“You were a teacher once?” Galyn asked as he cradled the baby Beh’evok, trying to get it to go to sleep.
“Yep. My career path was kinda weird!” Kayel smiled. He had been on baby-watching duty for the last hour, and Galyn was back to take over. He had tried to persuade Galyn to take more time off, so had many other members of the Thantir, but Galyn was insistent that he be nearby at all times. And to make matters worse, Itaviir had been patrolling non-stop, not even taking breaks to sleep, and was borderline unapproachable, as he’d snarl at anyone who came too close to him. Considering Galyn and Itaviir were colossal, 4m tall monsters, the overall mood at Savepoint was awkward.
“What was your career path? And, as a secondary question, I have no idea how old you are.”
“To be fair, none of you have asked!” Kayel was doing his best to be chirpy. For some reason, he was certain he was kinda… borrowing telepathy from Nyssi, because he could feel Galyn’s conflicted emotions right now. Really, the four of them had been borrowing from each other constantly, and Ret had made big scary Retvik rather annoyed when he worked out how to borrow Kayel’s fire powers.
“True. We have been somewhat busy, as you can tell. And you four in particular are quite secretive.”
“Only because we’re well aware we’re freaks, same way Arkay is. And Elkay. But Elkay seemed a tad more settled. And is married to a guy who looks almost exactly like my captain, who I kinda had a crush on.”
Galyn thought for a moment. “Skyavok in your universe had Legions, the same way Rethavok do?”
“Kinda?” Kayel shrugged. “We have Classes. Similar idea but broader. I was in K-Class, the Skyan defence and military Class, because I was an orphan child and was shadow-blessed.”
“That doesn’t sound like a place to be a teacher.”
“It wasn’t. I ended up… uh… kinda being an assassin, but… well, one mission went very badly, and I left K-Class and joined L-Class, which is the family help Class. Everything from planned parenthood to looking after orphans to providing both contraceptives, abortions and childcare to running nurseries while parents work. I trained up to be a teacher, taught PE and sexual education. But if you work in L-Class, you also do compulsory lessons in childrearing on top of your training.”
Galyn eyed Kayel some more. “You went from being an assassin to being a teacher?”
“Yep.”
“But you also used to be a gladiator?”
Kayel’s smile faded somewhat. “The family planning centre I worked at was… shot up. I was the only adult survivor, lost my job, lost my friends and no one wanted to re-hire me. Retvik suggested I could put my fighting skills to good use and be a gladiator for a bit until things blew over. Turned out, I liked being able to use my Phantasma abilities to hurt people. Legally, of course.”
Galyn tutted. “Eksi once mentioned he worked as a gladiator for a bit, as a team of four. But Teekay and Eksi do not have shadow powers like you do, and you don’t have telepathy.”
“Yeah, I don’t get that either. But, like, according to the smart science folks, over millions of years, we may have developed telepathy one day. Their universe was a lot older than mine…” Kayel paused for a moment. “You were mortal once, right?”
“I was, yes.”
“But Itaviir, who is the same species as you, wasn’t?”
Galyn sighed, then rocked the baby some more. Thankfully, it had fallen asleep. “The Beh’evok overall were an uplifted species created by the First Mother in the Golden Paradise. Some of the First Mother’s daughters did… experiments where they put Beh’ens inside universes to see what they’d do. I’m from one such universe. Fifth generation. My family was… killed by a Voidborn an a Time Drake and I was made into a god of war and vengeance, until my universe was destroyed and I ended up joining the Phantai.”
“I bet you got treated like shit, assuming the Phantai are a, uh, group like the Thantir.”
Galyn grunted and went back to eyeing Kayel. “Are you reading my mind?”
“Um… not intentionally… Also, you can put the baby down now, it’s asleep!” Kayel went back to smiling.
“Why are you so interested in this baby?” Galyn asked. “You are not a Beh’en in any way.”
