“I believe we are in the clear, at least for now…”
Underneath the vast buildings that made up the cornerstone of Rethan society, there were a vast number of tunnels and sewers, designed to provide shelter and safety in case of emergencies. Despite all that had happened though in the last few hours, the majority of these tunnels were empty, but Rethan soldiers were patrolling, looking for runaways and escapees, unlucky Rethans that were not yet under the influence of the Voidborn.
Rethais sighed to himself as he tried to tend to his wounds. While the gunshot wound was somewhat shallow and mostly harmless, Rethais was somewhat certain that he would bleed to death if he did not seal the large stab wound through his stomach in time.
Accompanying Rethais was the only person he could trust right now, his brother Retvik. Retvik wasn’t doing much better. While he hadn’t been recently stabbed and shot like Rethais had, Retvik was just recently recovering from a variety of other injuries, physical and mental. But thankfully Retvik had put that all to one side and saved Rethais from certain death at the hands of an angry deity.
“How long do you think we have?” Rethais grumbled, his wounds mostly numb now. Crude stitches were keeping his guts inside his body, but infection risks were high, as was potential internal bleeding.
“We are down rather deep, it will take time for a potential patrol to reach us. We have at least twenty minutes to rest, but after that… well, I am not sure where we can go. I have not heard anything from anyvok.”
Neither Rethan was feeling positive. While they had both escaped from the clutches of the Voidlord, a single slip up would ruin them both. Well, ruin them further.
After checking his stitches, Rethais slumped against the concrete wall. The pain was beginning to get to him. Retvik noticed that his brother was in pain and sat down next to him, pulling a small tub from his belt pouch, sighing then putting it back.
“I apologize. I thought I had brought pain killers.”
“It is fine, brother. You have done all you can and more. But I will be blunt, I do not think we will make it out of these tunnels alive. And even if we did, there is nowhere we can go. I am almost certain that travel off this planet is impossible, with the Voidlord controlling every aspect of society… And everyone… wanting me dead…”
Retvik hesitated, not sure what to say. It was true, things were incredibly dire. The Voidlord’s takeover of Rethan society had been so sudden and expected that neither of them knew what to do.
“Do you wish to… stay here and… die?”
“I have been considering that, yes. I am in quite a lot of pain right now and we are in a rather horrible situation…” Rethais trailed off, a vague attempt to hide his true emotions. “I cannot believe… how much I have… ruined everything…”
“You are not blaming yourself, are you? Because no one could know…”
“I knew. The gods told me. I did not act.”
“There was no way you could have fought back!” Retvik argued. “You did everything you could! We are fighting against a being as old as this universe!”
“I… I should have just bowed down to the Voidlord…” Rethais sighed, pressing his hands to his stomach to try and alleviate his pain. “And now I am going to die as an enemy of the Rethavok. Most likely without seeing my partner or kids ever again.”
Retvik sighed, giving up with the argument. “Well, you are not alone there. I am almost certain that Gath has been swept up by this…”
“Everyvok we ever knew… all… enslaved or… dead…”
Rethais fell silent, trying desperately to hide his tears. Retvik also fell silent, but was seemingly lost in thought. Suddenly, Retvik got up, frantically rummaging through the pouch on his belt. After a few seconds, he pulled out a set of keys with various objects dangling off them. He flicked through the keys and key chains, before holding up what looked like a small, Skyan tea strainer.
“There is a way out of here.”
“What?”
“There is a way out of here! All we need to do is get this to a locked door!”
Rethais blinked. “I do not follow. That is just… a very small sieve.”
“It looks like one, yes, but it is in fact a key to the home of the Thantophor! We use one god to help us escape from another!”
“Yes but… where did you… get that from?”
“I do believe I borrowed it off Tenuk. Can you get up and walk?”
“You may have to carry me. And I will have to lean on you.”
Retvik shrugged, not really bothered. “That is fine. Let us get out of here. Once we are safe, we can start making plans and work out what to do next.”