The Missing Split – Partners Again
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.
The strange, white ship was exactly that, strange. Nonsensical even. It was just a sphere with an engine on the front and the back, two fins on either side and windows placed at random. Along the side was the ship’s name, the Wandering Star Guider. A large, flat, white panel had extended from the front of the ship, allowing it to dock with the Shimmering Blade, the Phantai’s flagship and main base.
Out of this ship had stepped three individuals, all of whom were quite mismatched. The largest was a long, twisting, wingless red and mint dragon with starry flames running down her back. The middle one was a lizard-like creature. Retvik thought they looked like a Temthan, but they called themselves a Tenthalite, and they wore bulky metal armour. The last creature was a cat. A large, black cat, but still a cat. After introducing themselves as a Hidden Named Trio, they had immediately called Retvik out and instructed him to board their ship.
Of course, Retvik had complied. He knew why. At least, he hoped he knew why.
As Retvik entered what was some sort of bright, white living area, with three custom-made seats, a television and a coffee table, he spotted what he was looking for.
“Litvir…”
Litvir jumped in surprise. He had been sitting in the middle seat, staring at the floor. Normally, being a powerful telepath, Litvir was nearly impossible to sneak up on. After quickly checking himself and looking around to make sure they were alone, Litvir got up, approached Retvik and got down on his knees in front of him, head lowered in shame.
“I am sorry. For everything. For lying to you. For altering your memories. For running away. For considering suicide. For leaving you lost, confused and alone. The last short while, I have had massive lapses of judgement. Whoever sent that message to you laid out my horrible, ugly past, my old but true intentions, in front of your perfect eyes. I was scared that you would harm me, I could not understand why you did not comprehend why I acted as I did as a mortal, I let my emotions get the better of me and… I hurt you. And you told me to leave.
“For a brief, stupid moment, I believed that I was better off dead and gone. I did not realize that my actions would hurt you further.”
Retvik looked Litvir up and down. He’d never seen Litvir so blatantly submissive before. Despite being a hundred years old, Litvir was acting like a scared child, hands placed open against the ground, eyes fixated on the floor, tail curled up to one side, unmoving. Litvir sighed to himself, then continued talking.
“I thought I was doing you a favour. After all, as a mortal, I was a monster. You know what I did to both you and the unfortunate souls of the 11th Legion. But I could never admit that I killed Siona Kaldieridos not because I saw her as a threat to other Rethans, but because she was a threat to me and my own plans. I was born a slave and I craved the power that Siona held over me… The message that you had been sent, it was all true. You do not remember what it said. But I will remind you, because you deserve to know who you are really bound to…”
Litvir glanced up at Retvik briefly, then snapped his fingers. Something purple flashed before Retvik’s eyes, and a series of memories all came flashing back. While Retvik sorted through these chaotic thoughts, Litvir removed his chest armour and adjusted his position somewhat, leaning back, exposing his neck to Retvik.
“You… you are submitting yourself to me… for me to kill you?” Retvik asked.
“The little fluffy kitty said that we are supposed to forgive each other for what we did as mortals. But I did unforgivable things. I never paid for my crimes. I need to be punished. By you.”
Retvik grunted. “You gave into the temptations of the old Void Lord, but so did so many others. But I cannot really fault you for that when I considered it myself. I… find it funny that you see me as this perfect individual, but I have faults too. I hide behind the excuse that I was fighting a war against a corrupt deity. I hide the fact that I killed plenty who did not deserve to die. We have both been monsters in the past.
“But we have changed. Litvir, you have changed, even if you cannot see it yourself. The old Litvir would have never risked himself when Galyn was possessed and tried to kill me, the old Litvir would not have helped the Phantai make their telepathic links more secure, and you would have never even considered agreeing to our insane plan to destroy the Crystal Doom. I will not deny it, you were an evil bastard, but some evil bastards are redeemable.”
“So…” Litvir hesitated. “Was the fluffy kitty right? Should we forgive and forget our pasts?”
Retvik smiled and lifted Litvir to his feet. “Yes, the strange, godly cat is right. I forgive you, Litvir. You made me have a complete mental breakdown, but I forgive you nonetheless.”
Litvir opened his mouth to speak, but it took a little too long for anything to come out. “I… You have no idea how… weird that sounds, hearing those words from your maw…” Litvir fell silent again, then took another look at Retvik. Something was off about the flaming Rethan, and Litvir had only just realized what it was. Sure, Retvik was wearing his standard golden armour, but the fabric stomach wrap and the loincloth he was wearing, they were purple. “You are wearing my wraps… you were… mourning me, as if I was a lost partner.”
“You are my partner, Litvir. And I hope that, maybe, you can look past your self-loathing and your dark history and maybe see me as your partner too. When you ran, I lost my mind. I have spent the last twelve hours curled up in Kal’s office, unable to eat or sleep, because I was unable to cope with you not being around. We have cried and bled for each other. When we are apart for too long, we yearn for each other. And we blew up a stupid Voidborn mothership together. If all that is not a sign of our partnership, I do not know what is.”
“Heh…” Litvir allowed himself a small smile. “You are right, Retvik. I am sorry for hurting you. I thought you would be better off without me. I was clearly very, very wrong.”
Retvik ran his hand across Litvir’s face, wiping away tears. “Like I said, dear, I forgive you. And, admittedly, I owe you a small apology too. Telling you to leave was wrong. You were torn apart by conflicting emotions and I said the wrong thing.”
“You do not need to apologise for that. I should have used my brain. Normally I do…” Litvir’s words faded. He looked up at Retvik, then wrapped his arms around him, sobbing. “I am such an idiot.”
Retvik hugged Litvir back. “We are both idiots. But we can be idiots together, if you want.”
“I would like that, yes.”
The two young Decay Lords embraced each other some more, before eventually letting go.
“Wow…” Litvir muttered as he took a deep breath. “We both stink.”
“I admit, I have not looked after myself at all since you vanished…” Retvik tutted. “I lost Gath, we lost Arkay, losing you was… too much.”
“Sorry…”
“It is fine. I already said I forgive you. We ought to get out of here though. This place is too bright and white for my liking, and everyone else is desperate to see you.”
“They are?” Litvir asked.
“Well, yes, of course!” Retvik perked up a little. “Us Thantir stick together. Heck, even Psehon admitted that he likes you. He organized a lot of the search. The Three Great Blades normally hate everyone.”
“I… I appreciate that. I was selfish and did not think about how my actions would affect others. I owe them all an apology too. And I need to thank Ziital, Eta and Orion for helping me. I am…. amazed that, somehow, in this vast darkness, I was found. Because my ship was deader than dead, and I originally tried very hard to not be found.”
“I think we had some help. Some… yellow-plated death god help. And some sibling-based help. I spoke to Kuta to tell them about you, Kuta tried to contact Arkay, then Kuta received a coded message from our poor lost partner, something about Epani, wandering Decay Lord and some flares.”
“Hmph. Explains the brief yellow flash I saw… I… I should message Kuta too.”
“Well, we should go and do that then. And then we should both get something to eat, have a shower together and then retire to our room and rest for a bit. If you want to, of course.”
Both Rethans fell silent briefly.
“I love you, Retvik…” Litvir muttered, after a short pause.
“I love you too, Litvir.”
“I am sorry.”
“I know. I forgive you.”
“I really am sorry-”
“Say sorry again, and I will punch you.”
Litvir smiled, properly this time. He let Retvik take him by the hand and lead him out of the strange, white ship, back to safety, back to where he belonged.