“So, question, are you doing this for my sake, your sake or Deathven’s sake?”
Veeyel tutted as he sorted out equipment. Normally, he’d just use his shadowy powers to do all things medical, but Arkay was immediately immune to those shadows, and the two of them would somewhat instinctively counteract each other.
“Why are you asking?”
“I’m physically fine, if a bit shaken. Retvik and Litvir are fine, if a bit shaken. The Travellers are fine, if a bit shaken. You only called me out though.”
Veeyel tutted some more, then instructed Arkay to lie down on the bed. He attached some sensors to the side of Arkay’s head, then wrapped some sort of monitor around Arkay’s wrist, before covering him up with a blanket.
“You’re not answering my question.”
“You already know the answer.”
Arkay frowned. “I asked a question, not a rhetorical one. How much of this is making sure that I’m healthy and how much of this is you collecting data to send back to Deathven because he’s still scared of me?”
Veeyel tutted yet again, but this time, he turned to face Arkay properly. “It’s for all three of our sakes. Firstly, I’m a medic, it’s my job to make sure you’re healthy. Secondly, my own curiosity is getting the better of me, and I want to know if there’s any genetic connection between us. Thirdly, you can’t see why Deathven’s scared of you?”
“The first two, fair enough, but you ought have told me about the last two. As a patient, I deserve to know, and I also deserve some level of privacy when it comes to my care.”
“Normally, I’d agree 100%. But let’s be honest with ourselves here. Your fiery boyfriend got stabbed in the stomach and you turned 40ft tall and bit the head off a Voidborn in retaliation.”
“We were literally there to kill Voidborns.”
Veeyel paused. “Well… good point… but there are concerns about your stability. It’s fine for someone like Ralian or Retvik or whoever, Flames are easy to control. As you go up the power ladder though, folks need to keep an eye on us, in case we become uncontrollable. I mean, you’ve been there before, right? That was why you were sent to a Deathven sector.”
Arkay blinked, then immediately realised what Veeyel was on about. “Well… you are right on that last bit. Killing a Life Goddess and an entire Voidborn cult because they were threatening me and she wanted to force me to build a universe with her did make me lose my mind and threaten the only people who cared about me in return… I totally deserved to be sent to Deathven Sector Ypsilon, where I was taken out of the care of professionals and then abandoned and left to fend for myself, where Life Goddesses were allowed to talk to me and convince me that I had nothing left for myself, where I accepted an opportunity that ended up with my dying, being revived and then trapped inside a universe, being forced to be its death god again.”
“For a being who is billions of years old-”
“I had just turned 25 when I was shot to death in an alley protecting a bunch of strangers. I was a child soldier who had only just been released from both hospital and active duty, finally about to try and live my life like a normal person. While my body has changed over the millennia, my mind is still partially frozen, and that’s on top of the repeated mind wipes and mind control shit I’ve also been through, including some messing around when I was at that damn Deathven sector. I’m a fucking mess, I know I am, but that’s why Retvik and Litvir love me and help me, they accept I’m a mess and try to keep me steady.
“Deathven can keep on saying how I’m dangerous and unpredictable, but he’s part of the reason why I’m like this in the first place. And the constant little nudges just unsettle me further.”
Veeyel glanced at the sheets of paper he had put to one side, then went back to tutting. “Fair enough. I think I’ll skip the Deathven-wanted stuff. I do however want to do a genetics test. I want to know if whatever species you were is related to my species.”
Arkay sighed. “My genetics are so messed up from Kinisis experimenting on me that you’re not going to get any results.”
“Oh. Darn. I just wanted to know if you were a Skiavok or not. Because the continued existence of my pocket universe is dependent on me making sure no other Skiavok leave my universe. Our blood is completely toxic to Corruption, capable of melting it away, and the Corruption that attacked our universe promised eternal peace and safety as long as I left the universe and sealed it shut, then made sure that no other Skiavok ever made it out.”
“Huh. Well, I have toxic blood but I’ve always had that, but I’ve never been to your universe. Sure, we look alike, but I don’t think your home is at risk, because we’ve always been so insanely far apart.
“There’s another race called Skyavok though, and they look like me.”
“Only in the same way that Retvik and Litvir look like Teliavok but are a completely separate race.”
“True…”
Veeyel fell silent, then went and removed all the medical stuff off and threw it all to one side. He then sat down on the bed next to Arkay.
“You alright?” Arkay asked.
“Not really. I went for a long time thinking that I was doing well with my duties, that everyone accepted I wasn’t a hybrid mimic or anything and there were no other Skiavok out there, and then you kinda showed up and people began asking questions again and I started doubting myself.”
“Ugh. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“Oh, I know, it’s not my fault I exist. It’s not your fault either though. We’re just two rather fucked up people who remind each other of bad things.”
Veeyel rolled his eyes. “Well that’s definitely true… Anyway, forget all of this, do you and your boys want to join me and my boys for some decent food or something?”
Arkay turned to Veeyel and smiled properly. “I’d like that, yeah.”
“Cool. Shall we?”
“Sure thing.”