“Ugh…”
Vexer had been wandering up and down the corridors of the Shimmering Blade for a while now. The other Guardians were all fine. Lissandra was enjoying herself, sleeping around with the locals and working on her shapeshifting. Fragiir had spent a lot of time in the armoury, getting his gear upgraded, while Atteh’Kus and Kayenus were wrestling with the larger members of the Phantai, getting some combat training in. Vokulunaax wasn’t even on the ship, he was outside, flying around it, since the ship was currently stationary and he wanted some time to himself. But Vexer found himself feeling uneasy. Mostly because he was concerned that his Mistress, the Life Goddess Sini, was going to screw things up at some point. Sure, so far, she’d just been “sampling” the locals, but Vexer was well aware that Sini was a whirlwind of chaos.
“What’s wrong?”
Vexer glanced down to see who had spoken to him. While almost all the Phantai were Beh’evok, a species both foreign and vaguely familiar to Vexer, there were five Phantai who looked very familiar, but… weren’t.
“Hello, which number of Loopblade are you?”
“I’m Loopblade-5, Five for short, but since we’re alone, you can call me Teekay.”
“Ah…” Vexer frowned. “How do you tell each other apart? And do the other Phantai get you confused?”
“We’re used to each other, but the younger Phantai get us wrong all the time. Honestly, I can totally see why Six left. I’m thinking of changing my name too but I don’t know what to change it to.”
Vexer thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I’m not a good person to ask. Being a Vrekan, all my suggestions would start with the letter V, and I don’t think you’d like the name Veekay.”
Teekay immediately frowned. “He and I were the leaders of the K-Class Ksa. We covered each other’s backs. Was a good guy, had an awful heritage. Died on the same planet my boyfriend died on.”
Vexer joined in on the frowning. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to dig up bad memories. But… I’ll be honest, I don’t understand you Loopblades. You look exactly like Skyavok with wings, but you’re not Skyavok. Also, you look identical to one of my fellow, and now former Divine Guardians.”
More frowns. “You mean Shocktrooper, right?”
“Um…”
“A Skyavok. Called TK0016K. Just Teekay. He said he didn’t have a surname.”
“Oh. Yeah. I… I’ll be honest, Sini told me that the other Six Guardians all became Decay Lords, but apart from that, I got no clue. And it’s an awkward decision that caused me to not be a Decay Lord.”
Vexer sighed some more, then decided to make his way to the canteen. Teekay decided to follow. He didn’t really get to talk to people. Not on his own at least.
“So, uh, what was the decision?” Teekay asked.
“Ugh… Well… Kinisis wanted to split her Divine Guardians in two. One half to help protect the important half of the old universe, and her stupid oasis she was building, one half to protect the ass end of the old universe. She wanted Relkir to work alongside the higher Guardians, but I offered to switch with him, so the lower Guardians had more protection. After all, Rethans and Vrekans are equally strong, but Relkir was always stronger than I was. Also, I kinda didn’t want Kinisis to split Relkir and Teekay up.”
“Relkir… uh…” Teekay thought for a moment as he fetched some drinks, then sat down. “You mean Elkay?”
“Yeah. That was his, I dunno, birth name? He was the High General of the Rethavok until some fucking awful shit happened to him. Kinisis forcibly changed his name to Relkir because it was another way to control us. She did it to a few of us. She forced Tenuk to use his old name, and I’m pretty sure Tahvra wasn’t the Vahla’s name at all, she forced that name on him.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s a bitch. Vohra, all their names end with a K. Tahvra isn’t a normal Vohran name.”
Teekay shrugged. “Honestly, that was a stupid question of me. I’m well aware that Kinisis is a bitch. After all, she tried to get Arkay to kill his brothers seven times and he only found the strength to say no on the last attempt, because she repeatedly raped my ex’s mind. And, then, apparently, she left our universe to die and turned the poor cunt into a death god.”
Vexer blinked in confusion for a moment, before sighing. “Sorry. Forgot for a second that Arkadin was mortal once. You knew him?”
“Knew him? Dated him. He was a fucking disaster magnet but also a really kind, sweet guy. I… admittedly couldn’t stand the drama though and dumped him while he was recovering from another stupid misadventure. Ended up dating his half-brother Eksi. And, awkwardly, that happened seven fucking times.”
“Huh… Eksi was that little telepathic prick that briefly worked on the oasis itself, alongside the Flame of the Dessaron and that skinny, purple-plated telepathic cuntbag.”
“That’s… a pretty awful thing to say about one of the Missing.”
Vexer eyed Teekay some more. “The Missing?”
“Yeah. Flamebearer and Souldrainer are two thirds of a Hidden Named Trio, blessed by the Overlord himself. The other third being Arkay. Six did message us and say that Arkay was back with the Thantir now, or something like that. Deathbringer is a badass codename.”
“Why DO you have codenames?” Vexer asked. “They’re a bit… unusual. Cool, but strange.”
“It’s tradition, from the Original Trio, the Overthree who formed our society. The earliest parts of Decay Lord society came from a place where there were parallels, so unique codenames were used to distinguish between people. Annoyingly, that’s why I’m Loopblade-5 and your friend Teekay is Shocktrooper, but it’s useful.”
“Is being a Decay Lord fun or better? Because I often wonder if I should have been a Decay Lord.”
Teekay shrugged. “I think it’s all much of a muchness. Different types of support networks. Divine Guardians have tight-knit groups and work for a single individual, and it’s more of a family. But there’s so many variables that I can’t really answer what’s better or not.”
“Fair enough…”
Both Vexer and Teekay trailed off for a moment. Eventually, Teekay spoke again.
“So, uh, Vexer, are you just a Divine Guardian or are you a servant Time Drake as well?”
“Uh, what? I don’t have time powers!”
“Really? Threadwarper, one of the Thantir, had time powers, because she was a Time Drake. And I’m pretty sure she was the same species you are.”
“There’s… another Vrekan out here? An armoured Vrekan like me?”
Teekay shrugged. “My universe had Vrekans too. But they were more like the Retha and didn’t wear any clothes at all, just armour and loincloths, same way we do.”
“Huh. What’s Threadwarper’s actual name?”
“Elksia. Elksia Ksiou, I think.”
Vexer blinked. “I… I forgot that the Whenvern turned the Blade of the Dessaron into a Time Drake. So… Elksia’s a Decay Lord now?”
“She’s a member of the Thantir.”
“Huh…” Vexer fell silent again, then shifted awkwardly. “I… didn’t know there was another Vrekan out here… I… I think I ought to speak to Sini about this…”
“Hah, good luck. She’s dating that shapeshifting bastard Kronospast now. Sure, Formtwister isn’t THAT bad, but I think every sect has an annoying shapeshifting bastard these days. That being said, pretty sure she wanted kids or something.”
“Oh…” Vexer frowned, then got up. “Either way, I want to speak to Sini anyway. And see if I can speak to Elksia too. Because she WAS the hottest Vrekan alive, and I do kinda want to meet her properly.”
Teekay shrugged some more. “Again, good luck with that. But I’d better get back to work. So catch you later, I guess.”
Before Vexer could say anything else, Teekay disappeared in a puff of orange sparkles. With a sigh, Vexer decided to go and see what his mistress was doing. He had… concerns he wanted to discuss with her.