The knock on the door did admittedly make Kayel jump, but it was the muttering he could hear that bothered him more. A defeated sigh and the repeated words of “I shouldn’t be here” and “why am I doing this?” were enough to force Kayel out of bed and see what was going on.
It was currently about 11pm, Kayel had admittedly just gone to bed so he wasn’t wearing anything (it was the summer, it was too hot for pyjamas) but he had a good idea who was at the door, so he didn’t bother putting anything on. As Kayel opened the door though, something fell backwards and into his apartment. It turned out that Arkadin, the God of Decay, had been slumped against the other side of the door, and he hadn’t expected Kayel to come and let him in.
“Oh. Sorry, Arkay.”
The Thantophor swiftly picked himself up. “It’s fine. I was the idiot who decided to lean against something that moves. You’re… not busy, are you?”
“No, no. Come on in!”
Kayel led Arkadin inside and sat him down on the sofa, before gently nudging the door closed. As always, Arkadin had brought some food, this time two frosted muffins and two cans of diet energy drinks. Kayel never understood why the God of Death always insisted on bringing something edible every time he visted.
“So, what’s up in the world of Arkay?” Kayel asked as he sat down himself.
“Have you been reading the news?” Arkadin hissed. “Also, it’s weird being called Arkay.”
“Why? You told us you preferred it over being called Arkadin because someone else gave you that name. Actually, what IS your actual name?”
Arkadin took a deep breath, then closed his eyes and lost himself in thought. It was clear that he didn’t really know the answer himself.
“Alright, change of question, what was your original, mortal name?”
“Hm… It… was pretty stupid.”
“Mate, you’re talking to a Skyavok. We name ourselves after letters and our surnames are mostly taken from a massive, ancient list of old Threavok names and are annoyingly similar to Rethan surnames. Your name can’t have been that bad.”
Arkadin snorted. “I think, whatever my original species was, we did the same thing you Skyavok did, but we didn’t have surnames. We just had alphanumeric code names, which we shortened into common names. My name was RK0019K, which I shortened to Arkay. But over the billions of years I’ve existed, I’ve had so many names that it feels almost wrong to use my original, mortal name.”
“I dunno, mate, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to use your original name if you like it… I can’t talk though, I changed my name from Elkay to Kayel.”
“Do you prefer being called Kayel?” Arkadin asked.
Kayel nodded. “Yeah. Still a pretty common name, but, mate, you have no idea how many K-Class Skyans are called Elkay… Can I call you Arkay though? You don’t seem to like any name, but you seem more like an Arkay than an Arkadin?”
Arkadin snorted again. “Hmph. Yeah, you can call me Arkay. Makes more sense when I wander around as a Skyavok anyway.”
“I think it suits you!” Kayel smiled. “So, yeah, about your day?”
That brief moment of amusement Arkadin had faded away. “I am really, really pissed off. There’s people fucking in mine and Sini’s domains and trying to assassinate people, threatening the delicate balance we set up! I could have solved this whole damn thing in about a day, but Epani isn’t letting me get involved and insists Sini will deal with it, and Sini is busy working on a vaccine and symptom reduction medicines for that stupid influenza that’s popped up in Temthan territories!”
“Oh…” Kayel stopped smiling. “Yeah, I can see why that… yeah… It’s messy… Hang on… what do you mean by delicate balance? Do you, like… do things?”
Arkadin frowned some more. “You live in a universe with four conscious, non-perfect god-like entities. There are twelve vastly different species in said universe and billions of individuals with different thoughts and feelings. You really don’t think that we alter things on various levels to make sure that you all don’t nuke each other? We tweak things here and there to make sure that we don’t have utter assholes in charge that want nothing more than power and the extermination or enslavement of those who are not like them. It’s something Sini and I don’t like doing, we’d really like it if everyone was kind without our interference, but it allows you all to flourish, not just a few.”
