“What are you doing here?!?”
The intensity of the Whenvern’s face made Kohra shudder and cower in fear, but Murum’Va had hardly moved. She crossed her arms, growled, then clearly stated what was going on.
“Itarfa Kohra’s tracking network detected traces of idatoksokoka here at this silly blue and silver glass sortsak of yours. We are here to inspect the area and make sure all is olak and well and clean.”
Kairos eyed the orange, fiery Banikan. Murum’Va was a large Banikan at the best of times, standing at 4m tall when one included her horns. She also carried a fiery ephemeral like effect around her body, an aura of flames, and more flames occasionally ran up her arms and down her back and tail, over her heavy armour. Kairos though was the Whenvern, and the Sapphire Sanctuary was designed for a being his size. His size being a good 8m tall and endlessly long, his tail disappearing off into the distance.
“You have no authority to be here.”
Murum’Va growled again. “According to Amitsaid’s Accords of Protection, the Twelve Anew have permission to visit any location in which we believe there may be traces of idatoksokoka, of the Evil Darkness, so that we may eradicate it in its entirety.”
“What is Amitsaid?” Kohra whispered. “I have heard you say that… word for Corruption before, but…”
“It is the Anakina word… the Banikan name for the Lady of Space, as the Torr and Lanex call Epani. Unlike other races, we do not have a new term for her new title of Lady of All yet.”
“Your backwards language is a mockery…” Kairos hissed. “A stupid tongue made for stupid, furry brutes.”
Murum’Va hissed at the Whenvern. “We are of the blessed race of Aitohp and Sotanaht, the Sotanaht himself gifted us language when you other deities believed we were undeserving of speech. We use that which Sotanaht gifted to us with pride and respect. You may not respect your own Selot, even after He met his own, but us Banikans will forever offer our respect to the one deity who did truly care for all mortals. Now, Sorkardoraik, are you done with your petty insults and will you allow sorkim itarfa Kohra and I to inspect the area, make sure it is clean of Corruption and then leave you to your own devices?”
Kairos hissed back. “You are not allowed within my sanctums without my permission.”
“I just stated that we are, if there is a risk of the spread of Corruption!” Murum’Va was getting almost as annoyed as Kairos. “Itarfa Kohra has picked up multiple blips of Corruption via his tracking system at this location. It would be unsafe and potentially wrong for the Akedod, who are the protectors of this universe, to not check out this location and make sure that it and our resident Sorkardoraik are safe and sound.”
“Why are we even finding blips here anyway?” Kohra interrupted. “I’ve been seeing a lot more down here than normal anyway!”
Kairos briefly slowed time down so he could think to himself, without the Banikan or the Spast getting suspicious. He didn’t want the Twelve Anew in his domains. There were… things in the Sapphire Sanctuary that they simply could not see. Plans and backup systems, equipment that even the minds of the young deities would not be able to comprehend. Kairos had secrets that could not be revealed, lest they escaped and caused unneeded harm.
After some considerations and some alterations done with his tail in the distance, out of sight, Kairos decided he could let the two young deities in. But only to a certain area he had already marked out.
Time went back to normal. Murum’Va seemed unaware that anything had happened, but Kohra was suddenly unnerved, and he whispered his unease to the colossal Banikan.
“He did something…”
“Like what?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Kairos ignored the Spast and turned back to Murum’Va.
“I will show you the area where you probably picked up traces of Corruption. But neither of you are to touch ANYTHING, understood?”
“Understood.”
With a grunt, Kairos turned around and stomped off. Kohra wondered for a moment why the Whenvern used a Thraki-like form to move around, as it must have been somewhat awkward, but he assumed that Kairos was always Thraki-like and was used to it.
They didn’t go very far though, and the path they took seemed to be closest to the edge of the universe. A large observatory opened up in front of them, one filled with many a glass canister. The canisters were mostly stacked to one side, but there was a line of them that had been recently opened and used, and one canister was clearly melted. There was also a great window which looked directly out into the void beyond the universe, but the window had cracks in it.
“Being at a somewhat busy and weak spot at the edge of the universe, Corruption lands here all the time. I routinely capture it in these canisters, check to see what type of Corruption it is, then do experiments to see how quickly I can destroy the Corruption!” Kairos explained. “This is probably causing the anomalies on your network, as I occasionally have to take samples down to my inner lab to properly identify a strain.”
“Are you… cataloguing the strains or something?” Kohra asked.
“I am, so that I can better identify more dangerous strains and… deal with them in better ways.”
Murum’Va scanned the room, then growled and turned back to Kairos. “You could have so simply informed us of this! After what happened with the Sudden Darkness, we need to make sure you are safe, and this could have put you at risk without us knowing!”
Kairos thought to himself briefly, then sighed and smiled, just a little. “I can see where you are coming from. I am simply doing my own protective duties. But you are correct, I should have informed you of what I was doing.”
“Will you allow us to send a guardian deity down here if we notice anything is unusual?” Kohra asked some more. “Because you’ve been oddly cagey about all of this.”
Kairos tutted. “I will speak to Epani about it. But I have work to do now, so, please, leave me be.”
Kohra glanced up at Murum’Va, sighed, then held her hand. In a flash of electricity, the two deities were gone.
“Such annoying little creatures…” Kairos grunted to himself as he checked that the coast was clear, then headed back to his lab, back to his experiments.