“Hello, dearest, you normally avoid voice chats…”
Arkay tutted to himself as he adjusted the microphone, then set both the receiving and outgoing volumes to their maximum settings. It had taken a tad too long to set up this call, but Arkay was going to make the most of his time. Especially since he had dragged his new boyfriend Kuta along, and they were currently sitting in one of the Whenvern’s crystal palaces at the edge of the universe.
“Yeah, sorry Litvir, but lately Epani has been threatening me, Sini has been listening in and I didn’t feel safe doing voice calls. Kuta is here, by the way. Say hi to your brother, Kuta.”
Kuta remained motionless at first, completely unsure what to say. Hearing Litvir’s voice made them feel an array of emotions they didn’t really understand.
“Hello, Kuta, are you well?”
Two more voices echoed from Arkay’s laptop.
“Hello Kuta!”
“Hello there!”
The last voice seemed to catch Arkay off guard as well. Kuta eventually stuttered a hello.
“This is… very weird for me…” Kuta muttered. “I have memories of your voices but they seem to come from a timeline that did not happen for me, but did at the same time.”
“How are you doing, Retvik?” Arkay asked. “Also who’s that with you? Is that Elkay? We’re not interrupting, are we?”
There were multiple grunts, all of them vaguely annoyed.
“It has been a long, long time since we last spoke, Arkadin… sorry, Arkay. I forgot that you changed your name somewhat.”
“Yeah well…” Arkay frowned. “Sorry Elkay. I forgot that I completely and utterly ruined your life because I just happened to pop by occasionally after work, and Sini ended up targetting you because of that.”
“Surely that is Sini’s fault?” Litvir and Kuta both responded at the same time, paused awkwardly, laughed awkwardly then fell silent.
“No I fucked up some other stuff as well… Still, it’s good to hear that you’re among the living.”
“And it is always good to hear from you too, Arkay!” Retvik butted in, his gruff voice being rather loud and echoey, doubly so in the vast crystal palace Arkay and Kuta were sitting in. “Apologies for Elkay’s presence. We are supposed to be disciplining him for attacking a Phantai soldier, but he was only acting in self-defence, cleanly borrowed some sedative powers from Tahvra and knocked out his attacker harmlessly, so he is staying in our office for a bit.”
Again, Arkay frowned. But he abruptly stopped, opened up a small portal then grabbed a familiar-looking pile of books and started rummaging through them.
“Why are you looking at those cursed books again, Kyr Arkay?” Kuta asked. “We both know they only cause you pain.”
“What books?”
Kuta tutted. “These weird books that apparently that horrible Kinisis Corruption left behind. The Lady of Light was ill and Arkay and Sini were trying to work out why she was ill and they were looking through these horrible books that do nothing but describe how much Kinisis liked torturing Arkay.”
“I have to agree with my dear brother, Arkay, you are in enough pain as it is, you should not be reading those things.”
Arkay didn’t answer at first. He finally finished going through all the books, then scanned the very last one. “I’d agree, but this is important. Not only does this awful stuff unlock my memories, but…” He continued to flick through pages, until he got half way through. “27th June, 2021 PDW… Kinisis wrote that, because I had been sent away, she needed someone new to experiment on…” Arkay skipped ahead a few pages. “1st November 2021 PDW… “I have found the perfect new project to work on… I interrupted them while they were with their partner and realized they were just too good to pass up… I will have them work on the Oasis for a bit while I analyse them and start with the initial corrosion. Once they are split from their partner, they will make a new perfect base for my hybrid deity creations…” I didn’t know who Kinisis was talking about at first, but when you mentioned borrowing powers, I worked it out. She was talking about you, Elkay.”
“Why…” All the confidence had faded from Elkay’s voice. “Why… do you think that?”
“I haven’t seen you since, uh, a really long time. But let me guess, you have a stupidly large array of abilities, right? That don’t make much sense?”
“I do, yes.”
“And you can borrow other people’s abilities? And you find yourself changing to be like other people to fit in better, even when you don’t want to?”
“Yes.”
Arkay sighed. “Congratulations, Elkay. You’re a mimic hybrid like me.”
“Well, we had better not let the Great Blades know then…” Retvik once again butted in. “They have been trying to pry information about you from us, Arkay. They know what you are and blatantly admitted to wanting to help us get you out of your universe because they see you as a solution to their problems.”
“Oh, so you did not buy Lightblade’s spiel about Trios helping other Trios either?” Litvir hissed. “While yes, we do want to be reunited with you, dear, we also do not want you to feel pressured or used yet again.”
