No matter what Retvik did, he couldn’t cool himself down. He’d turned off the flames that rippled up his body, he’d spent a good fifteen minutes standing in the shower, he’d even stuck his head (and partially melted) the freezer in a bid to lower his internal body temperature, but no, Retvik was still sweating. Frankly, the amount of sweat that was running off Retvik made no sense. Did Retvik even have that much water in him?
Retvik pulled himself out of the bathroom and made his way to the bedroom, where Litvir was twitching, but was otherwise asleep. Admittedly, Retvik was slightly envious that Litvir was asleep, Retvik had been unable to sleep for a while and had spent hours just tossing and turning. Really they both needed to speak to a medic. But making his way down a level, onto the main level of the ship, past all the Phantai soldiers and his fellow Thantir, while looking as ill as Retvik did, that would have also made Retvik feel weak. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what others would think, if they saw Litvir the way he was. They were Rethavok. They couldn’t look weak. Honour, strength and respect above all.
Still, they both really, really needed to see a medic. Retvik would just have to swallow his pride.
With a sigh, Retvik made his way back to the bed and nudged Litvir to wake him up. However, Litvir didn’t move. Retvik nudged Litvir again. He still didn’t move. He was worryingly unresponsive. He was breathing, his heart was beating, but Litvir wasn’t waking up.
Retvik didn’t really know what to do. He adjusted Litvir so that he was lying in the recovery position, then picked up his communicator. It occurred to Retvik that he had no idea how to contact the medical bays on the main level. So he decided to quickly call someone who did know. It took a little too long for Retvik to use his communicator, because he was sweating so much.
“Hello, Galyn, are you busy?”
“Not particularly busy, no. Are you feeling better?”
“No. I feel much worse. And I cannot wake Litvir up. I do not think I have the strength to carry him down to the medical bays.”
“That is not good. Give me ten seconds.”
Galyn could be heard talking to someone, then closed the connection. After exactly ten seconds, there was a knock on the door. Retvik blinked, then picked himself up and went over to answer it. Standing in the doorway were Galyn and Teekay, one of the Thantir Decaylings. Clearly Galyn had asked Teekay to teleport them both to Retvik and Litvir’s quarters.
The elder Decay Lord grunted as he looked Retvik up and down, then placed a hand on Retvik’s cheek.
“You look absolutely awful. You have a fever.”
“Yes, I gathered.”
“You also have some swelling on your neck. You may have some inflamed lymph nodes, or possibly an autoimmune illness. We should probably get you to a medic.”
“Again, I guessed as much.”
“How is Litvir?”
Retvik sighed and moved to one side. Galyn stopped looking at Retvik and glanced past him, then made his way into their quarters, straight to where Litvir was lying. Retvik and Teekay both came back into the main bedroom, with Retvik closing the door behind them.
Just like he had done with Retvik, he checked Litvir’s temperature, then pressed his hand against Litvir’s neck, noticing the similar swelling.
“Teekay, may I ask you a question?” Galyn almost randomly asked.
“Yeah, sure, boss.”
“How is Eksi doing, currently?”
“Uh, he’s completely fine. Why do you ask?”
Galyn inspected Litvir once more. He opened Litvir’s mouth, being careful to avoid his fangs, to inspect Litvir’s airways and make sure they weren’t blocked, before checking other lymph-node-prone areas, mostly under Litvir’s armpits and on his inner thighs. However, only the lymph nodes on Litvir’s neck were swollen, the same way they were on Retvik.
“Eksi is not ill?” Galyn asked.
“No, Eksi’s been a bit of a bitch the last few days, but he’s not got a fever or anything. I’m fine and Elkay is fine as well.”
“How about Elksia?”
Teekay tilted his head to one side, looking confused. “Why are you asking about Elksia?”
“Considering how Retvik and Litvir are both ill, I was wondering whether Elksia and Eksi were both ill as well, as all four of them were not made directly into deities by a Life Goddess the same way you former Divine Guardians were.”
“Yeah, no boss, Eksi’s fine and Elksia’s bouncier than ever now that Tenuk’s wandering around shapeshifted into a Vrekan.”
Galyn turned back to Retvik, who now looked even more uneasy and had sat himself down on the bed to steady himself.
“Retvik, have you spoken to Arkay lately?”
“I have not, no. All Litvir and I have done over the last few days is sleep, drink vast amounts of water and occasionally throw up. The last time we spoke to Arkay, he seemed fine.”
“Hm. Well, I cannot think of anything off the top of my head that would only affect you two. But Litvir requires medical attention right now.”
In an admittedly rather impressive and smooth motion, Galyn scooped Litvir up off the bed and carried him in his arms. Galyn then made his way over to Retvik and nodded for Teekay to come close as well.
“Do you need to be carried too, Retvik?”
Retvik shook his head, already feeling both weak and embarrassed. “I am fine.”
“Alright. Please stand up and put your hand on my shoulder. Teekay, can you teleport us all to the medical bays please?”
Teekay briefly waggled his fingers around, leaving a small trail of sparks as he did so, before nodding. He then grabbed Retvik’s hand and made a tutting sound. Immediately, everything flashed orange and white, and the four of them appeared in the quieter waiting rooms of the medical bays. Standing there waiting for them were Vikalos and Mediblade, the head medical member of the Phantai.
“You probably should have come here sooner, dears!” Vikalos exclaimed as he let Retvik lean on him. Mediblade nodded in agreement, then led the Decay Lords down to an area at the end of the main hallway, leaving Teekay behind. Along the way, three other medics joined them. This new area had been separated from the rest of the hospital area by both plastic sheets and weird, vertical, dull metal panels. Inside, two beds and two sets of IVs and medical equipment had already been set up.
“Did you… prepare this in advance?” Retvik grumbled as he was sat down on one bed.
Since Retvik was still conscious and moving, the elder Decay Lords focused on getting Litvir sorted out first, and they immediately hooked him up on a drip, feeding him fluids since he was clearly dehydrated. Much to everyone’s relief, Litvir was at least stable, even though he was still unconscious. While Galyn, Mediblade and two of the other medics tended to Litvir, the last medic made their way to Retvik’s side, forcing him to lie down.
“Of course we did, as soon as Leafblade messaged us. You have been ill for a few days, Flamebearer. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”
The medic inserted a tube into Retvik’s arm, just above the hardened skin where his forearm plating used to be. Retvik didn’t like other beings seeing his missing plating, which he normally hid with his flames.
“Do you have a name?” Retvik asked. He wanted distractions. Because he could see the other medics all dealing with Litvir and he was very concerned. Vikalos was right, Retvik should have insisted that he and Litvir come to the medical bays days ago.
“I do! I’m Nurseblade, my colleagues are Cauterblade and Happyblade. We’ll get you back on your feet in no time, little Flamebearer.”
Retvik hesitated and considered making a mean comment about how the Phantai had clearly run out of code names for their members, but decided against it. Instead, he decided to ask something else. Something a tad more important, considering his and Litvir’s failing health.
“Do you know what is wrong with us?”
Nurseblade looked Retvik up and down. “We have an idea of what is wrong but we don’t know the true cause yet.”
“What is the problem?”
The medic hesitated, before setting up up a heart monitor and a myriad of other medicinal, mechanical devices. Retvik decided to ask his question again.
“What is wrong with us?”
“You, uh, have low levels of acute radiation poisoning. But don’t worry, we just need to find the source, then we can treat you, reduce the symptoms and you’ll be all dandy! Alright?”
Retvik blinked, then chose to not ask any more questions and instead let the medics get to work.