want to be called something stupid.”
“Hah…” Elkay smiled half-heartedly. “My codename is Unender. But, thankfully, Galyn has been banned from giving new Decaylings codenames since Retvik and Litvir took over leadership of the sect.”
“Yeah… that’s pretty bad…” Nyssi tried to stifle her laughter. “So, uh, when do we get our codenames?”
Elkay smiled properly this time. “Once you have filled out those forms and everything has been checked over, then we will have ourselves a little naming ceremony…”