“Oh damn. This HAS to be bad news if Arkay’s coming along to talk to us…”
Seven of the eight Decaylings present felt uneasy. They’d all been suddenly called into their classroom, and, weirdly, it wasn’t for a lesson with Vikalos, Saahro or Elkay, who did most of the teaching. Nope, not only had Litvir and Retvik turned up, but Arkay had come along as well. And to make things even more nervous, it was Arkay who was about to do the talking.
“Hello, Arkay!” Thassalin waved from the back of the classroom. Unlike everyone else, Thassalin wasn’t bothered at all, and was in weirdly high spirits. “Good to see you not on patrol for once.”
“I appreciate that, mate. I don’t want to say I have bad news, because it’s not really that bad, but this definitely is important. And, since I’m one of the leaders of our little group, and the oldest of the three of us, it’s somewhat up to me to inform you all.”
Retvik and Litvir nodded in agreement.
Arkay frowned briefly, then started to explain. “So, basically, our original plan was to give you all some more time to do your Decayling stuff. At least 12 more evs, to make sure things go smoothly for you all and to go over a few potential bumps in the road.”
“Are you referring to us four being weird half-synaith… half thingies?” Tanos asked.
“Actually, we were more worried about Phovoula,” Litvir explained. “You are all registered Decaylings and your periuniversal entity typing is already known. It turns out, the number of Voidborns that want to become Decay Lords is only slightly higher than the number of Synaisthyns that want to become Decay Lords.”
Tanos frowned somewhat.
“So, I assume, you were just making sure we could become Decay Lords?” Nyssi mused. “That’s fair enough.”
Arkay nodded. “Exactly. The other minor reasons were that we wanted to make sure you’d all be put in the same team, and that we wanted to put a bit more space between your Trial and the Trial of the previous eight.”
“What’s the problem then?” Phovoula snarled, not liking being the odd one out.
“Well… things are a little bit out of our control currently…” Arkay seemed rather hesitant. “We got a call earlier, from the Travellers, the trio you all met, who wanted information and interviews. They are only a few steps below Overlord Deathven when it comes to the hierarchy, and since we trust them slightly more than we trust Deathven, they called us to tell us some… awkward news.”
“We are doing our Decay Lord Trial early, yes?” Thassalin piped up.
“Basically, yes. Instead of 12 evs, like what we originally planned, your Trial is set in 2 evs from now.”
The Decaylings all glanced at each other.
“That sounds bad…” Tanos muttered.
“Honestly, I think I prefer that?” Kayel shrugged. “We’ve all done all the tests, we’ve done a lot of practice stuff, and we all have really good teamwork skills.”
Retvik nodded in agreement. “You have all done very well, and we do believe that you are strong and capable enough, and you are all certain to succeed. We just wished to give you some more time, and let you decide when you were ready.”
“Unfortunately,” Arkay continued, “Deathven himself has decided that we need to do your trial as soon as possible.”
“And you are letting them push you around?” Kuta growled slightly.
Arkay sighed. “You’re absolutely fucking right, Kuta. Normally we’d be fighting this, but Decay Lord Trial stuff is utterly bullshit and has never been in our control. It’s honestly a small miracle that we managed to get you all two evs of extra training, because we were originally told that you would be doing your trial in about 40 hours, and that you’d instantly be grabbed and taken away.”
“These Deathven guys… they can do that?” Nyssi asked. “Just rip us away from here?”
Litvir and Retvik both glanced at each other and tutted.
“Basically, yes…” Litvir explained. “We like to think that we are a pretty powerful sect, but Overlord has the power to teleport pretty much anyone to wherever he wants, whenever he wants. And I assume some of Deathven’s minions also have that power, because that was how all of us ended up in our Decay Lord trials as well.”
“But why are they suddenly forcing us?” Nyssi pushed on.
Arkay sighed a little. “As far as we can tell, Deathven wants more Decay Lords, as soon as possible. Orion was annoyingly vague in his call, but he suggested that Deathven believed “something big and scary” was coming, and we’d need as many powerful Decay Lords as we can get. And, according to Orion, it’s not just us Thantir being dragged into this, they’re pushing a lot of other sects as well. In pentaclusters and eniapents all over the place. In our pentacluster, the Thantir are the only sect that has active Decaylings, so it does kinda seem targeted.”
“Are we in danger?” Ret asked. “You all seem concerned for us.”
“Something similar happened in the past,” Retvik grunted. “A Decay Lord Trial being forced on vok early.”
“It happened to us!” Arkay butted in. “They made us do our Trial early. For a nonsensical reason!”
“Mostly so they could get away with killing Arkay,” Litvir added. “But this time, we will be watching closely. And should anything go astray, we will make sure that you are all safe.”
“Oh… so that’s why those Pentathax guys left those three instant teleporter thingies here…” Nyssi muttered to the others. The Decaylings yet again all felt nervous, and whispered to each other somewhat. Thassalin though was more amused than anything else.
“We’ll be fine!” Thassalin smiled. “Phovoula is a Voidborn, we have four individuals who are just as adaptable as you are, Arkay, AND you all have me, a seasoned Time Drake.”
“Can you even see that far ahead?” Litvir asked.
“Not quite THAT far, but the branches I have inspected have all been good so far, and I can offer more visions and trim bad branches closer to the time.”
The other Decaylings all seemed a bit more confident now.
“We’ll be fiiiiine!” Kayel exclaimed. “Honestly, we all kick a ton of tail anyway. If Thassalin says we’re good, and if you three say we’ll be fine, I don’t think we need to worry too much.”
Retvik and Litvir found themselves nodding in agreement.
“Yeah, you’re right, you’ll all be fine!” Arkay smiled back. “Thank you all for taking this so well. In the mean time, please, let us know if you need anything. Closer to the Trial date, we’ll make sure you’re all well-rested and ready to go, so get any questions or queries to us sooner rather than later. Alright?”
Everyone nodded.
“We’ll let you all take a break, so you can digest everything. Let me know if you need anything. Anyway, class dismissed.”
Arkay led Retvik and Litvir out of the room, leaving the Decaylings to themselves.
“So, Thassalin!” Kayel exclaimed. “You think we’ll be good, right?”
Thassalin grinned. “Indeed. I’m seeing some great branches ahead of us.”
“Awesome. We’re going to be Decay Lords soon. It’ll all be great…”