Phovoula Tromeros, Phovos for short, but often just referred to as the Raptor, had a lot of duties. Being the manager of the Great Dessaron Battle Arenas, she was a very busy being. Normally, she could use that as an excuse to get out of less fun meetings that required Phovos to dress up, but the God of Death Himself had requested that Phovos attend this small mixed-species party, celebrating some sort of new cooperation effort between the Skyavok, Banikans, Rethavok and Ksithans, Phovos’s own species, with the goal of creating an early warning system for angry or rogue deities. Since Phovos ran a massive, multi-species organization, she was deemed an appropriate guest to this party. To make herself feel a tad more comfortable, Phovos had forced Xeno Dessaron One, her favourite team of House Fighters, to attend, but it turned out the God of Death had invited them anyway.
The problem was, the party was not casual. It wasn’t completely fancy, but everyone was wearing nice clothes. Which meant that Phovos had been forced to wear a dress, brush out her long, tattered mane and put on her horn prosthetic, to cover up her broken left horn. To be contrary, Phovos had painted her claws bright orange and put on matching bright orange earrings, but much to her dismay, the God of Death had said that he really liked her orange claws.
And, of course, being a party, that meant Phovos had to talk to people. There were quite a lot of people here. The venue was a Banikan banquet hall, mostly because there were ten Banikan guests, but that meant there was ample space for the eight Rethavok guests as well. Both Ksithans and Skyavok rarely reached over 1.9m in height, and they seemed quite small but they did also outnumber the larger guests.
Out of all of them, really, it was the lone Temthan guest that stuck out, but Nyssi, one of the members of Xeno Dessaron One, was quite happily chatting away with a couple of Ksithan politicians, despite the fact that Temthans and Ksithans didn’t always get along. They seemed to be admiring each others’ long dresses and fangs. Oddly, she also spotted Retvik having a friendly conversation with a blue and yellow-plated Rethan with a silver band around their left arm. Being an exile, Retvik rarely spoke to other Rethans, so it pleased Phovos that the outsider seemed to be making friends. Phovos noticed that all the Rethans present were wearing capes, not just the oddly short Rethan in black armour, and that Retvik looked insanely good in the dark red cape he was wearing.
Also in the crowd was Kayel, who, like all the Skyavok present, was wrapped up in black fabric. Skyavok were often brightly coloured beings (and Kayel, having bright yellow plating, was no exception) but their fancy clothing was always the same. Black hoods, black sleeves, a black stomach wrap and black loincloth and black socks, all generally with a small, coloured pattern. Kayel’s clothing was dotted with small, white stars, but the other Skyavok were wearing coloured stripes and one of them had a mini rainbow pattern on their arm and leg wraps.
Phovos had lost track of where Tenuk had gone, up until she spotted a pale blue Ksithan wandering around. Pale blue was an impossible colour for a Ksithan, they either came in white or dark blue, not pale blue, so Phovos assumed that was what the shapeshifting Spast was disguised as. But no, it turned out that she was wrong, as she saw Tenuk standing around with a couple of Banikans, shapeshifted into a dark blue Banikan with silver stripes down his back, impressing them with his ability to spit fire and asking them about their language.
The most obvious guest though was Arkay, the God of Death. The Ksithans always called him the Ice Wolf, despite Arkay not being icy or wolf-like at all. The name was an ancient one, back before Arkay had made himself more apparent to mortals. Currently, the Thantophor was in the shape of a yellow-plated Skyavok, but he was wearing a cross between Skyavok wraps and Rethavok armour, quite happily wandering around and chatting with pretty much everyone he came across.
The pale blue Ksithan though was somehow more surprising. And hideously attractive. Phovos rarely found other beings to be attractive, but no, that Ksithan was definitely alluring to her. However, Phovos seemed to have been the only person to have noticed this Ksithan. She decided to keep an eye on them as she wandered off to get a drink.
As Phovos approached the self-serve bar though, she realized she wasn’t paying attention, and had nearly bumped into a dark skinned Rethavok with bright white plating. Phovos quickly apologized, then turned to face the Rethan properly.
