“Well, he certainly delivered on that…”
A new ship had suddenly appeared in the parking area of Savepoint. It was about the same size as the Thantir Three, but much more sleek and rounded. It was a very pretty ship that had been painted black and had silver flames running down each side, and the ship’s name was written in purple, red and yellow.
“The Deathly Soulflame?” Arkay muttered as he approached. “That’s both… uh…”
“Parts of our codenames?” Litvir suggested.
“But also both… cool and lame, I guess?” Arkay wasn’t sure. He approached a door on the side of the ship, which weirdly had an envelope stuck to it. With a hint of concern, Arkay picked up the envelope and opened it, revealing three sets of keys and a single note, saying “Use Me Well!”. Arkay immediately used one of the keys to unlock the ship, then headed inside.
“Huh, nice place.”
“Yeah.”
Arkay turned to his side. Kaytee was standing there, glancing around.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m the resident ship-fixing person of the Thantir, I wanted to have a look!”
Arkay shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Behind Arkay and Kaytee, Litvir appeared and immediately started looking around. Which was somewhat surprising because Litvir normally didn’t care much for ship stuff, despite owning his own ship, but as far as he was concerned, this was his second ship and he wanted to have a look around.
Arkay left Litvir to it, then stepped into the cockpit alongside Kaytee.
“Looks pretty normal in here!” Kaytee exclaimed. “Everything looks kinda built with Retvik and Litvir in mind though.”
“Well, they make up two thirds of our trio and are a lot taller than me. But also, they can’t shapeshift.”
“That… is a really good point…”
Arkay inspected the cockpit some more, but he noticed that one of the chairs is actually slightly smaller and more made for Arkay. It was clear that Deathven had intended for Arkay to be the main pilot, and there was a booster cushion on the smaller chair, clearly with Arkay in mind.
“Hah, you’re a shortass…” Kaytee giggled.
“I’m taller than you.”
“You’re still a shortass.”
“Yeah…” Arkay gave in. Kaytee was right, of course. “At least I can shapeshift though.”
“Do you shapeshift in the bedroom? You didn’t when we did that little Skyavok orgy thing.”
Arkay eyed Kaytee. Kaytee shrugged, then giggled some more.
“Sometimes.”
“A lot?”
“Not really.”
“How comes?”
Arkay shrugged. “It’s hard to focus if I’m shapeshifted and also giving. Don’t need to shapeshift if I’m receiving though.”
“But…” Kaytee thought for a moment. “But Retvik is pretty damn big.”
“We make it work, somehow.”
“I guess…”
Arkay and Kaytee both trailed off. Arkay sat in his seat and started checking over all the different consoles. He liked that everything was buttons and knobs and switches. Arkay had never really trusted digital touch screens, because so much more could go wrong if they broke, and Arkay also found them quite distracting at times.
“I guess you’re going to have a lot of fun doing Hidden Trio stuff…” Kaytee muttered, after a long silence.
“I hope so. But honestly, I don’t really know why we’re being told to do this stuff!” Arkay exclaimed. “Actually… I kinda take that back…”
“How comes?”
“Deathven hates me. But he was willing to come here, in person, to the place that had two Synaisthyns that he is legitimately scared of, to invite Retvik, Litvir and myself to a meeting and tell us he wants us to do more hero stuff. I think Deathven realised that he has a stupidly powerful resource and that he also doesn’t need to be scared of me. Us Thantir kept our end of the deal, keeping Synaisthyns and half-Synaisthyns, we proved we’re decent beings, and now Deathven wants to try and make amends in a strange way…
“But also, I… I kinda wonder if this is related to the former Decaylings having to do their trial early. There’s something on the horizon, and Deathven wants to turn potential threats into decent allies to counteract whatever this thing on the horizon is.”
“Do you hate Deathven?” Kaytee asked.
“Uh… I… I don’t know. I think he’s just… scared of me. But, well, I am stupidly powerful. I’d be scared of me if I was a normal person aware of all the stupid piss I can do…” Arkay frowned, then got up. “We should inspect the rest of the ship.”
Kaytee smiled and nodded in agreement. They both got up and headed down the main hallway. “Oh, definitely. But I find it odd that this ship doesn’t seem to have any guns on it.”
“Why would I need guns when I’m me? Kal don’t have guns on their ship too.”
“… That’s a really good point. Still, this IS a fucking nice ship.”
Arkay looked around, then smiled. The smile turned into a massive grin as he peered into what was his new bedroom. The ship had four bedrooms, individual ones and one bedroom to share.. “Yeah, it really is. I find it ironic that I buy the Thantir Three off Vikalos and ironically got given the Thantir Three on steroids.”
“I think you deserve it. You deserve some good things occasionally.”
“I’m not getting this for free though. I have to go on a weird diplomatic mission I’m kinda not allowed to talk about.”
“Pah!” Kaytee playfully swished his hands around. “Diplomacy is a piece of piss if you have a telepath with you. And wasn’t your Retvik a diplomat between other races when he was mortal?”
“Yeah, he was. And we do have Litvir, who will work out what everyone wants, and, worst case scenario, make some… suggestions. But apparently this Hidden Trio stuff is kinda just what we’re doing now.”
Kaytee shrugged. “Sure, I… we’re gonna miss you, but you’ll be spending quality time with your two wives who would do anything for you to make you happy. It’s all going to be fine.”
“You’re… going to miss me?” Arkay suddenly asked.
“Well, of course… I’ll be honest, there are moments where I totally want to date you again. And maybe fuck you.”
Arkay smiled. “Well, I am pretty fucking attractive. Tell you what, let me have a few words with some folks, and maybe we can do something before I leave.”
“Heh. I appreciate that, mate.”