“Lord Vikalos! Lord Vikalos!” Eksi screeched as he ran up to the elder Decay Lord, his little armoured feet skittering against the ground. “I need your help!”
Vikalos did want to smile, he always appreciated it when a Decayling came to him for assistance, but Eksi’s panicked tone was highly unusual. Eksi was normally rather calm and laid back, with a silly attitude. Right now, Eksi seemed scared, and Vikalos needed to fix that.
“What is wrong, little one?” Vikalos asked as he kneeled down to Eksi’s level.
“I can’t find Litvir and Retvik isn’t answering his comms and I think he’s been knocked out and something happened and I don’t know what to do!”
“Alright, Eksi, let’s go take a deep breath and go through one thing at a time. You cannot find Litvir?”
“No! He’s not on this ship! Like, the same thing that happened with your boyfriends? He’s gone! And I can’t tell where he’s gone!”
Vikalos looked Eksi up and down, then scooped him up in Vikalos’s arms. Eksi was a small being. Stupidly powerful, and not at his full potential, but young and full of life. “Do you know who was the last person to see Litvir?”
“Uh…” Eksi hesitated. “I think it was Retvik. But Retvik isn’t responding to my messages! And he ain’t answering anyone, not even his little brother!”
“Do you know where Retvik is?”
“In his room, on the fancy deck.”
Vikalos marched off, taking Eksi with him. But before he went too far, he stopped by the Thantir Decayling Observatory and peered inside.
“Elksia?”
The bouncy Time Drake stuck her head out of the door. “Hey mister Vikalos! Felt ya coming! You need me?”
Vikalos nodded. “I do. Eksi thinks Retvik needs some help.”
Elksia immediately straightened herself out. “We’re going now!”
“Of course. Follow me. We are going to Retvik’s quarters.”
The Time Drake ignored the fiery Decay Lord entirely and charged off to the lift to the upper level. Vikalos glanced at Eksi and frowned, then lumbered after her.
The upper level was currently guarded, with Nightblade and Solarblade, two underlings of the Phantai leaders, blocking the path. Vikalos was about to speak, but a sharp telepathic message from Eksi stopped him from doing so. Instead, Eksi wriggled out of Vikalos’s arms and floated up in front of the guards.
“You know you Thantir need permission to be up he-”
Nightblade abruptly fell silent, then blinked in confusion. Solarblade glanced at both him and Eksi, then tutted.
“Bloody Psions…” Solarblade muttered. “Why are you here?”
“Have you seen Litvir? I need to talk to him!” Eksi asked.
“Flamebearer came by earlier to speak to Souldrainer. They should be in their private quarters…” Sunblade hesitated. “Is something wrong?”
Eksi dropped down to the ground and rushed over to a door marked with a red sword and purple shield. He knocked on it several times and waited for a response, despite knowing that he wouldn’t get one. After a quick, second knock, Eksi put his hand to the lock, then fired a tiny blast of telekinetic energy through it, aligning the pins instantly and forcing the door open.
However, Eksi wasn’t the first to enter the room. Elksia charged past him and leaped into the centre of the room. She briefly scanned the place for threats, before rushing over to the bed. Elkska could tell that something was instantly wrong, because Retvik never slept on his stomach and he never covered his head or the tip of his tail with a sheet.
“RETTY!”
Retvik didn’t move. Before Elksia could start panicking, Eksi floated over and stood on the bed, leaning by Retvik’s head. He placed his hand by Retvik’s eye, then closed his own eyes.
“He’s alright, don’t worry, Elksia. Just knocked out by a psychic bolt. Let me remove it…”
A flash of white light swiftly woke Retvik up. He rolled to one side, nearly knocking Eksi over, looking very disorientated. Elksia sat Retvik up and wrapped her arms around him. As she did so though, she caught a funny scent.
“Litvir attacked you…” Elksia stuttered as she let go of Retvik. Retvik though just blinked blankly.
“Retvik, are you alright?” Vikalos asked from the doorway. “You have been unresponsive for a while.”
Retvik blinked some more. He was very obviously confused. “Why am I in bed?”
Eksi pressed his hand to Retvik’s head again, then frowned. “Seems like you and Litvir had some sort of confrontation, but Litvir removed your memories of whatever happened…” Eksi turned to Elksia. “Can you use your time bullshit to see what happened?”
“Can’t you use your knowledge bullshit to to that?” Elksia snapped back.
