It was rare that all three Rethan members of the Thantir sat together at the same time. Although Retvik and Litvir were technically in some sort of relationship, they tended to work separate hours and mostly did separate jobs. Retvik mostly focused on Corruption destruction with his fire powers, while Litvir specialized in the removal of telepathic anomalies, mostly created by evil Voidborns. That being said, the Thantir had noticed an increase of former Divine Guardians coming to them, asking for the removal of Life Goddess mind-control from their heads.
That was where Elkay came in. Not only was he a former Divine Guardian himself, but he was both a telepath and he could mimic Retvik’s fire powers. So not only did the Thantir’s resident Psions know what to look for, Elkay could help them spot stranger Life Goddess alterations and provide support for the former Divine Guardians, many of whom were lost or angry.
However, today, a Divine Guardian had come in, having survived an attack from a Corruption that had infected the mind of their guard target, a young Life Goddess, possessed them and forced the Life Goddess to murder her own protectors. While this lone survivor did manage to escape, they were infected with Corruption themselves and were desperately trying to fight back. Litvir and Elkay spent four hours trying to calm the Divine Guardian down while Retvik burnt the Corruption from their veins, before smearing Elkay’s blood on the burn wounds in a bid to both heal their injuries faster and stop the Corruption from re-infecting them. It turned out that, after fire and pure acid, the most infective thing to use against Corruption was the blood of Amalgam Mimics, and Elkay just happened to be one.
Eventually, the battle was won, and Galyn and several members of Kal took the Divine Guardian off their hands and into a cleaner, less blood-soaked recovery room so they could sleep off their injuries and trauma. After a quick clean-up and ten minutes in the decontamination showers, the three Rethans were now sitting at one of the tables outside the mini canteen and kitchen area, all nursing a bottle of mead. It had been a while since any of them had spoken.
“So, uh, with Rethais out of the way, which of you two is the Bearer now?” Litvir randomly asked.
“Retvik, certainly…” Elkay immediately answered. “I am a bastard child, I forbid myself from even having intercourse until I was presumed dead and everyone stopped caring.”
Retvik though seemed to disagree. “Neither of us would be. The Bearer’s duty is to be perfect but also to reproduce with a perfect partner. Rethais had two kids with Lysar, who was a Below Three Hundred General before she retired, Rethais did his duty and passed his role on. Either Relkay or Revan would have been the Bearer. Probably Relkay because Revan was too busy having fun exploring Temthan wildernesses. Trismit, being adopted, would have been illegible.”
Litvir blinked then turned to Retvik. “What?”
“What?”
“Rethais… adopted Trismit? But Trismit was… about the same age as Revan, I think.”
Retvik leaned forward. “You treated Trismit like a slave. He was half-starved when we killed you.”
“Trismit regularly refused to eat food, for, well, reasons. He also killed his entire family with his out-of-control electricity powers when he was 18 years old, but I removed those memories because otherwise he would have killed himself with guilt and he was more useful alive than dead. And still, Trismit nearly succeeded in killing himself a few times. Most of the folks in the 11th Legion had blood on their hands in one way or another.”
Elkay sighed to himself. “You can get away with a lot if you frame everything behind “I am keeping murderers off the streets.” In your case, technically, you were via experimental means, but, well, you did not have to be such a cunt about it.”
Retvik leaned forward some more, but this time towards his half-brother. “You… were aware of what Litvir was doing?”
“Well, there were two thousand legions while I was in power. I was under the impression the 11th Legion was mostly doing what the 606th Legion did but with Rethans capable of, well, exploding. Like you did in a hospital, apparently. I could have ended up in the 11th Legion myself.”
Litvir shrugged, snickering slightly at Elkay’s comment. “I mean, I did send a couple of my soldiers your way when you saved King Ver from a bullet to the chest. You sent them back, with a message stating you could cut my tongue out if I dared threaten you again. Still, a semi-related question, if neither of you are the Bearer, which of you is the Conqueror? Or is Rethais both?”
