This observatory had once been publicly accessible to anyone on the Shimmering Blade, but after the Voidborn elite known as Krohniak had attached the ship, as a thank you for saving everyone, the observatory was now only accessible to the Thantir, and it had been converted into a safe space where the Decaylings (and occasionally the Thantir Decay Lords) could all relax. Currently though, only some of the Thantir were present, the others all doing combat training alongside some of the Phantai’s lower members.
“So, we have a rather large problem.”
Retvik’s statement was met with a multitude of grunts. Vikalos was standing by the door, making sure no one else could enter, Litvir was standing by the window, gazing out into the darkness, and Tenuk and Akah were both sat on a pile of cushions. Tenuk was messaging someone on his communicator, Akah was nursing a broken arm, which he’d snapped in a small fight between himself and three low ranked Phantai soldiers who had accused him of being a Voidborn in disguise and had attacked him. Because Akah’s bones were hidden beneath metal-coated armour plating, setting the broken bone underneath was a little tricky, doubly so since Akah had blatantly refused to be seen by a Phantai doctor, Tahvra was the one who had helped Akah fix his injury.
“Indeed. In order to fulfil your insane plan, we need to somehow steal a Voidborn craft, a craft that explodes should a Decayon fly it…” Vikalos grunted. “You do realize how difficult this makes things?”
“We can work something out. We have two non-Decayons among us, and we do have our own ships and a place where we can store a ship, if we can convince Kal to agree…” Litvir shrugged. “We have done stranger things, capturing a ship is not too complicated, especially if we get Gah with his magnetic powers to help.”
“That is assuming that a Voidborn ship is not triggered by the presence of a Life Goddess!” Vikalos hissed. “The Voidborn cults here exist to wipe out Life Goddesses. And can Phovos even FLY a ship?”
“All of us Divine Guardians can fly a basic ship!” Akah was particularly grumpy. He didn’t like being stuck sharing a space with Tenuk, but since his fight, the Decay Lords had all insisted that Akah not wander around alone. That annoyed Akah more than being with Tenuk, because Akah could defend himself. He’d fought three Phantai on his own and come out of it with just a broken arm, which would only take a couple of days to heal thanks to him being essentially a deity now. “Well, us smaller ones at least. Phovos in particular was trained to do almost everything. But I thought the Crystal Doom just hated Decay Lords, not anything but themselves?”
Retvik nodded in agreement. “The Crystal Doom seek only to destroy the Phantai. It was the Golden Protectors that targeted Life Goddesses. That being said, we still have a problem. We need a non-Decayon ship, and even if we can convince Kal to let us store said ship in the Nest, getting our hands on a Voidborn ship discreetly is nigh impossible, even if we cover it up behind ship flying lessons for Eksi and Elksia.”
“What IS the Nest?” Vikalos abruptly asked. “Do Kal have some sort of secret hidden base or something?”
“Essentially, yes. It is a large, hollow meteor where Kal keep a collection of non-sentient Cleanser bodies, as well as anything else they cannot store on their ship.”
“So…” Vikalos was still confused. “They had spare bodies and never used them?”
Akah raised a finger. “Kal can’t use the normal Cleanser bodies because they lack most of the mechanisms Kal require to work. The normal Cleansers only have receiver telepathy, they can’t use the elemental powers Kal have and they have no way of communicating.”
“Huh…” Vikalos trailed off. “You know a lot about Kal, Akah.”
“They did save me and Tahvra from floating endlessly inside a wrecked observatory with no water, food or warmth, and we spent a lot of time with them. Kal have always been pretty lonely and they actually love talking but, being small, awkward robots, they struggle sometimes. Sure, they had Kanuva, but Kanuva was…” Akah suddenly fell silent. “I wonder if Mator would count as a Voidborn? He’s completely mechanical the way Kal are. Then again, he is kinda… broken.”
“Who the fuck are Mator and Kanuva?” Vikalos was filled with questions. “Is Kanuva that weird signal thing Kal asked you and Galyn to find when you were a Decayling, Retvik?”
Retvik nodded. “We found him hanging out with Kinisis. After that whole thing where the Thantir got split up because of the big Apocalyptic super massive black hole thing, Kanuva stayed with Kal since they were from the same universe.”
“He kinda got really badly stabbed by Ahkron though and did a weird thing where he devolved into a smaller form,” Akah added. “Turned out his real name was Mator, he changed it to Kanuva when he became an Imperator, which is some sort of elemental demi-deity, but he desperately wants to become an Imperator again so Kal put him in a special sleep canister where he’s slowly absorbing energy. Or something like that. Kal’s old universe was weird.”
Retvik grunted, yet again agreeing with Akah, but he wanted to get back on track. “I think Mator would still count as a Decayon, even if Ahkron saw him as a Voidborn, since we all were born inside universes.”
“We could ask Theocydes?” Litvir suggested. “He is a genuine Voidborn.”
“There is no way Theocydes would risk himself for our own plans!” Retvik tutted. “We have an uneasy alliance with Theocydes, one we cannot bank on because we do not have Arkay with us to pressure him in any way.”
“Maybe Theocydes knows a Voidborn willing to assist us?”
Retvik tutted some more. “We hardly trust Theocydes, how can we trust another Voidborn we do not know? And the Phantai would most likely attack and murder any Voidborns we bring in. Us merely having this conversation would be enough for the Phantai to attack us. Currently, the way I see things, we have two options, and that is to either capture a Voidborn ship and have Phovos or Elksia fly it through the Crystal Doom’s anti-Decayon perimeter, or find a non-Decayon ship and use that.”
