The Raptor had raced back to Retvik’s villa as fast as she possibly could, and she’d brought some of her guards with her. But as she reached the front door and was let in, Phovos realized she didn’t really need to.
“Hello, Queen!” Talok clicked. The little Vohra seemed chirpy on the outside but she was clearly a bit upset too. “You came back!”
Phovos told her guards to remain outside and keep an eye on the perimeter, then stepped inside, closing the door behind her. The apartment was mostly clean and tidy, but Phovos spotted that the coffee table had been cleared off, all the food and the small, decorative tray that had been on it had been thrown into a blue rubbish bag, and Kayel was trying to clean something black off the floor nearby. Retvik and Kuta were both sitting on the larger sofa, holding each other and staring blankly at the coffee table.
“What happened?”
Talok tugged at Phovos and sat her down on one of the free sofas, before darting off and handing her some water. She then went back to helping Kayel clean up the black stuff.
“Arkay’s not supposed to interact by mortals, according to Epani…” Kayel sighed as he stood up and stretched. “He thought he could get around that by being around us semi-immortal freaks. Didn’t work. Epani just came by and reminded him that he’s her slave, and probably would have brain-fucked him had Retvik not stabbed her.”
Phovos immediately turned to Retvik. “You… stabbed a deity?”
Retvik grunted. “Yes.”
“And it… actually hurt them?”
Kayel pointed to a Rethan-sized dagger in the kitchen. “You know when the arenas got trashed by the gods? When Retvik and I helped kill that white, corrupted, needle-legged bitch? A week beforehand, Arkay popped by, saying he was scared something like that would happen and gave us all weapons that could, in his words, hurt anything. He used that against Epani and it was enough to scare her off, I guess.”
“And what are you cleaning up?”
“Um, Thantophor blood. It’s highly acidic, I had to pour a base all over it to be able to start cleaning it up…” Kayel briefly turned to Retvik. “By the way, you need to buy more baking powder.”
“Why?” Retvik blinked.
“I used it all, making something to counteract the acidity. Also, Talok, stop licking the table.”
Talok frowned. “But it is tasty. Like sour sherbert.”
“That is literally a mixture of death god blood, baking powder and water you are licking! Stop it! Also some of it might be Panelix blood and none of us have any idea what that does to anyone, apart from spawn small, red flowers!”
Talok frowned some more, then went back to cleaning. Phovos glanced around the room some more, then realized what Retvik and Kuta were actually looking at. They weren’t staring at the table at all, they were staring past it, at a small, gold and red puddle that, as Kayel had mentioned, had flowers growing in it. Weirdly, there were two completely different species of flowers, hibiscus and vervain, both bright red in colour, and they didn’t seem to have much in terms of leaves or stems.
With a sigh, Phovos turned back to the two Rethans. “You look upset, Retvik. Kuta, you look off.”
Kuta snorted. “I think I have a concussion and am having lewd thoughts and thus do not want to talk openly. And we are both a little… weird right now.”
Retvik went back to grunting but didn’t answer.
“Are you hurt, Retvik?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?” Phovos needed to make sure Retvik was well. He WAS her best employee, after all.
More grunts. Retvik’s gaze turned to the dagger in the kitchen, then back to Phovos. “Can you keep a secret?”
Phovos nodded. Talok nodded too, then went to her little rucksack and pulled out a small notepad, on which she wrote “I promise I’ll keep it secret” and ripped the sheet off. She handed the note to Retvik and smiled. Retvik eyed Talok briefly, took the note, then decided not to question it further.
“When the four of us disappeared in January, I killed someone. A Spast, shapeshifted into a Temthan. They openly admitted to killing over four hundred individuals as some sort of sacrifice to a horror from outside the universe, intended to use me as the final sacrifice, then thrust four blades through me. When she did that, I… I went somewhat, I am not sure, half Defensive Stance? Either way, I killed her, and I did not really think about it after that…”
“What does that have to do with this?” Kayel asked. “Those Spast cultists were going to kill us. It was self-defence.”
“It was, yes, which is why I disregarded it!” Retvik snapped. “But the thing is, there are different types of Defensive Stance. Mine is violent, defensive but also vengeful. But never murderous. I have no desire to kill, normally. But… I wanted to kill Epani. I could have. Maybe… maybe I should have…”
Kuta nudged Retvik. “You are not well. Killing Epani could have caused catastrophic damage! Especially since we stopped Epani from lobotomizing Arkay and him turning into Arkidetelos and destroying the universe.”
“That is exactly why I am not well. I am upset that I am having these thoughts. Maybe it is just the Defensive Stance hormones messing with my head, but I genuinely feel awful right now. I am also a little upset that my birthday party was ruined. And that Tenuk is not here.”
“That’s a good point, where IS everyone?” Phovos exclaimed. “I… I just woke up at home, in my bed in my stupid empty mini-mansion.”
Kayel tutted. “We all did. Except our homes are all over the place. Talok and I woke up in our apartments in Salla, Kuta woke up back in Phos and shadowjumped back here, Nyssi’s in her place in the Torn Islet but her truck is sitting outside so she’s kinda stuck, Thassalin got teleported all the way back to his cave on Kolasi and Tenuk… he’s on Calestia.”
Phovos blinked. “Calestia?”
“Yeah.”
“The Spast homeworld?”
Kayel nodded. “Yep. His dad found out. Tenuk messaged Retvik and told him they’d managed to smooth things over somewhat, but it’s gonna take at least a week for Tenuk to get back here, even with super fast Spast ships, since he’s, like, half the universe away.”
Talok clicked angrily. “Best friend Tenuk will be gone for ages! I don’t like it! Also he did not tell me he was Tanos.”
“Both of you telepaths had no idea that Tenuk wasn’t who he said he was?” Phovos gasped.
Kuta shrugged nonchalantly. “We try to avoid peering deep into the minds of others. And Tenuk genuinely believed that Tanos was dead and he was only Tenuk, so neither of us had a reason to question him.”
“What about Arkay though?”
Everyone went back to frowning.
“He’s gone…” Kayel eventually answered. “Apart from a weird games console thing he left behind, all Arkay’s stuff is gone from my apartment. I got a message from him before I picked Talok up and brought her here. He apologized, thanked us for making him briefly happy and said he’s not coming back…”
Kayel trailed off, then wiped tears from his eyes. Talok immediately rushed over and hugged him tightly.
“I tried, you know? I fucking tried. I wanted Arkay to be happy and he was so damn close and then this happened. And now he’s not going to come back because he thinks every time he tries to be happy, his friends will get hurt and he’ll have the piss kicked out of him, before being reset and having it all happen again…”
Talok patted Kayel on the side, then awkwardly dragged him to the sofa and sat him down next to Retvik and Kuta. However, her attention was quickly turned elsewhere, and the little Vohra made her way to the front door and opened it up.
Sitting on the ground was a massive box of different takeaway foods, and none of Phovos’s guards seemed to know where it had come from. On top was a single note written on pink paper.
“Thanks, darlings. Sorry about this, I’ll take it from here. Lots of love, Sini.”