“Have you ever not been someone’s slave, Arkay?” Kuta couldn’t help but ask. “You were that nasty Kinisis’s slave, then you worked for Kyr Galyn, then you were sent away, then you came back here and became a slave to the Panelix. You barely had the time to arrange this voice chat, because you are currently covering for the Whenvern while they take a break from being an asshole to you. Have you ever been free? And no, being asleep or dead does not count.”
Arkay hesitated, then sighed. “No. But at the same time, guys, I don’t want you two doing anything stupid to break me out of here. I made a promise, I need to stick to it.”
“But Arkay, no one ever keeps their promises to you…” Retvik almost growled. “You, Litvir and I, we promised we would stick together, no matter what, and we did not do that.”
“Oh look, the one fucking promise I broke, and look where it got me!” Arkay snapped. “Sure, I’m coping now, but you know what? Part of me wishes I’d remained ignorant about all of this. It fucking hurts, and it hurts me that it’s also hurting you two. And at the same time, I’m constantly reminded of everyone I’ve hurt. Like Kuta here.”
“You… have not hurt me…” Kuta stuttered. “If anything, I feel I am doing better than ever.”
“Fine. Maybe not you. But I definitely hurt Elkay!”
Elkay also stuttered somewhat. “While yes, you did somewhat leave me temporarily homeless, you did also stop me from dying and set me up with my partner, who I love dearly.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Arkay, dear, you are stressed and overreacting!” Litvir intervened. “I agree, yes, there is pain all around, we have all made dire mistakes, but we must work towards a solution to our problems, we cannot just wallow in self-pity.”
“Litvir, I love you, but it’s not that simple. It’s not just me that we’re talking about. It’s an entire universe that I made a promise to. If you try to pull me out, either the universe and everyone in it collapses, or some poor fucker ends up taking my place and spending eternity as the same slave I am…” Arkay trailed off, then sighed, as his wristband beeped at him. He glanced at it, then stood up. “I’m sorry, I have to go, there’s some sort of stupid time anomaly I need to fix. Kuta, feel free to stick around here for a bit, then message me when you’re done and I’ll send you back home to Phos. I’ll speak to you all soon.”
Before anyone could utter a goodbye, Arkay disappeared through a nearby shadow.
“Is he always like that?” Kuta awkwardly asked. “Also, the Thantophor just left his personal laptop in front of the General of Hidden Affairs. Please excuse me while I quickly comb it for information…”
“You are the General of Hidden Affairs?” Elkay gasped. “That is quite a duty.”
“Elkay, you were the High General.”
“Considering my daily briefings with the General of Hidden Affairs back in our old universe? My job was nothing compared to theirs…”
Kuta smiled to themselves as they listened to his sibling and the two other strange Rethans talk via the voice chat. Annoyingly, a lot of Arkay’s information was password-protected, but they did find a few things of interest, most notably an address of some sort.
“So, little brother, what is it like in this new universe of yours?”
Kuta blinked. They had forgotten that they used to have a preferred gender. “Oh. It is nice. Mostly peaceful. Not too many wars. Arkay makes sure of that.”
“Who is the current High General?”
“Rethais Rethianos.”
A couple of tuts were heard down the line. “And the prior High General?”
Kuta hissed. “An asshole by the name of Photis Helionos. As much as I dislike General Rethais personally, they are a far better High General than Photis ever was…” Kuta paused. “It must be weird, knowing that you were all essentially replaced with an alternate timeline.”
“Oh, definitely…” Elkay clearly wanted to say something, but didn’t. Kuta heard a knocking sound, but realized it was coming from the other side of the call.
“Kuta, little brother, we ought to go. But while you are clearly breaking Arkay’s privacy, if you find anything of interest, please send it to me.”
“How?”
“Do you have this Wyvern app?”
Kuta tutted. “No, but I can probably ask Arkay to give it to me. He seemed insistent that I speak to you, Litvir. And it has been quite… weird and oddly enlightening doing so.”
“Very well. Thank you for talking with us, Kuta.”
“It was nice talking to you. Same to you, Retvik and Elkay…” Kuta found themselves smiling a little. “I would like to do this again.”
“Me too, dear, me too… Stay safe, dear.”
“You too.”
The line went dead and the call closed itself. Now that Kuta was alone, they took the chance to dig deeper, pulling out a convenient data stick from a compartment in their cloak. While they knew what they were doing was wrong, Kuta felt some sort of determination, a heavy desire to assist Arkay, to make the Thantophor happier.
However, Kuta quickly realized they did not have long, as they heard movement behind them. Kuta quickly downloaded everything they had found onto their data stick, then twisted around to see what it was. To Kuta’s dismay, the being before them was not the Thantophor, but something far worse.
In a panic, Kuta grabbed everything on the table, their data stick, the microphone, pointing device, keyboard and laptop, and leaped through the nearest shadow, just before the Whenvern’s fiery, silvery breath could get to them.