Theocydes froze in place as he entered The Shield and Stave, a small Decay Lord pub within the Ventra Expanse, and saw the being behind the bar. Vekeus, his fellow Adogtic Voidborn friend, bumped into Theocydes’s back, not expecting him to stop.
“Hello!” a friendly Decay Lord waved from the bar. “We don’t normally get pure silver Voidborns around here, unfortunately, we only allow cult-less ones in, standard procedure. You are cult-less, yes?”
Vekeus pushed past Theocydes and stepped into the pub properly. “Hello, Vick! I hope you don’t mind that I brought my friend. This is Theocydes, he’s an Adogtic guy from the Kinigian Wilderness, he’s moving into the Ventra Expanse to help me with my corruption purges! Theocydes, you going to, well, move, or something?”
Theocydes continued to not move. He stared at Vick, blinking erratically. The Decay Lord, clearly a former member of the Ventra due to the gold wing emblem he wore on his chest, waved again, then headed towards a nearby fridge under the counter, grabbing Vekeus’s standard order.
“Heya, Theocydes, always good to see another cult-less one! What can I get for you?”
“… Retvik?” Theocydes finally stuttered. “What… uh… um…”
Vick glanced at the confused Voidborn, then shrugged. “No one’s called me that in, well, an insanely long time.
“You are…” Theocydes paused, then inspected the Decay Lord some more. It was clearly a case of mistaken identity. Vick was a red and gold armoured organic being with stunning red eyes, but he was reasonably short by Decay Lord standards, standing at only 2.3m tall. “Uh… what is your codename, Decay Lord?”
Vick glanced at Theocydes again. “Why are you asking?”
“You, uh, remind me of someone…” Theocydes trailed off again, then followed Vekeus to the bar. Vekeus had already grabbed his drink and sat down. “I apologise. Mistaken identity, I guess.”
Vick shrugged some more. “It happens. My Decay Lord codename is Shieldbearer, by the way. What do you want to drink?”
Again, Theocydes stared at Vick. “You have got to be pulling my leg.”
“I’m not, I don’t have telekinesis. I take it you don’t want a drink?”
“He’ll have what I’m having!” Vekeus butted in. “Theocydes, stop it, you’re being your old, asshole self and you’re being rude.”
“I can’t help it!” Theocydes snapped. “This Decay Lord looks EXACTLY like a shorter version of the flaming bastard leader of the Thantir!”
Vick grabbed another can of fruity, fizzy, chemical drink, pulled out a couple of glasses and pushed them towards Vekeus and Theocydes, before helping himself to a large beer. “Alright, that’s the first time I’ve ever been compared to Firestorm. Met the guy once, found it weird how our names were similar, but I’m pretty sure he was some sort of fluffy armoured bear thing. I heard the Thantir split up anyway, Deathven cut them to pieces for blowing up a Voidborn cult or harbouring an amalgam or something.”
“I heard you old Ventra got on pretty well with the Thantir and the Metrum?” Vekeus asked.
“Yeah, they were fine. Fuck the Phantai and the Justar though, too… clique-y, I guess…” Vick glanced back at Theocydes, having already downed his beer and pouring himself another. “So you’re saying the Thantir are back?”
Theocydes tutted, then tried to calm himself down a bit. He opened up his drink and took a sip. “They never really went away. They recently blew up the Crystal Doom. And no, I am not referring to this Firestorm fellow. The Decay Lord I am referring to is called Retvik Rethianos, AKA Flamebearer. You look EXACTLY like him, except shorter and without a crafty Psion bitch hanging off him.”
Vekeus frowned. “Uh, Vick, isn’t your full name Retvikalios or something?”
“Retvikalios Rethianaious, yes. And this… Retvik guy is leading the Thantir now? Did they move into Voidborn eradication or something? I thought they were map-makers and Decayling gatherers or something.”
“HAH!” Theocydes laughed awkwardly. “No, amazingly, they do purification work now, alongside those little robot purifiers. They are stupidly dangerous though if you threaten them. As I found out myself.”
Vick seemed to smile. “Oh, Spiritpurger. They’re neat. Ain’t seem them in like 10 year-strings. Former Metrum, I think.”
“Are they the ones you mentioned that nearly got killed by Ahkron?” Vekeus turned to Theocydes.
“Yes…” Theocydes finally calmed down. “I apologise, Vick. I assume it is just… potential parallel timeline convergences, it seems like a LOT of the Golden Paradise Mothers went down… similar paths. Still, you do very much seem like a shorter, friendlier version of a very scary Decay Lord. Please do not tell me you have a purple Psion and a small, yellow child of a Life Goddess you spent time with.”
Vick blinked some more, then shook his head. “Don’t know anyone purple. Don’t really remember anything from my old universe though apart from some blue shapeshifter guy who helped me escape from Corruption… You don’t happen to have any pictures of this Retvik Flamebearer guy though? I ain’t ever heard of him, and I’m genuinely surprised that Firestorm and his two Beh’en boyfriends were willing to pass things on.”
Vekeus edged closer to Theocydes. “What’s a Beh’en?”
“They’re an uplifted race of big armoured bastards with natural plating like me, but way, way taller, and with blades in their arms and crowns of horns,” Vick explained, sipping his beer a bit more slowly now. It was late in the ‘day’ but the place was supposed to be open for a few more hours. “Most of the Phantai are Beh’ens, but a few of them joined the Ventra and the Metrum, and the other two, uh, former, I guess, Thantir leaders were Beh’ens as well. I’ve been mistaken for one a handful of times, but I’m not one, I don’t know what species I am.”
Theocydes nodded in agreement. “Galyn, the elder Decay Lord I fought when I first ran into the remains of the Thantir, I am sure he was a Beh’en. But Retvik and Litvir called themselves Rethavok, or Rethans, or something like that. I don’t know what in the name of the Eternal Darkness Arkay is, but he’s a smaller, similar shape.”
This time, Vick was the one to pause. “Rethavok? Huh. That sounds… vaguely familiar. Maybe I have heard of this Retvik guy before. I know I used to shorten my name to Retvik when I was, uh, inside my universe, but the Ventra shortened my name to Vick, I liked it more, so I kept it. But as far as I know, the handful of souls that the blue shapeshifter saved from my dead, corrupted universe, we all ended up losing our memories.”
Vekeus shrugged. “I know what that’s like. I don’t recall ANY of the time I spent as a bound Voidborn. Got out, got recruited by the Golden Protectors, immediately left because they were murderous assholes.”
“There’s a reason why I only let you cult-less folks in here!” Vick smiled some more. “Anyway, Theocydes, you’re going to be helping Vekeus here? Tell ya what, I’ll offer you the same deal I offered my metallic red Voidborn friend. Give me proof that you’ve finished some corruption-purging contracts from the locals, and I’ll give you free drinks.”
Theocydes snorted. “I appreciate the offer, but I genuinely, want to do this for pure, altruistic reasons. I have been a major asshole over the aeons, decided I should finally do some good for once.”
“Well, good to hear, mate!” Vick beamed. “You’re always welcome here, whenever you want. Here in the Ventra Expanse, we can always do with one more guy trying to improve, even if it’s a weird Voidborn like yourself.”
“I appreciate that,” Theocydes smiled back. “Cheers.”