“Hi, Kairos…”
The Whenvern grunted as he perched on the small ledge that he had built into the side of the universe. Most of the universe’s outer membrane was somewhat opaque, made of vastskin, a dark, black, inky substance embedded with gravitational nodes and powerful electromagnetic field generators, which repelled the vast periuniversal void beyond it. But this little corner, Kairos had fortified it with one of his crystal palaces, and replaced the vastskin with a clear, diamond shell that he could see through.
“Hello, Arkadin.”
“Please, I prefer being called Arkay.”
Kairos grunted some more. He and Arkay hadn’t spoken in a while. Not on friendly terms, at least.
“Why? That was your mortal name.”
“Yeah, maybe, but it’s also the name I accepted, the one my friends call me. Arkadin is the name Kinisis gave me. We all hate Kinisis, and using the name Arkadin means she still holds some power over us…” Arkay paused, then tutted. “Also, dude, just call me the name I like. You’d get so fucking pissy if I started calling you something other than Kairos!”
The Whenvern grunted yet again. He was clearly in a bad mood. Arkay didn’t care, and decided to change the subject.
“You’ve been here a lot, brother.”
“That is true, little brother…” Kairos turned his gaze to the vast, crystal pane.
“Is something wrong?”
Kairos frowned. “I don’t know. Why are you here?”
“We’ve had a lot of… break-ins coming from this direction lately. I wanted to ask you if I could invite some Rethans and Ksithans to assist your Lanex and Spast border patrols.”
“Why Rethans? They are notoriously slow.”
“Individual Rethans, sure, but their chain of command and their communication lines are very clean and efficient. If something happens, they’ll let people know, and they are better allies with the two data gatherer races, the Skyans and the Spasts, than anyone else. Same with the Ksithans, but there’s more of them and they have smaller, faster ships. Only difference is that the Rethans are closer to this edge, the Ksithans normally congregate south.”
“Well… I suppose some extra hands would be useful. The Lanex are useful, but I regularly forget how… few they are. Only slightly more populous than the Spasts are. Admittedly, I let my darling Thraki and Athrens do their own things and keep to themselves…”
“So!” Arkay perked up. “You’re happy for me to let my races work with yours? I just thought it’d be good, get some extra hands up in here.”
Kairos nodded, but didn’t say much else, instead turning his gaze back out to the abyss. Arkay looked Kairos up and down, and his perkiness faded again.
“Something is wrong.”
“I don’t know if something is wrong. And that’s troubling me.”
Arkay glanced out to the crystal window. “Are you getting future flashes or something? Because I checked in with Sini and she hasn’t picked up any time stuff, and I haven’t had any future flashes either.”
“No. I’ve been carefully tweaking things, and haven’t had any future flashes. Everything is going somewhat alright, as long as I keep on tweaking things. And that involves me keeping busy and keeping an eye out.”
“An eye out for what?” Arkay asked as he glanced out of the window again. The first time he looked, he hadn’t seen anything, but he was pretty sure that there was a tiny patch that was darker than the surrounding void. Granted, outside the universe, everything was incredibly dark, there were no real stars or galaxies to light things up, but it did look weird.
Kairos noticed that Arkay had seen what he had seen. “You sense it. You don’t just see it. You can hear it. You can taste it almost.”
“No, right now, I just see it…” Arkay tutted. “Maybe your time powers are getting ahead of you. Are you trying to look too far ahead again?”
The Whenvern growled, ever so slightly. “Don’t lecture me on the Forward Flow! I am a damn Time Drake, I was born into it! You just mimic it all!”
“Yeah, sure, I mimic it all, sure, you have way more experience with the Forward Flow than me and Sini do, but that doesn’t mean that you can be wrong sometimes. Tell me, when did you first spot that dark, uh, spot?”
“What do you mean?”
“When did you first see it?”
Kairos thought for a moment. “I… think I first saw it a week ago.”
“Alright. Since you first saw it, has it changed in size at all?”
“I am not sure. Which is why I have been watching it. I don’t know if I am imagine it but I do think it’s changed shape at least.”
Arkay went back to frowning. That answer wasn’t the best. “That… Alright… Well, since it’s concerning you, we ought to do something. But you sitting here staring at it isn’t the thing. Speak to Epani, get the best cameras you can get your hands on and set it up here to record things.”
“Why? My senses are better than any camera.”
“Because a camera doesn’t have biases. You stare at the darkness long enough, you start seeing things in it. Heck, stare at anything long enough and you’ll see all sorts. Plus, it means you don’t have to sit here on your own.”
Kairos grunted, but he quickly realized Arkay was right. “Fine. I’ll speak to Epani. But I’m not telling her that I think a cloud of Voidborn gas is heading our way. She WILL freak out.”
Arkay shrugged. “Yeah, fair enough. But you are leaping to conclusions. For all we know, it’s just a cloud of dust. We know we’re not alone out here. Things pass by.”
The Time Drake was clearly not convinced. Arkay frowned some more, then sighed loudly.
“What can I do to make you feel better?”
Arkay’s statement caught Kairos unaware.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re clearly worrying about something that Sini and I can’t sense, and Epani is completely unaware of. To the point that your emotions are skewed. Is there something I can do to, I don’t know, alleviate those fears somewhat? Whether it’s doing more boundary patrols, spending time sewing up gaps that I normally leave to Epani or, I don’t know, just… working harder or going a bit colder.”
“HAH!” Kairos half snorted, half sneered. “You just got back your damn freedoms. You’d do anything to keep them. What you’re suggesting, you won’t actually do.”
“You misjudge me. I made a promise to this universe. To protect it, to keep it alive. If that means I have to go cold to keep it going, if it means putting myself in danger, whatever, I’ll do it. I promised to serve one last cycle, and I’ve kept that promise so far. As long as the other end of the promise is kept, that once my duties to this universe are over, I go free, I’ll do whatever it takes…” Arkay suddenly paused. “Why the fuck am I telling you this? You already know I’m an idiot who bends over backwards for you, Sini and Epani!”
“Well… that is very true. We’ve been fine for two billion years, we’ll be fine for two billion years more…” Kairos trailed off briefly. “I’m sorry, Arkay. I had a brief loss of faith. We have never really seen eye to eye, we’ve had our conflicts and our moments of peace and occasionally even love. I’ve got no reason to doubt you.”
“I appreciate that. But you’ve been sitting here on your own for too long, Kairos!” Arkay tutted. “Come on, get up for a bit. Stretch your wings. Sini would be annoyed that you’ve been neglecting yourself. And if you genuinely are worried, set up a camera, record it all, send the data to the Spasts to play spot-the-difference and then take a break. Go chat with Epani, watch some arena stuff, whatever. Just leave this area for a bit, even if it’s just for a few hours.”
“Hmph. You are absolutely right!” Kairos smiled just a little as he got up from his perch. “I do have a favour to ask though.”
Arkay sighed. “Can’t do anything without someone asking me for something… What is it?”
“Can you stay here, for an hour, while I go and get some cameras?”
“Oh… Alright, sure, no problem!” Arkay cheered up a little. “Just an hour though. I do have border patrols to do.”
“Of course…” Kairos stretched out his wings. “Back in a bit, little brother!”
“See you soon, Kairos.”