“Arkay, you need to come with me right now!” Elkay ordered as he stormed over to his personal ship. Arkay reluctantly did as he was told and left his post, leaving the ship in the hands of his fellow Ksa, Eksi.
“Ser, what is going on? You all cut me and Eksi out of the comms loop for a moment…” Arkay asked, not sure what else to say.
The other Ksa flanking Elkay all went to explain, but Elkay quickly silenced them. “Something has requested your presence. Some being from another world, wanting to challenge the Dessaron. And a bunch of other beings that none of us are really aware of. They want you four to go alone through the portal this creature left in the centre of the Hall of Cooperation.”
A hint of panic flashed in Arkay’s eyes. “Alone? I… I only just got my job back and now you’re sending me through a portal to goodness knows where?”
“Yes. Photeianos has ordered that the other three be brought here, they should arrive in about seventeen hours. Thankfully Tenuk allowed us to give him a tracker when he got himself registered, so the scramble to gather you all isn’t too great. We’ll get you armoured up and send you through, with comms so you can hopefully keep in touch.”
Elkay noticed that Arkay had stopped paying attention. He was busy looking at anywhere but Elkay.
“Arkay. Look at me when I am talking to you!”
“I’m sorry…” the young Ksa apologised. “I am just… terrified…”
That was an unusual choice of words. It suddenly occurred to Elkay why his Ksa was acting like this.
“You won’t be gone long,” Elkay tried to soften the blow. “You’ll probably be back in no time.”
“And what if I’m not? What if time moves differently and I come back and a month has passed? What if I’m gone for another eleven years? What if… What if I don’t come back at all?”
“Are you scared of dying?”
Arkay hesitated. “No. I am not scared of dying. I’ve been… trained not to be. I am scared of spending another decade of being tortured, beaten and broken, with the chance of never seeing any of you ever again, after spending so long recovering from my previous decade of torture. I don’t want to be tortured! I don’t want to risk that! I don’t want to lose everything again!”
Elkay paused for a moment, before putting his arms around Arkay, hugging him tightly. “I understand, little brother. I really do. None of us want to lose you either. But this is-”
“For the good of the Retha…” Arkay interrupted, sighing. “I know. You know too. And you know I’ll go ahead and do this, no matter how much I hate it. Willingly. You don’t need to make me go.”
The Vice General let go of his Ksa, then patted him gently on the shoulder. “You’re a good kid, Arkay, and I’m sorry you’ve been dragged through all this.”
“It isn’t your fault, ser.”
“I know.”
They both fell silent again. Suddenly, Elkay perked up. “Teekay?”
“Yes, ser?” his oldest Ksa leaped up behind them. “What do you need?”
“Where is the nearest armoury store?”
“Two blocks south from here.”
Elkay grinned, walking off and dragging Arkay with him. “Come on, Ksa, let’s go get Arkay some new armour before he heads off later.”