Unusually, most of the lights were off at Savepoint. Being a floating island in the middle of an endless void, the place was normally completely lit up in some way, otherwise no one would be able to see anything at all. Currently though, there were high winds blowing through the Athata Rift, which were creating beautiful pink and purple swirls through the void. And these auroras were best seen if there were no lights on.
However, Arkay had taken things one step further. Most of the Thantir were in the open-air cafeteria, enjoying a few drinks alongside the great view. Arkay had decided to something a bit different, and he wanted to do it with Retvik and Litvir, separate from everyone else.
With not that much effort, Arkay had somehow made a large, floating bed and had swam it to the middle of Savepoint’s lake. Retvik had been a bit hesitant in laying in it, but Litvir thought the idea was amazing, and brought drinks and snacks for them all to share. So now, all three members of the Missing were now just lying back and staring at the sky above them. They had mostly been sitting in silence, but after a while, Arkay started talking.
“This feels really weird.”
“How comes?” Retvik asked. “This was your idea.”
“What part of this is weird?” Litvir’s question went in a different direction.
Retvik sat up and stared at Litvir. “We are lying on a floating bed in the middle of a floating island in the middle of a vast floating nothingness. This is pretty weird.”
“Could be weirder,” Litvir shrugged. “The bed could be jelly, the water could be lava and the clouds above us could be marshmallow.”
“I kinda want marshmallow…” Arkay muttered under his breath. “But I think you can both probably guess why it feels weird lying next to you.”
“Hmph. Are you having another one of those “we are back together and this seems surreal” moments, Arkay?”
Arkay nodded. “I really am.”
“You do that a lot,” Litvir mused. “Do you know why?”
Arkay thought to himself for a bit, then snuggled up closer to his two partners. “Not really. I think a lot of it is because of experienced time. As far as you are concerned, I’ve been gone for, what, three or four years? From my point of view, it’s been two billion years. Plus or minus a few years, because time is weird.”
Retvik settled back down and put an arm around Arkay. “Well, when you put it like that, I can see why you would feel at ill ease. Time is a very weird thing.”
“It is…” Arkay frowned a little. He then snuggled up even closer, and extended his tail, so it wrapped around both Retvik’s tail and Litvir’s tail too. “Still… this was a really good idea. It’s super relaxing. Way more than I expected. It’s… it’s so peaceful.”
“Do you feel good, dear?” Litvir asked.
“Yeah. I really do. It makes a change. It’s just… just us. And the water, And the void. And nothing else.”
“We should do this more often anyway,” Litvir added. “Just living in the darkness. We have built Savepoint well, it feels almost normal, but we so rarely sit in the true darkness of the void and experience things as they are naturally.”
“Yeah… wait…” Arkay sat up this time. “You sound very Skyavok-y right now, babe.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re Rethans. You lot have always been… sun-kissed, as Sini always put it. Rethavok like the sun and light and stuff. Skyavok though like the dark, as their name suggests.”
Litvir was unbothered. “I’ve always been a shadowy bastard. When I was a kid, I occasionally wondered if Kuta and I were actually Skyavok. Or perhaps hybrids. Admittedly, a lot of that came from Kuta and I being far darker skinned than everyone else, having much darker plating and, importantly, we both had telepathy, same way Skyavok did.”
“Did you ever get yourself genetically tested?” Retvik asked. “Because you clearly are not Skyavok.”
“When we were kids, we really could have been. Especially Kuta, who was very, very small.”
“What about you and your brothers, Arkay?” Retvik asked. “You were all the same, yes?”
“Um…” Arkay fell silent. He remained silent for a little too long, then sighed and nuzzled Retvik. “We were half-brothers.”
“Half-brothers?”
“Yeah. We all shared the same mother. Our parents were all different. My father… well, he was apparently called “the Defiler” and I don’t want to know why he was called that or who he was or anything. I just know my father was mortal and is probably long dead.”
“Was he a Retha though?” Litvir queried. “I assume so, since you were originally a Threan-type Retha.”
Arkay frowned. “I’m pretty sure I’m some sort of hybrid. I don’t know what though…” Arkay paused. “It kinda sucks that Kaytee knows more about me when I was mortal than I do. Actually, I take that back, it really sucks. My existence is pretty fucking stupid.”
Both Retvik and Litvir glanced at each other, then hugged Arkay tightly.
“Your existence is not stupid.”
“You have had bad past experiences, but you are still a good person.”
“You are stronger than your past.”
Arkay sighed to himself. “You’re both absolutely right, as always. And I really shouldn’t get upset about these things. I made it out. I made it back. I need to be more appreciative of that. And you two.”
Retvik patted Arkay on the head. “You are plenty appreciative of us.”
“You are just having some bad thoughts, it is fine, dear!” Litvir smiled. “Considering what you have been through and all the stuff that has happened, we can forgive you for being a little “off” occasionally.”
“Thanks, guys…” Arkay sighed some more. “Can we snuggle more and watch the void for a bit?”
Both Litvir and Retvik shifted closer to Arkay, somewhat squishing him. But Arkay was completely fine with that.
“We love you, Arkay.”
“I love you too.”
“Forever?”
Arkay smiled, just a little bit. “Yeah. Forever.”