“Ugh, are they still at it?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Vokulunaax grunted as he perched on the colossal window ledge, watching the universe drift by. Vexer had just finished his guard shift and had come by to rant and complain, like he always did. There were six beings on this small, floating fortress, and they only ever needed two people on guard at a time.
Vokulunaax was a very large Thraki, larger than most, but what made him odd was his colourations. With black and purple skin and strange golden eyes, he clearly wouldn’t have fit in a typical Magian Circle, the Thraki equivalent of a village or town. Vexer on the other hand was a Vrekan. But they didn’t really look like a Vrekan. Sure, they had a Vrekan physique, as well as their affinity for water, but Vexer was covered in plating similar to a Rethavok, and weirdly had retractable blades in his arms.
“I hate this. Sure, it’s nice to have more attention, but I don’t like that the attention is from Missy Grumpy Fat Whale Bitch, and she only seems to care about Fragiir and Lissandra. And occasionally you, when she wants to pretend she’s dominating the Whenvern. At least Yisini likes and plays with all of us.”
“Also Yisini didn’t murder our master…” Vokulunaax muttered.
“That too…” Vexer sighed. “Still, I get fucking sick of this place at times.”
“For fuck’s sake, Vexer, are ya bitching AGAIN?”
Vexer and Vokulunax were suddenly joined by Lissandra. Lissandra was a Torr, but, like Vokulunaax, her colouring was all wrong. Most Torr had black skin and gem-coloured scales. Lissandra had sapphire-coloured scales, but her skin was a dark blue, and her tail was abnormally long, capable of curling around her body several times.
Vexer nodded. “I am, yes. I hate how the six of us are stuck here, guarding some pointless chains that won’t do anything to actually STOP the old death god should he get serious. We’ve been here for so long that we don’t even feel time properly any more!”
“It really ain’t that fucking bad!” Lissandra hissed. “We got all the things we could ever need here, and a job that doesn’t require us to do anything. We just have two of us idiots patrolling the containment cell and the rest of us can do whatever we fucking want!”
“Except leave this fortress…” Vokulunaax sighed. “Sure, I know I am not the same as the other Thraki in this universe, but I would like to at least talk to them. Mistress Yisini has suggested that there is another trapped old-universe Thraki somewhere and I would like to meet them too.”
“That’s fine for you, bitch!” Lissandra snapped. “The Fidavok don’t even fucking exist any more and I got turned into this bullshit ugly Torr thing! And the Athrevok and Vrekans are completely fucking different! They’d fucking lock us up for being freaks! Right, Vexer?”
Vexer shrugged. “Maybe? But everything here seems kinda tame. Most folks seem to be happy, they all fix things with gladiator battles rather than wars and the majority seems somewhat looked after, healthy and not starving. It’s only the Torr, what you got turned into, that aren’t quite right, and even then, normal Torr are kinda okay, it’s just their leaders who are cunts, the same way the old-universe Cassids were.”
Vokulunaax found himself nodding in agreement. Which was rare because he and Vexer normally didn’t see eye to eye. Then again, Vexer didn’t really see anyone eye to eye. Back in their old universe, the other five Divine Guardians were all already monstrous beings. Vokulunaax was a Thraki; Lissandra was a Fidavok who was 4m long when she included her serpent tail; Kayenus was a massive specimen for an Athrevok, and most Athrevok were already 3+m tall; Atteh’Kus was a Banikan and they were always terrifying, and now Atteh’Kus was even more terrifying because he was 6m tall now; Fragiir was a Chaoshan Temthan, a colossal, fiery subspecies that filled the same niche Banikans did outside of Banikan territories. But Vexer was mostly a normal old-universe Vrekan who just happened to heal very quickly and spent his long life as a high-ranked member of the Myst, the elite guard force that protected Vrekan royalty. Sure, Vexer had been enhanced the same way the other five had, but he was somewhat normal.
“Even the Vohra Swarms and the Kronospast Empire are less angry now. New-universe Spasts are almost friendly.”
Vexer frowned. “Speaking of which, I always wondered what happened to the other six. The Space Whale Bitch said she had them killed, but… they didn’t deserve to be killed…”
Vokulunaax glanced at Vexer. “You still feel guilty about swapping places with Relkir.”
“Yeah, of course I do. Relkir was a Rethan. Sure, he was a weirdly short Rethan, but he was still bigger and tougher than me. I swapped places with him so he could be with Teekay, and so the other team had a bit more protection, because he was genuinely afraid of Yisini fucking him up again and also because I couldn’t stand Phovos and Tahnahos… but still.”
“You were not to know, Vexer. None of us were. We had a duty, to protect the entrance to the universe, we did our jobs as best we could. How could we have known that Kinisis’s children would conspire against her in such a way?”
“Do we even know if they’re actually dead?” Lissandra asked. “Like, we never really asked. Just assumed.”
“Epani did heavily imply they were gone…” Vexer sighed. “Probably killed because they were more directly serving Kinisis. We just defended the entrance to the universe. Relkir and Teekay occasionally worked on the stupid Life Goddess Oasis directly. Not that any of us really wanted to do any of this. Kinisis kinda just… forced us to. I think that’s what bothers me the most. We’ve not been able to make our own decisions for… like, aeons…”
Lissandra wanted to be angry still, but she realized Vexer was right. “Well… yeah… I fucking guess… Sure, we got immortality out of all this but it ain’t worth it if we’re stuck here…”
“I wonder how the old Thantophor feels about all this?” Vokulunaax muttered.
“What does that murderer have to do with anything?”
“He’s stuck in here as well. Apparently Epani tricked him into killing Kinisis and sealed him in this universe, same way she did with us.”
“Yeah but…” Lissandra hesitated, then massively lowered her voice. “I’m gonna be honest… Kinisis fucking deserved it. We ALL fucking told her not to piss Epani off, to just provide cover and protection and nothing else. But Kinisis fucking stuck her awful, slimy, rape-y fingers in again, she wanted a piece of the pie that she originally wasn’t interested in. The Sisters were happy rebuilding their universe, the Whenvern was happy protecting them, the Thantophor was out of sight and out of mind. But nooooo, Kinisis decided to hurt Epani and Yisini. And Epani, the space bitch that she is, grew a spine and fought back with equal violence.”
“Exactly!” Vexer tutted. However, he quickly fell silent as he heard a familiar rumble. The glass dome that covered the rocky fortress briefly opened up, and the Panelix flew out of it, before the glass dome sealed itself again.
“Do you think she heard us?” Lissandra whispered.
“I do not think so…” Vokulunaax frowned. “She is aware of what she did anyway. Despite our crude names for Epani, given to her for killing our Mistress, we all know that it was probably for the best.”
Vexer nodded. “Yes, probably… Anyway, I’m hungry and you’re both probably sick of me. Vokul, your shift starts in three hours.”
“I know.”
“Good. See you later, guys!”
Lissandra and Vokulunaax watched as Vexer wandered off.
“He’s a prick, but he does genuinely feel guilty about Relkir!” Lissandra eventually tutted. “Still… I wonder how they died. Or if they managed to survive. And if they did, I wonder what they are doing now?”
Vokulunaax shook his head. “They are probably long gone. And at peace now, I hope.”
“Yeah, probably…”