“Your brother has weird powers.”
“Bloody Void, don’t say that too loud, he might hear you.”
Vekeus straightened himself out as a familiarly shaped Decay Lord sat down at the table next to him. The Dessaron Kids (as everyone seemed to call them these days) had just returned from a little mission on their own and, for some reason, it had been suggested that they take the two Decaylings with them. The mission had been a reasonable success, all the Corruption was killed but they’d also killed a “platinum swirly bastard” Voidborn who had targeted Vekeus first for being “a traitor”. Vekeus hadn’t cared in the slightest and happily assisted the team in killing the Child of the Ancient Collector. As far as Vekeus was concerned, the Cult of the Ancient Collector were more traitorous beings, since they regularly attacked innocent universes.
The trip home had been reasonably quiet and had included a quick stop at the Pink Paradise to de-stress, before returning to Savepoint. Vekeus was now relaxing more in the open air canteen area and had been considering heading off to bed, but he suddenly had company.
While three of what used to be called Xeno Dessaron One were relatively happy, it seemed that Kayel was rather pissed off, borderline angry. Vekeus was probably about to find out why.
“Well, he does. But give it a few days, and the other Elkay will have learned to do the same weird stuff.”
“Pretty sure Rethan Elkay has already figured out how to copy the meat powers. I don’t know why everyone’s ragging on about it though. Everyone’s got weird-ass powers. Life Goddesses and Voidborns have the most weird-ass powers because we’re weird-ass beings.”
“True, I guess. Do you have weird powers?” Kayel asked, settling down a little.
Vekeus shrugged. “I can shapeshift but mostly only between two specific forms, my body is mostly hollow and I can pull a fully functional ship out of my non-existent ass. And I’m a pretty weak Voidborn in the grand scheme of things.”
“You’re a weak Voidborn?” Kayel blinked. “Aren’t you, like, the kid of a super powerful Voidborn?”
“Voidborns get more powerful with age. As far as I can tell, I’m… like… maybe forty, fifty year-strings old? In Voidborn time scales, I’m just over a hundred kena, meaning I’m no longer a newling or youngling, but I’m still very young. But also…” Vekeus hesitated, then leaned forward, lowering his voice. “In all honesty? The Stolen Princes? I don’t think they were that powerful. There were, like, seven of them, I think? And two of them were killed by members of the Thantir and the last one is only alive BECAUSE of this Decay Lord sect. They were only special because they could create new entities the same way Life Goddesses can, but doing so strained them greatly, which is why I’m Kenostaton’s only properly confirmed and living kid, because he found a poor body that could do the whole baby-making process for him.”
“You… really don’t like your own dad.”
“He was a Stolen Prince chained to the worst Life Goddess, and only ever enabled her. He got what he deserved. And in all honesty? Kesistatiir is a prick as well. He keeps on upsetting Staton by insisting that Staton is Kenostaton reincarnated.”
“Is he?”
“I don’t know either way. He looks a bit like Kenostaton did, but Staton isn’t nearly as tall or muscular and has a different mask, and his personality is completely different, as in, Staton is actually approachable and sees other beings as equals, not toys or slaves. And even if Staton IS that bastard reborn, Staton doesn’t want to be connected to Kenostaton, he wants to be his own, better person. Kesistatiir needs to leave Staton alone on that regard.”
“Fair enough. No reason to force a guy into being someone he’s not…” Kayel sighed. “Same way you try to be good and all that. I mean, you helped murder that Voidborn today.”
“Well, that bastard was trying to kill me. But I’m used to it. I’m a weird Voidborn, which is why I’m doing this Decay Lord stuff, so I’ve got some back up these days… Combined with the alliance thing I’m doing, as long as Kesistatiir doesn’t ruin it, I should be fine.”
“Did we see one of those other Voidborns at Sini’s place?” Kayel asked.
“Yeah. Tasocydus is a former Goldblessed, same way Theocydes is. Pretty sure they were all completely brainwashed as part of the Goldblessed cult because I’ve known Theocydes for a long-ass time, he’s one of the first Voidborns I met after I left the Golden Protectors, and Theocydes isn’t nearly as murderous as I remember, and I’m pretty sure Tasocydus is the same. But Theocydes was also much higher ranked, his job was to hold as much territory as possible in the name of the Goldblessed, and he was free to do whatever in the mean time, while Tasocydus was just an edge-purger and kept their main territories clean.”
“Huh. Voidborns are weird.”
“Oh, we totally are. Cults are just fucked up overall, and Partnered Voidborns are also weird. I’m sooo glad I’m doing my own thing as an Adogtic Voidborn…” Vekeus trailed off, then inspected Kayel somewhat. “You though, you seem annoyed.”
“Because I am.”
“How comes?”
“I’m… ugh… I’m horny. Ret has Kuta to play with, Nyssi got her socks off with Fragiir when we went to the oasis, Tenuk doesn’t care and just goes and chills with Akah, Fengar and the Vohra… How are there so many fucking Skyavok here and I’m on my fucking own?”
“Are you alright?” Vekeus asked. “Did something happen?”
“I now need both hands to count how many times I’ve been ditched for someone called Teekay.”
Vekeus glanced down at his hands. “So… four times?”
“Yeah. And I was thinking about asking you, but you’re busy with stuff and it feels unfair to ask…”
“Why would it be unfair?”
“Because you’re preoccupied with your Decay Lord trial and your stupid half-siblings and the Voidborn alliance and stuff like that. And you’re also probably like Ksar Teekay and only have limited tools down there and are straight or whatever.”
Vekeus shrugged. “Um… I’m not bothered by any of that stuff though. Like, I’m not scared of my trial in the slightest. What’s the worst they can do, ask me to kill a Voidborn or ten? Been there, done that. And also, well… do you want to find out what I have down there?”
Kayel blinked. “What?”
“I’m incredibly rusty, but I’ve been meaning to see if it all still works for a while now. Plus, you’re cute.”
“Really?”
Vekeus leaned forward, smirking. “Totally. Interested?”
“Yeah.”
“Come on then. Let’s go back to my room and do some… studying…”