Kayel cursed at himself as he yet again failed to hit the centre of the target. He’d been at the aiming range at the back of the training hub for the Great Arena for a couple of hours now, and he was starting to get frustrated. While Kayel was perfectly capable of using ranged weaponry, the fact that he had lost a lot of accuracy was genuinely bothering him. He was a Phantasma, a trained super soldier. Sure, he hadn’t really seen any real action in about seven years, but he should have been better than this.
What was annoying him more though was that he hadn’t instantly mastered using a gunstaff yet. Gunstaffs were Rethan weapons, not Skyan, even if this particular gunstaff had been made with Skyan hands in mind. Skyavok like himself generally used long, scoped rifles. Kayel was most efficient with a sniper rifle, what with being a former assassin. Well, kinda. He didn’t really want to drift back into those memories.
With a tut, Kayel pulled on the small lever at the edge of the bladed tip of the gun-staff, opening up the ammo slot so he could feed in another cartridge. He re-closed the slot, then took careful aim. It would have been easier leaning on the small counter in front of him, but Kayel knew that, when he stepped into the arena proper, he wouldn’t have such a luxury.
Breathing out, Kayel fired a shot. It definitely hit the target, but, again, it was off-centre, a little too high.
“Not bad!”
The voice made Kayel shiver. He knew he’d been alone the entire time, what with Tenuk having gone off to have lunch about fifteen minutes ago. He hadn’t jumped though. It wasn’t shock. More a feeling of unease, made worse by the fact that the voice sounded a bit like his own.
Kayel turned to his left, to see who was speaking to him. To his surprise, it was a Skyavok. Almost.
“Uh… Thantophor, what are you doing here?”
“I told you before, you can just call me Arkay.”
“Sorry… Arkay, what are you doing here?”
Kayel wasn’t sure what made the Thantophor, the God of Decay, not quite a Skyavok. He certainly looked and sounded the part. The plasti-organic plating, the rubbery skin, the two long claws and thumb on each hand, the large, bright eyes and awkwardly long tail. He even seemed to breathe naturally too. But he didn’t quite smell right. An odd mixture of burnt wood and freshly cut grass. Which didn’t make much sense.
“I stopped by to check in on you four. I watched Nyssi and Retvik sparring, then came by to watch you and Tenuk practising.”
“But Tenuk left ages go.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Kayel hesitated. “Don’t you have anything better to do? After all, you can’t be in two places at once.”
Arkay shrugged. He’d clearly noticed that Kayel had spotted something was off. The smell of burnt wood had faded. “I’ll be honest, most decay-related things run automatically. I consider myself more of a… figurehead more than anything else, stepping in where necessary. Plus, I don’t need to answer prayers like the others do. But, well, I did say I’d check in on you guys on the regular, and I kinda wanted to speak to you in particular.”
“Why?” Kayel felt anxious now. Why would the Death God want to speak to him? Was it because he was a Phantasma? Was it because of his new inability to die normally?
“You’re a teacher, right? You taught physical and sexual education to young Skyans, yes?”
Kayel blinked, more confused than ever. “I… that… you… actually…”
Arkay could tell that Kayel was struggling. He could have done what Sini always did, filling the air with calming pheromones, but he never liked doing that, he felt it was… unfair. So he simply waited for Kayel to calm down.
“You actually want to talk to me about my L-Class stuff, rather than the K-Class duties I left?”
The Thantophor nodded. “Yeah.”
“Why?” Kayel swallowed nervously, feeling like he was repeating himself. He put his gunstaff down and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath.
“Well, to put it simply, I… am looking for some advice. Being the Thantophor is a lonely job and I’m a socially stunted introvert who struggles when it comes to anything vaguely romantic. I was hoping if you could give me some advice.”
“The… The Thantophor wants dating tips?”
“The opposite. I kinda need help telling someone no.”
“Can I ask… who?”
Kayel glanced at Arkay. He’d immediately tensed up. “Uh… No.”
“Is it a Skyan?”
“No.”
“A mortal?”
“Uh, no…”
“Is it the Allbirther?”
“No!” Arkay recoiled in horror. “No, no way, not in a trillion years. I can say no to Sini and Epani because I’m not interested. But Kairos is…” Arkay fell silent, then tutted. “I just gave it away. This is what happens when you don’t talk to people for long periods of time, you just reveal too much…”
Kayel tilted his head to one side. “So the Dragon God of Time is interested in dating you and you are struggling to say no to him.”
“Yep. Is that weird? It feels weird to me.”
“I’m not a divine being, I don’t really know. I was under the impression that you gods just kidnapped mortals and slept with them all the time. Kinda confirmed that when the Allbirther kidnapped us.”
Arkay crossed his arms in annoyance. “The others do that. I hold myself to a higher level of morality. You can’t consent to anything if you are talking to a god, because the level of power between you is far too great for one to reasonably say yes or no without feeling coerced…” Sighing, the Thantophor went back to the original subject. “So should I just keep on saying no to Kairos?”
“If you don’t want to sleep with him, then yeah, keep on saying no.”
“But I…”
“You kinda do. But not all of you. Until all of you wants to say yes, keep on saying no.”
Arkay sighed again, then bowed slightly. “Thank you, I appreciate the advice.”
Kayel smiled a little. “It’s not every day that a death god wants advice. I take it though you don’t really have anyone to ask. Your siblings-”
“They are NOT my siblings.”
“Well, siblings or not, they seem to be pricks of the highest order. ”
“… Yeah, that’s very true…” Arkay lit up again. “Is there anything I can help you with? Since you helped me?”
The yellow Skyan glanced at the gunstaff, then picked it back up. “I don’t suppose you know how to use one of these? My shots are always a little too high.”
Arkay took the staff from Kayel and started inspecting it. After a moment, he flicked something, revealing a small, metal tab. He then handed it back to Kayel.
“Try that. The iron-sight should help.”
Kayel did as he was told, then aimed at the target down the range, using the metal tab as guidance. This time, he fired, and the shot went straight through the target.
“Wow, thanks, Arkay! Uh, Arkay?”
Kayel glanced around. The Thantophor was already gone, leaving that now familiar odour of burnt wood.
“Huh. He’s weird. Cute, but weird…”