“So, are we the same person?”
“No.”
“Kind of?”
The three Retviks were sitting at a table in Vick’s bar. They’d been sitting there for a little too long, not really sure what to say to each other. Vick felt weirdly angry and uncertain, but that might have been because he’d been recently beaten up by three Voidborns.
“You both gave me different answers.”
Retvik grunted. “We just share a name. We all lived different lives.”
“Do we all have the same parents?” Vick asked.
“No.”
“Apparently not.”
Vick grunted, then eyed Retvik. “You seem to be taking this worse than I am. And I’m currently an achy old guy who’s pissed off that some Voidborns trashed my beloved little pub.”
“I think I know what the problem is!” Ret was doing his best to be kind and friendly, even though he was well aware that he was the newest and youngest Retvik present. “Fiery Retvik here is envious of your life.”
“But… I don’t remember my mortal life?” Vick groaned. “I just woke up in a pod, the Ventra found me and got me to Lordhood, then I made this pub after the Ventra split!”
“You… do not remember anything?” Ret exclaimed. “Nothing at all? Letharus has telepathy, maybe he could help?”
Vick sighed. “I don’t want to remember. I know bad stuffed happened. I don’t want to know what those bad things were.”
“That… that makes sense. It is not good to carry bad thoughts around. I am sorry asking.”
“Nah, it’s fine…” Vick then turned to Ret. “I take it, since you also shortened your name, you’re working for the Hidden Trio member here.”
Ret nodded. “I do work with fiery Retvik, yes.”
“You seem much more tame.”
“Are you suggesting I am aggressive?” Retvik grunted.
“Not at all, but you’ve got that air of authority about you. You’re on top of all of us by name alone.”
Retvik frowned. “Well, I try not to be. I make sure every member of the Thantir gets what I get, and try to be as equal as possible.”
“But you’re not an eradicator sect? You in particular, you look like you are.”
Ret smiled a little. “Normally Retvik sends me and my little team to do those corruption purge things. That is fine though. I am a good leader for teams of four, but a bad leader for any more people than that.”
Again, Vick turned back to Ret. “You also seem both very young and a little slow.”
“I am a little. But I recently turned 52. Well, maybe not… At least, I was 52 when I got dragged out of my universe and became a Decayling.”
“Are you a Decay Lord now?”
“I am, yes!” Ret smiled some more. “And yes, I am much tamer than Retvik is. We both lived very different lives. Do you remember anything from your universe?”
Vick shook his head. “No, not really. I know I was married, I know I had a kid and I assume I had a military job, but aside from those things and the blue bastard shoving me into a pod and firing me off into space, my memory is pretty dim and bleak. Especially since I am certain my wife and kid are dead.”
“I am sorry…” Ret muttered. But Vick perked up a little and patted Ret on the shoulder.
“It’s fine.”
“I too am sorry,” Retvik apologised as well. “I understand what it is like, losing a partner.”
“I just said, it’s fine. You don’t mean any harm, and I’ve since moved on from my losses. I mean, I found myself a hot purple and white plated anti-goth girlfriend. Having Letharus around here has been great…” Vick paused for a moment, then glanced at Retvik. “Letharus mentions someone called Litvir a lot. That’s your partner, right? Souldrainer? Is he also an armoured Psion?”
“He is, yes.”
“What colour, out of curiosity?”
“Purple and black mostly.”
“With fangs?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. Neat. Little Retvik, do you have a partner?”
Ret nodded. “My poten-partner is called Kuta. But Kuta has white plating and is Litvir’s non-identical twin sibling. It is… a weird story that makes no sense.”
Vick glanced at Retvik.
“Poten-partner is a potential partner. Ret here lived in a small universe where almost all Rethans were gender-neutral and called themselves ‘they’, so they have a few alternate words.”
“But… what about this Kuta fellow?”
“As far as we can tell, Kuta somewhat got trapped inside Ret’s universe.”
“Huh…” Vick was somewhat intrigued. “Well, at least we all got a cute telepathic girlfriend. I assume though, Retvik, as you’re from a Hidden Named Trio, you have a third person hanging around, right? Who is Deathbringer? I assume they’re…” Vick suddenly paused. “Okay I want to clear something up. Is a Rethan different from a Standard-type Retha? Because the Retha had different types, and your little friend Kaytee is a Threan-type.”
“As far as I can tell, the Retha were a collection of subspecies that came in different sizes. Ret and I are Rethavok, but we are not quite the same. Old-universe Rethavok like myself are taller, smarter and more articulate, but new-universe Rethavok are shorter, more muscular and have stronger plating.”
“If you two fought, right now, who would win?”
Retvik grunted. “That is a silly question.”
“Me, probably. Are we talking with or without powers?” Ret playfully asked. “I have been a gladiator for a long time, and big fiery Retvik here is nearly 90.”
“Ret?” Retvik grunted.
“What?”
“Shut up.”
Vick smiled a little. “Seems like new-universe Rethans like Ret here are also less stuck up. But I do have a question…” Vick pointed to Kaytee, who could just about be seen outside, doing repairs on Vick’s ship. “I assume the little guy has more info, but I also assume that we lived similar lives, since, personality-wise and looks-wise, we are quite similar.”
“Not really, actually!” Ret tried to explain. “My three friends, Tanos, Nyssi, Kayel and I just got insanely lucky and died at the wrong time and somehow became unkillable. Retvik though, he had a team that fought a big scary time dragon, and Arkay pretended to be a mortal to help them.”
Vick suddenly stopped speaking, then blinked. “I… I know that name from somewhere.”
“Which name?”
“Arkay. That… uh… I… I vaguely remember a second kid. Adopted, not my own. But he was murdered. That was his name.”
Ret glanced at Retvik. Retvik immediately silently told Ret to not say anything. Thankfully, Letharus and Kaytee had arrived just in time.
“Hey, are you guys actually going to help?” Kaytee tutted.
“Sorry, Kaytee!” Ret replied as he stood up. “We got sidetracked. For obvious reasons.”
Vick went back to smiling. “Yeah, we do have a lot to do, and I do appreciate your help. We can talk about this insanity as we work.”
“Fair enough. Where do you want us to start, Vick?”
“If one of you can help me move all the debris so I can start rebuild my door, that’d be great.”
“Alright. Let us get going…”