The last few days, Gath hadn’t been around. According to one of the Below Twenties, Gath was busy doing a “morale tour”, where they visited the local Junior Stratoi and spoke to the younglings before they started their exams. Lately, due to Gath’s illnesses, they had been sending 1000th Legion captains to speak in Gath’s place, but for one particular Junior Stratos, Gath had wanted to go in person.
In the mean time, Relkir had also been somewhat busy. Normally, Relkir was the High Advisor, helping keep the High General on the right track, but over the same period that Gath hasn’t been around, Relkir found themselves doing interviews. The High General wanted to hire some new advisors to pad out the (admittedly already quite large) 47th Legion, and they wanted Relkir to go through resumes and speak with potential new hires, to fill in a few advisory gaps the High General had with their current advisors, and to just have more advisors overall, so Relkir didn’t feel like they were glued to the High General’s side all the time.
At first, Relkir hated this hiring process. They thought it got in the way of their work as the High Advisor. But the more they worked, the more Relkir realized that these new hires would mean less work for both Relkir and the High General. It meant Relkir could also take more time off, and distribute more annoying duties to other advisors.
Right now though, Relkir was looking at candidates who specialized in macro economics. Mostly the economics of the Rethavok’s smaller trading partners. Relkir already had two advisors who worked on trading relationships with the Torr and another three that dealt with the Spasts, Temthans and Vohra, but someone who could offer advice for the less populous species would have been useful. Mostly because Relkir could never quite remember how much trading the Rethans did with the Skyavok.
A knock on the door distracted Relkir. Considering that Relkir had asked for quiet time to go through all these resumes, the knock couldn’t have been Gath, they were out, and it was currently during school hours, so Litvir wasn’t around either. Relkir was well aware of the High General’s schedule, and they were in a teleconference call with the Lanex currently. That left one person: General Ritlir, of the Legion of Hidden Internal Affairs. Relkir grunted, then hit a little button on their desk, which unlocked the door.
“Good day!” Ritlir smiled as they stepped into the office, holding a large, white box. “Are you free?”
Relkir rolled their eyes and sighed.
“I shall take that as a no. May I come back later?”
“I would rather we get this over with now.”
Ritlir was well aware that Relkir did not like them at all. Despite the fact that Ritlir was one of the few vok who has convinced Relkir and Gath to go on a date together, Relkir always felt that Ritlir was far too friendly, and used that friendliness to great effect.
“Do not fret, I will not take to much of your time. First off though…” Ritlir checked that there was a clear space on Relkir’s desk, then placed the white box onto it.
“What is that?”
“Cake. A congratulatory cake for you and Gath. And hopefully a bit of an incentive to smooth things over.”
“What do you want to smooth over?” Relkir tutted. “I noticed that 10th Legion troops have been shadowing me and I am aware that your internet tracking sub-legion have been suppressing news about me, outside of my going Defensive Stance last year.”
Ritlir sat themselves down. “That is one of the things I want to smooth over. I do apologise for the suppression, but it is solely for your safety. The High General and I do not want someone as loyal as you getting hurt. Again.”
“Hmph. Understandable. What else do you want to atone for?”
“Well, the second thing was about you going through these new hires. General Rethais wishes to move some of their advisors around, and also requested you assist them in hiring new staff.”
“I am unsure why Rethais has asked me to do this.”
“More advisors for the Below Twenties is probably a good thing, yes? A little less work for you.”
Relkir eyed Ritlir. “I feel like there is more to this.”
“Not really. I will not be obtaining any advisors myself, but anyone you select has to be checked over by the 10th Legion. But I do have a query for you. In order to keep things clean and simple, do you have a list of advisors who you wish to keep close, or who you do not like and want to send elsewhere?”
“Aside from you?”
Ritlir grinned. “Hehe, very funny. I am only asking this because you are a captain of the 47th Legion, and General Rethais may want to make more captains. To ensure smoothness and efficiency, it would be helpful to compile a list of, well, whoever is the most helpful to you. So we can make sure people get the correct promotions and get moved to the correct legions.”
“Well… that seems reasonable..” Relkir shrugged. “I can do that, but I need to finish what I am doing here first.”
“Of course!” Ritlir smiled. However, all of a sudden, that smile disappeared. “The last thing I need to ask is, what did you discuss with Elkay, the former All-Ksa?”
Relkir was rather taken aback by this sudden question. “How do you know that I spoke to the All-Ksa? And why are you talking to me and not Lysar? This would fall under Hidden External Affairs.”
Ritlir’s smile returned somewhat. “Our little god Litvir is quite talkative. VERY easy to get talking if anyone mentions the God of Shadows. 10th Legion knew there was something up because no one went to knock on your door, which you always insist that we do. And while we do not have a camera in here, we do have one outside your office, and footage shows a dark fog sneaking underneath the door. We want to know what happened.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“Oh no, of course not.”
Relkir sighed. “I… honestly am not sure. Elkay mostly talked at me, about things involving the Whenvern. But as soon as Elkay left, I felt uneasy and my memories felt faded…” Relkir paused, then glanced down at their hand. There was a faint scar there. The one Relkir kept on forgetting about. “I do not know.”
“Do you remember anything?”
Relkir shook their head. “No. I remember Elkay coming in via a shadow, the room getting dark, Elkay going on about… something, then he… held my hand or something? I do not know. After that though, I somewhat just… It was like waking up in a daze.”
“Hm. Curious…” Ritlir thought for a moment, then sighed. “So nothing strange happened?”
“Not that I recall.”
Ritlirt shrugged. “You are otherwise healthy, yes?”
“I am, yes.”
“Alright. I shall leave you to it then!” Ritlir’s friendliness returned as they stood up. “Sorry for disturbing you, enjoy the cake!”
“Yes… sure…” Relkir muttered, feeling rather uneasy as the door to their office closed.