The dark hall was pretty much empty, aside from the round table and six stools. The walls were covered in tiny diamonds, twinkling in the fading light.
“Sit, all of you!” Kinisis demanded as her four children and her partner filed in. Kenon sat next to Kinisis. Kairos and Epani to their left, Yisini and Arkadin to their right. With a snap of her fingers, various foods and drinks appeared on the table, and the walls changed from pitch black to white with gold trimmings.
Kairos glanced at his siblings, unsure why they had been summoned. Epani looked as pissed off as she always looked, but Arkadin, who was normally somewhat expressionless, looked genuinely angry. Yisini was her normal, bouncy self.
Immediately, Kinisis pointed at Arkadin. “What is your problem?”
“My problem is that my siblings are committing incest.” Arkadin’s answer was blunt.
Epani cowered slightly. Kairos swallowed nervously. Yisini didn’t care at all.
“So?” Yisini asked. “So what?”
“You know incest is a dangerous path to go down, right?” Arkadin snarled. “Sleeping with your own siblings, trying to produce children. It is not…”
“Right?” Yisini was smiling. “Who died and made you king of what is right and wrong?”
The Lord of Death decided to ignore Yisini and turned to Kinisis and Kenon. “My problem is not with them sleeping with each other, my problem is with them trying to reproduce. We agreed, children, Yisini is the only being allowed to create life. Are we not following rules any more?”
“Nope.” Kinisis replied. “Don’t care.”
Kenon looked at Kinisis. “You said you did care, my dear.”
“I did, about forty million years ago.”
The Voidlord glanced at Arkadin, who had fallen completely silent, then turned back to his partner Kinisis. “You never informed me of this.”
“Do I have to inform you of these things?” Kinisis tutted. “I am the CREATOR of this universe, I bend it to my will. It’s my decision, I do what I want. And the way I see it? My darling partner and children should be able to do what they want as well.”
Again, Kenon glanced at Arkadin.
“Even him?”
Kinisis hesitated. “Um…”
“It is all or nothing, my dear.”
“Yeah but…” Kinisis lowered her tone, speaking so only Kenon could hear. “He’s… different…”
“Because he is the God of Death or because he is the only one who does not sleep with his siblings?”
After a moment of silence, Kinisis simply tutted, then turned back to Arkadin.
“They’re not hurting you. Why are you so scared of your siblings doing what they are doing?”
“I’m not scared of them having kids. I’m scared for when I have to kill their kids. Which I will have to do some day, because we all agreed that the only unkillable things in this universe were us!” Arkadin explained. “I don’t want to have to do that, and I know they…” Arkadin gestured towards his siblings. “They will all hate me when I end up doing that anyway. That and it’s fucking gross…”
Yisini tutted dismissively. “Most species start off with incest and sibling fuckery. It’s pretty standard in nature. We’re all parts of nature ourselves, I don’t see what your problem is.”
“She has a point,” Epani added. “It is all part of your precious cycle.”
Arkadin rolled his eyes. “Fine. Do what you want. Don’t listen to little Arkadin.”
“Well…” Kairos hesitated, then spoke. “I don’t really want children. I do, but not from you lot. As much as I dislike what you do, Arkadin, you are right, you will have to take them away from us. And that is fair, we did agree that anything we make shouldn’t be immortal the way we are. But at the same time it’s hypocritical of you to try and tell us what to do.”
“That’s horrible but fair…” Arkadin finally admitted. “I’m just sick of one rule for me and one rule for everyone else.”
Again, Kenon and Kinisis looked at each other. They had a brief, silent conversation. Kinisis growled, then tutted, then sighed.
“Fine. You can sleep around, but no kids!”
“Why?” Yisini asked, the smirk on her face fading slightly.
“Because if I let you all do what you want, I have to let Arkadin do what he wants. And we can’t have that now, can we?” Kinisis smiled, just a little. “Now get out of my sight.”