“You are all healed up and good to go, my fluffy kitty friend!”
Orion pretended to not be annoyed as the tall, lanky, white-plated, fanged being gently patted him on the head. Yes, the Spiritguide did occasionally like to be stroked, but he found Letalis, also known as Spiritguard and one of the Healers, somewhat unnerving. And no, it wasn’t because their codenames were so similar.
“Come on, now, do not be patronising…” Ziital and Ralian, codenames Wanderer and Fireshield, the two “leader members” of the Travellers and the Healers, paused, realising they had said the same thing at the same time yet again.
“I am being patronising?” Letalis exclaimed. “I just want my fluffy kitty friend to be well! You Travellers thankfully rarely visit though! That is always good.”
“Yeah, yeah, either way, thanks for the heals, we’ve got work to do now…” Orion tried not to hiss, but since he was a large cat, that was a bit tricky. It didn’t help matters that Eta Carinae snatched Orion from Letalis’s hands and cuddled him tightly.
“We need ta get cheese toasties first!” Eta beamed with joy. “Gotta do of the celebrates! And the protects! And the rests! You got hurt, bestest friend ever!”
“We need to go back to that sector and mark it as unsafe, so that other people don’t-”
“Ahem!” Veeyel, the second smallest person present, interrupted. Something about Veeyel had always bothered Orion, and it wasn’t just because of Veeyel’s strange shadow-based healing powers, which had granted him the code name Darkhealer. “Eta is completely right, my dear. You don’t need to go back to that sector. Send a message to Deathven, let them deal with it. Your safety is more important.”
“It’s a whole sector filled with Corruption though!”
“Unfortunately, yes, but you going back there means you might just add to the Corruption. The Travellers are three people. Deathven is many. Let them deal with it.”
Ralian rolled his eyes. “Also, tell Deathven not to send the Athphorai again. We see them every ev lately. Tell Deathven to send the Monokton, the Triaflames or the Pentathax or one of those travelling Corruption purger sects. That is their job, after all.”
“Sees!” Eta pointed at Ralian. “He of the gets its! We are Travellers! Not purgers! They do the work.”
Orion rolled his eyes and relented. “Very well. Let’s get out of here.”
“And get some cheese toasties for Eta,” Ziital added. “We’ve neglected her for too long on that front. Thank you very much, Veeyel, Letalis and Ralian. Stay safe.”
“Same to you!” Veeyel smiled. “Don’t come back soon!”
Ziital seemed to smile as he led his fellow Travellers away. However, once the coast was clear, Ralian dropped his pleasant tone, crossed his arms and tutted.
“More damn Corruption.”
“Indeed…” Letalis also frowned as he put an arm around Ralian. They were both the same species, lingering members from a race known as the Teliavok, and they knew each other since before they became Decay Lords, since before they left their original universe. “Sure, we have had some small victories, but the Corruption itself is just… unending. Still, I am glad I got to pet our fluffy kitty friend again. There are few Decay Lords that let you pet them.”
“That is true. And I appreciate Ziital’s company. Eta is… a little too chaotic for my liking.”
Letalis shrugged. “She is fine, just excitable! However, I was picking up a lot of unease from Orion. And a small amount from Ziital. And not just because Orion got hurt. They were looking at us funny.”
“Well, you ARE funny…” Ralian grunted. Ralian was an above-standard example of a Teliavok, an armoured being with an elemental affinity and a pair of wings made from that element. In Ralian’s case, his element was fire, and he had two pairs of flaming wings on his back, as well as a mane of fire running down his neck, back and tail. Letalis on the other hand was considered odd, because he had feathery wings and a pair of fangs, despite his elemental affinity being psionics, not air or light or any other element that would produce feathers.
“I am not THAT weird! Not out here at least!” Letalis grunted back. “No, they were at unease because I think they saw beings like us elsewhere lately.”
“That IS possible!” Veeyel perked up. “The Teliavok are now an uplifted race. There’s not many of you, but surely some Teliavok have left our home pentacluster and gone exploring, same way you two did.”
“Actually, I think they were more confused by you, Veeyel…” Letalis sighed. “They saw someone or something similar to you, within the last year-string.”
Veeyel blinked in confusion. He was much shorter than his 2.8m tall companions. Not even reaching 2m tall. He was a similar shape though, and many had accused him of being a baby Teliavok. But Veeyel lacked wings. He’d lost his wings a long time ago, having cut them off himself to stop the spread of Corruption. Instead, Veeyel wrapped himself in strips of shadow, which protected his body from harm and could heal the wounds of others. “Something like me? But there are no other Skiavok. They’re all sealed inside my old pocket dimension. I made sure of that.”
“Well, that is what I picked up. Something about a missing being looking similar to us.”
“A… a missing?” Veeyel was still confused. “Do you mean THE Missing? The new hidden Trio that seems to just murder everything that threatens them?”
Letalis shrugged. “I heard they have a Psion and a Flame. And a Mimic.”
“I’m not a Mimic. I’m a Shade. Don’t you start on that too!” Veeyel growled a little. “I had enough problems with Deathven when we were made into a Hidden Trio. I don’t want repeats of that.”
Letalis waved his hand dismissively. “I am sure you are fine and they are fine. Armoured beings like us are insanely common out here, via both parallel evolution and Life Goddess influences. I think Vokaic beings are the fifth most common type of being after Voidborn-likes, Enclosed Elemental Entities, Enhanced Humanoids and Draconian beings.”
Ralian nodded in agreement. “Letalis is probably correct, the Travellers probably just saw beings recently that look like us. Either way, we ought to get ourselves cleaned up. Life’s Guardians are apparently coming by for a check up in a few hours.”
Veeyel calmed down, then went back to smiling. “Ah, good. I like chatting with them. Alright, let me take a decontamination shower, and I’ll be back in a moment.”
Letalis and Ralian waved as Veeyel disappeared through a nearby shadow.
“Is he alright?” Ralian asked.
“I do not know…” Letalis sighed. “I think he was just concerned about the Travellers though.”
“Very well. We ought to keep an eye on Veeyel though. Just in case.”
“Indeed. But I am sure he will be better soon. No one likes dealing with Corruption on a fluffy kitty…”