Political figures visiting the Great Dessaron Battle Arenas weren’t that uncommon, but normally the visitors were diplomats or lower rank politicians representing their governments. Today though, the Great Arenas were on high alert, because Elkay Athanasion, the All-Ksa, the leader of the Skyavok, had come by to visit. That being said, when it came to the leaders of the Twelve Races, the All-Ksa was by far one of the easiest to deal with. Not only was Elkay a military leader, but he was an excellent fighter as well, to the point that, when he was younger, he had fought in the Arenas himself to settle a handful of disputes with the Temthans, Vohra and Torr. And despite the fact that Elkay was someone who didn’t need protecting, his own personal guards were among the scariest beings in the universe, a team of former Phantasma soldiers, all capable of teleporting their guard target away in an instant, while also powerful enough to easily contain or kill anyone who threatened the All-Ksa.
Because of this, things weren’t too bad. The Raptor’s own security didn’t have to be on maximum alert like they did with other race leaders. Phovos could remember the time when the Prime Minister of the Torr visited, and that had been utter hell. They’d been a right prick about everything as well. Elkay on the other hand, once you got past the military side of him, he was just a kindly old Skyavok. A bit of a charmer as well. Not only had Elkay gone and met every single Skyavok gladiator, but he’d also requested to meet the Skyavok house fighters too.
Most politicians didn’t like the House Fighters of the Great Arenas. They considered it unfair that Phovos had bought most of them out and made them work for her. Elkay didn’t have a problem with that though. He understood that House Fighters were there for balance, and they stopped any one race’s gladiators, both teams and individuals, from being too strong. They also acted as referees occasionally. After all, sometimes you needed a big, scary monster to make sure everyone played fair.
Things had been going very smoothly though. In fact, Elkay had absolutely loved chatting with Psiksi, a house fighter better known to the public as the Happy Cold. It turned out, Elkay was a bit of a fan of the Happy Cold and his hard-hitting fighting style, mostly because most Skyavok preferred rapid strikes and being fast on their feet, and Psiksi would instead use brute force to catch opponents off guard. However, their conversation had been interrupted by the appearance of another Skyavok politician.
Ayvee-En Ksesikonos was the definition of living marmite. He garnered a 50-50 popularity split. Skyavok either loved him or hated him, nothing in the middle. He was also the former Vice-Ksa of the Skyavok, a member of the economically driven N-Class. While the N-Class were in power, backed by the R-Class police force (most Classes tended to work in pairs, for reasons no one outside the Skyavok understood), the Skyavok became isolationists and it had caused a little too much damage, damage that the now ruling K-Class and L-Class were still trying to fix. However, during the Class Elections, Ayvee-En had nearly been killed. Some sort of assassination attempt, apparently by rogue Phantasma assassins, all of whom had been K-Class. While Elkay had denied the K-Class’s involvement in the attack, claiming that the only active Phantasma assassins at the time had been hired out to the R- and D-Classes, he’d been forced to shut down the Phantasma training facilities to save face, and the whole event massively damaged what could have been a landslide victory for the K- and L-Classes.
Ayvee-En’s appearance had made Elkay genuinely angry. And the All-Ksa was not someone who got genuinely angry most of the time. From what the Raptor could tell, the All-Ksa had forbidden any N-Class politicians from travelling alongside his convoy, and that the former Vice-Ksa was to give the K-Class a written notification that he’d be present. Clearly, Ayvee-En had not done that.
On top of that though, the presence of this one Skyavok, who only had two R-Class security guards with him, seemed to make all of Elkay’s own Phantasma guards nervous. Not only that, but his presence had somehow spooked the two Vahrga House Fighters, to the point that half the (admittedly rather small) Vohran staff had been forced to drag them away to somewhere quiet, and the other half of the Vohran arena staff had left early, claiming nausea and headaches. Why? The Raptor had no idea. But the whole deal bothered her, and she’d discreetly asked the All-Ksa if she wanted this N-Class guy (who was clearly a bastard) to be removed. Elkay had admittedly declined, but only because he claimed that he was supposed to represent all Skyavok, not just those he liked.
