“Galyn, may I have a word with you?”
Normally, that phrase would be spouted by one of his fellow Decay Lords. But today, interrupting Galyn’s gazing off into the depths of space, was a familiar dragon. Kairos had joined the Thantir as an honorary member. He was a fully fledged Time Drake, having been a God of Time in at least three or four universes now. And, rather surprisingly for a Time Drake, Kairos was somewhat friendly.
“Of course, what is troubling you?” Galyn’s gaze drifted away from the speckles of light drifting through the void, and towards the dragon. Kairos was only a little smaller than Galyn, but he was a dragon and always looked fearsome, even when he didn’t intend to.
Kairos shifted his weight from one foot to another. On closer inspection, Kairos seemed more comfortable standing on four legs rather than two, but he would never actually admit it out loud.
“It’s not so much what is troubling me, it’s what I’m actually doing for you. You’ve given me very little to actually, well, do. Most of my time is spent with Seimeni. You could have sent me on that mission on the Lump but you sent Arkadin instead. You could have had me set up the new comms, but you also handed that out to the Decaylings. I can’t help but wonder, what is my role on this ship?”
Galyn grunted at the mention of Seimeni’s name. “Is the lack of work bothering you? Would you like more to do?”
“Well… uh…” Kairos stuttered, not thinking this far ahead. “I was actually more wondering why you even invited me on this ship? You mentioned it being some sort of collaboration between Decay Lords, Time Drakes and Life Goddesses, but I am not actually doing any sort of collaboration. All I seem to do is keep Seimeni happy.”
More grunts. Kairos realised he had… struck something… with Galyn.
“Did you really just hire me so I could keep Seimeni occupied?”
“No!” Galyn immediately snapped. “We had originally hoped to be able to do everything together as a proper collaboration. But Seimeni decided she was going to go all Life Goddess on us and has been a thorn in our backsides ever since she climbed on board.”
“So why not get rid of her?”
Galyn sighed. “I wish we could, but it would be a breach of contract. And, worse, it would make us look even worse in front of the Life Goddesses. The judgemental… creatures that they are. We had really hoped to be able to do more in general, but, if I am truly honest, you keeping Seimeni occupied has been what has kept us afloat.”
Kairos blinked. “What, really?”
“Yes. You keep her calm and natural enough to not take her… Life Goddess emotions… out on the rest of us. Like she immediately did when we all set off.”
The Time Drake frowned. “Well… I guess that isn’t… too bad… And she’s definitely better now that she has me to talk to… I would like some more things to do though. Even if it is just fixing things and bringing Seimeni with me.”
Galyn nodded. “I understand. I will talk to the others and make arrangements. I am sorry that we dumped Seimeni on you.”
“It’s not that bad, really. I’m just glad that I’m not being useless.”
“Not at all. You have been helpful since the very start.”
“Alright then…” Kairos seemed satisfied with Galyn’s statement. “Let me know when you have something new for me to do.”
“Will do…” Galyn sighed as Kairos headed off. “Will do…”