“You brought the old Allbirther here?” Retvik snarled as he pulled Litvir into the office and forced him into a seat. “What are you plotting?”
Litvir didn’t appreciate being manhandled, and snarled back at Retvik. “Elksia is unintentionally making everyone want to have kids. Sini is here to counteract that.”
“Elksia is doing no such thing! Sini has tricked you into thinking that. How dare you suggest that Elksia be harming us!”
“Retvik, Elksia is not harming us. She is just mixing things up…” Litvir inspected Retvik somewhat. “You are being very aggressive.”
“The old Allbirther is a threat to Elksia and her egg. I need to protect Elksia.”
“The reason why Elksia even has an egg is because Sini put things together for her!” Litvir exclaimed. “Retvik, you need to calm down.”
“You need to stop whatever you are planning!” Retvik hissed. “You are threatening Elksia by bringing Sini here!”
“Retvik, I-”
Litvir suddenly paused as Retvik slammed the desk, forcing him to shut up.
“You are putting Elksia in danger!”
“You just said that.”
“You are threatening her! You are a threat to her! You are-”
Something flashed in front of Retvik and pushed him back, throwing him into the chair at his own desk.
“Retvik, stop!” Arkay shouted. “You’re going around in circles! Of course Litvir isn’t a threat to Elksia! Pretty much nothing is a threat to Elksia, because she’s a stupidly powerful Time Drake!”
“But…”
“But what?” Arkay lowered his voice. “Retvik, I know you want to protect Elksia, and you can and you are protecting her. But it’s getting to your head. You’re doing what I do sometimes.”
“But… what about Elksia?”
Arkay put his hands on Retvik’s shoulders. “Elksia is fine. She’s happy and safe. A little worried, but happy. Her egg is fine too. It’s a healthy egg. That’s why Sini is here though, she’s here to help protect Elksia and her egg and make sure she’s alright.”
“Is that… is that why Litvir left with the Raptors and came back with a serpent?”
Arkay nodded. “Yep. Litvir and I saw that Elksia was stressed and we thought Sini would be able to help. You’ve got the most knowledgeable person around when it comes to looking after Elksia and her egg, and Sini can also work as a Time Drake while Elksia is busy. But Sini didn’t want to leave her oasis unattended, so Phovos and Phovoula offered to look after it while Sini stays here with us. Once the egg has hatched and Sini has checked it and made sure it’s healthy, she’ll go back to the oasis, and everything will calm down again.”
Retvik took a deep breath. He seemed to understand what Arkay was saying and settled down a little bit, before turning to Litvir.
“I am sorry. I thought you had… concerning thoughts, Litvir. After all, you have been rather… against all of this.”
Litvir tutted. “I am not against anything apart from you and I having a kid together.”
“But why?” Retvik asked. “Why are you so against having a kid?”
Litvir stood up then gestured at himself. “I am a monster. I am a genetic disaster. And I am too messed up to want to lay. Not just because of the Kuta incident either. I have already done my fair share of unwanted childrearing, I do not want another such permanent commitment.”
“Litvir… what happened?” Arkay asked. “Someone hurt you. Someone hurt you on the level I’ve been hurt.”
“Ugh… You have no idea how many dead babies Siona Kaldieridos was responsible for… Not just his own…” Litvir slouched, then rubbed his eyes. “Horrible things happened in Siona’s lair. He constantly pushed out eggs. Many of them died. Many of the eggs hatched into babies that died soon after. Most of the dead were turned into slurry and fed into many of the starving, abused, mutated children that somehow survived.
“Not all of the dead were eggs Siona laid though. Incest was rampant, as was flat out murdering each other. We were all taught by Siona after all, and he believed in survival of the fittest. One would not even have a name. Not until you killed someone. Generally that someone was a smaller sibling.
“I admittedly got my name quite early on, killing a sibling that had… touched me inappropriately. I tried to protect Kuta from needing to kill, because Kuta’s telepathy would have become unhinged and I did not want Kuta to get hurt. Nonetheless, Kuta got their name about a year later… well, they were named Kutiir before we escaped… either way, they fought back and killed, ending the lives of five siblings that had ganged up on them, wanting to rape Kuta. I was not present to protect Kuta, because I had sneaked out to buy Plan C tablets for Kuta and myself. Because we needed them.
“I admittedly got lucky. Kuta got luckier. They remember almost nothing about that time, apart from those they killed. The majority of my siblings did not…” Litvir trailed off, sniffed, then sighed. “That was… probably too much tragic backstory. There is a reason why I keep it all to myself, normally.”
Arkay stared at Litvir, then immediately hugged him. “I’m so sorry. I… I could have stopped it… I would have, had I known…”
“Hah…” Litvir laughed, just a little. “Ironically, I never actually blamed you for what Siona did. I always blamed Yisini and what Siona called the Hidden One Above, who turned out to be Kinisis. And since I met you, I know you would have destroyed Siona the moment you became aware of him. I harbour no anger against you. But you do now understand why I cannot bring myself to have a child. I will of course help you all protect Elksia’s child, but I am too broken.”
Retvik sighed as well. “I owe you an apology. If I had known, I would never have asked.”
“To be fair, I never told you. I have constantly buried my past to protect myself. There was no way for you to know.”
“Well…” Retvik frowned, then tutted to himself. “Either way, Litvir, I promise I will not put you through that pain again. And I will protect you from whoever dares even consider hurting you like that again.”
“And Retvik, I-”
Arkay suddenly covered Litvir’s mouth. “Alright, you two. Stop it with the protection circle-jerking. We already promised to protect each other. We can give it a break now and go and snuggle or something.”
Litvir and Retvik glanced at each other, then grinned.
“That, Arkay, is a great idea…”