“As an L-Class Skyan, it’s my responsibility to look after kids. Even if they’re not my own. I don’t get Kuta’s reasoning, but Ret always wanted kids. The only person he ever dated apart from Kuta had three kids, who he used to look after and provide for. He even bought a four-bedroom villa so they could live with him.”
“He had the same problems Retvik had, with bloodlines, yes?” Galyn queried as he put the baby back in its makeshift crib.
“Yeah, but worse. Ret wasn’t even allowed to date or have sex for almost the entirety of his adult life. From what Kuta has suggested, big old flaming Retvik just wasn’t allowed to have kids, but he could still have a partner, get married and adopt.”
“Hmph…” Galyn snorted. “You’d better not call Retvik that to his face.”
Kayel snickered. “Yeah, I know. He doesn’t like there being a younger, fitter, sexier and more powerful version of himself wandering around. Personally, I’m glad I got my name change done, otherwise I’d still be called Elkay.”
“Was Elkay your birth name?”
“Somewhat. Skyans are weird with names. Although, speaking of names, are we going to name the baby, or would that make you too attached to it?”
Galyn hesitated, and didn’t answer at first. “Neither Itaviir or I have the right to name a Beh’enlu.”
“Really? That’s weird…” Kayel thought for a moment. “So why IS Itaviir stomping around, permanently on guard?”
“He was a Warm Guard before he joined the Phantai. He believes he is doing a holy, sincere duty, protecting the baby from the void. All Beh’enu Warm Guards are like this.”
“Alright, I have a new question. What’s the difference between “Beh’enu”, “Beh’ena” and “Beh’enlu”? Do they mean something?”
“Different names for different genders. A baby Beh’en is a Beh’enlu, they don’t get a gender until the age of 50.”
Kayel blinked. “Oh. Sorry, I kinda thought you and Itaviir were like us Skyans and Rethans.”
“No, we are not.”
“So you ONLY have a dick. Noted… What do female Beh’ens look like then?”
Galyn went back to grunting. “Like Skyavok but with no claws, smaller, rounder teeth and less armour.”
Kayel blinked some more. “I, uh, assume you know not to get horny over us Skyans, right?”
“Of course. My wife was, somewhat awkwardly, yellow-plated, and our kid had lime green plating because of that, but these days, those sorts of things are not on my mind any more.”
“How comes?”
“I mourned my family a long time ago. I moved on and found Itaviir. And then we found Vikalos…” Galyn paused. “You seem completely unbothered about me being somewhat homosexual.”
Kayel’s smile returned. “I’m an L-Class Skyavok who dabbled with prostitution while training to be a teacher. L-Class is the most open and liberal Class. As far as I’m concerned, do whatever floats your boat, as long as you’re happy and consenting.”
“Fair…” Galyn paused again. “Alright, a question for you. Are you intentionally striking conversations with me for a reason?”
Kayel nodded. “Yeah. Kuta and Nyssi said it might make you feel better, and calm down enough to make you speak to Itaviir and calm him down too. You might even consider taking an actual break for more than an hour.”
“You do realize I am a former deity, an utterly ancient being, yes?”
“According to Thassalin, you’re around the same age as Arkay. Arkay takes breaks, so should you.”
“But what about the baby?” Galyn asked.
“The baby is fine!” Kayel exclaimed. “Bloody Darkness, you’re as bad as Arkay is, and even harder to convince to take a break. There are, like, nearly 30 other whatever-we-ares here, you can take ten minutes to have a shower and a drink and all that stuff!”
Galyn snorted, then relented. “Fine. But I am telling you now, you are just as annoying as Kuta and Ret are.”
“Oh, I’m way more annoying than that cute little couple. Now go and take a break! Nyssi’s telling me that Ret and Kuta are coming back here to help me. We’re all fine.”
“Very well…” Galyn gave in. “I’ll come back later.”
“Good, now piss off!” Kayel demanded, just as Ret knocked on the door. “We got this.”