“I hate this body…” Tah clicked and crackled as his old, battered form jolted back into life. His current body was currently lying on the ground, since Tah’s Krana-brain wasn’t powering it, but considering what had just happened with Galyn going insane and attacking everyone, they needed someone that Galyn recognized. And, according to Litvir’s initial brain scans, the only thing the elder Decay Lord DID recognize was the broken body that Kal all used to share.
“It is just for a moment, little one!” Retvik was doing his best to be optimistic, especially since he was recovering from a stab wound.
It had taken three hours to get Galyn properly sedated, tied up and made safe enough to approach, and even now, Galyn wasn’t quite completely unconscious. Large pieces of metal had been wrapped around him and chains suspended the Decay Lord from the ceiling, making him swing back and forth in a disorientating manner.
Thankfully, despite Galyn’s attack, everyone was alive. Mator and the rest of Kal were a bit dizzy from the electromagnetic pulse Galyn had caused, but the ship had quickly recovered. Phovos was also fine, her Life Goddess healing powers having kicked into gear pretty much instantly. But the multitude of telepaths on board were all very concerned about what was going on.
“So this is what happens when Voidborn manipulation goes too far?” Eksi asked as he sat beneath Galyn, occasionally prodding Galyn on the tail. Eksi’s soothing auras had been the only thing stopping the crazed Decay Lord from completely losing it, making Galyn too sleepy to lash out. Litvir’s paralytic venom had worn off about an hour ago, far faster than Litvir had predicted, and the collection of sedatives Tahvra had produced had done pretty much nothing. Telepathic sedation was just about working, but even then, everyone was all staggering their mental blocks to make sure that Galyn stayed asleep. Between Kal, Litvir, Eksi, Tahvra and having to drag in Teekay and Relkir with their own slightly weaker telepathy, they were all getting quite tired.
Tah clicked several times. “No, this is somewhat low-level. The basic “you think you are a prisoner, kill everyone you see” sort of manipulation. Full-blown manipulation involves killing everyone you care for and then binding yourself to a Voidborn as its willing slave.”
Retvik frowned. “It is not a fun experience. Painful and confusing. Also, I believe it might be best if we all leave apart from Tah. We do not want Galyn to see all of us as enemies yet again.”
“I will psionically disguise you all,” Litvir interrupted. “We cannot risk Galyn breaking out, because he WILL react violently when he properly wakes up. Tah, we are ready when you are.”
“Yeah, one moment…” Tah prodded the large hole in his head shield, not liking how part of his rubbery brain was exposed. Retvik pulled over a pile of crates for Tah to stand on, so he was at eye level with Galyn. “Alright, you can drop the psychic bolts.”
With a wave of Litvir’s hand, the sedative fog lifted from Galyn’s mind and he snapped back to full consciousness. However, as far as Galyn was aware, there were only two beings present, himself and…
“Kal. You are alive.”
“We are, yes. But there’s a problem Galyn. There’s someone in your head, and you are acting aggressively.”
Galyn snarled, leaning forward as far as he could manage, his teeth barely an inch away from Tah’s face. He had just realized that he was unable to move. “WHAT IS GOING ON?”
“You attacked us. We had to constrain you. You are under Voidborn influence and we need to-”
“Where am I? Where are Itaviir and Vikalos?” The Decay Lord tried to summon his standard emerald blades, but nothing happened. “WHY ARE YOU HOLDING ME PRISONER?”
Tah gently patted Galyn on the head. “Like I just said, you attacked us. You attacked your fellow Thantir Decay Lords, so they brought us in to fix you up. That’s our job after all.”
Galyn fell silent, trying to think. As he did so, Litvir silently scanned Galyn’s upper thoughts, trying to pinpoint the problem.
“Where are Itaviir and Vikalos?” Galyn repeated himself. “Where are my other Thirds?”
The little mechanical creature hesitated briefly, since he didn’t know himself. “They are not on board this ship. For your own safety, we had to move you to our own ship so you didn’t attack anyone.”
“This is not your ship!” Galyn hissed. “Your ship is tiny!”
“We got a new ship. So we could deal with larger beings. Like you. Vikalos suggested it after he banged his head coming in when he brought Arkay to us.”
