Glimmerblade didn’t like having this many people in his navigation room, but his main boss needed him and his underlings, they needed to talk, so here everyone was. What was worse was that Leafblade, one of the Traitors and who Glimmerblade considered one of the worst people ever, was also present. Glimmerblade had always had a strong, romantic interest in Shatterblade, but Leafblade had stolen the stalwart warrior away from him. Yes, that had been a long time ago, and Shatterblade had never been interested in Glimmerblade, but Glimmerblade was known to hold grudges.
“So, what do we know?” Soulblade immediately asked as everyone gathered around the main navigational table.
“Not as much as I’d like, boss…” Glimmerblade frowned as he eyed the others. Most of those around the table were Beh’evok, but Flamebearer was similar-looking species called a Rethavok, apparently more closely related to the handful of Loopblades that were roaming around than he was to the Beh’ens. Firestorm was of an unknown race, and Glimmerblade didn’t want to know what Shieldamp, the tiny, round, mechanical being standing on the navigation table, was.
“I’m a Cleanser…” Tah tutted to himself.
“I did not ask nor did I want to know. And I do not like that you have telepathy!” Glimmerblade growled.
“Well maybe you shouldn’t think so loud, maybe you should be less ignorant and maybe you should improve your telepathic defences!” Tah clicked back. “Sorry. Anyway, the good news is, we have a direction. Litvir seems to be heading in the vague direction of where their old universe used to be. Not sure if he’s aware that things kinda moved a bit, but we know where to look.”
Glimmerblade stared at the little robot, then frowned again. “The machine is right. We’ve narrowed down potential courses, meaning we have a proper search area. However, we have run into a small problem, as Souldrainer has flown outside of Phantai territories and into the wild spaces that you Thantir attempted to map out before you originally split. It is very likely that Souldrainer has wandered into uncharted voidspace.”
“I suppose that is some good news…” Soulblade sighed. He was more concerned than he cared to admit. Over the last month or so, Soulblade had grown to quite like Souldrainer.
“I mean, there IS more good news, if you can consider it good news!” Tah exclaimed. “We have also worked out two guaranteed search perimeters, based on the amount of fuel the stolen ship has. The first is reasonably small, based on a full tank and just flying the paths we predicted. The second is… kinda large, depending on how good Litvir is at start-stop gliding. Cosmic wind patterns are technically against him, the voidcurrents kinda blow back towards the Goldtorn Remains, but Litvir is secretly a pretty good pilot, so we have had to extend the search area.”
Soulblade raised a finger. “Hang on, you Thantir regularly joke that Souldrainer is a bad pilot.”
“Litvir was pretty bad when he started learning how to fly but he did quickly pick it up. I would say he is a better pilot than Retvik is at least…” Galyn tried to explain. “Still, there are definitely limits to Litvir’s skill, and his navigation is not particularly good outside of going in a straight line.”
“Either way!” Tah interrupted, before Galyn’s words worried Retvik too much. “The Great Blades already have half their fleet out there looking for Litvir. Phos is out there in that cool personal speeder ship of his, and that thing is fancy as heck and has all the cool tech. And Koh’s going through all our contacts right now, sending out messages and missing posters for people to hang up.”
Glimmerblade grunted. “This is an awful lot for one Decay Lord.”
Soulblade snarled, leaning across the navigation table. “Souldrainer is not just one Decay Lord. He is one of the Decay Lords that helped us defeat the Crystal Doom, he assisted in the destruction of the Goldblessed, and he is a Higher Decay Lord, a member of a Named Trio and, more importantly, a friend. All that aside, we would be doing this for ANY of the Phantai, and any of our allies. Decay Lords in general are a dying breed and we MUST protect each other.”
The three Tattered Navigators and the little robot all nodded in agreement. Soulblade continued his little speech.
“We will find Souldrainer. While we cannot assist your other Trio member, we will do everything in our power to bring you two back together. I will even call Deathven for reinforcements if I have to. Alright, Flamebearer?”
Retvik blinked, then looked up at Soulblade, before looking down again. He had been staring blankly at the navigation table, his eyes focused on the large, digital map showing the local pentacluster. It was an utterly huge area. Bigger than Retvik could comprehend. And all he could think about was that his partner was out there, somewhere.
“Retvik?”
Vikalos nudged Retvik.
“The Overlord will not help…” Retvik eventually muttered. “He wanted us dead. I think he still does.”
“Surely not?” Glimmerblade asked. “The Overlord named you. He made you a Named Trio.”
“Trio names are deterministic. He named us ‘the Missing’. First Arkay went missing. Now Litvir is missing. I cannot help but think, in my fear and confusion, at some point, I will go missing too. It seems almost fated.”
The other Decay Lords all fell silent, not really sure how to respond to Retvik’s words. It was clear he was genuinely struggling, to the point that Retvik was no longer allowed to be on his own. Soulblade knew what it was like for one of his Trio to be harmed and in pain, he couldn’t even imagine losing both Lightblade and Voidblade. However, Galyn had seemed to understand somewhat, and had uncharacteristically given Retvik a small hug. That being said, Retvik’s words bothered Soulblade for more than just that reason. Maybe there were unseen forces at play here. With a tut, Soulblade turned to the tiny robot.
“Spiritpurger-1… uh… what is your name again?”
Tah clicked in annoyance. “Cleanser Kal Wehl-Tah, Tah for short. AKA Shieldamp. I really don’t get why you lot have so much trouble with us.”
“You are all identical.”
“We are colour-coded!” Tah protested, before clicking in annoyance. “No wonder why Kaytee wants to leave, you must drive those Loopblade guys loopy. Anyway, what do you want?”
“I want you and your team to protect Flamebearer. He is to stay with you six until we find Souldrainer.”
This was yet another scenario where one of Kal had wished they could visibly express emotions. “You… want the tiny, 1m tall robots to protect the 3m tall armoured guy who is on fire?”
Soulblade nodded. “You are one of the best teleporters around, your white-painted sibling can detect threats from kilometres away, one of you manipulates magnetism, another manipulates gravity, one of you can create levels of heat akin to stars, and your medical expert has the same powers Shatterblade here has. You are also a team of purifiers and have free reign to do pretty much whatever you want as long as you do your job.”
“Psehon, I appreciate the concern, but I do not want Tah and his team to look after me…” Retvik interrupted. “I am unwilling to put anyone in harm’s way to protect a beaten down old Rethan. Whatever caused Litvir to run, it was between me and him.”
“You are losing hope.”
“I am, yes. It is clear that Litvir does not want to be found. Maybe I should just respect that.”
With a sigh, Retvik turned around and wandered off. As Retvik’s footsteps faded, Tah dimmed his eyes and turned to the other (much larger) Decay Lords.
“I’ve already asked Koh, Nuh and Leh to intercept Retvik and stop him from doing anything rash. You’re right, Psehon, He needs looking after. We’ll look after Retvik.”
“Thank you, little one…” Soulblade grunted. “The rest of you, get back to work. I’ll call in some old allies and see if they can assist us.”