The Missing Split – Rekindled Hope
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.
Retvik grunted as he rolled over, being careful not to knock over the tiny glass of water and feeling awfully uncomfortable. For some stupid reason, everyone had wanted Retvik to stay in one place, while Retvik had wanted to be left alone, curl up in a corner and die. So, as a compromise, he was curled up in the corner of the small office used by Kal, the tiny team of mechanical Decay Lords, and they had been taking it in turns on keeping an eye on him and stopping him from doing anything rash. It turned out that, despite being robots, Kal had been through some traumatic things related to blame and missing partners, and they’d managed to calm Retvik down somewhat.
“You alright there?”
Currently watching him was Pah, the brown-painted Cleanser. Pah could manipulate fire the same way Retvik (and fellow Decay Lord Vikalos) could, but Pah didn’t consider himself a Flame. He called his powers ‘plasma’, and his old codename was Spiritpurger-4, which wasn’t fiery at all. Plasmaburn was better, but considering the other Flames Retvik knew were called things like Firestorm and Sunblade, it was weird.
Retvik grunted again. He didn’t want to talk. Admittedly, he couldn’t talk. Retvik had sobbed so much that his throat hurt. The tiny glass of water was of no help either, but Retvik drank every fresh glass he’d been given, just to be nice. Occasionally, someone would bring food, but Retvik hadn’t touched any of it. Retvik wanted comforting Rethan food, things like warm stews and dumplings, but he Phantai didn’t really have those dishes by default via their food generators. Elkay had very kindly gone to the kitchens and cooked a stew, however, despite it smelling genuinely quite nice (even Kal had commented, and Retvik didn’t know they could even smell things), Retvik was too sick to eat.
Really, Elkay had gone and done everything he could for his big brother, and, on top of all the other horrible emotions Retvik was feeling, he felt bad. He and Elkay had never really been that close. Mostly just too busy. Plus, Retvik had only really discovered that Elkay was his half-sibling about five years before the universe blew up, and the relationship was awkward. Not just because Retvik’s mother was Elkay’s father, but because Retvik’s mother had clearly cheated and Elkay had been abandoned and left to fend for himself, and they’d only recently been allowed to publicly talk about their relationship due to the sacred Rethianos bloodline tradition that Elkay wasn’t supposed to have been a part of.. But through this entire… mess between Retvik and Litvir, Elkay had been doing everything he could to help.
Speaking of Elkay, he had been wandering around. Retvik had spotted him wandering back and forth outside the office, occasionally peering in to make sure everything was alright. Which was odd, because normally Elkay would be focused on training for his upcoming Decay Lord Trial. Retvik knew that Elkay was worried about it, not because Elkay was scared that he could fail, but because he felt he needed to protect his fellow Decaylings. He was the largest and most heavily armoured of the eight of them, he’d done the best by far in all the exams and practical work they’d done and Retvik was certain that Elkay saw them all as his responsibility to make sure the other Decaylings kept up with him. Although, to be fair to Elkay, he used to be the ruler of nearly 2 billion Rethavok, in Elkay’s eyes, it was his duty to make sure everyone was equal.
As Elkay disappeared again Retvik turned his attention to Pah, who seemed to be multitasking between reading a digital magazine and sketching something out on a specially made tablet. Kal were tiny creatures and also oddly shaped, so they’d designed their own gear over the years. Apparently, the average height of a Decay Lord was 3m, Retvik’s height. The average height of the Thantir was about 1.9m, and, despite Galyn and Itaviir both hitting the 4m mark, Kal (and Tahvra) brought that average down dramatically. Out of the Decaylings, only Elkay, Elksia and Akah were over 2m tall.
Thoughts about height aside, Retvik was curious about what Pah was doing. But before he could ask, something buzzed. Retvik’s communicator. He’d received a message. The message sadly wasn’t from Litvir. It was from his lost twin sibling Kuta, who was living a normal, mortal life, a long, long way away. Kuta was still technically a Decayling though, which meant he could use Wyvern, the main Decay Lord communication app.
