“Wow, I haven’t seen mister Retvik like that before…” Tahvra muttered as he peered out of the Thantir Decaylings-only observatory, watching as Retvik lumbered past. And by lumbering, he was really lumbering. Despite being 3m tall, Retvik was always oddly light on his feet, but he was mostly shuffling back and forth, and just wandering up and down this main hallway. He’d been doing so for hours, and no one had been able to talk to him into doing anything else.
What was weirder was that Retvik was wandering around practically naked, wearing only a loincloth and a stomach wrap, and, considering the colour of what he was wearing, the Thantir Decaylings were pretty certain Retvik was wearing Litvir’s stuff.
“I have…” Elkay muttered as Tahvra came back into the observatory. Most of the Decaylings had been told to stay put while everyone else was searching for the missing Thantir. Eksi, Elksia and Phovos though were all aiding in the search, with Elksia using her Time Drake powers to search for clues and Eksi using his aura-based telepathy to try and pick up signals. Phovos was currently acting as a scent hound. Despite being a Life Goddess, as a mortal, she had grown up tracking and hunting prey, so this sort of thing was almost second nature to her. Now she was a powerful deity, Phovos’s tracking skills had increased immensely, and she had managed to at least point the Phantai search and rescue ships in the right direction.
Unfortunately, it was clear that Litvir didn’t want to be found. He had only taken minimal belongings and a fully fuelled ship. In fact, Litvir had only taken a handful of objects. His communicator, his clear, paper-like personal computer, his familiar double-bladed gunstaff, a basic set of armour and one of his purple capes. He hadn’t taken spare clothing, food, water, anything. And although Litvir’s communication devices were gone, his computer was turned off and his communicator appeared to be in offline mode, meaning that no one could call Litvir and his devices weren’t connecting to any potential nearby networks. On top of that, Litvir had covered his tracks, giving himself a sizeable head start. It had been three hours before anyone had realized that something that happened.
Considering that the search had been going on for 12 hours now, the overall mood was pretty low.
“This is exactly what it was like in Hertany, when Kenon took over…” Tenuk frowned. “When he was terrified that Gath was gone, when he was told to hand himself over to Kenon.”
“In exchange for two hundred political prisoners!” Elkay added. “He and that poor Trismit gave themselves up, so Rethais could have his son back.”
Tenuk sighed. “But Retvik never got to be reunited with Gath…”
“Who’s Gath?” Tahvra asked. “I’ll be honest, me and Akah, we kinda don’t know Retvik from when we were all mortal.”
“Retvik’s old husband. Absolute unit of a Rethan. Nicest Rethan ever, as far as I’m concerned…” Teekay answered. “Terrifyingly strong though. Had a neat party trick of being able to smash a keg of mead open and drink it in two goes.”
“He got mind-controlled like 99% of all other Rethans though,” Elkay sighed. “He was told Retvik was dead, moved on, remarried, manipulated by Kenon to forget that Retvik even existed. And, according to Rethais, he had a kid not too long afterwards, while we were off being gods. While things with Litvir have always been bumpy, Retvik is probably going through all that loss yet again. Even more so if we do not find Litvir and Retvik finds himself being the last Rethan.”
Akah blinked, then checked the audio sensors on his mask. “Hang on, you called Retvik the last Rethan, but you’re a Rethan too, Elkay!”
“I, uh… After I escaped Yisini’s labs, I found I had been cut off from the Secret. Other Rethans stopped recognizing me as a Rethan long before the Void Lord broke everything, and when Kenon let the 1% back into the Secret, I… was not included, so I stopped recognizing myself as a true Rethan. My Skyavok-based telepathy has stopped me going insane, and I assume Litvir and Retvik being in a partnership and bound to a deity kept them same…” Elkay trailed off. “We need to speak to Retvik. Get him to stop pacing, maybe get him some food and something to drink. Get him to take a break. Because the pain is eating him up right now.”
“Alright, I’ll talk to him.”
Everyone turned to Akah, confused as to why he had immediately stood up and stepped forward.
“Uh, why?” Tenuk asked. “I mean, like, why are you offering yourself? You’re slightly scared of Retvik. Despite the fact that Elkay literally killed you. Sure, you got better, but still!”
Akah shrugged. Tenuk was admittedly right about him being slightly scared Retvik, but as far as Akah could tell, most of the Phantai, who were ancient Decay Lords larger than Retvik, were cautious around him. In Akah’s eyes, Retvik was normally indomitable, almost unstoppable. But right now, he needed help.
