“Hey, Yisini, are you busy, can we talk?”
Sini wasn’t particularly busy, she was just inspecting the ship that the Thantir just gave her. It wasn’t their ship, really, it was one of Kinisis’s old ships, but it turned out that some of her smaller Divine Guardians had backup ships in case the original ship, Kiniseon One, got destroyed. Which it did. About over a year-string ago, according to the Thantir. About two billion years ago from Sini’s point of view. But, being a partial Time Drake, Sini was aware of an ‘absolute time’ that ran alongside “experienced time”, so the differences weren’t actually that bad, all things considered.
The person who had called out to Sini also understood these things. Sini considered a lot of people to be family. She had two blood sisters, Epani and Phovos, and she always considered Arkay to be her little brother. But really, Sini considered Elksia to be her little sister too. The old Vrekan soldier she had worked with to develop both their Time Drake powers.
“I always have time for you, Elksia, babe! What’s the problem? You seem upset.”
There was a slight blue glow to Elksia’s eyes. While her energy auras were always mostly green, the blue glow meant that Elksia was scanning through potential timelines, looking for any potential threats. Or, in this case, she was checking to make sure she picked the right threads that meant she and Sini wouldn’t get interrupted.
“Can we talk, inside your ship, in private?”
“Of course!”
Elksia took Sini by the hand, then led her deeper inside. The ship was technically quite large. Not as large as the Thantir’s main ship, Thantir Two, but certainly larger than Thantir Two, Shield Six and Souldrainer’s Plight. And it was plenty big enough for the 4m tall, 7m long serpentine deity. Sure, Sini could have made herself smaller, but she enjoyed being large and making the two colossal proto-Threavok beings feel puny.
“So, my little darling, what’s wrong? You don’t seem right.”
Elksia double-checked to make sure everything was private, then decided to just say what she wanted to say.
“I’m gonna be blunt. I want kids. But I can’t have kids. Ain’t no other Vrekans around here. And according to Nyssi? Vrekans in your new universe don’t look like me. They ain’t got armour. And they have… downy feathers and blubber. I got the same rubbery skin the Rethans have. So I… I wanted to ask you if there was a way of me having kids.”
Sini looked Elksia up and down. “You’ve always wanted kids, right?”
“Yeah. But I waited too long. The power of hindsight and that shit. Kinda… I wasted things with Vel. Kinda did the same thing Retvik did with Gath but worse. I didn’t commit, because I knew I’d be dragged away on adventures and shit. Sure, I didn’t end up in the mess Retty did, but I still fucked up…” Elksia paused. “Me and Tenuk are kinda serious now. He knows I want kids. He knows he can’t give them to me. He fucking tries though.”
“Unfortunately, younger Kronospasts like Tenuk can’t interbreed the way much older Kronospasts could. And Spasts can’t interbreed at all. The DNA is just too unstable, and their genetic matter is a mess too.”
“Alright, I gotta ask…” Elksia suddenly smiled a little. “Why are Spasts furry? I also wanna know why you made Vrekans different too.”
“There were proto-Vrekans, known as Vrethravok, that looked like you do in the early stages of my universe, but they somewhat died out from competing with the early Threavok. As for Spasts being furry? Turns out, when you don’t include Voidborn shenanigans, Spasts end up being more like shapeshifting bee/fox hybrids. it’s… weird, but it did fix their massive problem with infertility…” Sini perked up. “So. You want kids?”
“Yes.”
“You willing to put in the effort of raising them? Out here, in this hell scape?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Tenuk wants kids too. Also he likes fucking me. Any excuse.”
“Heh, good. Well…” Sini thought for a moment.
“You… don’t have any old Vrekan DNA, do you?” Elksia sighed.
“I… I might, actually. But it’s in cryostasis. And it’s inside one of my frozen hammer spaces. I need to go through all of my belongings and dig it out. But I also need to see whether it’s viable DNA or not. Because, while yes, my frozen hammer space is designed to preserve these things, I don’t know if the potential sperm and eggs are stable or not. The last thing I want to do is get your hopes up, then realize that I’ve only got one sample, which isn’t guaranteed to form an egg or something. Or, worse, find out that you’re not compatible because you’re a Time Drake now.”
Elksia sighed. Her eyes glowed dimly again. But after a moment, she smiled. “So… you are saying there’s a chance?”
“There’s a chance, yes. But I want to make sure you have a healthy clutch of eggs. And I also want you to be ready to commit. Because, since you influence time, an egg might take far longer or far shorter to hatch. And you need to be ready for all of this. Also, Tenuk needs to be ready too, because he’s a Kronospast, he’s not used to child rearing, and he’s, ironically, somewhat young for a Kronospast. Of child-rearing age, but, well, Kronospast royalty is weird. You know that.”
“That’s… that’s fine. I’m just happy I have a chance.”
“I’m glad you want kids. Always made me a little sad that such fine specimens like you and Retvik didn’t have kids, Retvik in particular, but since younger Retvik wants to have kids with Kuta at some point, I’m ticking off two things on my wish list. Either way, your optimism makes me happy. I just want to make sure I can give you a healthy egg before I go ahead and give you the means to lay.”
“I get it. I appreciate it too… So, what ya gonna do now?”
“Not sure yet. Had a chat with Arkay, told him I kinda don’t wanna stick around. He doesn’t need me here. And I need my freedom. So I’m probably just going to go exploring or something. Maybe, once I get bored, I’ll have a fling with some local Voidborn or Time Drake, then I’ll settle down and make something new. A little paradise to call my own.”
Elksia hesitated. “You… wanna fuck a Voidborn?”
“Considering it, yeah. Ain’t fucked one before. I’ve fucked everything else.”
Elksia snorted. “Fair enough. You like that stuff. I got my Tennypoo to keep me satisfied. Funny how Phovos doesn’t like sex at all and you love it.”
“Phovos hasn’t created life yet. Once she works that out, the urges will get her. Same thing happened to Epani, she wasn’t into it until she made life of her own. But eh, whatever, Phovos is young. She’s got time. She’ll find a Voidborn husband or something and she’ll get the urges eventually. I look forward to seeing what she’ll create.”
“You gonna make a new universe?”
“Not yet…” Sini hesitated somewhat. “I have a few projects I want to work on first before I dedicate my long life to another universe. Anyway, I’d better get going. I have farewells to say.”
Elksia hesitated as well. “Fair. You want some company?”
“Yeah, sure. You’re a good girl, Elksia.”
“Heh. You ain’t too bad yourself, Sini.”