Iatre had been watching Veth go by all day. They’d enter Death’s dome-shaped mansion one at a time, there would be a five minute delay and then they’d stumble out in their new Veth V9 forms. Smaller. Sleeker. More powerful. Iatre’s work had been wasted time for him, but it seemed as if Death had fallen in love with his designs.
It was clear though that she had made some changes. The glowing spots on their bodies were more varied, with individual patterns of spots and stripes and swirls and spirals. Their heads were unique as well, a cross between the head of each Veth’s individual species and that of what Iatre had been told was called a “panvok shape”. Basically they all had armour plates on their heads. Their tails were unique as well. Some had stubby tails, some had really long tails, some had clubs and Iatre was pretty sure he saw a Veth with a very phallic-like appendage on the end of a tentacle tail.
A lot of the new Veth also seemed to have big horns, which were not in Iatre’s original design. Iatre knew that most predators lacked horns, instead preferring teeth and claws, which he had given to the Veth in spades.
“You’ve been here all day…” Istoria had brought two cups of what smelled like coffee. Iatre hadn’t had that in ages. “What are you doing?”
Things had suddenly gone a bit odd between him and Istoria. The previous day, they had shared quite a few moments. The sex had been amazing, but the talking had been relaxing. It made a change for Iatre to have someone smarter talk to him. He’d learned a lot. Iatre had felt a connection to Istoria, but he was unsure if she felt the same way.
“I was originally going to formulate a plan to break in there and save Arkay, but there is no way I can do that, so I decided to just watch everyone get upgraded, watching my designs become reality.”
Istoria put her arms around Iatre. “You happy?”
“Not really.”
“Were you happy last night?”
Iatre grinned. “Last night was amazing. I’d like to do that again…”
Istoria smiled back, then let go and took a sip of her drink, standing next to Iatre and watching other Veth come and go.
Suddenly, the ground shook, just enough for them both to notice. The other nearby Veth scarpered, knowing what was coming.
“What is he doing here?” Istoria hissed, as the Whenvern landed with a thud, then made his way into Kinisis’s home.
“What is it?” Iatre asked. “And shouldn’t we be killing it for intruding?”
“That’s the Dragon God of Time…” Istoria whispered. “Clearly Kinisis wants to talk to him…”
The Whenvern wasn’t around for long though. After only ten minutes, he exited the building, got up and left, flying off into the sky.
Istoria and Iatre waited for a bit, expecting Kinisis to get all angry and smashy like she normally did whenever Kairos or Stasis visited. But for a while, nothing happened.
Eventually, the front door of Kinisis’s home opened up. In the doorway stood Kinisis and a familiar yellow Veth.
“Ah, Iatre, Istoria!” Kinisis beamed. “Go fetch the older Veth. We’ve got a little event to organize…”