“So, are we ready now?” Retvik asked as he and Litvir strapped themselves in. Arkay was sitting in front of them, both peering out of the main viewing pane but also glancing at all the buttons in front of him.
“Are you done hugging everyone, Arkay?” Litvir also asked. “I am pretty sure you hugged your little half-Synaisthyns a good three or for times each.”
Arkay tutted as he slowly absorbed the locations of every button on the console, then got to work getting the ship airborne. “I’m going to miss everyone. Wanted to get as many hugs in as possible.”
“How comes?”
“Because I care for everyone, and I spent a long time wanting to rejoin the Thantir and now I’m not going to see them for a while.”
“It will not be too long, dear!” Litvir exclaimed. “No more than a couple of evs, as far as we are aware. We are going on a diplomatic mission, we will be fine.”
“If you say so…”
Arkay fell silent, then got the ship going. It was admittedly a very nice ship. Quiet but powerful. And nippy. Arkay was surprised at how smoothly the ship moved, and how quickly they exited the Athata Rift. Before they could head off, they needed to make their way to a teleporter point in the Justarian Circle, that would slingshot their ship to a pentacluster closer to their destination.
“So!” Litvir turned their attention to the mission. It was a bit of a trot to the teleporter point, and Litvir didn’t like how silent Retvik and Arkay were. “How hard do you think this mission will be, on a scale from “just having a quick chat” to “oh no they want to kill us” to “I just mind control them”? We have all read the mission brief, we are just acting as middlemen, I honestly think we will be fine.”
Retvik nodded in agreement. “We will be fine. We are smart, powerful individuals, we have done far more terrifying things. My only concern is not dealing with Kronothrax Time Drakes before, but I assume they are reasonable, as they are a military group.”
Arkay opened his mouth to speak, but paused for a moment. “Huh. I was going to say I was uncertain because they are a military group. But of course you and Litvir would consider them reasonable because they’re a military group, that’s what you both lived in, a military society.”
“I thought you lived in a military society too when you were mortal?” Litvir asked.
“I don’t really remember, if I’m honest. There were definitely military aspects and we had a High General and stuff, but most folks weren’t in the military.”
The ship’s autopilot beeped, meaning Arkay could exit manual flight. He pressed a button on his seat, the chair slid backwards, until it was next to Retvik and Litvir.
“That is pretty neat…” Retvik admitted. “It seems that they really considered the design of this ship for us.”
“I doubt it, I think they based this ship on ships owned by other Hidden Trios.”
Arkay disagreed. “Those other guys, the cat, the noodle dragon and the armoured Temthan guy, they lived in a giant white ball.”
“You mean the Travellers.”
Arkay shrugged. “Is that what their Hidden Trio thingy is called?”
Litvir and Retvik both nodded.
“Huh. Only slightly less worse than our Hidden Trio name.”
“Our title is pretty silly…” Retvik frowned. “It just suggests we are not present. Or lost or something.”
“To be fair, we somewhat were lost…” Litvir also frowned. “We just bummed around with Galyn for a bit until we started working for Kinisis’s stupid Life Oasis.”
Arkay briefly eyed Litvir. Litvir quickly realised why, then frowned some more. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine…” Arkay decided to change the conversation. “So what other goodies are we going to get while doing Hidden Trio stuff?”
Retvik thought for a moment, then sighed. “Litvir and I should have asked for better Periuniversal Basic Income money. We have been getting pretty much minimum wage for the entire time we have been Decay Lords.”
“Piss, I forgot about that… How did you all cope in the gap between me being a death god again and me coming back to you guys?”
Retvik shrugged. “Galyn always had a somewhat decent income, but Kal are rich beyond belief.”
“And you kept on sending us money whenever you remembered us,” Litvir added. “But in all honesty? As long as the luxuries come in, I do not care that we do not get paid much. Plus, Arkay will cover us, yes?”
Arkay nodded. “Of course. Sure, the cunt cut my income because I was inactive but I am still wealthy enough. Although I do kinda wonder how much this ship cost.”
“More than the Thantir Three?”
“Definitely.”
“Did you give the Thantir Three to anyone?” Litvir asked.
“Yeah. Said that my little team can use it for their corruption purging stuff…” Arkay paused all of a sudden, then thought to himself. “What’s the best way for me to mark this ship as my own?”
“Is the ship’s name, the Deathly Soulflame, not good enough?”
“Not really. That name just says “oh hey those three guys got a ship and named it after their stupid code names”. I want to mark this ship like an animal would.”
Litvir and Retvik both looked Arkay up and down but didn’t say anything at first. Retvik thought that he and Litvir were both thinking the same thing, up until Litvir opened his mouth.
“Well, pissing all over our ship would be gross, but you could turn into a fluffy kitty and leave fur everywhere.”
“Alright, Arkay, Litvir, what the fuck?” Retvik exclaimed.
“What? We need to mark our belongings!” Arkay argued back. “We need to say this is ours and no one else’s!”
“We do not need to, we have the title deeds.”
“No one but us can sense title deeds. They CAN sense cat fur though!” Litvir smiled. “Also, I do somewhat want to try what Tanos and little Ret do, and pet Arkay while he is a fluffy kitty.”
Arkay grinned, then turned himself into a large, fluffy black cat. Litvir immediately picked Arkay up and put him on his lap so he could pet Arkay. Retvik tried to contain himself, but swiftly found himself leaning over and petting Arkay too.
“Oh… I can totally see why Tanos and Ret do this…” Arkay muttered. “This is really nice…”