“You came back!”
Kayel was, amazingly, walking around, up and about. He may have broken his shoulder after an unfortunate confrontation with an angry goddess, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use his legs. He had been pacing up and down the private hospital room, worrying about things, when a yellow-armoured Skyavok knocked on the door.
“I guess I did, didn’t I?”
With a pained shuffle, Kayel headed over to the door, letting Arkadin, the god of Death, in and closing it behind him.
“Would you like something to eat or drink?” Kayel asked, wanting to impress his guest. “I can get you whatever you want!”
Arkadin didn’t say anything at first. There was a sad look in his stunning golden eyes. Kayel could tell that he was blaming himself for Kayel’s broken shoulder bones.
“Arkadin?”
The yellow Skyan shook his head. “Sorry… Before we start, could you please… just call me Arkay? I’d prefer that.”
“Of course, Arkay!” Kayel beamed. “So, do you want anything? I was thinking of getting some hottiebuns or something. Haven’t had a good old hottiebun in ages.”
“What’s a hottiebun?”
“Shitty meat offcuts ground up into a shitty sausage then stuck in a white bread bun.”
Arkay shrugged. “Sure. I’ll have one.”
Kayel made his way to a small communication panel by the bed and tapped happily on the screen. After a few moments, a panel on the wall slid open, revealing ten hottiebuns, all hot and steaming on a platter.
“Veeyel used to mock me and say that I liked hottiebuns because they reminded me of work, constantly having to suck dicks, but no, I just really like cheap sausages.”
Arkay wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. He was vaguely aware that Kayel probably had to appease a lot of beings due to his work as the All-Ksa but the way Kayel spoke, Arkay wondered whether he had meant that literally.
“So, you came back! Why’d you come back? And I assume you did so in secret?” Kayel changed the subject, thankfully.
“Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t want any of you worshipping me. And generally, after godly interventions, that tends to happen for a bit…” Arkay tried to explain. “I really don’t want a cult following or anything like that and religions, well they’re just the worst… But at the same time, I… I kinda want to have a little influence for once. I want to stand by your side and give you all a helping hand, rather than rule over you all.”
“That works!” Kayel seemed very happy, even more so with a hottiebun in his hand. “We’d love to have your ancient wisdom on our side! How do you want to go about this, you want to just make yourself open and available to us all? You just want to be a guide to the leaders, you want to have tours around our lands? What do you need?”
Arkay tilted his head to one side. “What do you mean? I don’t need anything.”
Kayel continued to smile. “You do though. You’ll want somewhere close by to live. You’ll want a seat at the table. You’ll want the same amenities all Skyavok have… I assume that’s why you came in here looking like a good and proper Skyan?”
“That’s right… I’ll be honest, I would rather try and fit in than have all of you look at me and only see a death god…”
“So we’ll arrange that all for you!” Kayel exclaimed between mouthfuls of hottiebun. “But I… I do have a question or three. Heck, we’ll all have lots of questions for you. And you’re not gonna want to answer them until you’re all settled down and comfortable!”
“I don’t mind answering things. I could answer some stuff now.”
Kayel waved his functional arm around, spraying breadcrumbs everywhere “Yeah but still! Gotta give you a warm Skyan welcome, right?”
Arkay smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that…”