“We’re… from the same universe?”
Silverspear was confused. He’d been a Decay Lord for a while, quickly climbing the ranks of the Justar and becoming a Justarian Lord, protecting a small sub-sector called the Silvered Warmth, named because it contained a Beh’enlu nest hidden within an asteroid field made of silver. And Silverspear had always assumed that he was a Beh’evok himself, even though he didn’t quite having the same physical traits and had no memory of his time before being picked up as a Decayling. He was probably an adolescent Beh’enu, and hadn’t reached his maximum height or grown his crown of horns yet. After all, he’d been plucked out of a strange, mechanical pod that had been floating adrift in the void. While rare, there were cases of that happening to other Beh’evok born inside universes, and Silverspear was satisfied with that answer.
But standing before him were two beings who claimed to be from his original universe. And one of them claimed to be the same species Silverspear was. Except the being doing so was short. Silverspear wasn’t very tall, but this being was tiny, not even reaching the 2m mark. At a glance, it could have been an overly armoured Beh’ena (and, admittedly, Silverspear thought they were INSANELY cute and attractive, the few Beh’ena he had met were too squishy for his liking).
The other guy, someone called Mimicblade, was a shapeshifter. Silverspear didn’t trust shapeshifters. The only memory Silverspear had from his universe was of a tiny blue shapeshifter with four red eyes, apologizing to him and saying “this has to be done, to save you”. But they were currently shapeshifted into what Silverspear assumed was also an adolescent Beh’enu as well.
What bothered Silverspear more was that Deathbringer, the tiny not-Beh’ena, was also apparently… more high-ranking than Silverspear was. Deathbringer was a member of the Missing, and the Missing were a Hidden Named Trio who, despite not being well-known in person or particularly old compared to other Hidden Named Trios, had cut a bloody swathe through the local Voidborn cults AND the more damaging local strains of Corruption.
If anything, the Justar were more concerned and scared of the Missing than they were of the Travellers, who were a very famous Hidden Named Trio. The Doom Drums, the leaders of the Pentathax, who had also been invited to this party, they had apparently refused to be accepted as a Hidden Named Trio and just remained as a Sect Trio.
“You know what, Arkay?”
“What, Tenuk?”
Deathbringer and Mimicblade were having trouble explaining things. Admittedly, Deathbringer claimed he also had memory loss, but he’d stayed behind to save the dying universe Silverspear came from, had been pulled out of it by that universe’s Life Goddess and turned into a deity for a new universe. Mimicblade on the other hand had ended up forming a sect just to murder Corruption, as an act of revenge.
“Your telepathic vampire boyfriend bitch would be a ton of help here.”
Arkay paused. “That’s a good point, I have no idea where Litvir is right now.”
Tenuk eyed Arkay.
“Alright, I DO know where Litvir is right now, and he’s busy.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s flirting with Thyel.”
“Soulstorm? The psionic Beh’en from the Ventra Gales?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re… letting him?”
Arkay shrugged. “Litvir’s always been poly, and there’s not that many options when it comes to getting laid out here, so Retvik and I are cool with it. But I can just, you know, use my weaker Threan-type telepathy. And I don’t want to bring Retvik into this because he gets funny about the fact that there was another Retvik who married a Gath and had a kid.”
Silverspear glanced down at Arkay. Something about what Deathbringer had just said seemed… weird.
“Who is Gath? The name… seems familiar… Also, your companion Flamebearer also seems… vaguely familiar, like I have seen him before, but he is… too tall. And on fire. Not like a Retvik I faintly remember.”
“You, me, Tenuk, a different Retvik and two long-dead folks called Argyros and Oxys, we were… a group of idiots who went back in time and fought a Voidborn together.”
“And we won. But our retarded universe was infected by Corruption, and I tried to save you and Retvik and a bunch of other bastards by putting you in cryopods and ejecting you from the universe. But because none of you are Kronospasts like me, you all got some really fucking bad amnesia. And we all kinda… just floated around until we got picked up by different sects. Apart from Arkay, because he was fucking kidnapped by Kinisis and forced to be a god in a new universe. And because Kinisis was double-retarded, she used the same Time Drake, Kairos, and Kairos, being triple-retarded, kinda accidentally made more Tenuks, Retviks and Elksias.”
Silverspear blinked in confusion. “I… I don’t remember any of this.”
“Because your memories are blocked…” Tenuk turned to Arkay. “Can you unblock those memories?”
“I can… try?” Arkay seemed hesitant. “My telepathy isn’t that great. Question is, Elksia, do you want me to try and unblock your memories?”
Silverspear frowned, but, after some thought, sighed, then nodded. “I want to know what I am. Because I always believed I was a fucked up Beh’evok from a messed up universe. But… down there… I really am not a Beh’en.”
“Is that a yes? Because you need to be certain…” Arkay warned.
“Yes. I consent to this.”
“Alright, but let’s go somewhere quieter first.”
Silverspear nodded in agreement, then led Tenuk and Arkay out of the main hall, down to a quiet corridor. No one was around, and Silverspear felt somewhat safe.
“Alright, Elksia, can I place my hand on your cheek, and can you take a deep breath?”
“Of course.”
Silverspear closed his eyes, then took a deep breath, as he’d been told. Arkay’s hand felt unnaturally cold. But as Elksia opened his eyes again, memories slowly came trickling back. With a grin, Elksia wrapped his arms around Arkay and kissed him on both cheeks.
“Thank you.”
“Uh, no worries.”
Elksia thought to himself for a little longer. “So, Tenuk, Arkay, how have you both been? Also… it’s been fucking ages.”
“Ugh, tell me about it…” Arkay tutted. “It’s been sixteen billion years for me and a decade for Tenuk.”
“Actually, for me it’s been about three decades.”
“That… that’s weird…” Elksia was confused again. “I’ve only been a Decayon for… uh… seven years? Something like that. Also I’ve kinda been calling myself male for the last seven years even though I used to call myself female when we were mortal.”
“That’s called “fucking stupid time drake shenanigans!” Tenuk smiled as he put an arm around both his old friends. “Anyway, we should go and have a good drink and a gooder chat. And work out how we’re going to find Retvik.”
“Isn’t-”
“Different Retvik.”
Elksia went back to blinking. “There’s more than one Retvik?”
“There’s… three Retviks, as far as I’m aware…” Arkay sighed. “Because Kairos is fucking stupid. And three Tenuks too. And three Elksias, but the third Elksia is still a mortal and… it’s… a mess.”
“But only one Arkay?”
“Yeah.”
Elksia shrugged. “That’s weird.”
“I know…” Arkay sighed again, but quickly perked up. “Don’t worry though, I’m glad there’s only one of me. Tenuk’s right though, we should go get a drink. I can’t have alcohol because I’m designated flyer, but still.”
“Heh, still…” Elksia grinned as he hugged Arkay and Tenuk again. “Come on, I’ll show you both around. I’m a Justarian Lord after all…”