“Hi, Dalosisaar, I, uh, I need to tell you something. Like, right now. And we might need to get Murum’Va here too. And maybe Syksis and Litvir in case things get squiffy.”
Despite being a kid, Kohra was generally rather independent and headstrong, but there was a hint of fear and panic in Kohra’s voice as he knocked on the door of Dalosisaar’s office. The door was huge and Kohra was genuinely really small, so it seemed extra odd.
Of course, Dalosisaar answered. He always looked after his fellow deities.
“I’m free to talk. You really aren’t right.”
Kohra was holding a tablet. He rushed to Dalosisaar’s side and immediately showed him what was on that tablet, but since the tablet was so small, designed for 1.3m tall Spast hands and not 3.5m long Thraki hands, Dalosisaar had no idea what he was looking at. Kohra quickly noticed the problem, teleported off briefly and instantly teleported back with a cable, which he shoved into his tablet. He then headed over to Dalosisaar’s huge and awkwardly shaped desk, where Kohra then plugged the other end of the cable into Dalosisaar’s computer.
“You need to see this. Now!”
Dalosisaar calmly made his way over and watched on as Kohra transferred data to his computer. But once Kohra had everything set up, he still wasn’t really sure what he was looking at.
“What is this?” Dalosisaar asked.
“After the Sudden Darkness and when we got our godly stuff, I started working on a fast detection system for Corruption. It’s taken me ages to get it working right,, but about six months ago, I think I finally ironed out all the kinks-”
“You told me about this, I told you to go ahead and send info to whoever you needed to, in order to get things done. Is there a problem with this system?”
“I don’t know!” Kohra seemed really worried. “I’ve been tracking things as normal, and things have been kinda clear and I’ve been sending the guardian deities out as needed, but over the last week or so, I keep on getting blips in really worrying places! Places where I can’t send Murum’Va or Litvir or Aesop or whoever to go and deal with them!”
“Alright, calm down, then come over here and start explaining this map to me.”
Kohra took a long, deep breath, took a second, slightly less deep breath and did as he was told.
“This map shows a general 3d view of the electromagnetic nodes within the vast-skin of the universe. With some help from Aesop and Elkay, I created these little detectors that pick up sudden spikes in temperature in things that hit the vast-skin from outside the universe. The temperatures are recorded, and anything within a temperature range matching that of Corruption is picked up and reported directly to my communicator and the tracking program, with an exact location, and I can then send that to whoever is on border patrol. It mostly works, so I decided to make some satellites to do similar tracking inside the universe. They’re not nearly as accurate because the inside of the universe isn’t a constant super low temperature like the outside of the universe, but they do pick things up!”
“Let me guess, you’ve picked up a Corruption inside the universe?”
Kohra nodded. “Yeah. It… it happens sometimes. Sometimes Corruption is going really fast and just goes straight through the vast-skin and somehow avoids the electromagnetic repulsers too. But I have gotten multiple blips in places where I can’t send the others! I am picking up blips of Corruption inside one of Kairos’s stupid crystal palace things!”
“I… I see…” Dalosisaar tried to hide his concern. “Are they long blips? Like, a constant source of Corruption?”
“No… They’re tiny blips. Like, only for a few minutes at most. But I can’t send anyone to check in and see if the Corruption is being completely destroyed or whatever! Because we’re not allowed to go into the palaces and check! And now I’m scared that there’s something going on and I can’t do anything about it!”
Dalosisaar awkwardly patted Kohra on the head. “It’s alright, kid.”
“Don’t call me a kid!” Kohra snapped, his panic and worries clearly coming through. “I need your help! We need to speak to Epani and send Murum’Va there! We need to do so right now because there was a Corruption detected in the southern palace for ten minutes! It’s gone now but I don’t know for certain!”
Again, Dalosisaar patted Kohra, but this time, he did so on the shoulder. “Alright, calm down. I’m going to speak to Epani, and I’m going to send Murum’Va down to… which palace is it?”
Kohra quickly checked his own map. “The Sapphire Sanctuary, far south eastern corner of the universe.”
Dalosisaar frowned, then turned on his communicator and the earpiece attached to it and quickly made a call.
“Murum’Va, are you busy right now?”
“I am on patrol. South western border!” a grumpy voice crackled back.
“Can you do a check-in for me please? Kohra’s system picked up a trace of Corruption at Kairos’s Sapphire Sanctuary at the south eastern border. I think Kairos has probably already dealt with it, but better safe than sorry.”
“At the sotiona sortsak or near it?”
Dalosisaar paused briefly, not quite knowing what Murum’Va had said for a moment. “Uh… At the castle. If you can grab someone else to go with you, that’d be great…” Dalosisaar paused again, then turned to Kohra. “Kohra, can you head down there too? Meet Murum’Va there before she heads in, so she’s not going in blind.”
“I… I guess?” Kohra hesitated.
“I shall wait for itarfa Kohra then…” Murum’Va grunted via the communicator. “But Dalosisaar, please inform Epani as well. Is needed.”
“Alright, I’ll go speak to Epani right now!” Dalosisaar exclaimed. “Kohra, Murum’Va, if you need any help, speak to Nanik directly and get everyone to help you, understood?”
“Understood…” Kohra muttered, as he packed his stuff up. “Murum’Va, I’m on my way now.”
“Ante, understood, see you in a moment…” Murum’Va growled as she shut off her communicator.