“Hello, dear Raptor!” the Rethan smiled. “You seem… flummoxed today.”
“Have we met?” Phovos immediately asked. Normally, Phovos didn’t have a problem with Rethans, but this one bothered her. They seemed somewhat short (still over half a meter taller than Phovos though) but it was the pair of overly long fangs that bothered her the most.
“We have not, no!” the Rethan smiled some more as they held out their hand. “My name is Kuta Tieridos, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Phovos hesitated, then shook Kuta’s hand. “I am Phovoula Tromeros, but you may call me Phovos…” Phovos paused. She spotted the gold band around Kuta’s left arm. “You are a General?”
“Indeed. I run the newly founded Legion of Deitic Affairs and am admittedly part of the reason why you were dragged into this party you clearly do not want to be at.”
Kuta continued to smile as they grabbed themselves a drink, something non-alcoholic. That didn’t surprise Phovos, most Rethavok didn’t drink much. However, most Rethans were also bad at judging the emotions of non-Rethans, so the way Kuta had called Phovos out bothered her even more. Something about Kuta didn’t seem right. There was a scent about this Rethan that Phovos had picked up before. One she carried herself, and that she had sensed on her favourite House Fighters.
“You have Akairon Healing…” Phovos stuttered.
Kuta tilted their head to one side. “What is that?”
“You heal. Too quickly. And you are old yet young. You straddle the line between mortality and immortality.”
“I know I just called you out on your reluctance at being here, but I would prefer it if you did not call me out on much more delicate matters…” Kuta lowered their voice. “And I appreciate you not calling me old. I am 100 years old, well within the bounds of a normal Rethan life expectancy, so I do not know if I am immortal or not.”
“Oh, you are. I can smell it on you. A slightly different scent, not the same blessing I smell on my treasured fighters, but that scent is there, and it is… oddly foreign.”
Kuta grunted, sipping their drink. “I admit my knowledge on Ksithans is spotty. You are… odd when it comes the sense of smell. More acute than that of Temthans. But still…”
Phovos smiled weakly. “First time among Ksithans? And first time visiting somewhere more multicultural?”
“First time among multiple Ksithans, but this is in fact my second visit to Palaestra. It is a fine city.”
“It is…” Phovos nodded, settling down somewhat. “A lot of good folks here. So how did you get your job?”
“Do you want the official answer or the more truthful answer?”
“Both.”
Kuta went back to smiling, but leaned closer to Phovos. “The official answer is that I am well-equipped when it comes to communicating with other races, as I am the former General of Hidden Affairs and occasionally had to work alongside both the General of External Affairs and the secret services of other members of the Twelve. The more truthful answer is that I am the poten-partner of the Thantophor, who, traditionally, is only willing to date immortal entities. Who better to run a Legion dedicated to keeping an eye out for angry deities than someone who is dating one?”
“So you are actually immortal?”
“As far as I am aware, yes.”
Phovos tutted. “Welcome to the club. You are a tenth of my age, it only gets worse as everyone else dies. At least you have someone to keep you company…” Phovos trailed off, her eyes drawn elsewhere. That pale blue Ksithan drifted by. Kuta seemed to have noticed them as well. The Ksithan glanced at Phovos, smiled, then walked right up to the Thantophor and had a quick conversation with him, before wandering off again, making sure to walk past Phovos then disappear into the crowd once more.
“Do you know that Ksithan?” Kuta asked.
“I don’t.”
“He seems to like you.”
Phovos glanced at Kuta. “You think?”
“Us Rethans are notorious for not picking up on subtle emotions, but that Ksithan is not being subtle in the slightest…” Kuta paused, then grinned, showing off those irksome fangs. “You should go and speak to him.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Good point…” Phovos grabbed herself a fresh drink, a glass of cloudy lemonade, then turned to leave. “It was nice meeting you, General Kuta.”
Kuta bowed. “It has been a pleasure, Kyr Phovos. Good luck.”
Phovos tutted, then headed off, into the crowd. Hopefully, that Ksithan hadn’t gone too far…