An unholy scream echoed across the cosmos as Epani fled in terror, covering her eyes with her fins and veering around stars. Her scared rampage was only halted by something grabbing Epani by the tail and pulling her aside.
“EPANI?”
Epani screamed a little more, pausing to breath briefly before starting again.
“EPANI!”
“Aaaaahh…” Epani slowly stopped screaming. Someone familiar was talking to her. Her brother, Kairos, to be exact.
“Epani! What happened? Why are you running? What did you see?”
“You… you… no…” Epani coughed and sputtered. “You… it was… it was horrible…”
Kairos blinked, then wrapped his arms around Epani. “You’re not well.”
“I saw something horrific…” Epani wriggled free from Kairos’s grip and drifted off, towards a cold, dead, derelict planet. Kairos watched briefly then followed, both curious and worried. As the two travelled, they were swiftly accompanied by Yisini and Kinisis, who had both heard Epani’s screams as well. It had just taken a little longer for them to arrive.
The derelict world had been empty for decades, perhaps even centuries. There had never been sentient life on the planet, but a solar flare had fried the atmosphere and left it mostly uninhabitable. In the last few days though, there had been movement. Something had landed on the planet and made its way into one of the planet’s large, hollow caves.
Epani hadn’t planned to do anything with the planet. In fact, she would have drifted past it had something shiny not caught her eye. A shimmer of gold on a planet that was nothing but grey. Of course, Epani hadn’t paid attention to it, but she’d intended to go back later.
That was 39 hours ago. When Epani returned, the glisten was gone, replaced with blood, guts and gore.
“Daughter, what are you leading us to?” Kinisis asked as the four deities shrunk themselves down to better examine the visceral mess that stained the entrance to the cave. “What is this mess?”
Epani pointed at a specific pile of gore, then edged away. Kairos and Yisini both glanced at it, then did the same. Kinisis though edged closer, confused and worried.
“What… what is that…” Yisini asked.
“Our… brother…” Epani shuddered. “Our little brother… he did this… to himself…”
Kinisis didn’t seem too sure. The more she prodded the remains, the more curious she became.
“Did Arkadin… kill himself?” Kairos asked, holding Epani in his comforting wings. “Did he… do this to himself?”
Yisini shook her head and joined Kinisis by her side. “Arkadin isn’t dead. We’d notice. No, this is different. This is Arkadin… shedding his skin…”
Kinisis tutted. “He is not a serpent like you three, he shouldn’t… have to shed his skin. But here are his remains, where he has obviously changed himself in a very dramatic way.”
“Are you suggesting that Arkadin has changed form again?” Epani blinked, wiping tears from her eyes. “Has he torn himself apart and gone feral again? Because that’s what it looks like here.”
Kairos let go of Epani and nudged past Kinisis and Yisini, sniffing deeply. He could smell something unusual. The other deities all looked at him, not sure what he was doing. Finally, Kairos backed up again, shaking his head.
“He’s not dead. He’s not gone feral either.”
“What has he done then?” Yisini asked. “Should we be worried? Can we even know?”
“No…” Kairos sighed. “Arkadin’s gone off grid. We won’t know what he physically is up to until he, well, starts doing stuff consciously again. For now, all aspects of decay are on autopilot…”
Kinisis tutted, then patted each of her kids gently on the shoulder. “Sounds about right. All we can do is wait and see what happens…”
…
Lightning forked across the dark, cloudy sky, flashing through a sudden ash storm. In a small, familiar yet empty graveyard, the ground shook. As suddenly as the storm had started, it faded away, fizzling off into nothingness…