“No, because there were only two people here, and Retvik can’t remember!”
Elksia snapped her beak a few times, then climbed off the bed and wandered around the room. She sniffed the air a few times, then waved her hands about, as if she was pulling a handful of strings. Elksia chirped twice, span around suddenly then turned back to Eksi and Retvik.
“So, uh, you guys had a pretty bad argument. I dunno the details though. Litvir made it all fuzzy. Something about him working for a Void Lord? And Litty got all angry and threatened Retty, realized he fucked up and… uh…”
Elksia glanced at the door. Vikalos was no longer standing there, he had moved to one side. In his place was the colossal form of Soulblade, one of the three Great Blades and leaders of the Phantai.
“Hello, Thantir. Do any of you know why Souldrainer has taken one of our ships, fled the system and is not responding to our hails?”
Soulblade’s statement immediately snapped Retvik back to reality.
“Litvir… ran away?” Retvik stuttered. There was no strength in his voice. He felt weak, he didn’t know where he was. Elksia sat down next to him and gave him a hug, but he remained dazed and confused.
“Seems like it…” Eksi frowned. “You two had an argument, he attacked you, realized he fucked up, was too scared to face the consequences and did a runner.”
“But… I… I… I wanted to talk to him… about a message I got from Arkay… One that made no sense…” Retvik looked around for his communicator, only to find that it was lying on the end of the bed by his feet. Elksia handed it to him and he opened it up, only to be even more confused. “There… there are no messages here…”
Soulblade stepped into the room, lifting his hand ever so slightly. The room briefly lit up in a dull purple light, before fading again.
“I’m not wrong, am I?” Eksi asked.
“You are worryingly correct, Soulsoother. I am not sure what the argument was about, but some of Souldrainer’s secrets had been revealed to Flamebearer, and clearly Souldrainer reacted aggressively in order to protect himself, then felt guilty about it all. I… I can relate. I admittedly erased a few of Telin’s and Phos’s memories, to hide the fact that I was once afflicted by a Voidborn’s temptations.”
Eksi, Elksia and Vikalos all eyed Soulblade.
“What?”
“Dude, you can’t just go and erase your partner’s memories!” Eksi exclaimed. “Even if Telin is a bit… Whatever. Elksia mentioned something about a Void Lord. Maybe Litvir picked up some sort of Voidborn thingy after we blew up that stupid ship, and only now it’s kicking in or something!”
“Kinda what happened to your butt-buddy, Soulblade!” Elksia unhelpfully added. “Telin got pretty fucked up by that Krohniak bastard! Still, mind-controlling your butt-buddies is kinda bad…”
“I am glad that neither Itaviir nor Galyn are Psions…” Vikalos muttered, then changed the subject. “Either way, we need to find Litvir before he harms himself. I assume, Psehon, you can track the ship Litvir took?”
Psehon crossed his arms and grunted. “Souldrainer seems to have disabled the tracker on the ship he stole. I have already sent out a squad to try and track him down. Thankfully, our smaller ships are not designed for long-distance travel, so Souldrainer can’t have gone too far.” Psehon turned to Retvik, who had gone completely silent. “Flamebearer, do you need anything?”
“I… I… I need some space… And I want to speak to Vikalos, privately.”
“Very well.”
Elksia patted Retvik on the back, then picked Eksi up and carried him out of the room. Psehon glanced at the two Flames, then followed, pulling the door shut behind him.
“What do you need, Retvik?” Vikalos asked.
Retvik swallowed nervously, then rubbed his eyes. “I… I… cannot… cope right now. First Arkay, now Litvir. Cannot…” With a desperate whimper, Retvik gazed up at Vikalos. “I need you three to take back the leadership of the Thantir…”
Vikalos sighed, then sat down on the bed next to Retvik. “We will keep things running for now, but please, try to stay strong. Do you want me to stay here with you, for a bit?”
“No, thank you. I… I need to be alone right now. Work out what I said, what I did wrong.”
“Very well,” Vikalos grunted as he got back up. “Do not spend too long here on your own though, because the pain will gnaw away at you. We will find Litvir. We will get through this. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“I will leave you to it. You know where to find me, if you want to talk.”
Retvik watched as Vikalos left, and waited until the door closed. After a brief moment to make sure that he was completely alone, Retvik put his head in his hands and started sobbing, unable to hide his heartbreak any longer.