“How was the date?” Epani asked as she awkwardly landed on the roof of Kairos’s little bunker.
“Uh, she’s… still here…” Kairos hissed. He had seen Epani coming but desperately didn’t want to wake the sleeping Ksithan lying in his bed. “We’re still on said date.”
“Is this a bad time?”
Kairos looked back at the Raptor. He summoned some cushions and placed them around her, protecting her from imagined monsters. Kairos then wriggled out of bed. It was clear he still wasn’t used to losing his hind legs.
“It’s not the best time, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s all fine. What do you need, Epani?”
Epani curled up on the roof. The warmth was nice. She’d just finished making an icy set of rings around a young planet and any time that wasn’t the standard freezing depths of space.
“I am… concerned.”
“You’re often concerned.”
“I am more concerned than usual.”
“Why?”
Kairos quickly checked on Phovos. She was still sleeping but had changed position.
“Kinisis has imprisoned Arkadin in a cell that will not hold him.”
“Yes, I know.”
Epani grunted, curling herself up tighter. There were still claw and tooth marks on her underbelly that Epani did not feel comfortable showing quite yet. “You know yet you do not act. That is what lost us our rear legs, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter whether the mortals can keep him docile or not. It doesn’t matter that the building he’s in won’t hold. Kinisis has been drugging him, to the point that all Arkadin does is sleep.”
“That will not hold him either.”
“It won’t.”
The Panelix flicked her tail. As she did so, the area around them warmed up, just a little. “So you share my concern that Arkadin will not remain imprisoned for very long?”
Kairos sighed. “Not really. I’m more concerned that we drug Arkadin to the point that he goes back to… being… him.”
“Him?”
“The wolf. The dragon. Arkedetelos.”
Epani’s eyes widened and the scales on her light glowed briefly. “No.”
“Maybe.”
“That… that can’t happen again! Can it?”
Kairos shrugged. “I don’t know. But I don’t want to risk it. I mean, we are drugging him so he falls asleep. Arkedetelos is… Arkadin’s instinctual form… It was one of the things I saw as I ran through various potential futures once Arkadin was secured.”
Epani turned over, lying on her back. She was beginning to feel more comfortable. But as soon as Kairos glanced at her, she rolled back onto her stomach, once again curling up and hiding herself.
“You really think…”
“I do think it could happen. I went through seventy different potential outcomes. Thankfully only about twenty ended in absolute destruction. But in thirty four scenarios, Arkadin risked losing his conscious form and in seven of the absolute destructions, it was because Arkedetelos had awoken and we were unable to stop it.”
Something rustled, distracting both Kairos and Epani. Phovos had woken up and was wearily standing on a little balcony.
“Hi…”
“You’re awake, dear.”
“Yeah. I got cold and I kinda missed you. Where’s the bathroom?”
Kairos waved one of his wings to a small door in the back of the room. Phovos nodded a thank you and wandered off, taking her little bag and her cushion with her.
“Do you think she heard?” Epani asked.
“She… already knows in her own way…” Kairos sighed. “They all know. But they can’t do anything about it.”