“Huh. Nice place.”
“Yeah, it’s been here for a while…”
Thyel was surprised that there were only two other ships parked at the Shield and Stave pub. Being the end of the year-string almost, he expected there to be patrons, getting drunk and merry. But the two ships, one of them, Thyel was certain it belonged to the pub owner’s partner, and the other was clearly a Thantir ship.
“Are they friendly?” Thyel’s new friend asked.
“Of course. I wouldn’t dare take a Beh’ena to somewhere unfriendly…”
Thyel knocked on the door. The sign did say the pub was closed, but his psionic senses did tell him there were people inside. However, his telepathy was failing him, he couldn’t see who any of them were. However, he did notice a change in mood, and someone had gotten up to greet him.
After a few seconds, the door opened, and in the doorway stood Vick, the pub owner.
“Uh… hello…” Vick muttered. “Lord Thyel, what… what are you doing here?”
Vick’s attention turned to the Beh’ena. He noticed she was injured. It seemed that Vick’s friends had also noticed, as several of them had also gotten up to help.
“What happened?” A familiar purple-plated vampiric Psion asked as an unfamiliar white-plated vampire Psion and a shorter version of the Flamebearer led Thyel’s new friend inside and sat her down on one of the benches.
“What are you doing here, Litvir?” Thyel asked back. “And… I never noticed just how much Retvik looks like Vick. And that… that other guy also looks like Vick… And…”
Litvir just shrugged then hiccuped. “We are celebrating… something… Your new friend looks like a very small version of the multitude of Retviks here.”
Litvir paused, then turned around to check on Kuta and Ret, who were helping the Beh’ena. Kuta was telepathically muttering at Ret, asking him how he knew how to create painkiller venoms, and Ret sighing and saying he and his team had worked out how to borrow each others’ powers ages ago.
Thyel however stopped paying attention to Litvir and made his way over to his friend. “Vretvika, are you alright?”
The Beh’ena looked up, but so did Ret.
“Your name is Retvik too?” Ret asked.
Vretvika paused, then sighed. “Yes. Those I trained with to be come a Decay Lord, they occasionally called me Retvik, Vreti or just Vik… Hold on… you said “too”… Your name is Vretvika?”
“Uh, no. My name is just Retvik. I call myself Ret because there are two other Retviks here.”
The Beh’ena immediately turned to Thyel. “Are you playing at something?”
“No! Not at all!” Thyel immediately became both defensive and very submissive. “I just… I forgot that Vick’s original name was Retvik or something… And I had no idea that Vick had invited his two other friends who are both called Retvik to his bar! It’s all coincidental! I’m… I’m sorry…”
Vretvika took a deep breath, then relented. “I am sorry. I should not be angry at you. You saved me and brought me to safety. I am just… surprised that you unintentionally brought me to meet three other ‘Viks. I am going to guess though that none of you are adult Beh’evok?”
“Oh? You are a Beh’ena?” Litvir asked.
“I am, yes.”
“Ah, good, because Ret was struggling not to call you a Skyavok…” Kuta muttered.
“What is a Skyavok?” Vretvika asked. “I assume that is not your species. You all look similar, apart from the white and purple person over there, and they look very similar outside of their star-shaped plating.”
“I’m a Standard-Type Retha,” Vick explained, “Retvik, Litvir and Kuta are old-universe Rethavok and Ret is a new-universe Rethavok. My partner Letharus is an Astravok, which is a similar race from a different universe. Uh… none of us have actually met a Beh’ena before though.”
Vretvika blinked. “What do you mean? The Beh’evok are the upcoming uplifted race in this Voidborn-soaked pentacluster!”
“Well… we somewhat killed most of the Voidborns!” Litvir smiled. “But the Beh’evok’s numbers were… somewhat tarnished by all those Voidborns up until recently.”
“Are there any Warms left?”
Litvir lacked an answer, and pretty much everyone else did too. Thyel though just sighed.
“There are no Warms around here outside of the Justarian Circle and… I think one small Warm in the Goldtorn Remains.”
“And where are we right now?” Vretvika asked.
“The Ventra Expanse. There are admittedly very few Beh’evok here though. Most of them are still in the Goldtorn Remains, what everyone used to call the Golden Paradise.”
“Ah… That is… unfortunate…” Vretvika fell silent, not saying anything as she let Ret and Kuta wrap her wounds. Luckily, she wasn’t too badly injured.
After an awkward silence, Vick decided to make himself somewhat useful. “So, uh, Vretvika, do you want a drink?”
“I guess… What do you have?”
“I mean, this is my pub, we got all sorts!” Vick smiled. “Is there anything you fancy? Also, Lord Thyel, do you want anything?”
Thyel sat himself down next to Vretvika. “I would like a mead, but I need to keep my head straight, so a diet cola would be best.”
“I would like one too, please!” Vretvika tried to be optimistic. “I think alcohol might be a bad idea right this second. Although I can smell that you have all been drinking.”
“Well, of course…” Vick shrugged. “We are celebrating the new year.”
“The new year?”
“Yeah…”
“Huh…” Vretvika fell silent again, then glanced up at Thyel, thinking to herself.
All four telepaths present glanced at each other, trying not to pick up on her thoughts. After a while though, Thyel couldn’t help but comment on the thoughts he’d accidentally read.
“You… want to build a Warm?”
“I would like to build one, yes. I avoided doing so due to the potential threat of the Golden Pure, became a Decay Lord to combat the Golden Doom and somehow… slept through all of it. I might as well… get back to what a Beh’ena like myself ought to be doing. If I am even capable of doing so after so long.”
Litvir nudged Thyel. “I think she wants you to help her.”
“I… wait… wait… WHAT?”
Vretvika smiled. “I need a Beh’enu if I am to make Beh’enlu.”
“But… but I don’t even have arm blades!” Thyel accidentally protested. “I’m shorter than normal, I’m literally an outsider Beh’en! I’m not the sort of material you want for a Warm!”
Vretvika’s smile only grew. “You already proved yourself. I think you have potential.”
Thyel took a deep breath. “Well… uh… can I have a drink and think about it first?”
“You ought to!” Vick exclaimed as he and Letharus shoved drinks into everyone’s hands. “Either way, let’s all get back to getting drunk.”
The little Beh’ena hesitated, then went back to smiling. “Good idea…”