Arkay, Retvik and Litvir were all taking a break, sitting on a bench outside a void kiosk run by fish in mechanical fish tank suits, all eating ice cream. The ice cream wasn’t anything special. Apparently it was vanilla flavour, but the quality of the ice cream suggested it had never actually seen real vanilla, and instead some vanilla pods had just been waved in the vague direction of the ice cream as it was being made, and instead they’d just used the vanillin chemical directly. Still, Retvik was happy, Arkay didn’t care and Litvir was just glad to get the smell of urine out of his nostrils.
None of them had said much in a while. Which was why Arkay almost jumped as his communicator suddenly rang.
“What is that ring tone?” Litvir asked. “Is it a new one?”
“Yeah, changed it a few days ago, but normally no one calls me…” Arkay muttered, seeing who was calling him. “Oh, it’s Sini. Mind if I get up and take this?”
“Of course not, go ahead, Arkay.”
Arkay got up and wandered a little bit, answering the phone call. He was somewhat concerned that Sini was calling him directly, but as soon as Sini started speaking and she seemed to be in high spirits, Arkay calmed down.
“Little brother! How are you?”
“I’m doing good, Sini. How are you? What you been up to?”
“I’ve been building my oasis, and it’s nearly ready!” Sini seemed excited. “I wanted to call you and ask if you want to be at the opening reception!”
“Wow, you built that fast.”
“Did I? We left our universe like 9 months ago. A Lanex could have had a full pregnancy between now and our exile. Admittedly, I did spend like two months dicking around and screwing the Phantai but still. I built my oasis, it’s all ready to go, I built my secret lab and some houses for my little guardians on the side, I just want to do an opening ceremony or something and wanted to invite some people!”
“Oh. Of course! We’re not in the area currently though.”
There was a long pause. “You’re not at your cool floating island?”
“No.”
“I thought you and your two girlfriends ran that place.”
Arkay frowned a little. “We did, but we’re… uh… How much do you know about the higher parts of Decay Lord society? Outside of sects like the Thantir and the Phantai?”
More pausing. Sini was clearly unsure. “There’s stuff outside sects? I thought most of you Decay Lords just grouped together.”
“We do, but while some of us idiots group together in sects, many travel to Deathven Sectors, which are basically gigantic floating mega-cities that are homes for anyone without a universe. And both sects and sectors all follow the leadership of this prick called Deathven.”
“You know this Deathven guy?”
“Yep. He tried to kill me when I was a Decayling the first time round, because I’m a mimic. But alongside his business of running a heaven for universe-less beings and keeping sects to do Decay Lord stuff in places where he doesn’t have sectors, he has a side business of… I don’t even know what to call it. Basically having small teams of stupidly powerful folks going around doing stuff partially in secret, to keep Deathven looking good, while having a different sort of accountability for it all.”
“So… kinda like when you and I sent your little team of four out to kill Corruptiids?”
Arkay paused, then tutted. “Fuck, that’s a really good way of putting it.”
“So you and your two boyfriends are doing that but for this Deathven guy?”
“Basically. He gave us a cool ship and a ton of money and just sends us on random jobs. We recently cured a 60m tall Voidborn of Corruption and yesterday Litvir made some pirates piss themselves in fear.”
“Hah! Honestly, little bro, I do kinda want to spend some time chatting with Litvir in a friendly manner over some drinks. He seems like quite a hoot. Although that does bring me back to what I wanted to talk about! I’d really like it if you and some of your Thantir buddies came along to help me open my oasis. Don’t have to stay for long, but I’d love to have you around and make people aware of the place a little.”
Arkay thought to himself. “You know what? That does sound like fun. And my new ship is super fast, so we can meet you, pop back home and check that everything’s alright and then head back out on stupid quests again… Let me have a quick chat with Retvik and Litvir.”
Arkay wandered back to the bench where his partners were still sitting.
“Is everything well?” Retvik asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Sini asks if we can join her in the opening of her new oasis.”
“Oh!” Litvir perked up. “That sounds fun! Would be nice to pop back to Savepoint briefly too.”
“That’s what I said. We’ve got time before our next stupid adventure, right?”
Retvik grunted, then checked his wristband. “Hm. We should have time if we do not dawdle. I would suggest that Sini call Vikalos and get him to make some arrangements too, should we get caught up in things. Perhaps they can send Nyssi and her team there as backup.”
“Why those four in particular?” Litvir queried.
“They are a more independent sub-group of the Thantir and make for a good face for our sect as well. Also, if it is a Life Oasis, there is a bias towards singularly-females, and Nyssi is the one in charge of them. Would look better from the point of view of potential local visiting Life Goddesses.”
“If that is the case, then you should suggest that Phovos go too,” Litvir suggested. “What with her being a Life Goddess too.”
“She would want to bring Phovoula, and I am not sure whether having a Voidborn present would be a good idea.”
“It’d be fine!” Sini was clearly listening in. “I want as many folks as possible!”
Arkay shrugged, then smiled. “Alrighty. You’ve got Vikalos’s contact details, right, sis?”
“Yep. I’ll give him a call. Will you stop by?”
“We’ll stop by, definitely! Don’t know if we’ll make it to opening day, we’re pretty far away, but we’ll try!”
Sini giggled down the phone. “Thank you, little bro! See you soon!”
The line went dead, presumably as Sini rushed off to make her own arrangements. Arkay glanced at Retvik and Litvir.
“It’ll be fun.”
“Oh, definitely!” Arkay smiled. “Shall we get going?”
Retvik and Litvir both stood up, then grabbed Arkay by the arms and dragged him back to the ship.
“Of course.”