Psehon felt weirdly uneasy as he made his way to the third level of the Shimmering Blade, the colossal, armoured vessel that acted as the headquarters for the Phantai Decay Lord sect. The third level was mostly off limits to the majority of the Phantai and consisted of 14 rooms. Alongside an armoury and twelve luxurious personal bedrooms, one for each of the Phantai Leaders and their teams of three immediate underlings, the main focus on the third level was a large, glass observatory that only the Three Great Blades could access.
The observatory was where Psehon was going, and, to his surprise, the door to it was locked. From the inside, not the outside. While the observatory was normally locked when not in use, whenever it was in use, the door would be closed but unlocked, since everyone on board knew not to go inside whenever any of the Great Blades wanted quiet time.
A quick telepathic scan told Psehon that his partner Telin was in the observatory, so he decided to politely knock on the door.
“Voidblade, can we talk, please?”
No answer. That was… not like Voidblade. Even when Voidblade was in his worst moods, he would normally at least acknowledge his fellow Great Blades.
“Voidblade, are you there?”
Still no answer. But Psehon did sense movement. The glass observatory didn’t have any furniture in it, instead there was nothing but a vast pile of cushions, pillows and blankets, as well as a specially heated floor that kept the entire room at the perfect temperature, despite the coldness of the void outside.
“Telin? We really need to talk. Phos and I are very worried about you.”
Psehon hoped that the use of Voidblade’s actual name would get him to answer. The Phantai used their Decay Lord codenames most of the time, even in private. With the arrival of the Thantir, a smaller Decay Lord sect that were temporarily staying with the Phantai, the Three Great Blades had been somewhat more open about the use of real names, especially since the Thantir were so open with theirs. Psehon had found it weird that the Thantir leaders allowed their Decaylings to refer to them by their true names no matter what, and without even using a term of superiority either.
Really, Psehon wanted to blame Telin’s recent bouts of weirdness on the new arrivals, but this had been a growing problem for a while. Telin had had a few violent outbreaks even before the Thantir turned up. Most of those outbursts had been towards insubordinate lower Phantai soldiers, but a couple had been aimed at Phos, the third member of the Great Blades. Today’s outburst was no exception. Telin hadn’t just threatened little Flamebearer and Souldrainer (both of whom had been incredibly patient with Telin’s attitude), he had directly pointed his sword at Phos and directly threatened him. Phos hadn’t done anything wrong. He had been defending the innocent, he was a former god of light and justice, that was what Phos naturally did.
Again, Telin didn’t answer. Psehon was getting far too concerned now. Luckily, Psehon could simply let himself in, but he wanted to give Telin some warning, in case he was unarmoured in there.
“Telin, I am going to open the door and enter the room. We really need to talk.”
As Psehon summoned his little key though and forced it into the lock, he felt something on the other side. Telin had placed his own key in the hole and Psehon’s key had forced it out, causing it to clink on the ground.
“Do not come in, Psehon.”
That was the first time Telin had spoken in a bit, and it wasn’t exactly positive.
“Why not, dear? Are you ill?”
“Just do as I say, and leave.”
“You know I cannot do that.”
Psehon finished unlocking the door then tried to open it, but the door didn’t budge at first. He had to use far too much strength to get the door to even move.
“Telin, let me in.”
“No.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“I cannot say.”
The door did finally open, as Psehon used his telekinesis to do so. Telin’s sword, the Bane of Gold, had been propped up against it, blocking Peshon’s entry into the observatory. The sword should have clanged against the ground but fell onto a convenient pile of cushions. With a sigh, Psehon made his way into the observatory proper, but left the door open, in case Phos wanted to join them later on.
“Telin, dear, my beloved, why are you acting like this?”
Voidblade was standing at the furthest part of the room, staring blankly out into the darkness outside. The Phantai’s territories in the Periuniversal Void were particularly dark and empty, mostly because of the almost unending conflict between the Voidborn cults and the Phantai themselves. And the Phantai only existed because the Voidborn had driven away the large family of Life Goddesses that used to reside there, in what was once the Golden Paradise. The now renamed Goldtorn Remains only contained a handful of Decay Lord and Voidborn bases, and all of those were somewhat temporary. Even the Shimmering Blade was a somewhat new vessel.
“I cannot think straight.”
“Then let me in, Telin. Let me in and let me help you.”
Psehon kept on using Telin’s name, an attempt to calm him down, to foster familiarity. He approached his Third slowly, carefully, not wanting to disturb Telin too much. However, as Psehon got into arm’s reach, Telin abruptly twisted round, grabbed Psehon by the throat and pushed him against the cold glass.
“Telin, stop this…”
Instinct was telling him to break free, but Psehon knew better. Telin was currently seeing him as a threat, and attempting to escape may have triggered him further.
“There is a voice in my head. I want to hurt people.”
“You know better than to listen to strange voices. Telin, you know Phos and I care for you deeply, that we do not want to hurt you, and we will help you through your pain, as we have always done so in the past.”
Telin hesitated, then tightened his grip. This time, Psehon did free himself, placing a telekinetic shield around his neck and forcing Telin to stand back, but he did little else.
“Is forbidden gold in your head, Telin?”
Telin went back to not answering Psehon’s questions, and instead summoned pitch black tendrils, which wrapped themselves around Psehon’s wrists. Purple and gold wisps of Psehon’s own telekinetic energy sliced through those tendrils while he sent a telepathic message to Phos, informing him of the situation. However, to Psehon’s dismay, Telin continued to restrain Psehon, and used more tendrils to begin to remove Psehon’s armour.
“TELIN, STOP!”
“I will kill all of you. For my master.”
“The Voidborn are in your mind, Telin, you have to fight their whispers!”
A blinding flash surged through the room, stunning Telin long enough for Psehon to break free and make a run for the exit. Not only had Phos arrived, but he had brought reinforcements. By Phos’s side were both his own underlings, Sunblade, Fireblade and Starblade, and Telin’s assistants, Shadowblade, Darkblade and Nightblade. While the three Solar Blades deprived Telin from using his darkness powers, the Black Blades all marched forward, their swords keeping Telin away from Psehon.
“Let us help you, boss!”
Telin hissed, then raised his fist. Immediately, the Black Blades dropped their weapons and fell to the ground. The Solar Blades stepped to one side and let the Mind Blades, Psehon’s own underlings, enter the room. Spiritblade, Pneumablade and Essenceblade each created a beam of glstening psionic power which held Telin in place. Briefly. Somehow, via a force of will that felt almost out of place, Telin was breaking out of these telepathic and telekinetic bonds.
Not sure what to do, Psehon glanced at Phos, who drew his sword and sighed. All three of the Great Blades knew what was about to happen as Phos forced his blade towards Telin, and Telin commanded his blade to pierce Phos. But before contact was made, everything seemed to slow down, just for a moment.
When time sped back up, Telin was lying on the ground, unconscious but unharmed. And so was everyone else, apart from Phos and Psehon.
“I am sorry I could not intervene sooner…” a Thantir Decayling muttered as they leaned against the entrance of the observatory. “I still have not figured out how to borrow all these powers properly yet.”
“It is fine, Unender…” Psehon sighed as he and Phos picked the still sleeping Telin up off the floor. “We should have figured things out sooner ourselves…”