“Arky!”
Kairos was in a very… swirly mood today. His current form was much more Time Drake rather than Time Dragon. A soaring, serpentine creature, all wings and tail and no legs. He sailed over Arkadin, then twisted round him, brushing his strangely fluffy tail against the Death Lord. Arkadin was just sitting on a little floating island, all on his own, and wasn’t sure whether he enjoyed the sudden burst of company or not.
“Uh, hi, Kairos. You’re happy today…”
“And you don’t seem happy at all… Did Yisini find you finally?”
Arkadin crossed his arms, tutting. “Nope. She decided to make a massive mess. I was somewhat hoping that Kenon would step in, since she was hurting Skyans, his second favourite species, but nope, I had to step in…”
“So I heard! Yisini was not…” Kairos hesitated. “Well, she ran straight to mummy. Crying about her hurty fingers. She won’t get sympathy from me or Epani, but you know what Kinisis is like… But I’m glad you didn’t get all soft again and let her off. Sometimes Yisini needs a kick up the cloaca and…”
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a cloaca…” Arkadin interrupted.
“She has pretty much every sexual organ available!” Kairos butted back in. “But whatever, you got yourself some breathing room.”
“And a race that wants to worship me.”
“Oh.”
The two deities trailed off.
“Have you, uh, spoken to Kenon about it? Because I’m pretty sure he might have called dibs on the Skyavok…” Kairos muttered. “Although I don’t think he’s accepted worship from a space-faring race in a long time… He tends to just let small cervidae races worship him…”
Arkadin shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to him, but I also don’t… really want to be worshipped. I even went and told the Banikans to kinda cut it in and work on technology and stuff like that, because religion holds them back.”
“No offense…” Kairos smiled. “The Banikans really don’t need technology. They have magic, sheer strength and a death god behind them.”
“Means nothing if you don’t have proper medical tech…” Arkadin shook his head. “Either way, that’s not important. The Skyavok want to worship me and I don’t want them to. But…”
Kairos swirled around a bit, before settling down by Arkadin’s side. “But what? You want some admiration?”
“I do…” Arkadin admitted. “I don’t want them to worship me but I want them to… want me. I kinda almost want to rule by their leaders’ sides.”
The Whenvern’s wings fluttered. “So… why not do that then?”
“Because… because everyone seems to hate me when I do that stuff?”
“True… But I won’t hate you this time. Pretty sure Epani won’t either since she’s working on a project… Have you spoken to Epani about that by the way?”
Arkadin blinked. “What project?”
“The one Yisini can’t know about.”
Arkadin blinked again. “I think I need to go and speak to Epani then. But I want to sort out this Skyan thing first. Like, I want to do it. I’m even thinking of calling myself Arkay again.”
“You mean, your Before-Name?”
The Thantophor blinked some more. “I wasn’t out of the loop for that long, was I? What are you talking about?”
“Your Before-Name. Before this universe…” Kairos explained. “You know, you have the old memories.”
“Yeah but I thought my name back then was Arkadin as well? I don’t even really remember any of that anyway…”
“You were called Arkay. I mean, you took other names as well, but I’m pretty sure your birth name was Arkay, when you were mortal.”
Arkadin took a deep breath. “You know, you’re throwing too much stuff at me right now…”
Kairos smiled. “I probably am. You should do it though. Call yourself Arkay for a bit, work with the Skyans, turn them into a super power or something. Enjoy yourself.”
“Yeah… But I should speak to Kenon and Epani first…”
“Sure!” Kairos flapped his wings. “Want me to come with?”
“I guess…” Arkadin shrugged, summoning a pair of dark wings. “I could do with the company…”