“WHERE IS EPANI?”
“WHERE IS ARKAY?”
Kairos and Sini both realized they had shouted at each other at exactly the same time. The Whenvern apologized first, but only because he was the God of Time and thus faster than Sini. However, he was quite surprised that Sini also apologized. Normally the female deities of this universe rarely apologized for anything.
“You alright, Sini?” Kairos asked.
“No, I am fucking pissed.” The Allbirther didn’t seem pissed, but she always hid her emotions under a layer of pleasantries and horniness. Today, that layer had been worn thin. “What the fuck is wrong with Epani and where the fuck is she?”
“She’s in the fortress at the centre of the universe, where she always is!” Kairos tutted. “What did she do? And is she the reason why I can’t find Arkay? I don’t exactly need his help right now but there’s a time anomaly that, if Arkay assisted me, I could get it fixed in like an hour.”
Sini crossed her arms, then created a pair of wings for herself and took off into the air. Kairos had bumped into Sini above a Rethavok city. Kairos didn’t particularly care about the city (or the Rethavok) but he knew that his two younger siblings did, and there’d been a recent catastrophe. While it hadn’t made interspecies news, the Skyavok had reported on it and both they and the Lanex had offered aid.
With a sigh, Kairos followed, effortlessly soaring above the city, but disguising his presence with a puff of clouds. All things considered, there wasn’t that much damage, but there were definitely quite a few collapsed buildings. Sini seemed to circle over one collapsed building, before making a detour and passing over a specific, rather crowded hospital. After a moment, she then headed towards the nearby mountains.
“Sini, what is going on?” Kairos asked as they reached the city’s outskirts. “You’ve been here for a while. Too long. You don’t normally care THAT much about this society of armoured brutes.”
“I care about all life. But Arkay cares about what he considers his kin, and he’s in a horrible way right now. You know he picked up a little Rethan girlfriend, right? You should, you nearly incinerated them.”
The Whenvern hovered, thinking back. He couldn’t remember the last Rethavok he had seen. He did recall seeing a large, white and black Skyavok with a cape in one of his palaces, who Kairos had stumbled into while drunk, but they had disappeared through a nearby shadow, as the most powerful Skyavok often did.
“Uh…”
“Their name is Kuta, they are… admittedly rather ugly, but, well, they made Arkay very happy. Up until Epani nearly killed them and the rest of the Rethan capital with an unnatural earthquake.”
Kairos glanced back at the city. “Did Epani do this?”
“Mhm. Which is why I am so damn angry. She makes her chosen races suffer, but she makes me and Arkay suffer as well. Epani doesn’t see us as equals. She sees herself at the top and us underneath. And it’s been getting worse over the last five thousand years. It’s been gradual, but I am seeing it now.”
“You and Epani have always treated us Gods of Change with disdain, because we interfere with your duties as Goddesses of Creation. And Arkay, being Decay and Entropy, has always been the main target of that disdain. But what is different?”
Sini turned back to the city and hissed. “She has been interfering in my domain. In all of our domains. She acts not as the Panelix but as the Allmaker, when she is no such thing. And because of her damn rules, I have worked out that permanent, immortal life on a larger than individual scale is impossible in this universe. As is creating life immune to the effects of Corruption, which has been a recent side project of mine for a while now. One that Arkay has been graciously helping me with, without asking for anything in return.”
“Yeah, but… what does this have to do with an earthquake at a Rethavok city?”
“They have become disillusioned with her. They’ve not been worshipping Epani as much as she’d like and they have been trying to do things that her favourite race, the Torr, dislike. Also, Arkay’s been spending time with one of them So she punished them. Even though we all agreed not to punish non-followers of religion…” Sini paused. “Speaking of which, when are you going to end your stupid curse on the Spasts?”
“They deserve that curse. They hurt me. Physically. But it all depends on who their next leader is, I guess…” Kairos dragged the subject back. “So where is Arkay?”
