Normally, other Veth remained far, far away from Arkay’s cage. The angry monster would always leap up at them, threatening them with claws and violence. Every Veth knew that the Veth Prime wasn’t to blame though. Outside of his missions on the mortal plane, he was treated far worse than they were, regularly drugged, beaten and tortured.
Kannak, a relatively young Veth in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t a normal Veth. He had been the newest Veth around Kinigi before Arkay turned up, and while his change hadn’t been nearly as bad as the Veth Prime’s, he could at least relate to him. Plus, Arkay was drugged right now.
“I brought you something to eat,” Kannak waved as he cautiously approached the cage.
“Do we even need to eat?” Arkay growled. “I have had things forced down my gullet, but we don’t even have internal organs. Just some sort of molten mass.”
Kannak shrugged. He didn’t know. He barely remembered who he was before he became a Veth, despite only being a decade ago. “I dunno, but it’s nice to feel something different in your mouth, right?”
Arkay reached through the bars of his cage and prodded the corpse. He had no idea what it was, but it felt glutinous and jelly-like. “What is it?”
Again Kannak shrugged. “Sometimes some creatures just wander in. You know, shit that passes through planes and stuff. Death says to kill anything that isn’t supposed to be here, and we often just eat it because why not? We have stomachs of molten iron, not like it can hurt us. Go on, you could… do with a change.”
Arkay glanced at the thing, then pulled off a lump and ate it. Tasted weirdly sweet.
“Well… Thank you, I guess…” Arkay sighed. “I am sorry for constantly attacking you. I just… can’t control my rage. I am so angry, so jilted, so… betrayed…”
“Don’t blame you. Some of the older Veth said that Death took you too soon. I mean, I just kinda ended up here. Some nobody. Living a somewhat boring life. Thought being a Veth was what happened to everyone until She explained it to me. She promised you what? Half a century?”
“Twenty five years…” Arkay grunted. “I don’t think I will ever get over it…”
“You will. It’s not been long. I mean, I did. Don’t think there is a Veth who hasn’t.”
Arkay reached out for another piece of flesh, tore it off and ate it in one go. He didn’t know how long he would be there before Death either punished him some more or sent him out on another mission. Wasn’t like he failed his last one, it was just that the mortal race didn’t need his help, they managed to fend off both the Acolytes and the Disciples on their own.
“So what did you do for Her to hang you out here in the open?” Kannak asked.
“I don’t know. Normally I do. I sometimes piss Her off on purpose. This time, I don’t know…” Arkay skulked to the back of his cage. “Probably deserved it. Way I see it, I clearly did something in my brief life to deserve all this.”
“Guess you’re one of those types. Angry at yourself.”
“Angry doesn’t even begin to cover it. You have no idea. You though, why are you here?”
Kannak shrugged yet again. Arkay kinda liked him, he had been a lot nicer than other Veth.
“Just wanted to bring you some news. I saw the big Veth pick someone up off the shore earlier. Took them to the normal place. But I didn’t see the same equipment that She used on you. New stuff, kinda like what She used on me but nicer and smoother.”
“You think Death is making a new Veth?” Arkay blinked. “To replace me already?”
“I don’t know. But if She wanted to replace you, She would let you out of your cage. I think She just wants to work on a new version, since She thinks your V7 form is a failure. This being though, they were skinny. We always called them Sapens. I heard one Veth call it a Thrope though…”
Arkay sat upright in surprise. “A Thrope turned into a Veth? That will be interesting…”
Kannak shrugged one last time, then pushed the coprse closer to Arkay’s cage and turned to leave. “Well, interesting times are ahead. Maybe we’ll all get something good out of this…”