Elkay rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He could not understand what he was hearing.
“So you are saying that I have to help babysit a death god for the rest of my natural life?”
Levik shrugged. “No. I think she said 20 years.”
“20 years is a long time. Especially for the younger members of our groups. You think Talok…”
“Talok’s fine with it. He was sick of nest work anyway and gets to visit places like Portalia and Kolasi.”
Elkay continued to rub his eyes. “You do not understand, Levik. Our own destinies have been taken away from us, replaced with simple guard duty. I hate to sound aloof, but this feels like a mockery of my power and talent, being reduced to a guard. And we will not even be effective guards. Should the Thantophor decide he has had enough, he could escape and there is almost nothing we can do to prevent that. We are powerful beings, Levik, not babysitters.”
“You sound upset.”
“I am upset…” Elkay sighed some more. “I literally just reclaimed my position as High General, and because of a bit of drama between deities, I had to give all that up. I was whisked away, tortured and hurt and now I am here of all places…”
“But the Allmaker will give you whatever you want?”
“What if I want to go back to my duties as High General of the Retha?” Elkay snapped. “I have so much I need and want to do to better the lives of my fellow Rethavok! I live for them!”
Levik sighed as well. “When you put it like that…” With a second sigh, Levik brought a chair over and sat as close to Elkay as he could without looking too suspicious. “I think you’re missing something.”
“Like what?”
“Well, firstly…” Levik tutted. “I’m not the most knowledgable when it comes to Rethan politics, but you can’t go back to being High General for a while because you’re legally dead anyway.”
Elkay grunted. “That is true… Rethais will have taken my place and appointed a new High General… Unfortunately that means I have to wait four years for the next general election, run as Vice General if Rethais allows me to and move on from there…”
“So you have four years free. Four years you can’t do anything directly political. But what if you could do so much more?”
Elkay leaned forward, both confused and curious. “What are you on about, Prince Levik?”
Levik smiled as he leaned back. “Quite simple, really. You do this job, you are acting in the service of the Allmaker. The most powerful being in existence. You will also be within arm’s reach of the Thantophor. Right now, the twelve of us are in a very strong position. Sure, we work for them, but we are inches away from the ear of the Allmaker. Our sweet whispers could become reality if we play our cards right.”
Elkay blinked. “I… I had not thought of that.”
“Exactly. Trust me, General, I know you wish to go home, but this is good for all of us.”
The Rethan got up from his seat. “Very well, Prince Levik. You have me convinced. Not that we have much choice anyway, but you have put an optimistic spin on this.”
Levik clapped his hands together. “Great! Let’s inform the others and get started. Because there’s probably a lot of work to do…”