“Who is Arkay?”
Tah’s eyes flickered, the only way he could show how worried he now was. “By the Nest, whatever mind control has gotten into your brain is insanely strong. It has blocked off at least 25000 hours worth of memories from you.”
Galyn snarled some more, then snapped at Tah. Tah awkwardly stepped back, not wanting to be bitten.
“You lie. WHERE ARE MY OTHER THIRDS?”
The battered Cleanser clicked in annoyance. “I can’t lie. That’s why you keep on coming back to us and demanding our services, because we’re loyal and honest and good at what we do. And I’m telling you right now, Galyn, there’s a Voidborn in your head telling you to kill us.”
The elder Decay Lord tried to snap at Tah again, but was met with a nasty electric shock. If anything, Tah was starting to get annoyed.
“Come on, Galyn, you’re better than this.”
“I will kill you, you pitiful excuse for a Decayon. Let me go and tell me where Itaviir and Vikalos are.”
Tah tutted, stalling slightly. “I don’t know what Ahkron did to you but he did a damn good job on scrambling your brain. Before I answer your question, what do you think the current local sector date is? Roughly?”
Galyn grunted, closing his eyes. He was certain there were things going on, just outside his senses, but since Kal here seemed to be at least trying to help him, he decided to try and answer the little robot’s question.
“I would… hazard a guess that it is about…” Galyn hesitated. “Ev 08/52, Yearstring 12012 PGS.”
“Oh. Uh. Um…” Galyn stared at Kal as it struggled to find the right words. “One second.”
Tah teleported off the cases, reappearing in front of Litvir and Retvik. The two young Decay Lords both looked anxious, for different reasons.
“That’s… 87.6K hours ago…” Tah telepathically muttered to Litvir and Eksi, who had been listening in and using his aura abilities to stop Galyn from considering breaking free.
“How long is that?” Eksi asked, still not accustomed to how things like days and months didn’t really exist in the Periuniversal Void.
“About ten years, yes?” Litvir replied.
Tah nodded. Retvik and Eksi both glanced at Litvir, not really sure how he had worked that out so quickly.
“We’d just started serving the Thantir, Galyn would have hardly known us. And back then, the Thantir consisted of about a hundred Decay Lords.”
“Where are they all now?” Retvik still looked confused. “There were about 20 Decay Lords total when Litvir and I became Decaylings.”
“I don’t really know, something happened about 70,000 hours ago, some sort of conflict with a Kronothrax army, and a ton of them split off and went back to Deathven. We were mostly serving the Justar and the Phantai at the time though…” Tah’s explanation wasn’t too confident.
Litvir thought to himself briefly, then shrugged. “We have found a weakness though. Galyn wishes to see or at least speak to his Lost Thirds, if we arrange… something, then perhaps the distraction will allow Eksi, Tahvra and I to enter his mind more safely and remove the Voidborn influence.”
“Hang on!” Eksi exclaimed. “What do you mean, me? We got a team of six experts and you want ME to do this?”
Litvir nodded. “You and Tahvra have much more natural telepathy, which makes it harder to detect. My control is greater but more alien to most minds, and Kal’s telepathy is like being hit in the head with a brick. No offence, Tah.”
“None taken!” Tah chittered with vague amusement. “Litvir, can you get in touch with the old Thantir?”
“I do not have a direct connection, but I should be able to log onto Galyn’s personal communication device and get in touch with Vikalos. I do not know how to contact Itaviir though, I believe he and Galyn had a bit of a falling out not long after they left.”
“Maybe I should speak to Vikalos…” Retvik suggested. “Vikalos always seemed to like me, but he considered you and Arkay to be slight nuisances.”
“Very well,” Litvir bowed slightly. “Galyn’s unlock code for his communicator is 313131, which I am pretty sure he has not changed in several decades. Arrange some sort of meetup with either or both of Galyn’s Thirds as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we will put Galyn back to sleep and prepare him for the vast amount of memory unblockers we are going to unfortunately have to put him through.”
Retvik bowed back, then stomped off, to the main corridor of the Thantir Two. “I shall do that right away then. Call me if you need any help subduing Galyn again.”