“Well, clearly I am!” Retvik snapped. “I hate to be blunt, but Elkay is only half Rethianos!”
“Well, no, clearly I am, because I worked my way up the ranks and became High General of the Retha!” Elkay snapped back. “And technically, we are ALL half-Rethianos because our father… or in my case, my mother… is not a Rethianos, to, uh, avoid incest! Either way, Rethais was carried to his position by me!”
“I fought against a damn deity.”
“You were carried by one.”
The argument was blatantly interrupted by the presence of Eksi and Kaytee, who loudly shouted the words “SIBLING RIVALRY! I fucking knew it!”
Retvik snarled. “It is not a rivalry.”
“It clearly fucking is, mate!” Eksi giggled. “The last two Rethianoi, some sort of retarded purity bloodline thingy, arguing over a title!”
“Is that what the Rethianos family is?” Kaytee asked. “Some sort of strange bloodline? Aren’t you part of some bloodline too, Litvir?”
Litvir shook his head. “While yes, technically, the Kaldieridos bloodline is considered the worst in modern Rethan history… uh… old-universe Rethan history, it was never a Bloodline Tradition. There were only two generations, the horrible Sonia Kaldieridos who laid me, Kuta and my hundred or so thankfully dead siblings. The actual Bloodline Traditions lasted centuries, and followed a strict rule of two kids per generation, one of whom would go on to have two more kids with a high-ranking Rethan of historical importance, while both members of a generation have to prove themselves mighty and significant.”
Kaytee blinked, opened his mouth, closed it again, climbed into the free chair then finally spoke. “That’s pretty fucked up. And I say that as a Ksa, who was stolen from his mother and bred into a super soldier.”
Rather than grab a chair from elsewhere, Eksi decided to sit on Kaytee’s lap. “I mean, all of us here are from fucked up places. Apart from Tahvra, aside from the being-reborn-every-fifty-years thing, he lived a pretty normal life. But I think the best way to answer the question of “which Rethainos is the Conqueror?” is via violence.”
“Eksi, little one, why are you constantly trying to get people to fight to settle these pointless “who is stronger” disputes?” Litvir tutted. “You did the exact same thing when Psehon challenged me.”
“Because that’s how you settle this sort of thing! Retvik should know, he, Tenuk, Elksia and the old death god helped Phovos set up fucking gladiator arenas for us to sort our differences out in, and I fought in said arenas for years up until Psiksi quit. Elkay and Retvik are arguing about which of them is better, well, words aren’t gonna settle it, so they might as well fight…” Eksi trailed off for a moment. “Although we should probably hold off on that for a moment. I came here because Koh and Gah need some telepathic help, Litvir. From both of us stupidly powerful Psions.”
Litvir snorted, then stood up. “Very well. You two, behave. And if you decide to not behave, do me a favour and wait until we are done before you turn to fisticuffs.”
Both Retvik and Elkay crossed their arms and frowned but didn’t answer. They watched as Eksi climbed off Kaytee’s lap, then dragged Litvir away. Once the coast was clear, Kaytee leaned forward and grinned.
“There’s nothing wrong with sibling rivalries, you know. They’re perfectly natural. Also perfectly fine to fight occasionally.”
“And how would you know?” Retvik grunted.
“I grew up with my siblings, and with Arkay and his siblings. Most Ksa were siblings or related in some way. And we were all genetically modified Threan-type children with more power than we could really control. Sometimes you need to have a fight to solve things.”
Retvik turned back to Elkay and snarled. “You want to settle this with violence? To see which of us is the true Conqueror?”
“For once, yes.”
“Alright. Once we close the place down for the day, we will settle this like the armoured brutes we are.”
“Agreed.”
Elkay climbed to his feet and marched off, presumably to find his weapons and put some better armour on. Retvik grunted once more, then did the same. Now that he was alone, Kaytee leaned back in his seat and snickered to himself.
“Heh, Eksi is such a bad influence on me…”