“Galyn! I cannot find Lady Kinisis!”
Relkir barged into the office, weapon in hand, only to find that the room was empty. This was supposed to be a shared office, where both Relkir’s boss, the Allmaker, and her best friend and Decay Lord Galyn both did various paperwork stuff. So the fact that the room was completely devoid of life worried Relkir greatly. However, what worried Relkir more was the fact that every single Life Goddess at the Kinigi Oasis, Kinisis’s hotel paradise, had abruptly gotten up and left, while the universe below had seemed to have shrouded itself in a brilliant white veil.
“Everyone is gone!” a voice squeaked behind Relkir. Eksi, half Relkie’s height, was also heavily armed and just as concerned. “The ones that didn’t just teleport off have all gotten to their ships and left!”
“Is Galyn’s ship still present?” Relkir asked, having no idea what to do. Kinisis had always told them to speak to Kairos or Epani if she was unavailable, and then to Galyn, but no one was answering.
“I haven’t checked…”
Suddenly, the ground trembled. It was brief but definitely noticeable.
“That is not good. Not good at all.”
“Did you manage to contact the other gods?” Eksi whispered, a vague attempt to hide his uneasiness.
“Yes. All communications from within the universe seem to be dead. Epani did briefly visit earlier but she quickly headed back to the universe, and as far as I am aware, Kinisis went with her.”
“You sure about that?” Eksi asked. “I didn’t see her leave. She’d tell us normally.”
“I do not know…” Relkir sighed. “We need to find Galyn. Where are Litvir and Teekay?”
“Teekay went to check the monitors for structural integrity, Litvir should be at the entrance, helping the last few visitors.”
“Why is Teekay-”
“He thought that maybe an earthquake was scaring everyone off and went to make sure the whole place isn’t falling apart!”
Another tremble. Relkir and Eksi both stared at each other, as yet another set of footsteps came to a halt behind them.
“We need to leave.”
“Galyn!”
The Decay Lord towered over both Relkir and Eksi.
“Kinisis is dead. I am not sure how, but it seems Epani found a way to kill her. I am taking you to my ship, before you get caught in the universal remaking below.”
Galyn grabbed Relkir by the shoulder and physically picked Eksi up off the ground and immediately dragged them both out of his office and out of the building. Already waiting for them were Teekay and Litvir, carrying a lot of random baggage.
“We grabbed as much as we could!” Teekay reported. “Do you want us to grab more?”
Galyn nodded, then steadied himself as the ground trembled a bit more. “Get that stuff to the ship, then grab whatever you think will be helpful. Relkir, Litvir, go to the kitchens, grab some black bags each and head to the vault. Load them up, then get both the bags and yourselves to the ship. Eksi, Teekay, do a quick sweep, then help the Rethavok. I will meet you there shortly.”
The four guards all looked at each other briefly, then did as they were told. Galyn grunted, then made his way to the control tower on the far reaches of the island. As he did so, he turned on his communicator, scanning the channels for any activity. However, as he reached the tower, he was interrupted by a speck of white.
“Seimeni, what are you doing here?”
“KAIROS JUMPED IN!”
“Into the reforming universe?”
“YES! WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM!”
Galyn snarled. “It is too late. The universe has already claimed him and he is most likely as good as dead. I am going to the control tower, to the weapons array.”
“What? Why?” Seimeni shrieked. “You can’t shoot it, it’s a universe! Kairos went in to save it!”
“Epani killed Kinisis, causing a collapse. Unless Kairos can perform miracles in there, there will be nothing left. If we fire into it, we can at least give the universe a quick death and avenge Kinisis.”
“But Kairos is in there! You’ll kill him!”
“He is most likely already dead.”
“But what if he isn’t? What if he manages to get out? Or manages to control it? Or something?”
Galyn paused, then sighed.
“I just lost Kinisis.”
“And I have probably just lost Kairos. But we can’t just… we should just leave.”
The Decay Lord glanced over the nearby ledge. He could see the universe below, slowly rotating, slowly changing.
“Fine. Come with me.” Galyn turned around, heading to his ship. Seimeni hesitated, then followed.
The ground tremors were getting worse as Seimeni and Galyn arrived at the Thantir One. At the rear, Litvir and Relkir were finishing up with loading. Eksi and Teekay were already inside. Seimeni rushed on board, not pausing to speak to the two guards.
“You done?” Galyn asked.
“Yes, ser.”
“Come on then. We need to get out of here.”
“But what is going on?”
Galyn closed his eyes and sighed. “Once we are safe, I will explain…”