Things had been somewhat pleasant so far. After some awkward small talk with a stupidly tall pink Life Goddess with three pairs of breasts and a gaggle of snake-like, rainbow-coloured Life Goddess with long, thick tails, Arki managed to find a good spot where she could settle down and watch the floating platform above them all, where Great Lady Gynesa was watching on. Arki wondered if Gynesa was aware that Arki was somewhat watching her back. She had to be aware, she was a stupidly powerful Life Goddess apparently, ruling over a vast number of other Life Goddesses. Then again, all of them were naked and seemed to just party all the time. That wasn’t Arki making assumptions, the Life Goddesses Arki had spoken to, they all said that most of the Gymne Life Goddesses just partied all the time.
Really, Arki wasn’t sure what any of them actually provided to the local area outside of economic aspects. There weren’t many universes in the sector, the pentacluster was mostly filled with tiny testing universes and the only vaguely normal universe was underneath the party dome Arki was currently supposedly partying in.
The sound of metal striking the ground distracted Arki. She glanced up at her two guards. Her smaller guard, Litvarious, had smacked down his weapon, blocking a Life Goddess from getting too close. This Life Goddess was a naked lizard lady, but her skin was nearly as dark as Arki’s and she was actually wearing something – a small dagger, strapped around her thigh. Arki found this surprising, because no other Life Goddesses present were openly armed. Arki herself did have her own weapons but she kept them in a hammerspace, out of sight.
“I just want to talk.”
Litvarious eyed the Life Goddess. She was taller than Arki. Arki was a small being, only 1,7m tall. The Life Goddess was over 2m tall. But both Litvarious and Revikalos still towered over her. And Retvikalos was also clearly on edge, as he had put himself between the Life Goddess and Arki as well.
“I don’t mean any harm. Not to your divine, at least.”
Arki inspected the Life Goddess, then tutted. “It’s fine, Litty. You can stand down.”
Litvarious turned his attention back to Arki, sending her a quick telepathic message.
“I know. I said it’s fine. I’m sure this nice lady won’t do anything silly.”
Both Arki’s guard hesitated, then backed down. Arki scooted over in the pool she was sitting in, offering the Life Goddess a seat.
“So, you’re armed. Armed among the naked.”
The Life Goddess smiled as she sat down. “You can talk. Armoured among the naked. But anyway, not everyone has two armoured studs to keep an eye on them. I always found having guards too distracting anyway. What’s your name, armourgirl?”
Arki shrugged and smiled. “I’m Arki. How about you?”
“Is Arki short for something?”
“Arkidetela. My mother gave me a stupid name. And you are?”
The Life Goddess smiled back. “Heh. You seem different. My name’s Prodota. Got dragged into the Gymne by my family. Honestly kinda hate it, no one ever does anything. Hate my family a ton too.”
Litvarious shot Arki another telepathic message. Arki rolled her eyes, then shooed Litvarious away, silently telling him to fetch them some drinks.
“Your guards seem antsy.”
Arki tutted some more. “Can you blame them? There’s so much noise around here, and we’re really, really far away from home. We were surprised to even get an invitation.”
“Why did you come?” Prodota asked. “You clearly don’t seem like the partying sort.”
“Curiosity, mostly. Haven’t really left my Zontarian Circle much until recently. That and none of the family wanted to go. One sister has her own universe, the other two run Life Oases. I keep the local Voidborns and Corruption at bay with a bunch of Divine Guardians.”
Prodota inspected Arki some more. “Oh, really? Why?”
“My Zontanian Circle isn’t particularly safe, never was, but it’s up to us Life Goddesses to make things better. But all this party stuff is pretty weird and foreign to me. My sisters with oases, they aren’t like this place. Well, they’re pretty, but they’re not filled with so much lust and partying and stuff.”
“Oh. Fair enough, I guess…” Prodota trailed off. She was still clearly inspecting Arki. Arki expected that, since she looked different compared to the locals. After some thought though, Prodota glanced around, then decided to speak. “I’ll be honest, while dealing with Corruption and shit is, well, shitty, at least you’re doing something vaguely useful. The Gymne just sit around partying all the time. Not even really allowed to make our own oases because it all has to go through Gymnesa. Same with universes. She doesn’t want anyone outdoing her. Especially not her youngest daughters. We just fuck around doing nothing. Fucking hate it here sometimes.”
“So… uh, why don’t you just leave?” Arki asked. “The void’s a big place.”
“You said it yourself. It’s up to us to make things better. And, looking at you and your guards? Sometimes that means we need a little violence. You know that. I know that. The Gymne know that. Just needs a spark, sometimes.”
Arki glanced around, looking nervous. Prodota noticed, then shifted even closer.
“You know I’m right. And you can help me.”
“Well…”
“You know.”
Arki frowned.
“Tell you what. Have a think about it. Then meet me down below. You’ll know where. Alright?”
Prodota grinned, then got up and climbed out of the pool, shaking herself down as she did so. She had a good look around before wandering off, pausing to get a drink. Once she was definitely far enough away, Arki turned to her two guards, muttering to them telepathically.
“Fuck me, she’s obvious.”
“Almost too obvious…” Retvik tried not to growl.
“Well, we did somewhat expect as much!” Litvir didn’t seem too bothered. “Still, she gave us time to think, and literally invited you to join her in a shady area, meaning we can take her out. Just as Deathven wanted.”
Arkay frowned some more. “Yeah, I guess… I think I’m going to have a few watered down drinks though. Need to at least pretend I’m thinking about it…”