Spiritdrainer: I hope you are well. I have some news. It seems that Arkay cannot contact me directly, but I received a read receipt from one of the emails I sent to Arkay. I noticed that, in the tracking details, some sort of cipher had been inserted, and I have converted it into readable text.
Spiritdrainer: It reads as follows:
Spiritdrainer: EPANI BREAK NOCOM TRYTO HELPI FLARE SENT! HOPEF ULSEE WANDE RERIN GDKLD SSEEN CANTD OMUCH SORRY
Spiritdrainer: I do not know what this means, maybe it makes sense to you. But I am certain Arkay hid this message so the Lady of Light could not detect it.
Retvik read the messages again, his eyes lighting up. This was… it was something. News. Good news. If Arkay knew what was going on and had tried to communicate, that meant… It meant Litvir wasn’t dead. Missing, yes, definitely, but not dead.
“Retvik?”
Pah had picked up on Retvik’s sudden movement and had come over to see how he was doing.
“N-news…” Retvik struggled. Words grated through his throat. “Arkay has tried to get in touch. I think Epani has taken his communicator but he sent a coded message to Kuta.”
Although he couldn’t smile or anything, he immediately patted Retvik on the head with his tiny, metal claws. “That’s good news! Kuta is… Have we met Kuta?”
Retvik thought to himself, then shook his head. “No, I do not think you have. Kuta is Litvir’s twin sibling, They live in the universe Arkay is trapped in and, like Arkay, they have only recently been made aware of their past.”
“They? Is Kuta more than one person?”
“Oh. No. Kuta identifies as non-binary.”
“Huh, neat…” Pah trailed off. Being robots, they didn’t really understand anything romantic, and genders in their universe were… a mess. “Are they a telepath like Litvir is?”
“Yes. Stronger but far less refined. However, I am not completely sure what Arkay’s message means…” Retvik sat up, then showed Pah the message on his communicator. When he clearly didn’t understand it either, he telepathically called Koh, who was immediately teleported to Retvik’s side by Tah.
“What’s up?” Koh asked as Pah took Retvik’s communicator and showed him the message. “Hm. Epani broke Arkay’s communicator so he can’t talk, he wants to try and help, he sent a flare and hopefully some wandering Decay Lords will see him, but he can’t do much else and he’s sorry.”
Retvik frowned. “Bloody Life Goddesses… Still, I have no idea why Litvir ran, and I am certain it is to do with that message that I wanted to discuss and cannot remember.”
“Maybe Epani sent an inflammatory message in a bid to hurt all three of you?” Koh suggested. “Leh and I have met Yisini and Kairos and they weren’t particularly nice, and we’ve all met Kinisis and she was, excuse my language, a bitch. Epani is probably just as bad.”
“Hmmmph…” Retvik grunted to himself. “It just pains me even more that Arkay is being held hostage by such monsters…”
The three Cleansers all nodded, but abruptly froze and turned to the door. They’d picked up something that Retvik hadn’t. After a few seconds, Retvik could hear heavy, Beh’evok footsteps plodding towards them.
“Retvik, there you are!” Vikalos beamed as he immediately waltzed in and lifted Retvik to his feet. Behind him were Galyn and Itaviir, Vikalos’s partners, and Psehon, better known as Soulblade, one of the Phantai leaders, who had been relaying information to the Thantir. Vikalos marched Retvik out of the room, and everyone headed off down the square hallways. “We have amazing news!”
“You do?” Retvik blinked.
“We just got a message from a ship named The Wandering Star Guider, a Decay Lord vessel,” Psehon explained. “They have informed us that they have picked up a Phantai ship with a young Decay Lord on board, and we are heading to the edge of Phantai territories to meet up with them now.”
“That… that…” Retvik was at a loss for words. “I… I do not… know what to say.”
“Say nothing then. You have a couple of hours to think about what you want to say!” Vikalos smiled kindly. “In the mean time, we will grab some food and a proper drink for you, since you have been neglecting yourself, and we will head to the hangar to wait for this ship to arrive! Alright?”
For the first time in far too long, Retvik smiled. “Alright, sounds like a plan…”