Phovos didn’t know what to expect as she knocked on the front door to the large, fancy villa. The only indication that she was in the right place was a single red balloon tied to the lamp post in front of the house, next to a red and gold Rethan bicycle. However, as the door opened, she was greeted with a strange collection of cheers.
“Yay! You came, missy queen!” Talok squeaked as she jumped up and down on the sofa. “Don’t be scared! We don’t bite!”
“HAH, SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!” Thassalin was already a bit tipsy and took up the entirety of the largest sofa. “HELLO, STRANGE YOUNG KSITHAN! IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!”
“Uh… it is a pleasure to meet you too… uh…” Phovos eyed Thassalin some more. Thankfully, Retvik had arrived to help sort things out. Phovos had brought a massive pile of pizzas, eight XXL pizzas (or about four meals for Phovos herself) and a literal bucket of popcorn chicken, which Retvik took out of her hands.
“Kyr Raptor, this is Thassalin, he is an immortal Thraki who serves the Allbirther. Thassalin, this is Lord Phovos Tromeros, she runs the Great Arenas.”
Thassalin bowed his head. “IT IS AN HONOUR, LORD PHOVOS. YOU DO FINE WORK!”
Phovos bowed back. “It’s nice to meet you too. You are… weirdly small for a Thraki. And pink.”
“YES, I GET THAT A LOT. I AM A FORMER TIME DRAKE, AKIN TO THE CHILD WHENVERN, TRAPPED WITHIN THIS DOMAIN. BUT I CAN CHANGE MY SIZE AND MADE MYSELF SMALLER AS TO NOT DAMAGE RETVIK’S VERY NICE HOUSE.”
As Retvik sat Phovos down on one of the emptier sofas, sitting her next to Nyssi, Phovos realized there was already a LOT of pizza already pleasant.
“Oh. Maybe I should have brought… literally anything else.”
Nyssi laughed. “Hah, girl, it’s fine! Everyone loves pizza. I brought pizza, Kayel brought pizza, Thassalin brought pizza, Retvik ordered pizza and about ten minutes before you came, we got an anonymous delivery of even more fucking pizza!” Nyssi suddenly paused and turned to Kayel, who was perched on a stool in the kitchen, typing on his communicator with a slice of pizza hanging out of his maw. “Hey, my lil armour-gal, you think Arkay ordered those pizzas for us? Also, is our favourite deity even coming?”
Kayel glanced up, then shrugged. “Dunno about the pizza, but Arkay said he’s coming in about five minutes, he’s just picking up a present for Retvik.”
“Another present?” Retvik snorted. “He got me that sword, which I absolutely love.”
A knock on the door distracted everyone. Kayel shrugged again, then smiled.
“I guess Arkay’s early?”
Retvik got up to answer the door. However, he was quite surprised to see the God of Death in his pure Skyavok form. However, by Arkay’s side was… someone covered in a sheet.
“Happy birthday, best Rethan ever!” Arkay beamed. “I got you a birthday present!”
Retvik stared at the person covered in the sheet, then hesitantly pulled the sheet off. As he did so though, the smile on Retvik’s face grew massively.
“Uh, hello, dear…”
Immediately, Retvik wrapped his arms around Kuta, hugging them tightly. “KUTA! I have missed you so, so much! Are you alright? Are you save now? Is everything well? You… you look ill.”
Kuta sighed. “I… I am a little stressed. But I am better now that we are back together.”
Retvik dragged Kuta inside, and Arkay followed, closing the door behind them. The two Rethans immediately headed to the spare sofa, sitting way too close together, while Arkay joined Kayel on the stools in the kitchen.
“Oh, I see you got the extra pizzas I ordered!” Arkay seemed overly chirpy. “I guessed you guys already had food but you know what I’m like. Also, Thassalin, long time no see!”
Thassalin waved. “HONOURED THANTOEPHERON, IT IS ALWAYS GOOD TO SEE YOU!”
“Please don’t call me that. My name is Arkay.”
“SORRY. OLD MEMORIES. YOU KNOW.”
Arkay nodded. “I get that. My memories are utterly fucked up lately. But I think I’m getting better. I don’t want to talk about me though, we’re all here for Retvik!”
“Queen Retvik!” Talok chirped.
“Queen?” Retvik saked.
“Yes! Queen! Best of the best! The highest of them all…” Talok paused and glanced at Phovos. “Well, second queen. Missy Queen Phovos is Queen Prime. I… don’t know what to call mister Sini’s Shadow.”
“Talok, you can just call me Arkay as well. I’d rather you all just called me Arkay.”
“Speaking of which!” Retvik butted in, his arms still wrapped around Kuta, and Kuta still snuggled up to him. “How comes you are here? We were all told you had… gone cold or something?”
Arkay glanced at Kayel, then smiled some more. “I got sick of hiding away all the time. Sure, I am bound to this universe, but what’s the point of being bound to a universe if I can’t experience any of it? Plus, history has unfolded quite a bit in the last few weeks, I needed to keep things in check.”
“Well, it’s good to have you kinda back!” Tenuk exclaimed. “We missed having you around. And now you have TWO sets of immortal friends!”
“Eight friends total!” Kayel grinned. “One of whom…”
“Eight friends too many.”
A brilliant light flashed in the centre of the living room. All of a sudden, gravity changed, and everyone and everything floated into the air, drifting awkwardly. Out of the light stepped a tall, slender, red Temthan-like being with star-like scales running across her body and a long, glowing lure dangling from her head. The Panelix, the Goddess of Space, stood before them all.
“Arkadin, you have lied to me, you have betrayed my trust yet again!” Epani snarled as she summoned dark, star-scattered tentacles and wrapped them around Arkay, dragging him towards her.
“Not like you give me much choice!” Arkay sliced through the tendrils to free himself. “If you want to hurt me, fine. But I won’t let you hurt my friends, these poor mortals!”
Epani inspected the room, eyeing each individual in turn, snarling at some, tutting at others. However, after a moment, she turned back to Arkay and smiled cruelly.
“You have a point. Let me send these… miscreants home, and then we can talk.”
The Panelix snapped her horrible taloned fingers. Immediately, everyone that wasn’t the Thantophor disappeared in flashes of red light. Arkay tried to escape via a nearby shadow, but Epani flooded the entire room with light, denying Arkay the ability to shadowjump and also cutting off his ability to use portal powers.
Realizing he couldn’t run, Arkay backed down.
“Alright, fine, Epani, we’ll talk. We’ll work out how to punish me.”
With a cruel hiss, Epani altered gravity again, making Arkay so heavy that he fell to the ground, unable to move. The Panelix placed her foot on Arkay’s throat, then forced a strange, wired blade through Arkay’s eye.
“Oh, no, silly little one, the time for talking is over. I’ve already decided what I’m going to do…”