“So, what did you actually do?”
Arkay gasped as he nearly fell backwards, grabbing the arm of his chair with his free hand. As soon as Arkay was certain he wasn’t going to hurt himself, he immediately turned to the being in the doorway who had interrupted him.
“Do you not fucking know how to knock on a door, Litvir?” Arkay hissed. “I was fucking busy!”
Litvir shrugged as he phased through the door, other things clearly on his mind. “Normally I would, but I am very concerned right now and need to speak to you immediately.”
“Like, right this fucking second?”
“Yes. Mostly because I somewhat… not know, but feel what you are thinking.”
Arkay’s eyes widened as he realised what Litvir was on about. “You… you knew why… I had sneaked off on my own…”
“With the wet wipes, yes. Normally I would not even notice, but today…” Litvir hesitated. “Well, ever since we did that, uh, ritual of yours… we never got around to separating ourselves, so I am picking up more and more on yours and Retvik’s emotions.”
Litvir sighed, then made his way over to where Arkay was sitting. Although Arkay was still furious, he couldn’t help but weirdly empathise with Litvir. Something was genuinely bothering him.
“I need to know what you did. Because I cannot process it and my endless curiosity is getting the better of me. Please, tell me what you did to make us into one being! And…” Litvir paused, staring at the ground. “Please tell me that souls do not exist.”
“They do not exist…” Arkay plainly answered. “All I did was, well, take the Rethan hive mind that you two already technically have, then alter it so it includes the three of us, at a strong enough level for us to be recognised as one being.”
Litvir stared blankly at Arkay. “Is that… is that all you did?”
“Yeah.”
“Then… why… why did you make it seem a lot worse than it was?” Litvir threw his arms up in frustration. “I have been worrying about this for ages! And it all turned out to be something that I already have?”
Arkay nodded again. “Yeah, basically.”
“But you made it seem like a stupidly complicated ritual!”
“Only because I didn’t know how else to do it…” Arkay sighed. “My biggest problem right now is basically relearning my godly powers without a universe around me to define them. Back at home, I knew what my limitations were so I could build with and around them. Out here though, where everything is just… limitless and eternal… I had to put together a ritual in order to properly visualize what I needed to do.”
“But what about that… book?”
“Oh, that…”
“The blank one.”
“Yeah.”
Arkay took a deep breath. “I’m… not supposed to tell you about it. But you can’t even read it anyway. It’s a beginners’ manual for Life Goddesses. I don’t like using it, but sometimes I resort to it when I can’t work out how to do something the proper Decay Lord way. It’s all… too reality-warping for me.”
“Oh…” Litvir fell silent, unsure what to say. “Uh…”
“Do you want me to fix it? To make us separate again?”
“That is the problem…” Litvir sighed, looking rather flustered and embarrassed. “I… I do not want you to. I enjoy feeling what you feel. I have not been so… connected to other beings in a long time, not since I severed myself from the Rethan hive mind, for fear of outing myself and harming others. It is… genuinely pleasurable, knowing when you are happy or sad or in need of love.”
Arkay looked Litvir up and down, then also sighed. With a second sigh, he got up and gave Litvir a hug.
“I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Not considering your emotions.”
“I do the same to you though…” Litvir grunted.
“Yeah, true, but we shouldn’t do that stuff to each other. We’re connected now. We should act like it.”
Litvir tutted, then hugged Arkay back. “You are right… We should be more caring of each other… Thank you for putting up with me…”
“Heh, thank you too…”