Tenuk blinked, sitting up straight. He hadn’t really been paying attention. “A non-Decayon ship?”
“Yes. Where have you been this entire time?” Retvik grunted.
“Sorry, I was messaging with Elksia. She just dared me to find a way to sleep with a Phantai as a bottom. But we need a ship that’s not made by one of you Decay Lords, right? We could just use one of Kinisis’s old ships.”
Litvir crossed his arms and frowned. “And you just happen to have one of Kinisis’s ships on you, Tenuk?”
“Uh, yeah. Me, Tahvra and Teekay all have one. I keep mine on my old key chains, alongside Arkay’s tea strainer.”
“Hang on, Tahvra told me that his little ship key chain was just a model?” Akah interrupted. “It’s nor real, surely?”
“Yeah, it’s real. Full ship, miniaturized. Kinisis wanted some backups. Only problem is, we need a Life Goddess to un-miniaturize it, but Phovos could probably do it, since she’s Kinisis’s daughter.”
Tenuk glanced at the Decay Lords. Vikalos and Litvir seemed vaguely surprised, but he recognized the look on Retvik’s face.
“Does… does the tea strainer…” Retvik stuttered.
Tenuk shrugged. “I dunno, I haven’t tried it. From what you guys have said, I don’t really want to risk trying it out because apparently we’d just turn back into mortals if we set foot inside someone else’s universe.”
Retvik let out a very defeated sigh, then turned back to the original conversation. “So, you have a Life Goddess ship.”
“Yeah. Three of them. Assuming Tahvra and Teekay didn’t lose theirs. I know Teekay keeps his one attached to that collapsable heat axe he carries around. No idea what Tahvra did with his. Don’t think they’re aware that they’re actual ships though.”
“And you can fly them?” Vikalos asked.
“Of course. At a push, Akah, Elkay and Phovos can all fly them as well.”
Vikalos turned back to Retvik. “We have no idea if these ships will not be destroyed the same way Decayon ones are.”
“Yes, but we have a Time Drake!” Tenuk butted in. “Elksia can sense traps. She did so when we did those early Voidborn missions, she could see when things would go wrong and stop me and Phovos from triggering those traps. All we have to do is, I dunno, send Elksia and Elkay out in one of those ships alongside whichever Decay Lord is the least blow-up-able, disguise it as flying lessons for Elksia and check those perimeters!”
“Hmph. I think that means Vikalos or I would have to go…” Retvik frowned. “I believe Itaviir is less… prone to explosives, but we still cannot let him or Galyn know, and Kal seem to be pretty insistent that they don’t want to be put in direct danger.”
“But why would we send Elkay?” Vikalos was still confused.
“Because Elkay seems to be unkillable by conventional means, and I doubt a ship exploding around him would do any real physical damage to Elkay…” Litvir paused. “Actually, Vikalos, I have a question for you. We have designated Elkay as a hybrid mimic, but what is he a hybrid of? Arkay apparently had Life Goddess genetics in him and we assumed that the other half of his hybrid self was a Decayon. But Elkay has only ever been a Divine Guardian, which is essentially just a Decayon with a job. What IS Elkay’s other half?”
Vikalos thought to himself. “Hm. I… actually do not have an answer for you. I only have speculations.”
“Which are?”
“Well… I am of the opinion that hybrid mimics are not actually a thing, that a mimic is instead its own separate species of periuniversal entity, separate from Life Goddesses, Voidborns, Corruption, Time Drakes and Decayons. There are just so few of them that we have been unable to categorize and study them and… in all honesty, I wonder if Arkay was ever a hybrid as well. He was just mentally unstable and latched on to anything that gave him meaning, simply believing he was a hybrid to the point that he’d make everyone else believe that too.”
Litvir glanced at Retvik, then shrugged. “Curious. So do we have some sort of plan now?”
“We need to work out how these Life Goddess ships work, but aside from that, I guess so!” Tenuk beamed. “Oh, by the way, Elksia just messaged me, she says they’re done with training and Lightblade wants to talk to Retty and Litty. And apparently Galyn is looking for Vikalos.”
“Tenuk, do not call us that…” Retvik grunted. “Those names are reserved to Elksia only.”
Tenuk crossed his arms. “You’re no fun any more, Retvik.”
“I have never been fun. Anyway, I am calling a halt to this discussion. We will work this out further in our next Decayling lesson. Understood?”
Everyone nodded. Vikalos moved away from the door and headed off, and Retvik and Litvir did the same.
“So, Akah?” Tenuk eventually turned to his fellow Decayling. “Wanna… do something?”
“Like what?” Akah wasn’t sure where Tenuk was going with this.
“Something fun.”
“I… don’t follow.”
With a smile, Tenuk shapeshifted himself into a Lanex. A female one, but without a mask. Akah blinked, then immediately got up and headed to the door.
“Where you going?” Tenuk teased.
“Away from you! What in the Void is wrong with you?” Akah snapped.
“What?” Tenuk asked innocently.
“I have told you before, I am NOT interested!”
Tenuk shrugged, then turned back into a Kronospast. “Suit yourself. See ya round, Akah.”
Akah didn’t answer, and instead stormed out, wondering why Tenuk was so insistent on pissing him off.