“Someone needs to talk to Retvik. And they need to do so without reminding Retvik what he’s missing. Tenuk, Teekay, you are both in happy relationships, Elkay is a Rethan AND in a happy relationship and, Tahvra, my friend, no offence, but you are bad with negative emotions and communicating with others.”
The others all glanced around. Eventually, Tenuk shrugged. “Alright, go. We’ll cover your stupid metal-plated ass.”
Akah bowed, then slipped out of the observatory. Retvik had wandered off down another corridor, giving Akah a chance to quickly make his way to the canteen. Admittedly, Akah was the third least discreet of the Thantir Decaylings, beaten out by the Life Goddess and the Time Drake, so he needed to be fast, but thankfully, everyone else seemed to be too distracted to care about a white, icy Voidborn-looking being running around. He rushed to the self-serve kiosks, grabbed two cans of some kind of caramel soda and what Akah assumed was a hotdog, then rushed back to where he had last seen Retvik.
Unfortunately, Akah kinda nearly ran into Retvik, who had lumbered back to just outside the Decayling observatory.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Retvik!” Akah smiled, holding out the food and drinks he had brought. “You look like you should eat something!”
Retvik eyed Akah. Akah inspected Retvik back. He noticed that Retvik’s ruby red eyes seemed dimmer than normal. Like, actually darker. Normally his eyes almost glowed.
“Why are you here?” Retvik asked.
“We saw you pacing back and forth, you’ve been doing so for hours without rest, so I came here to check on you and bring a drink and… uh, I think it’s a hotdog. Yes, a hotdog.”
Retvik eyed Akah some more. He was drowsy and confused, almost as if he had been drugged. Eventually, he accepted one of the drinks, opened it up and swallowed the contents of the entire can in one gulp. Retvik then took the other can, but the ring pull broke, so he melted off the lid, and, in the process, made the drink boil.
“Let me help you with that!” Akah continued to smile. He prodded the can with his finger, cooling it down with his ice powers. Retvik then proceeded to both down the second drink and consume the hotdog in one bite.
“I appreciate this, but why are you here, Akah?” Retvik grunted.
Akah tilted his head to one side and clicked in annoyance. “Why does everyone ask me that? I care for you all! You’re in a horrible way right now, you’re scared and stressed, you’ve been wandering up and down this hallway naked for the last three hours, you can’t keep on doing this.”
“And why not?”
“Because you’re hurting yourself. Admittedly, I don’t know what it’s like to have your partner vanish, but I’ve been separated from friends, pretty common when you’re a slave, and… Okay, I get it, you’re scared, but we need to put that fear towards something productive. Or something distracting…” Akah trailed off. “Doubly admittedly, I’m a Lanex, a mountain tribe Lanex at that, I’m pretty bad at comforting people, a little too cold and blunt. But while we’re all worried about Litvir, we’re all worried about you too.”
“You should not be concerned about me.”
“Uh, sir, yes, we should. Us Thantir stick together, we help each other. I can’t do anything to help Litvir, but I can do something to help you. Maybe come and join us Decaylings, we can sit and chat and distract you. Maybe brainstorm some ideas of how we can do more. I don’t know. But we… I can’t let you be out here, on your own, in pain.”
Retvik closed his eyes, then relented. Akah put his arm around Retvik (or rather, he tried to, Retvik was 80cm taller than him) and led him to the Decayling observatory. As they walked in, Teekay teleported out and reappeared with more drinks, Tenuk and Elkay sat Retvik down and wrapped a blanket and Tahvra, not really knowing what he could do, climbed into Retvik’s lap and gave him a big hug.
“Thank you…” Retvik stuttered. Elkay sat down next to Retvik and gave him a quick hug, while Tahvra remained firmly in Retvik’s lap, humming gently.
“No worries, brother. Things are hard, but we will prevail.”
Retvik suddenly paused, then frowned and tried to get up. However, the Decaylings wouldn’t let him.
“Is something wrong?” Teekay asked as he handed everyone a drink.
“I need my communicator!” Retvik growled.
“Why? If something happens, Eksi will tell us!”
“I… I just realized… I… I have an… idea…”
Teekay thought to himself, disappeared then immediately came back and handed Retvik his communicator. “Well, you should make use of that idea then.”