“How are you feeling, Nyssi?”
Nyssi tutted to herself as she flicked through a digital magazine. It was more of a catalogue than a magazine, full of reviews for the latest weapons and armour for gladiators. Sure, Nyssi had her cool custom Xeno Desssaron One armour, but she wanted some more weapons for herself. She was envious of Retvik’s wall of weapons. Although, speaking of Retvik, he just asked Nyssi something.
“Sorry, what did you say, Ret?”
Retvik sat down next to Nyssi, having brought her a glass of lemonade. “I asked how you are feeling. Last few days have been rather hard on you.”
Nyssi tutted again. “Yeah, but it’s fine. All sorted. For now at least.”
“You do not seem certain about that at all.”
“Ugh…” Nyssi rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m not certain. They didn’t find Tharr Bloodscale’s body. He’s still out there. Sure, I got you boys to protect me. The other girls don’t have anyone to directly look after them.”
“They are in good hands. You put them in good hands. There is little more we can do…” Retvik sighed. “I do very much understand how you are feeling though. You want to protect the innocent.”
“Of course you understand. You want to protect everyone. It’s an obsession of yours. It’s almost worrying.”
Retvik snorted, then leaned back. “I cannot help it. I am bred like that. Instead of blood, I have light and the desire to defend running through my veins. Well, there is some blood in there but… I do not know where I am going with this. But while it is natural for me, for you to want to protect random strangers from harm, that is… well, you and Tenuk, you should be proud of yourselves.”
Nyssi tutted again. “I hate that you’re right. Still, it’s much easier being selfless when you’re kinda immortal. I find it… almost painful that I spent most of my life praying to Blessed Sini, praying for a long, fruitful, successful and sexy life, only for it to be accidentally given to me by her bloody shadow.”
“This universe is quite strange…” Retvik muttered, before trailing off.
“Yeah…”
With a sigh, Nyssi went back to her digital catalogue, browsing through a section about axes. Nyssi always liked axes, they were handy. Durable, useful and capable of being thrown. Sure, Nyssi’s gun aim needed some improvement, but when it came to throwing things? Nyssi was pretty proud of her thrown accuracy. To the point that she was considering also getting some throwing stars or something. Still, axes were overall more useful.
“That is a cool axe…”
Retvik’s statement made Nyssi jump. She didn’t realize that he had been reading over her shoulder.
“It’s rude to pry.”
“I apologize, but that ice axe is very cool.”
“Hah… Ice axe… cool… Punny…” Nyssi tapped on the image, expanding it so she could get a better look. “Actually, I take it back, that is a badass axe. Looks a bit top-heavy though. Not great for throwing. At least, if you’re my size.”
“True, but you should bookmark it anyway. The Raptor’s Arena Blacksmiths will happily make any weapon you want. Within reason.”
Nyssi sighed. “Yeah, maybe, but I gotta pay for it. Custom shit is expensive.”
“We are both House Fighters and the Raptor’s favourite gladiators, I am sure we could get a custom ice axe like that made to better fit you. If not, I could just buy you the axe.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course. Might actually buy one for myself.”
Nyssi paused, then glanced at the large wall by the front door. It was completely lined with weapons, but most of them were various heads for gunstaffs, or swords and daggers. Axes were more of a Temthan thing.
“Didn’t know you liked axes.”
Retvik shrugged. “I just like cool weapons in general. To be fair, being a single, sexless Rethan who pays reduced tax due to being an exile, I can afford to waste money on cool weapons I will not use.”
Nyssi glanced at the weapon wall again. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“I do not mind at all.”
“Why the fuck do you, a single dude who clearly doesn’t have sex, live in a four bedroom house?”
Retvik hesitated. “Uh… well… I was not always single. Eleven years ago, I met someone.”
“Who?”
“A kindly older Rethan called Isaar. I fell in love with both Isaar and their three kids, Deliak, Essi and Velek. They were poor though, struggling with some bureaucratic nonsense, and I bought this place to live with Isaar and the kids.”
“Oh… I thought you kinda weren’t allowed to have sex or boyfriends or poten-partners or whatever you call them?”
Retvik grunted, then nodded. “That is true. I am not allowed to have intercourse with another Rethan. But I had been single for a long time, and Isaar both sweet and was the child of a now dead exile, so they understood what it was like to be constantly judged for something they could not avoid. We dated for six months, and I decided I wanted to help more, so I bought this place and let Isaar move in with me. At the time, I was under the impression that being an exile exempted me from the rules of the Rethianos Tradition. I was wrong.”
“What happened?” Nyssi twisted round to better look at Retvik.
“You remember what happened when I fought Kayess-En? I got… picked up in a similar way, by the Master of Generals. So did Isaar. When I returned home, Isaar and the kids were gone. I have not seen or spoken to Isaar since. Never got to say goodbye.”
“Wow… Your government is… a massive cunt…” Nyssi felt bad for asking. “Does explain why you like Kuta now. Bet he… uh, they… they also understand what it’s like to be an exile, even if they managed to worm themselves into the bastard government…”
A beeping sound interrupted the conversation. It was Retvik’s communicator, which was vibrating away happily on the coffee table.
“Is that Kuta?” Nyssi blinked. “Also, do I have to call them ‘General’ or is that just a Rethan thing?”
Retvik grunted, shook his head and answered the call, then put it on loudspeaker. “Hello, Kyr Kuta.”
“Hello, Retvik, dear! Are you busy on the Ninth of the Sixth? I know you are not busy but I am being polite and asking anyway.”
Nyssi nudged Retvik in the side. “He’s about to ask you on a date, Ret.”
Retvik hissed at Nyssi to shut up before answering. “No, Kuta, I am not busy. Why do you ask?”
“I too have some free time, and I would like to meet up. However, due to an awkward thing called interspecies law, I have to somewhat arrive on Portalia via legal means. Would we be able to meet in Portalia City?”
“The capital?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
A tut. “Legal reasons. My interplanetary shadowjumping has admittedly gotten me into hot water recently. But I have found a nice place and I would like to take you there for lunch. As a thank you for your recent kindness.”
Again, Nyssi nudged Retvik. “Say yes. You’re lonely. Say yes.”
“I cannot, Nyssi.” Retvik whispered.
“You don’t have to have sex, just do it as a friendship thingy.”
“Alright, fine…” Retvik gave in. “Very well, Kuta, I accept your invite.”
“Wonderful!” Kuta had clearly heard everything Nyssi and Retvik had just said, but seemed not at all bothered. “Put some nice armour on, I will send you the location on General Talks. See you on Sunday!”
Kuta swiftly closed the call before Retvik could say anything else, and the communicator fell silent. It briefly beeped as Retvik got a message, which was just Kuta sending him a map to the location of the date.
“It might be fun!” Nyssi smiled. “Plus, like, Kuta KNOWS you’re an exile. They won’t force you to do anything, they’d get in trouble too.”
“I guess…” Retvik sighed as he settled back down. “Can we go back to looking at weapons, please?”
Nyssi nodded, then opened a new tab, to the daggers section of the catalogue. “Sure. Maybe we can order some cool stuff too…”