Retvik grunted as he slipped deeper into the bathtub. He hadn’t really actually seen a bathtub like this before, or really in general. Everywhere he had gone, everyone had just had showers, mainly to conserve water. But on this little ship, it seemed that Galyn preferred taking long baths to clean himself. Then again, Retvik had no idea what the liquid that had come out of the tap was, so maybe this wasn’t a bath?
Either way, it was cool and quiet in the bathtub. That was why Retvik was there. He needed to be alone with his thoughts. While he was externally doing very well as a Decayling, internally, Retvik was a mess. He was never designed to be a deity, yet everyone was treating him like he had been a god for centuries. Rather than about a day. A day that Retvik hardly remembered. And now Retvik was being thrust into high level Decay Lord duties and… well, he wasn’t feeling too good.
A knock on the door nearly made Retvik jump. He had been expecting Galyn to check up on him at some point, he just didn’t know when.
“Retvik, are you alright? You have been hiding in my bathroom for a while now.”
“I am not alright!” Retvik muttered. “I need…”
“I hate to interrupt, but I think you need to get up and talk, in a more comfortable environment.”
“Why?”
There was a long pause. Retvik could hear Galyn sighing from behind the door.
“I made some mistakes. We need to talk through them together.”
Retvik grunted, then slowly pulled himself out of the bathtub, heading towards the door.
“What do you mean?” Retvik almost growled as he opened it, revealing Galyn. Weirdly, Galyn seemed to have less armour on than normal. To the point that Retvik could see small amounts of his actual skin. But covering all of Galyn was a shimmering orange aura, a protective shield of energy across his whole body.
“I need to have you tested for Corruption. Now. Follow me.”
Panic immediately began to creep into Retvik’s mind, but he did his best to hide it as Galyn led Retvik to the… the containment and destruction room. The room that Retvik and Galyn had used not too long ago to kill a heavily infected Decayling. Without a word, Galyn nudged Retvik into the room, then locked the door behind him.
“Oh fuck…” was the only thing Retvik could think of. The panic in his mind was ramping up. As was the thought of why Retvik didn’t have one of those cool, orange body shields. However, the more Retvik worried, the more quickly he lost track of time. What felt like an eternity was in fact nothing more than a few seconds as the door unlocked again.
Galyn stood in the doorway, tutting. “You are clear.”
“And you scared the piss out of me!” Retvik suddenly shouted. “How dare you!”
“I apologise, Retvik. Like I said, I made mistakes. One of which was allowing you to accompany me so soon.”
Galyn walked off, down the main hallway and towards the tiny recreational room this ship had. It was mostly unused and had little in it aside from two comfy chairs, a screen and some sort of gaming console. Galyn threw himself into the larger of the two chairs, then hinted for Retvik to join him.
“I am going to be blunt…” Retvik growled as he sat down in the other chair. “I am very upset. You made me kill someone and then terrified me with the same reason you made me kill that being.”
“Yes, I know. I should not have put you through yesterday’s events and I should not have put you at risk of Corruption Infection. That is why I want to offer you a chance to return to the Thantir One and go back to regular Decayling duties. Because you do not seem to be ready for Decay Lord duties yet.”
Retvik sighed, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. “It is not that I am not ready. The problem is that we are going too fast. We have gone from talking calmly to Voidborns to LITERALLY KILLING CORRUPTED DECAYLINGS! It is all… such a rush… and it feels so damn wrong. Why could we not have saved him? Why did we… kill him like that? And why do you have almost no remorse about any of it?”
Galyn leaned forward, watching Retvik carefully. “Unfortunately, since I was a death god for a long time, I have mostly become numb to this sort of thing. Have you not killed at all?”
The Decayling sneered. “I have only killed in self-defence. And even then, I did not want to.”
“Well, what we did was also an act of self-defence, but also an act of mercy. While the Decayling had not been aware of what happened, he was perhaps an hour away from being fully consumed. That is beside the point though. I should have given you more of a warning of what was going to happen. I need to take things more slowly with you.”
“Will you though? Or will I end up being stressed again?” Retvik frowned.
“This is a stressful duty. If you cannot-”
“I can. But I cannot learn everything all at once.”
Galyn nodded. “You are correct. I apologise for the mistakes I have made. Do you wish to stay on board with me?”
Retvik grunted, then sighed. “I… I do. But I would like us to do… something easier for a while.”
“Very well, Retvik. We could do with some free time after all. Tell me, what would you like to do?”