As soon as Nyssi had read that sickening message, she knew she needed to urgently do something. Right that second. Without hesitation, she cancelled the date she’d planned with a random fan from her slowly growing gladiator fan club, she’d apologized to her team for bailing on going to the mall with them (although Retvik seemed somewhat glad about that, and Kayel and Tenuk went in Kayel’s little car instead) and Nyssi had immediately driven to the Great Dessaron Battle Arenas.
After parking in the staff area, Nyssi marched towards the administrative building, straight towards the head offices on the top floor. Much to Nyssi’s annoyance though, further entry was blocked by a single, old, grumpy Ksithan.
“The Raptor is busy right now…” Lokmah, a white, silver-maned secretary, grunted.
“I need to speak with her. In person. Urgently!” Nyssi demanded. She was normally not demanding. In fact, Nyssi considered herself very well-mannered. But this was important.
“She is busy…” Lokmah repeated himself, in a dull, monotonous voice.
“When will she be available to talk?” Nyssi asked. “This is genuinely something I really need to talk to her about. Right now, ideally!”
Lokmah looked Nyssi up and down with disdain. Being old and grumpy, he didn’t like Temthans. Most old Ksithans on Portalia disliked Temthans in general, and Nyssi knew exactly why. Which was why Nyssi needed to speak to the Raptor.
“She is busy…”
“When will she not be busy?”
With a tut, Lokmah glanced at his calendar. “Thirty minutes.”
“Can I wait here?”
Another look of disdain. “What is so important that you HAVE to speak to the Raptor right now?”
Nyssi leaned on the desk and snarled. “It has to do with the Raptor’s brutal, bloody past. Something only she as a semi-divine being and living terror among local Temthans would understand.”
Lokmah backed down, pointing at a handful of chairs behind Nyssi. “Very well. You may wait here.”
Nyssi turned around and looked at the chair, but didn’t use it. Instead, she decided to pace up and down for a bit. In her hurry to get out, she hadn’t really considered what she was going to say and how she was going to explain anything. All Nyssi knew was that the Raptor would be very angry. And possibly aggressive. In fact, there was a chance that the Raptor could lash out, but Nyssi didn’t think that she was in any danger. No, the message she received was way more threatening.
Thankfully, the Raptor turned up early. Whatever she had been doing, she had finished earlier than expected.
“Hello, Lord Phovos, Nyssi Tharru is here to speak to you about something urgent!” Lokmah immediately announced.
Just like Lokmah had, Phovos eyed Nyssi, but in a slightly less judgemental way. “Is something wrong, Nyssi?”
Nyssi nodded. “I hate to sound cliche, but I REALLY need to show you something. Specifically you, in private. An unwanted message.”
Sensing Nyssi’s tense mood, Phovos grunted, then led Nyssi into her office, closing the door behind her and making her way to her desk. Nyssi remained standing and swiftly pulled out her communicator, brought up the relevant message, then handed Phovos the device. Phovos read the message, steadily growing more and more concerned, before handing the communicator back to Nyssi.
“Well, dear, if I didn’t know you were blessed by both the Ice Wolf and the Life Serpent, I’d say that you’re one of the bravest Temthans alive.”
Nyssi snorted. “This isn’t about bravery. This is about doing the right thing. The Tharr are a stain on society and history. I need your help to make sure they don’t come back.”
“Understandable…” Phovos sighed. “Do you personally know who sent you the message?”
“No. No idea. The only members of the Tharr family I keep in touch with are my parents, and that’s only because they completely renounced that accursed mistake when they had me. They love me dearly, and I was the only egg of my clutch to even hatch and they never tried again. And it’s not like mum ever wanted to be part of it all, she was just trying to protect herself. I mean, you can’t help your parents, you know?”
Phovos nodded. “Unfortunately female Temthans had it rough during the worst of it. The question is, how many of these bastards are left and what do we do about it?”
Nyssi’s shoulders dropped as she sat herself down. “That’s the thing. That’s why I came to you. I got no idea what to do, and I certainly don’t have any real political power to do anything.”
“You have fame. Infamy even. Everyone knows who you are, even if they don’t know your true family history. It’s most likely whoever survived the purge of the Clan Unmourned knows that and wants to use you, get you to improve their image before they attempt to reclaim their undeserved power…” Phovos trailed off, thinking to herself. “I really, really hate to have to say this, but… you… need to go to this gathering. Find out what is going on, find out who is actually alive. Most of the top brass of the Tharr were executed, but, well, obviously, some of them survived.”
“I… I can’t…” Nyssi sighed. “I can’t be part of this.”
“We might not have a choice here, Nyssi. We cannot ignore this because we don’t know what this is. Maybe it’s an attempt to bring back the Tharr. Maybe it’s just a family gathering, someone like you, reaching out, or perhaps it’s a honeypot to catch anyone malicious. Maybe there’s a genuine desire here to make amends. This message you received, it’s far too ambiguous. Sure, we can just report this to Temthan authorities but-”
“We can’t report it to Ksithan authorities?” Nyssi interrupted. “Or even report it to other races? Like, Retvik knows a high up Rethan General guy and I’m pretty sure Kayel knows the All-Ksa’s main protection agent. We can’t take it to them?”
“It’s outside my jurisdiction, it’s outside Ksithan jurisdictions as well, and, as oddly friendly as that fanged Rethan is, it’s definitely outside of General Kuta’s jurisdiction, doubly so since General Kuta worked on interior affairs. This is a small Temthan gathering in Temthan territories, we have no power there. And we both know the Temthans won’t do anything until there’s any genuine danger. So we need to discover if there is a chance someone could get hurt, if there is any danger, before we do anything else. And the only way we can do that is if you go to this meeting.”
“Ugh…” Nyssi hated every single part of Phovos’s last statement, but she knew the Raptor was right. After all, Phovos was an ancient being, and she was pretty wise as well. “Alright, fine. I’ll go. But I want you to back me up. I want you to get me some cool spy gear stuff so I can record everything that goes on. And I want assurance that, should things go tits up, you’ll bail me out, you’ll tell everyone that you wanted me to spy on this meeting, that I want nothing to do with them. They’re called the Clan Unmourned for a fucking reason, and I want it to stay that way!”
Phovos nodded solemnly. “Of course, Nyssi, I will make sure that you are protected. I appreciate your willingness to go ahead with this, and I thank you for coming straight to me. Is there anything else you need?”
“Some reassurance that I’m not evil?”
“You are not evil in the slightest. You just have an unfortunate heritage, like the rest of Xeno Dessaron One…” Phovos paused. “I assume Kayel has strange parents as well?”
“He’s an orphan, he has no idea who his family is.”
“Oh…” Phovos trailed off again. “Either way, no, Nyssi, you are not evil. You’re a good soul. And that’s coming from someone who has accumulated a lot of blood on her hands over the years. If you weren’t a good person, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”
Nyssi sighed, then got up and made her way to the door. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“No worries!” Phovos smiled as she also got up. “I’ll call you on Tuesday and we’ll go from there, alright?”
“Yeah, sure. Have a good day, miss Phovos…”
“You too, Nyssi. Try and stay calm. We’ll sort this out.”
“I’ll try.”