“WHAT ELSE ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME?”
Retvik hardly moved as Voidblade wrapped his claws around his throat. He simply grunted and tutted, waiting for Voidblade to calm down. When that didn’t happen, Retvik snapped his fingers and waited some more. After a couple of seconds, Voidblade abruptly let go of Retvik and emptied his stomach contents all over the floor. Bile bubbled ominously, steaming and evaporating, leaving a rather horrible stench.
Behind them, the door opened up, and in the light that was now creeping in, Litvir, Soulblade and Lightblade all immediately picked up on the tension in the room.
“Uh, Retvik, dear, are you alright?”
“I am absolutely fine, Litvir…” Retvik tutted some more. “I always wondered what would happen if I did actually cause someone’s stomach contents to boil.”
Lightblade took a long, deep breath. “Telin, how many damn times do we have to tell you NOT to attack our guests? You KEEP on doing this!”
It took a moment for Voidblade to regain his composure. He straightened himself out and pointed a finger in Retvik’s face. “THEY HAVE A SECOND FUCKING HYBRID MIMIC AMONG THEM!”
“So?” Lightblade hissed, stomping into the room. To everyone’s surprise, he pushed Voidblade against the wall, his claws held to Voidblade’s neck the same way Voidblade had just attacked Retvik. “THAT DOES NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO HURT ANYONE! WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FIRST MOTHER IS WRONG WITH YOU?”
“Lightblade raises a good point!” Soulblade and Litvir both attempted to calm the situation down. Litvir telekinetically separated the two elder Decay Lords, while Soulblade silently and telepathically told Lightblade to back off. “Voidblade, Telin, my dear, you need to calm down. Flamebearer and Souldrainer here have probably only just figured this out themselves, correct?”
Retvik crossed his arms and sighed. “We had a feeling something was a bit weird with Elkay, but we had no idea he was a mimic. After all, he is my brother, I have known Elkay for a very, very long time, and he has only started showing these weird powers recently.”
Voidblade snarled and attempted to push past Lightblade to get to Retvik, but Lightblade held him back.
“THAT MONSTER IS RELATED TO YOU?”
“Yes, he is my half-brother. And I would appreciate it if you stopped calling Elkay a monster. The only monster here is you.”
Voidblade hesitated for a moment. “Do you share a mother or a father?”
“My mother is Elkay’s father.”
“How… does that even work?”
“Voidblade, dear,” Soulblade interjected. “Their species is very similar to Loopblade’s original species. They are both male and female. We have been through this already, and you forced Loopblade-1 to explain this in great detail when we originally picked them up.”
“You…” Voidblade stuttered. “You have a vagina, Retvik?”
“Uh, yes…” Retvik tutted. “But, awkward questions about unusual biology aside, you really, really need to stop being so aggressive with us, Telin. You constantly claim you want to help us, then at the same time attack us…”
“Hang on, hang on…” Voidblade interrupted. “How many of the Thantir are female?”
“Why does that matter?” It was getting quite clear that the other Great Blades were becoming rather annoyed with Voidblade’s behaviour.
“I am just curious, Soulblade. I assumed they were all male apart from the Life Goddess. Souldrainer, Flamebearer, are you willing to answer, or is this yet another secret you intend to keep from me?”
Litvir and Retvik both rolled their eyes. With a sigh, Litvir began to break down the genders of each of the Thantir, despite knowing that this whole conversation was utterly stupid and pointless. “Tenuk and Akah are singularly male, as are the three Tattered Navigators. Elksia and Phovos are both singularly female. Tahvra is technically male but is neutered. Eksi, Teekay, Elkay, Retvik and myself are all intersex, both male and female. All six of Kal use male pronouns but are truly genderless. This has nothing to do with anything though.”
“Litvir is absolutely right! This is all stupid!” Lightblade was utterly exasperated. “Telin, please, for the love of the Holy Mothers, can you please, please, stop being such a fucking idiot? You are making us look like monsters!”
Voidblade snarled, then drew his sword, pointing it at Lightblade. “Us? Monsters? The monsters are here standing among us! This twisted Psion and this tainted Flame have done nothing but cause us problems!”
“Are you really blaming them for our regular four-ev attacks? The Thantir have been nothing but helpful to us! Not only have both these two, the Tattered Three AND the larger of their Decaylings assisted us in both our patrols and our tele-comms, but having a fresh team of on-site purifiers has been a blessing! And let’s not forget that they have something we don’t, a Time Drake! The fact that you lot have a Time Drake with you is impressive, they normally do their own thing. And little Threadwarper has done an amazing job reducing casualties around here.”
“Not to mention that Litvir here has been assisting me in bettering our telepathic defences…” Soulblade added.
“Oh, so you two are friends now?” Retvik asked.
Litvir and Psehon both nodded. However Voidblade stared at them both angrily. And he was still holding his sword aggressively towards Lightblade.
“Telin, dear, seriously, what is your problem?” Psehon made his way towards Lightblade’s side. “Phos and I, we are concerned about you.”
“They are my problem…” Telin snarled some more, hissing over his words. “They seek to usurp us.”
“That is not true in the slightest!” Litvir butted in. “We do not want to usurp anyone, we just want to be helpful while you allow us to stay with you!”
Telin paused, then abruptly threw his blade vaguely in Litvir’s direction, before silently marching out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him and ignoring the fact that he had just stepped through puddles of his own bile.
“What in the name of the First and Final Mothers is wrong with him?” Phos eventually shouted, unsure how to process everything that had just happened, before hesitating and turning to Retvik and Litvir. “He… Telin is not… he’s not supposed to be like that!”
“I will be honest, I find Telin’s actions nearly as insulting as the fact that you all still consider Kinisis as some sort of holy being…” Retvik muttered.
“You hate the Final Mother that much?”
Retvik tutted. He had been tutting a lot lately. “She did possess my mentor, stab one of my Thirds in the chest then attempt to kill my other Third, while murdering an ex-girlfriend in the process, all the while being an all-round horrible and unredeemable person… That is beside the point though. Have either of you checked Telin for Voidborn mind control?”
Psehon frowned. “I forget that you Thantir do not see Life Goddesses the way we do…”
“No, just Kinisis. And maybe a couple of others.”
Psehon glanced at Phos, then shrugged, unable to disagree. “Fair enough. I will… speak to Telin, hopefully convince him to let me give him a quick check up. Maybe you are right, maybe something, maybe that damned Ahkron, wormed its way into Telin’s head. Because this… this is not normal. In the mean time, I will speak to Moonblade and some of my underlings to keep an eye on your Decaylings.”
“And I will ask Vikalos to keep an eye on Elkay…” Litvir sighed.
“Anyway, Litvir and I had better get back to work. After all, we just had a Voidborn incursion, we ought to check everyone else for any traces of mind control.”
Psehon made his way out of the room, floating over the mess all over the floor. Litvir followed, lifting up his cape to make sure it didn’t get dirty. However, both Retvik and Phos remained where they were, somewhat lost in both thought and confusion.
“Retvik, dear…” Phos eventually whispered.
“Yes?”
“Is your Lost Third the same way Telin is?”
Retvik shook his head. “No, not really. Arkay was occasionally aggressive, yes, but only if you threatened him. These days, he is much more stable.”
“Huh. I would love to see your Arkay one day. He seems like a curious fellow.”
“Believe me, Phos, I would love to see Arkay again too…”