“Can’t sleep?”
“No. Can’t sleep either?”
“No.”
Kayel was standing in the doorway, clinging to a blanket and a stuffed animal, wearing a cute little black hoodie with a giant pink heart on it. Arkay was lying on the sofa, staring at the wall, but he’d heard Kayel get up.
“Want to talk?” Arkay asked. “Always helps when you can’t settle down properly.”
“Kinda…” Kayel sat down on his office chair and span around a few times, before facing Arkay. “I was considering going out for a walk or something, but this road’s kinda boring and I don’t really have a reason to go out. Also, it’s like 1am and the only place open is that bakery up the other way.”
Arkay shrugged as he sat up. “Could get donuts.”
“Eh, nah, I’m supposed to be cutting down…” Kayel glanced at Arkay some more. “I feel like I need to do something thrilling. Or at least something to burn energy or whatever… Can I ask something of you?”
“Sure! What’s up?”
Kayel hesitated. “Kuta said they would try and teach me, but they’ve been busy, and I also kinda don’t want to get Kuta in trouble if we messed up. Also, I don’t have the money to pay for a flight from End One back to here.”
Arkay immediately realized what Kayel wanted to ask. “You want me to teach you how to long-distance shadowjump?”
“Yeah.”
“Hah…” Arkay snickered somewhat. “Funnily enough, I was reading through some notes I clearly made before my memories were erased. Apparently Kuta asked me something similar a few days before I was forced to split up with him, because neither of us could sleep… Yeah, sure, I can teach you. I kinda want to be able to teach more people, but it does slowly become a security issue…” Arkay paused briefly. “I’ll have a chat with All-Ksa Elkay, I think. But yeah, sure, I can teach you! Where do you want to go?”
Kayel raised a finger, paused, lowered his finger then lost himself in thought. “You know what? That’s a really good question… I am concerned that my very first thought was “can I shadowjump to Kuta’s bedroom to scare the piss out of them?” but that’d be mean… I suppose I always wanted to go to back to End Seven Thirteen, where I was apparently found as an egg, in the hopes of recognizing something, but at the same time, I could kinda just do that by fucking up a shadowjump, going to End One and walking…”
Arkay eyed Kayel a little, then snickered again. “Well, we can’t go and scare Kuta, because they’re currently recovering. But, well, is there a pretty view you’d like to see or something?”
“Yeah I… wait, recovering?”
“Kuta had a little health issue they didn’t tell anyone about. It’s all fixed now.”
“Oh. Alright… Well, I suppose it might be nice to sit on a beach and watch the stars.”
“Alrighty!”
Arkay grabbed his laptop and opened it up. After a few moments, he pulled up what looked like a live feed of a popular beach. Kayel inspected the page and read the title. It was a camping beach located on Threa Two, the only other Skyan-controlled territory aside from Shadefern, a Skyan abandon-world that was only just technically habitable, and planet Skya itself. Arkay then opened up another website called FindTheDistanceRightFuckingNow.sky, and clicked on a link that had clearly been clicked on before.
“So, I generally do these calculations instantly, because I’m a god and I can do stuff like that. For the most powerful shadowjumpers, I have this website. You simply grab two locations off SkyAtlas.sky, plug them into the two boxes here and it’ll give you an almost exact distance that is accurate for about five minutes. Now, long distance shadowjumps have two key points to them: you need to know exactly where you want to go, and you need to concentrate really hard, imagine yourself not just going there, but being there already. You’re not jumping, you’re opening a door and stepping through it. Once you have a few places memorized, you can jump somewhat more freely, like you can already with short distance jumps, but the first time going to a new place is always the hardest.”
Arkay showed both the live feed and the distance calculator to Kayel, and quickly typed in the required information. The distance was vast. So vast that Kayel was struggling to comprehend it.
“You want to try?”
Kayel hesitated. “I… I won’t hurt myself if I mess up, will I?”
“Worst case scenario, you pass out in Zero Zero. But I’ll hold your hand and make sure you’re safe.”
“Oh. Alright. So… I just… I just do this?”
Arkay smiled as he got up and held Kayel’s hand. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
Kayel thought to himself. He turned back to the live feed, focusing on a dark shadow by the cliff. He imagined himself being there, stepping out of that shadow and onto the beach. After a bit of daydreaming, he turned to the dark, shaded wall in his bedroom, gripped Arkay’s hand tightly and ran, as fast as he could.
As Kayel stepped through the shadow, he felt weirdly… empty. As if he was nothing for a moment, as if he couldn’t breathe.
Consciousness briefly fled Kayel’s mind. When he woke up, he could feel sand between his fingers, taste salt in his mouth and hear gentle sloshing.
“You did it.”
Kayel picked himself up. It was dark. It was night time. He was on a beach, and sitting by his side was the Silent Blade.
“Wow. I did!” Kayel gasped. “Is… is passing out normal?”
“Maybe? There’s only ever been a handful of beings capable of long distance shadowjumps, and I know both Kuta and Elkay both pass out if they’re not quite prepared.”
Kayel sat up properly, then turned to face the sea. There were people on the beach, a handful of Skyans about 100m away, chilling by a small camp fire, as well as a few tents. The sea was rather calm, but the wind was a bit nippy. Kayel shivered slightly, but settled down as Arkay put an arm around him.
“Why did I pass out?”
“I think it’s the combination of the mental strain of realizing what you are doing, as well as you passing through the infinite void as you move through the shadow, which is almost a vacuum and lacks any oxygen. Those things aren’t a problem for me, but it definitely can be a problem for you.”
“Ah. Neat. I honestly though it’d be harder.”
“Really? That means you’re a natural!” Arkay smiled.
“Neat. Honestly, I think I could go back right now, but this is nice.”
“Yeah.”
Arkay leaned back, glancing up at the stars. Kayel stared at the water some more, then looked up as well. They both remained silent for a bit, but after a while, Arkay sighed.
“Is something wrong?” Kayel asked.
“Eh, not really. Sometimes I get… flickers of memories. Memories long buried, abruptly brought up to the surface. Looking at the stars, I… I remember there being a lot more of them.”
“More?”
“Yeah. The last universe I was a god in was a lot bigger. The universe I was mortal in, it was… uh…” Arkay thought for a moment. “Based on my rough maths, this universe is the size of a small galaxy back in my old mortal universe, and that universe contained hundreds of galaxies, with vast amounts of darkness in between.”
Kayel blinked. “That… that is… huge.”
“It is. But bigger universes are much harder to protect. Even with two extra deities, we couldn’t keep the previous universe safe…” Arkay suddenly paused. “Fuck. I need to arrange a quick meeting with Kairos about boundary protection…”
“Aw…” Kayel whimpered as he scooted closer to Arkay, still shivering a little. “But I want to snuggle on the beach with you and watch the skies.”
Arkay turned to Kayel and looked him up and down. He did have godly things he needed to do. Things he had admittedly been putting off. But at the same time, he did just want to snuggle with this adorable, kind-hearted being who saw Arkay not as a monster, but someone who deserved love and kindness, the same way everyone else did.
Yes, Arkay was tied to the universe, bound to protect it with his life. But what was the point if he never got a chance to stop and experience the universe?
After a moment of thought, Arkay smiled, then pulled Kayel close. “We can watch the skies for a while. The other gods won’t like it, but they can wait for once.”
Kayel smiled back. It was a tired smile, but a somewhat triumphant smile. Arkay liked that. The two Skyans laid back on the sand, listening to the waves, feeling the salt on their skin, gazing up at the universe.
For a brief moment, everything was… good.
“Thanks, Arkay.”
“Thank you too, Kayel.”