Keith couldn’t help but laugh as he watched Arkay flail around on the floor, having fallen out of his bunk bed. Really, he should have been sympathetic, it seemed like Arkay had been woken by a bad dream, but he was an angel of death or something like that, he could withstand a bump on the head. That and also Keith was still a little high from the amount he drank last night.
Arkay eventually settled down, sitting up straight and rubbing his shoulder.
“That was fucking horrible.”
“You alright, kiddo?”
“Nope. Not at all…” Arkay shook his head then wobbled to the bathroom, where he washed his face with water. “Kinisis was fucking screaming at me to wake up and get back to Kinigi. So I wake up and she’s not there. And I can’t get to Kinigi. Not normally. But I can still hear her screaming. It’s faded now, but still!”
Keith shrugged as he headed downstairs. He needed to clean up and get the bar ready to be opened. “Who’s Kinisis?”
“Oh, only the personification of the entire circle of life, death and rebirth, no one important…” Arkay seemed pretty angry. Maybe he needed to drink more. Keith wanted to drink more but he had things to do.
“Seems like a bitch,” Keith replied.
“She IS a bitch. And when all this is over, I go back to working for her. You need me to do anything in particular?”
Keith rubbed his eyes and scanned the bar. They’d actually left it pretty tidy. The kitchen on the other hand… “Yeah. Need you to wash the dishes and get the breakfast snacks in the microwave…”
The barkeeper listened carefully as Arkay turned the tap off, fluttered around doing goodness knows what, then leaped down the stairs in one go and got on with his work. Despite the fact that Arkay was a pent up weirdo, Keith couldn’t help but admire how willing to work he was.
After wiping the bar down and setting up the stools, Keith clomped over to the door, flipped the open sign and unlocked. Already, a potential customer was waiting.
“Heya, Vee!” Keith grinned as the green, spiky, winged Panvok entered. “You’re early!”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Vee smiled back. “Time is funny when you’re in the Umbric Realm.”
Keith led Vee over to the bar and they both sat down. Keith immediately started pouring two iced coffee drinks, sticking a fancy paper umbrella and straw in each one.
“How’s the family?”
“Oh, everyone’s great. We’re settling down now. Finally got proper water. Ksiel worked out a neat way of doing it… Huh, place is tidier than normal…” Vee’s eyes scanned the room. “You got a new assistant?”
Keith nodded, then called out to the kitchen. Arkay immediately appeared in the doorway, the first batch of breakfast pastries ready to be placed inside the self-serving stand.
“Hey, Arkay, say hello to-”
“Veeyel!” Arkay gasped. “What the…”
“Wow, fuck me…” Veeyel was almost speechless. “I thought you… uh…”
“I thought you were still in hospital…” Arkay muttered. “You look… really fucking good…”
“And you look… not dead…”
Keith decided to back out of the conversation. He’d seen this sort of shit happen before and he didn’t want to be part of this.
“So I take it that ritual worked?” Arkay finally asked. “Because holy fuck you look amazing. A pair of wings, nice, spiky armour, working legs… just, wow!”
Veeyel grinned. “Yep. Was totally worth it. The six of us, we’re now building ourselves a new home in the Umbric Realm. I’ve been getting shipments of crystals here, and also making big bucks selling Shadow Grass, because apparently people like that sort of hallucinogenic shit.”
“But how are you here?” Arkay was confused. “Surely, even if you… wait, you use the Umbric Realm to essentially wormhole your way across the universe… I wonder if I could do the same to get back to Kinigi…”
“You’re stuck outside Kinigi? Is that why no one can die?”
“No, no one can die because Kairos and Stasis have set up some sort of wall that stops souls actually reaching Kinigi. I can only assume that if the spirit can return to the body, it can, otherwise it just crashes constantly into this wall…” Arkay sighed. “It’s been weird. Part of me screams that I need to get back to my duty and get the cycle working again. The other half says to let it all be. But we both know that’s wrong…”
Veeyel leaned forward, taking one of the pastries. “Well, kid, I kinda owe you for letting us do that ritual. I’ll give you a hand in getting back to where you belong…”