Sini didn’t answer at first.
“Sini, where is Arkay?”
“Do you know how Rethavok raise their young and keep their eggs?”
“No. What does this have to do with anything?”
“He managed to keep the deaths low. Mostly. Until he found a nursery that had completely collapsed, right at the epicentre. A nursery with four dead staff members, ten dead younglings and thirty dead eggs in it. Arkay’s been sitting in that nursery for the last 12 hours, sobbing to himself, blaming himself and wishing he could have done more. And we both know that gods making wishes is dangerous.”
Kairos eyed Sini, then tutted. He summoned a large cloud and sat on it, then spoke slowly.
“I wish for a glass of champagne.” A glass appeared in Kairos’s hand, which he sipped from. “Wishes are not dangerous.”
“You’re not a Life Goddess. Your wishes are bound within our universe.”
“So? Arkay is bound to this universe as well, and, sure, he’s not a standard deity, but he’s also not a Life Goddess. You two made him weak. He’s killed billions of beings, why is this any different?”
Sini pointed back at the city. “Epani hurt him. He might wish to hurt her. And, honestly? I kinda want to hurt her. She treats her races like shit, they are the least happy races in the universe and she routinely hurts them. I am sick of this and I’m going to fix things.”
Kairos hesitated. “Uh, how?”
“I am going to take Epani’s races away from her. She doesn’t even care about them anyway.”
“And do what with them?”
“Which race do you prefer, the Lanex or the Torr?”
The Whenvern hesitated again, realizing what Sini was suggesting. “You’re going to give the Rethavok to Arkay?”
“He IS a Retahvok. Alright, technically, genetically, he is… I don’t know what, something older than anything I’ve seen but also whatever Kinisis manipulated him into being, but as far as Arkay is concerned, both the Rethavok and the Skyavok are family, in a way. As for Epani’s other races, I love all species and am happy with either race, so I am letting you pick what you want.”
Kairos tutted. “Epani won’t like you doing this.”
“You agree that she’s in the wrong though, yes?” Sini asked. “She’s in the wrong. I believe this, Arkay agrees, you agree too? We can’t just let her be a massive cunt. No, worse than a cunt. Cunts are warm and pleasurable. Unlike Epani.”
“I… I do agree… But we really need to be careful. Epani does hold more power than you do.”
“I have Arkay on my side. We both hold his chains. I can let my chains go.”
The Whenvern sighed and took a deep breath. “Sini, I love you dearly and, dare I say it, I love you more than Epani. But please, please, do not go to war with her. I like this universe how it is. Talk to Epani, yes, tell her off, yes, tell her she’s a fucking idiot, sure. But tread carefully. Alright?”
Sini relented. “Fine. I’ll be careful. But are you at least with me when it comes to this mess?”
Kairos nodded. “I am. Have you spoken to Arkay yet?”
“No. I’m waiting for him to calm down. And I haven’t told him about making the Rethavok one of his chosen races. Not that he ever got to choose, but you know what I mean. He’s… volatile right now.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I have performed a lot of miracles in the last couple of days. One of which was convincing Arkay to stay here and help in every way possible, out in the open.”
“Oh… Oh… Was he… that bad?”
Sini glanced back towards the city. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to risk him attacking Epani. Because that could have caused irreparable damage… Can you keep quiet for now, until I have arranged a proper meeting to discuss everything and bring all of this to the table properly?”
“Of course. Do you need me here?”
“No, and I don’t think Arkay is in any real position to help you right now.”
Kairos shrugged. “That’s fine. I’ll just have to do things the slow way. Take it easy, Sini.”
“You too, Kairos…” Sini sighed as the Whenvern flew off. She waited until Kairos had faded from view, then made her way back to the city. While the earthquake was mostly over, there were still concerns of aftershocks, as well as an overall fear of the Panelix’s wrath returning. Sini needed to stick around, just in case she needed to perform a few more miracles…