That wasn’t the weirdest thing though. The entire time the All-Ksa had been roaming around, he’d had an absolutely beautiful bodyguard by his side. Most Skyavok had pretty dark grey skin, but Teekay Askotin, the head of the All-Ksa’s security, had almost silver skin, and their natural plating was metallic silver, with thin, crystalline orange veins running down it. Being a bodyguard and a former Phantasma, Teekay did cover himself up in black clothing, hiding well-toned muscles that were only outdone by the Happy Cold (the Happy Cold was well-known for being insanely attractive to other Skyavok), but the Raptor was pretty sure that Teekay used his good looks as a distraction.
But when Ayvee-En appeared, Teekay, someone who had been almost glued to the All-Ksa the entire time, immediately asked to be dismissed. Elkay instantly allowed Teekay to leave, but the Raptor hadn’t seen Teekay since. Even when she directly asked Elkay where the pretty Skyan had gone, Elkay gave her a rather odd answer, that he needed some time to de-stress.
After the abrupt meeting with the ‘N-Class bastard’, things did seem to settle down. Up next on the agenda was a meeting with Xeno Dessaron One, the team of House Fighters with a perfect win streak, but also a team of heroes, one of whom was a Skyavok. Apparently Elkay had met Kayel before, but he wanted to congratulate the gladiator crowds had dubbed “Shadowstalker” in person. Before they did so, Elkay had requested a little bit of quiet time between himself, the Raptor and the Happy Cold, leaving his bodyguards outside.
Both the Raptor and Psiksi had asked the All-Ksa if something was wrong. Elkay had responded by saying “potentially”, but he wasn’t sure yet. A Ksithan waitress brought in some tea and drinks, and, after fifteen minutes, Elkay stated he was ready to meet Xeno Dessaron One. The Raptor nodded and sent the Happy Cold out to fetch them. After all, the Happy Cold was pretty close to most of Xeno Dessaron One, and regularly hung out with them. Of course, Psiksi had immediately darted off, and he’d decided to show off as well by running through a nearby shadow.
There was a bit of a quiet spell while Psiksi was gone. Phovos had asked several questions, mostly about Ayvee-En, but about a few other topics as well. The Ksithans and the Skyavok had been allies for a long time, so it was nice to spend time chatting with someone as powerful as Elkay. Elkay seemed to have a few questions of his own, one of which was whether Phovos had noticed the black cat that had been wandering around. Phovos explained that cats were very common in Palaestra, and that Ksithans considered them to be symbols of good luck, especially black cats. She was well aware that mammalian creatures like cats and dogs were rare in Threanic (Skyan, Rethan and occasionally Vohran) territories, and the question was quite fair. Phovos took this time to ask a question that many people wanted to know, whether the All-Ksa was a Phantasma or not, and whether they were capable of shadowjumping. To her surprise, Elkay admitted that he could speak Shadowtongue, and also knew a little Banikanspeak as well.
However, ten minutes passed, and Psiksi hadn’t returned. After fifteen minutes, he peered from the doorway, with a worrying message.
“The rest of Xeno Dessaron One is on their way, but no one can find Kayel. Tenuk said that he went to the bathroom or something and he hasn’t come back, and Retvik and Nyssi are wandering around looking for him.”
Phovos dismissed Psiksi, telling him to go back and look for Kayel. She also sent a message to her own staff, telling them to do a quick search of the premises. Of course, Psiksi did as he was told. Most likely, Kayel had wandered off somewhere. After all, Xeno Dessaron One had fought in a match earlier that day, and the former Phantasma often wandered around after matches looking for some peace and quiet to clear his head.
Another five minutes passed though, and Kayel was still missing. And, oddly, Elkay had been rather quiet, his eyes closed, lost in thought. That was until Elkay suddenly spoke.
“Phovos, my dear, can you keep a secret?” Elkay calmly asked.
Of course, Phovos nodded. “I can always add another secret to my collection. What is it?”
Elkay didn’t answer. Instead, he got up from his seat and stared at the shadow in the corner, the one Psiksi had walked through earlier to show off. The All-Ksa waved his left hand, creating a strand of dark energy that twisted at first, then settled down in a specific direction, a bit like a compass. He turned to Phovos and smiled briefly, before frowning again.
“Please don’t tell anyone that I am a Phantasma myself…” Elkay sighed as he walked through the shadow and vanished in a puff of dark smoke.