The Missing Split – Unexpected Communications from Outside the Universe
The names of Decay Lord Trios are generally deterministic. Those given by the Overlord tend to influence the future of a Trio, to the point that overcoming the potential implications of a name can be impossible. Clearly, a Decay Lord Trio dubbed ‘The Missing’ are bound to struggle against their almost predetermined fate. Unfortunately, it seems the multiverse is conspiring against them.
Welcome to one of the… more depressing story arcs I’ve written. A story of rash decisions and broken emotions.
Read the original post here.
“Alright, final matters. Hasvik, is everything arranged for our Portalia trip?”
Hasvik, the General of External Affairs, nodded as the High General wandered around the table. Also present were the High Advisor, the Vice General and a handful of other Below Twenty Generals, namely the Generals of Hidden External Affairs, Hidden Internal Affairs, normal Internal Affairs and Deitic Affairs. Vaksavar, the Master of Generals, was supposed to have been around, but they were currently in a meeting with some lower rank Generals regarding security for the trip.
The High General hadn’t been on a diplomatic trip for a while, and they wanted to kill multiple birds with one stone by planning to meet multiple leaders on a neutral world. They could have chosen the much closer neutral territories of Alsana, but Rethais also had other, more personal things they wished to do, so an excursion to Portalia had been arranged. On the itinerary were meetings with the Voice of the Banikans, another meeting with the All-Ksa of the Skyavok and a quick chat with one of the Seven Imperators of the Lanex. The Lanex hadn’t confirmed which of the Seven they were sending, but Hasvik was pretty sure it would be Atuho, the Imperator of the Vast Sands, who, despite his title, was the friendliest of them.
At the same time though, they had two secondary items on the itinerary. The first was a short stay at a fancy Temthan spa hotel. Rethais had not had a proper holiday since they had become High General, and, since they had just finished rebuilding the city of Phos, Rethais wanted to take a quick break. Just a couple of days.
The second though was very personal. After much deliberation, the Rethianos Bloodline had been officially ended, which meant that Rethais and their siblings were now free to live more… normal lives.
Really, the Rethianos Bloodline, like most of the Bloodline Traditions, was rather horrible. Essentially, each generation of the bloodline was strictly controlled. There were only to ever be two children per generation, the stronger of which would lay two eggs and have two more children. The stronger one would have to be the mother of the next generation, and their mate had to be a significant General of a Below Two Hundred Legion (but not a Below Twenty Legion). The weaker of the two would be forced to remain sexless for their entire lives, only allowed to mate should the stronger sibling be unable to do so. Any extra children within a generation were to be killed.
Unfortunately, for Rethais’s generation, rather than having two separate eggs laid, Rethais was in fact one of three triplets. Rather than kill one of the eggs straight away, all three eggs had been allowed to develop, and as they grew, they essentially competed to see who was strongest. While Rethais had quickly proven themselves to be the most powerful of the three, their siblings, Retvik and Relkir, had struggled. Retvik had been physically as strong as Rethais, but was only slightly above average intelligence. Relkir was incredibly intelligent (potentially more so than Rethais) but they were a runt. Short, odd-looking and their eyes were not the traditional Rethianos red. They were physically weak as well, unable to keep up with even basic training.
On the dawn of their 18th birthday, it had been decided that Relkir was to be killed. However, for reasons Rethais never understood, Retvik offered to take Relkir’s place. For their bravery, Retvik was exiled and cut off from Rethan society. But since the Rethianos Bloodline was being ended, Rethais had decided that Retvik should also be repatriated. Hence the trip to Portalia, where Retvik was exiled. However, Rethais had not informed their middle sibling that the Bloodline Traditions had been ended and they wanted to surprise them. Rethais also had a… secondary surprise planned as well.
“Is there anything we need to go through before we set off today?” Rethais asked.
“No, Kyr Rethais! Everything is all prepared!” Kuta cheerfully replied. Although Kuta was the newly appointed General of Deitic Affairs, they had connections on Portalia, and had assisted General Hasvik in a lot of the organization. Despite multiple recent problems in their personal life, Kuta had gone above and beyond in their services to the Rethan Government and to Rethais. Kuta was also due to come along for part of the trip as well, alongside the two Generals of External Affairs and Hidden External Affairs, as they were capable of dealing with Banikans.
“Wonderful. I assume you are all packed and ready?”
The Generals all nodded. However, just as Rethais was about to dismiss everyone, they heard a faint noise. The sound of a vibrating communicator. While Rethais was not too demanding of their Generals, they did not like being interrupted by external calls.
“Kuta, you know better.”
Kuta seemed almost as confused as Rethais was annoyed. They glanced at their wristband, which was connected to their communicator, informing them of who was trying to get in touch, and the confusion on Kuta’s face only increased. Rethais sighed, then tutted. Despite Kuta being almost as ill-fitting as Rethais’s sibling, they normally did their best to not cause problems.
“I apologise, Kyr Rethais…”
“It is fine. You are all dismissed. Speak to you all soon.”
Rethais left the room, and the other Generals all filed out and left as well. All of them apart from Kuta and Ritlir, the General of Hidden Internal Affairs, Kuta’s closest ally.
“That is unlike you!” Ritlir smiled as Kuta dug out their communicator from their satchel and checked it. Someone had definitely tried to call Kuta, but not on any of their standard channels. “You do not get calls. You are a person who prefers text messages.”
“No, which is why I am concerned. However, I must take this call privately.”
Ritlir looked Kuta up and down. “Who is it?”
“None of your business.”
“It somewhat is.”
Kuta glared at Ritlir. Ritlir immediately backed down, then stood up. “Very well, let me know if you need anything.”
Once the coast was clear, Kuta opened up their call log. Before they could do anything else though, their communicator rang again. This time, Kuta swiftly answered it.
“Kyr Retvik, hello. You have never called me directly before.”
“I apologise, little Kuta, but this is important.”
“You called me in the middle of a meeting with the High General.”
“Again, I apologize. But I must urgently speak with you. I have… bad news…”
Kuta blinked. “What is going on?”
“Litvir has disappeared. He stole a Phantai ship and has fled the area. We have no idea where he is and he is not responding to my calls. I was… hoping that you would be able to get in touch with him. I would not normally drag you into this sort of thing, I know you are living a mortal life, but I cannot get in touch with Arkay either, and he needs to know.”
“Kyr Retvik, I have no guaranteed way of communicating with Arkay.”
“I gathered. But you have a better chance of getting through to both of them. At the very least, if you can contact Arkay, he can keep a look out. While we do not know where Litvir currently is, there is a theory that he may be heading to your universe.”
Kuta took a deep breath. Sure, they had very little contact with their distant sibling, they used to hate Litvir, but Retvik cared deeply for Kuta’s crazy twin brother, and Kuta didn’t want Retvik to be sad.
“I will see what I can do, Kyr Retvik. I will try my best.”
“Thank you, little one. I will let you know if I have any news on my end. I am sorry for putting this weight on your shoulders.”
Before Kuta could say anything else, the call disconnected. Kuta frowned to themselves, not sure what to make of that conversation. After a little thought, they decided to do the obvious thing and send a message to both their sibling and their ex-poten-partner, although they were pretty certain they would not get a response from either of them. However, with a little more thought, Kuta opened their email app. While Arkay hadn’t answered any of Kuta’s emails, Kuta was pretty sure Arkay read them. It was worth a shot.
With a sigh, Kuta sent a handful of emails, then sent a few more messages for good luck. Knowing there was little else they could do, Kuta pushed the negative thoughts from their mind, then got up and headed off. After all, they needed to get ready for their trip to Portalia.