“You are so damn lucky that I like you…”
Retvik was pretty certain he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t feel his arms, legs or tail, he hurt all over and he stank of burning plastic and scorched flesh, but he had been hearing voices for a while. He certainly felt like he was nearly dead, but if he was dead, he wouldn’t be hearing voices, would he? It was only just now though that Retvik could make out complete sentences.
Opening his eyes and trying to move though didn’t seem to be options. Actually, Retvik couldn’t really do anything apart from lie where he was. He wasn’t even sure if he was hearing actual voices or if they were all in his head.
“It’s in your head, Retvik.”
That… that somewhat didn’t help matters. Retvik wasn’t scared but he definitely wasn’t comfortable either. And he still had no idea what was going on. Was he even alive? Was he dead?
“Oh. Sorry. You’re alive, Retvik. I saved you. Well, most of you. I don’t remember if Rethavok tails grow back or not.”
Who was talking to Retvik? He thought at first that maybe he was listening to medics talking over him, but none of them would be… so obvious.
“It’s me. You know, the death god you kinda accidentally angered.”
Retvik froze. Or at least, his thoughts froze. His body was still and not responding to any real external stimuli outside of temperature, hearing and scent. Was Arkadin here to finish him off? Was he here to torture him? Had he saved Retvik’s life just so he could personally kill him himself?
“No, I saved you because I have a crush on you and don’t want you to die yet. Been doing a lot of that lately. Saving people. Gonna be hearing stories about vok being saved by a bright yellow Rethan during the Great Blackout over the next few years maybe.”
Not sure what was really going on, Retvik tried to move or do something, anything. He was scared. More scared now than when he thought he was going to die. Why? Retvik wasn’t sure. He felt uncertain. He felt… wrong. Like something was horribly different about him. Something had happened and he had no idea. He needed answers.
“What sort of answers?”
What happened? How was he not dead? Blackouts? What? So many questions. Retvik was sure Arkadin would not answer all of them. Maybe he should start with the basics, work up from there. For example, where in the name of the Light was he?
“You’re in a hospital. Dunno what it’s called, it’s just the closest one. There’s a massive crater 300km away from here that you left.”
Retvik couldn’t work out why he had been saved. Yes, Arkadin had mentioned it a few times already, but he had no idea what had happened.
“I’ll be honest, I… I felt bad. And you can’t die. Not yet anyway. Not your time. I didn’t do all of this though. I think it was Epani but I haven’t had time to investigate. I’ll… spare you the gorier details…”
What happened though? Why was the Thantophor being so scarce with his truth? Why couldn’t he just give everything to him straight?
“You’re in shock. I don’t want to make things worse. We’re in a hospital right now, you’re in intensive care and I’m sitting by your side, making sure you and a lot of other people survive this catastrophe. It’s bad right now, but we’ll all be fine.”
Arkadin’s words were… not as calming as Retvik had hoped.
“I know, I kinda have a pretty bad bedside manner and I apologise. It’s all temporary though. You Rethans are coldly, stoically strong, you will be back on your feet in days.”
But what about Retvik?
“That… uh…”
Arkadin’s voice trailed off. It wasn’t from fear, like earlier. There was another reason that Arkadin was not revealing.
“I think we should wait until you wake up first before we talk about you.”
Wake up?
“You’re in a medically induced coma, to help speed up the healing process. You’ll be out of it in a few hours, hopefully.”
Retvik immediately felt like tensing up. He wasn’t sure whether his body had actually tensed up, but everything immediately felt much more worrying.
“Please, Retvik, you’re fine. You just need to relax and rest. The more you stress out, the longer this will take, alright?”
So all Retvik had to do was sleep? He didn’t like that. Not at all.
“It sucks… but at least you’re alive, right?”
That was true. Retvik was alive. Miraculously so. Deciding to take the Thantophor’s advice, Retvik slowly drifted off into a deeper slumber, with one last question in his mind.
Why did everything feel so… warm?