Kenon was sat in his favourite armchair, reading a book while a small fireplace burned away to itself. He had heard his two sons enter, but was choosing to ignore them. He wanted to listen to them, to see whether they would argue or not, but to his surprise, both his sons were reasonably quiet.
“Do you think he’s napping?” someone asked as the door creaked open.
“No. Just waiting. That’s what he always does…”
With a small smile, Kenon peered over the top of his book. In front of him were the magnificently huge Kairos, the Dragon God of Time, and the tiny little yellow creature known as Arkadin, the Lord of Death and Entropy.
“Why are you here today, little ones?” Kenon shifted his weight in his chair, leaning forward to stare down his kids. “Did you have another argument? One you are too scared to ask Mother to fix?”
“That’s rather condescending…” Arkadin muttered. “Actually no. Me and Kairos are getting along quite nicely right now.”
“We’ve put aside our differences for a while!” Kairos explained. “But we’re… worried about things…”
“Like what?” Kenon snorted. “What is worrying you?”
Arkadin glanced at Kairos and tutted. “Oh, nothing much. Just the increased number of Corruption attacks; the fact that they’ve attempted to attack Kairos, Epani and Yisini more regularly rather than just trying to consume you and me; all these sudden changes that Kinisis is doing to try and turn me into a murderous death-beast rather than the Entropic God I’m supposed to be; Kinisis being fine with incest; Yisini literally trying to fuck everything in existence; Epani refusing to make stars… Heck, even Kairos here isn’t acting right, he actually agreed to be friends with me and allowed me to keep him company so we can talk to you together. On top of that, I’m pretty sure you’ve been feeling the exo-universal bumps a lot more recently, right? Other universes bashing against us? More than ever? Hostile ones scratching us as we go by and old neighbours drifting away? None of this is right!”
Kairos nodded. “Basically Arkadin’s saying that we’re worried about this Cycle Alteration that Kinisis is currently in the middle of.”
Kenon stared at his sons, then picked up his book again and twisted his chair around, turning his back on them. “You bother me with these things when you could approach Kinisis yourself? Shame on you.”
Suddenly though, he couldn’t twist his chair any further. Arkadin had dug his black, inky claws into the side of it.
“We come to you because even us deities are nothing in the eyes of Kinisis. Tools and toys to be played with. She won’t listen to us. She may listen to you.”
Kenon sighed. “These Cycle Alterations happen every couple of hundred million years and come with resets in case something goes wrong. You should know that.”
“This one is different though!” Arkadin protested. “You don’t normally get massive Corruption attacks in the middle of an Alteration! We are worried that Kinisis might do something that she cannot easily undo!”
“Like what?” Kenon sneered.
“Like, I don’t know, decide she wants to run the universe herself?” Arkadin snapped. “She could do that, you know! And right now, Kairos and I both think she’s too unstable and might actually consider it! We are all replaceable. She could change her mind in a heartbeat.”
Kenon turned back to face his son, then gently patted him on the head.
“Very well, my little darling. I shall talk to Kinisis. But I would like you both to do something for me.”
Arkadin rolled his eyes pretty expectedly, but Kairos, something about him had snapped. He scrambled forward, pushing Kenon off his chair and pinning him down to the ground.
“No, don’t make us do things for you! Just fucking talk to Kinisis because she listens to you! Your children are scared and need your help, so help!” Kairos roared. But the Whenvern suddenly stopped and climbed off of Kenon. Arkadin kinda just stared at both Kairos and Kenon, not sure what was going on.
“Son. What is it?” Kenon asked as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.
Kairos growled ever so slightly. “Are you even Kenon?”
Kenon growled back. “Of course I am.”
“But she’s affecting you too, isn’t she?” Kairos asked, then turned back to Arkadin. “She’s affecting all of us, right?”
“Probably…” Arkadin admitted.
Kenon sighed, then snapped his fingers, teleporting his sons away. The Whenvern and the Thantophor were right. She was affecting Kenon. And he had become weak because of it. He just didn’t want to admit it in front of them.