The knock on the door caught Levik by surprise. His order of crepes, covered in honey and marshmallows, had already arrived, so he wasn’t expecting anyone. Still, Levik put his food down, paused the TV show he was watching and got up to answer the door.
As soon as Levik unlocked the door though, someone forced their way in and immediately wrapped their arms around him.
“I’msosorry!I’msosorry!”
Kohra hugged Levik tightly, clearly overcome with emotion. Levik hesitated, then hugged Kohra back.
“It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I abandoned you! I got to be a god and you got dumped on the ass-end of the universe, on your own!”
Levik broke free of the hug, then patted Kohra on the head. Spasts did grow slowly, but Kohra was only 19 years old, Levik was turning 50 at the end of February, there was a noticeable height difference.
“It’s not your fault, Kohra. It’s dad’s fault. He was a bastard. But we’re both free of him now, and we’re living our own, better lives.”
Kohra took a deep breath to calm down, then glanced around Levik’s apartment, but that made him anxious again. “Are you sure about that? You’re living in cheap Skyan housing, and you’re renting! I… I don’t even know if you have money!”
Levik smiled. He sat Kohra down, patted him on the head again, then made his way to the fridge and grabbed some drinks. The one downside of living in a Skyan sub-district was that getting sugary fizzy drinks was a bit difficult. Skyans always drank sugar-free drinks, but Levik had found a small Temthan kiosk that did sell normal drinks. He grabbed two cans of energy drink and handed one to Kohra.
“Seriously, I’m fine. I live in neutral territories so I can work no problem, and I managed to, uh, steal a bunch of money from dad before he disowned me, so, even if I didn’t manage to get a job, I’d be fine for at least six month!”
“Yes but…” Kohra stuttered. “You… you were on Thresisa… How did you even get here to Portalia?”
“I made a friend while I was on Thresisa.”
“Who?” Kohra accepted the drink and took a sip. “Like… I don’t even know what happened. Don’t even remember what happened to me, I think I fell before you did.”
Levik shrugged. “I did evacuations, like you told me to. But the nasty black stuff made a tentacle that broke one of the engines on my ship, and I kinda crashed.”
“But…”
“No one died!” Levik went back to smiling. “I saved everyone on board. By making myself massive and fluffy. Woke up in a hospital on my own, called dad, he shouted at me and blamed me for you dying and…” Levik paused briefly. “He blamed me for Tanos going… weird… Kinda just blamed me for everything and disowned me.”
“But… but I convinced you…”
“Yeah. But dad is a bastard.”
“How did you get off Thresisa though?”
Levik grinned. “I made a friend. While I was busy making a new bank account for myself, this Rethan wandered into my room. I thought they were a nurse or something, they turned out to be the High Advisor of the Rethavok. Relkir helped me get flights here to Portalia, and made the suggestion that I be a gladiator.”
Kohra blinked. “Firstly, you ran into the High Advisor, the blue-eyed Rethan who has been helping Litvir out, and you’re… a gladiator?”
“Yep!” Levik beamed. “I mean, you wouldn’t know, I’ve only done like three fights as myself so far.”
Kohra hesitated, blinked some more, then sighed. “I’m sorry. I… I didn’t even know. You… just went and moved on with your life, you started from scratch, and I did nothing to help, since I was busy being a god.”
“Nah, nah, I didn’t start from scratch, I had help, I had money, I’ve been fine. I’m am adult. I’m nearly 50. I know how to do some things myself, and I’m fine!”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! And I’m actually… doing pretty well as a gladiator. I mean, I’m doing solo fights! Tanos never did those! Sure, I don’t have the best win rate, but people love me! And they’ve given me a name!”
Kohra thought for a moment. “Hang on… Are you the Raptoric Scythe?”
“Mhm!”
“That… that is so cool!” Kohra beamed. “Like, you… are actually a cool gladiator and stuff…”
“Yep. And I’ll be getting my first salary properly soon. I’m doing absolutely completely and utterly fine!”
“But… what about… what about your mental health?” Kohra asked.
“Part of my being a gladiator means I get full health coverage, and access to a therapist and psychiatrist. I’ve gotten the help I need. I’m doing great. Honestly, I’m more worried about you.”
Kohra sipped his drink. “Why?”
“You’re busy being a god. Didn’t get your childhood like you wanted.”
“None of us did. You’re working as a gladiator, I’m working as a god keeping the universe safe… Tanos… Tanos…”
Kohra trailed off, then rubbed his eyes, hiding tears. Levik immediately held him tightly.
“It’s not fair…”
“It’s not. Tanos took the blows for us. He only got a year to be himself, to be happy. But he became a hero that will be remembered forever. Like, literally forever. Because you’ll always be around and you’ll always remember him, Kohra.”
“But… you’ll die one day…” Kohra sighed. “I’m going to outlive everyone…”
Levik shrugged. “Yeah, probably. But I’m Spast royalty, I’ll easily make it to 900 years old, and I’m not even one eighteenth through my life. And with you and your buddies doing all your hard work, you’ll increase life expectancies, right? Even more so if you can do the democracy thing with dad and get the Whenvern to lift our curse!”
“Still…”
“It’s a long way off. Right now though, we need to live in, uh, the now. The moment. All that stuff. We’re both on the right track. And Tanos would want us to live life to the fullest…”
It was Levik’s time to pause.
“Actually… brother… can I ask you something?”
“What is it, Levik?”
Levik hesitated slightly. “There’s… that theory… I didn’t want to ask Relkir about it…”
“Hang on, you and High Advisor Relkir are friends?”
“Yeah, we chat occasionally. Not very often because they’re busy, but… we both lost our big brothers, I helped Relkir fall asleep after they went angry-stance and Relkir helped me out massively by getting me flights here. The least I can do is call Relkir occasionally and see how they are doing…” Levik shook his head to clear it. “Anyway… I… I saw that video…”
“What video?”
“The video of the Lightbearer digging someone out of rubble and then disappearing.”
“Oh… I… I only saw it once. Because Aesop showed it to me and Litvir while we were working.”
“Fair…” Levik hesitated some more. “I was just wondering if the theory that some special people were… not killed, but taken away by the old Allbirther… I wonder if it has any hint of truth to it. Because I watched it a few times. And… Like, you clearly see the Lightbearer pause, then turn to face something, and THEN he disappears…”
“I… I don’t know… But I can ask Elkay about it. He knows everything.”
“Neat…” Levik smiled, then put his arm around Kohra again. “In the mean time, do you want to stick around for a bit? I’d love to show you the gladiator matches I’ve done! I can order more food too.”
Kohra smiled, the first time he’d smiled for a while. “I’d love that. Especially since I haven’t eaten today. But let me order. You deserve to be treated for once.”
“Awesome. I’m glad you’re okay, little brother.”
“I’m glad you’re doing alright too, big brother.”