“I thought Arkay and Big Retvik were coming too…” Nyssi tutted to herself as she and Ret wandered around the nice oasis.
“Apparently they are just running late?” Ret offered an explanation. “They are doing strange things out there, as far as we have been told.”
“Oh, probably.”
Sini’s Oasis, which weirdly didn’t have an official name yet, was oddly large, and Ret and Nyssi had been unsure why at first. But as they wondered round a jungle paradise, with white stone paths cutting through the thick flora, it certainly was a beautiful and alluring location. The centre of the island was the main bar and food area, with a body of water wrapped around it and little bridges allowing access to the other areas, mainly a handful of tiny studio homes for temporary rental, plus seven houses, all in different sizes. Nyssi had learned that the homes were for both Sini and her six guardians.
In fact, Nyssi had learned a lot about those guardians. Mostly about Fragiir, the colossal Temthan guardian. Nyssi hadn’t seen a fellow Temthan in a long time, and the only reason why she was walking around with Ret currently was because she was both horny and uncertain about things. Doubly so because Fragiir clearly liked Nyssi back. And because Nyssi didn’t really know what to do with her emotions (because her telepathy was making things worse), she’d asked Ret to just walk around with her, to help her clear her head.
Luckily, it seemed the Thantir weren’t the only guests, doubly so as two ships arrived at the same time. One of them was the Deathly Soulflame, Arkay’s new ship, and Ret and Nyssi heard quite a few cheers as Arkay rushed out to greet his sister. The other ship though was a fancy vessel with the word “blade” in its name, clearly suggesting that it was a Phantai ship. When out of it stood a colossal white and silver Beh’evok and three slightly smaller Beh’ens, Nyssi worked out that Lightblade, one of the Phantai leaders, had come to visit.
However, it seemed that a few folks outside the area had turned up. A trio of Life Goddesses abruptly arrived and started looking around, and the commotion had attracted a couple of Time Drakes who had been passing through the sector. There was also a Decay Lord ship that looked oddly boxy, similar in appearance to Shield Six, and a couple of Lanex-looking beings had stepped out of it.
With all these strange beings around, Ret was mostly on edge, and Nyssi could really tell, but Sini’s guardians were patrolling the area, and Sini had specifically said to Ret for him to relax and have a look around, so that was what Ret was doing.
“You feeling better, Ret?” Nyssi asked as they wandered around some more, towards the edge of the oasis. Just like Savepoint, the oasis was a rocky island, and it did have a few edges that dropped away. However, Sini had clearly thought ahead, and all around the edge of the island, she had put strange bushes with flowers on them that glowed pink and red, warning people that the edge wasn’t the safest place around. That being said, Nyssi was curious, and the fact that she could see different glows in the void made her curious.
Ret wasn’t really paying attention, he was too busy looking at the pretty plants, but as he and Nyssi approached the very edge of the oasis, a beep distracted him.
“What was that?” Nyssi asked.
“My… my…” Retvik glanced at his wristband, then pulled his communicator out from a pocket on his stomach wrap.
“You got notifications turned on for Wyvern? I turned mine off because the Skyans keep on spamming the Thantir group chat.”
“I… I have mine set to allow notifications from you three and Kuta…” Ret paused, then inspected his communicator some more. He went through the app though and realised that he had no new messages at all, not even server ones. He then closed the app and went back to the main menu, before tapping on a different one. “That… was not a Wyvern notification…”
“It… wasn’t? Also, you kept all our stupid mortal apps?”
Ret grunted. “I only had a few… Wait…”
Inspecting his communicator again, Ret finally worked out where the notification had come from. He very hesitantly opened up an old app by the name of General Talks. He found the notification. He’d received a single message. One that was worryingly old.
Relkir-Rethianos-116903: I miss you, Retvik. It pains me that you are gone. If only you were still around to witness the tattered but renewed universe that you died to protect. I am sorry, big sibling. I hope you sleep well.
“Wait… did you just get that message?” Nyssi asked.
“I… I think so? It is dated… uh…” Ret was clearly confused again. Admittedly, Ret spent most of his time these days feeling confused. “Fourth of the Twelfth, 2024… The whole… bad thing happened in November, yes?”
“Yeah. So that message was sent AFTER we all ended up out here? And you only just got it?”
Ret read the message a few more times, feeling genuinely saddened now. “Yes, so it seems.”
“Huh…” Nyssi thought for a moment, then gazed off into the void. There was a faint glow that looked somewhat familiar. Almost like a large, foggy area with smaller lights in it, in the far distance.
Ret stared at his communicator a bit more. “I… I want to reply and tell Relkir I am alive. But I assume I cannot.”
“Actually…” Nyssi suddenly put things together. “I think Sini built her oasis here, because she wanted to be close to her old universe. She wants to keep an eye on it from a distance, and maybe protect it from here! And I think that we’re JUST close enough that you managed to pick something up.”
“So… I… I might be able to reply to Relkir and tell them I am alive?”
Nyssi nodded, but quickly paused. “Um… Maybe. But… We should work out what to say together. Because you’ll completely freak Relkir out if we’re not careful.”
“Oh… So… Nyssi… what should I say to my little sibling?” Ret asked as he gazed out into the void.
“Hm… Let’s have a good think about it… Gotta get this right…”