“Oh…”
“It’s not really fair. But we have to step in sometimes. If we didn’t, there wouldn’t be Skyavok, Spasts or Lanex today, and the universe would be a constant war between the Temthans, Vohra and Torr, with Rethans and Banikans bred and kept as slave armies and everyone else being dead or hiding on the fringes.”
Kayel didn’t like what he had just been told. It bothered him greatly. So he decided to just change the subject entirely.
“So, uh, the Raptor’s kinda pissed that Retvik’s not back yet. Sure, we don’t have any matches this week but she thinks Retvik’s getting political and is abusing his paid time off. Except I spoke to Psiksi and Retvik pretty much never took time off ever before he met us, and has like a year of unused holiday time.”
“But… but Retvik… did Phovos read the fucking news?”
Kayel shrugged. “I assume so, that was how she found out Retvik was spending time with Kuta and went to the Rethan capital to see his siblings.”
“Is she… not aware that she has the Heir to the Spast Throne working for her as the first modern Spast gladiator?”
“Yeah but…” Kayel paused. “How do you know that? I thought you forgot everything about us?”
Arkadin rolled his eyes. “I may be mentally addled and under vast amounts of mind manipulation bullshit, but Tenuk is very clearly Tanos Tou Ahvran. I assume something happened and he either doesn’t remember who he is because of shapeshifting-induced amnesia, he’s in hiding because he was sick of being less of a son and more of a pet to the Lord King or both. I… I’m going to have to have a sneaky word with Phovos, because she has no right to be angry at one of her best house fighters like that.”
“You’re completely right, about all those things, but… again, how do you know?”
“Firstly, I’m a god. Even if I don’t act like one. Secondly, you can identify a Spast in three ways. Tenuk is pretty clever and does create pheromones and stuff, but he has a specific scent, he smells like Tanos Tou Ahvran but slightly dead. Which is my bad, apparently. Secondly, Spasts can’t change the patterns in their irises. You can only see the patterns in UV light, which I see in half the time anyway, they don’t change with age and patterns are passed down genetically. Thirdly, telepaths can see through disguises if they have a reason to assume you are not who you say you are. Tenuk is a good enough actor to cover that, but it doesn’t work on Vohra, and Skyans and Rethans both have very, very slight telepathic traits that make them good at guessing.”
“Huh. I had no idea.”
Arkadin shrugged, before helping himself to one of the drinks he had brought. “Why would you know? Spasts are rare anyway because Sini and I haven’t figured out to stop them shapeshifting in the womb.”
“You do a lot of work for Sini.”
“Yeah. Because Sini actually, I don’t know, seems to care. More than Kairos and Epani do, at least. Epani made what she thought was a perfect little universe and didn’t realize that perfection requires maintenance, so she…”
“She enslaved you to do the work for her, right?” Kayel asked. “Because, before all the memory-erasing piss, you once mentioned that you were, well, free, at some point. Not tied to a universe.”
“Yeah… You can say that…” Arkadin fell completely silent.
“Well…” Kayel thought to himself for a moment, then put an arm around Arkadin. “First thing you can to do fight back is to use a name YOU like. Second thing you can do is make some friends. Third thing you can do is slowly start stretching and breaking rules.”
“You… realize you want me to go against the will of this universe’s head deities, yes? I’m kept on a leash. Sure, Sini has my side sometimes, but she values her safety over mine, and will help Epani tighten my chains if she has to.”
“Yeah. But, like, there’s four of you. You should be equals. At the very least, you should stop calling yourself Arkadin, because that’s the name your masters gave you, to keep your identity out of your grasp. Also, we should, like, be friends, properly. Less of you sneaking to my place at 11pm, more us going out for coffee, coke and cookies.”
Again, the God of Decay fell silent, staring at the floor. But eventually, he looked back at Kayel.
“You know what? You’re absolutely right. Are you busy on Saturday, 2pm?”
“I’m free. Don’t work weekends.”
“Do you want go out for coffee? I’ll come by, 2pmish and pick you up?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Wonderful!” Arkay smiled. “I know just the place…”