Elksia had heard and felt them coming, but she had expected them to knock a lot harder. It seemed that the people outside were aware that Reksi was asleep in Elksia’s arms. Sure, Reksi was getting bigger and was slowly moving onto the bigger food, but she also loved to run around like crazy then fall asleep on Elksia in some way. And right now, Elksia didn’t want to wake Reksi up, so she just decided to think very hard. One of the people outside was a telepath, they’d hear Elksia’s thoughts and let themselves in.
And they did just that. Kuta and Ret kept their voices low as they entered Elksia’s guard tower.
“Hello, Elksia, how are you?” Ret smiled as he placed a tray down next to Elksia.
“You brought cake?” Elksia asked. “I mean, I saw you bringing cake. But I dunno why.”
“We… wanted to ask you things…” Kuta admitted. “And you have been very busy as of late. Ret suggested you needed a treat.”
Elksia glanced around. “I don’t think I’ve been busier.”
“You have had more going on.”
Elksia then glanced down at Reksi. She was sleeping happily. “I mean, yeah, I guess? But it’s more… I got Vexer running around. He’s hot and distracting. Tenuk keeps on dragging him into Vrekan threesomes. And also Reksi is getting bigger. She runs around a lot more, and my milk is slowly running out. And…” Elksia trailed off.
“You are sad.”
“I was overly reliant on Sini. And she is gone now. She has a new Time Drake to play with and push to have a kid.”
Ret growled slightly as he sat down. “I do not like that the serpent is bothering my little sibling. Relkir wishes to get egg-ridden but they will do so when they are ready, and does not want the serpent’s interference. But at the same time… Kuta and I somewhat needed some help.”
“You got the coil removed though, right?” Elksia butted in.
“We did, yes…” Kuta sighed. “The problem is, it is possible Ret and I are not compatible. Because there is an entire universe between us, genetically. The fear is not that we cannot have kids at all, the fear is that we will create some sort of unholy monstrosity that cannot survive, that will die before it hatches or…” Kuta trailed off. Their own words were bothering them.
“Did you ask Sini when she was around?”
“She was not sure. She said we would just have to… experiment. But…”
Elksia inspected Kuta some more, then realised what they were thinking. “You are considering giving up? You’re not gonna have kids now?”
“We… are considering it. After all, Ret and I already struggle with our emotions, and new-universe Rethans have a vastly different… system for raising kids. One we cannot recreate out here. And that is on top of our fears that our eggs may die.”
“So… why are you coming to me?” Elksia asked.
“Because…” Ret hesitated. “I… I feel bad asking but… you can see into the future, yes?”
“Yeah, but not accurately. You… that…” Elksia paused, trying not to peer forward but doing so anyway. “Hang on, it is THAT EASY to get an abortion? You literally just give yourself an enema of essentially baking powder?”
“It damages the lining of the uterus, so the egg cannot form a shell and it dies,” Kuta explained. “However… our idea is that, well, if either of us get egg-ridden, you can see far ahead to know if the egg is damaged or anything. We understand that, when the eggs hatch, we will raise them, no matter what, but at the very least, you can help us determine if the eggs will die before hatching.”
Elksia blinked. “That… that is a big ask of me. And I dunno if I am even accurate enough to tell you with even a hint of certainty. You’re probably better off… I dunno… finding another Life Goddess. Or waiting longer. Phovos will learn things. She’ll work it out. And then you can learn from her.”
Kuta glanced at Ret. Ret just shrugged, then turned back to Elksia. He leaned forward and put his hand on Elksia’s shoulder.
“You are completely right, we should not burden you with-”
Suddenly, Elksia pushed Ret away from herself, then rubbed her eyes.
“Uh… Did I do something wrong?” Ret muttered. “I am sorry, I… I should not have touched you, I guess?”
“No, no…” Elksia rubbed her eyes some more, checked on Reksi to make sure she hadn’t been disturbed, then straightened herself out. “I… I just got a really, really weird future flash. One that made no sense and was super far into the future.”
“Like how far?” Ret asked. “Also, I am sorry, I did not mean to hurt you.”
“You didn’t do anything. Time stuff is just weird stuff. Also, I saw like… like… twenty years into the future maybe? Maybe a bit more? I dunno. I just saw Ret talking to someone else called Retvik, who wasn’t either my Retvik or that old Vick guy. But I didn’t see enough to… I dunno. It was weird…” Elksia fell silent and checked on Reksi again. “But, like, I can’t really help. I think you should just wait until you find someone with more info.”
“That is completely fair…” Kuta sighed. “We must apologise. The appearance of a new Rethan has somewhat messed us all up. Retvik is having thoughts, we are having thoughts, that poor new Rethan is having thoughts…” Kuta paused, then grunted. “Hm. I think we need to have a word with the vok who can make pheromones. Someone is putting something in the air and now everyone is horny.”
Elksia closed her eyes briefly. “Oh. Oops. It’s Nyssi. She ain’t aware she’s doing it though.”
“How do you know?”
“Just glanced at some strings where Nyssi met the white dragon guy at the Pink Paradise instead of meeting here. She would have done the same thing but with less effect. But now we know! And now we can fix it!”
Ret immediately grabbed Kuta and lifted them up. “We shall go and speak to Nyssi right now. Thank you for the help, Elksia.”
Before Elksia could answer, Ret dragged Kuta off, very gently closing the door behind them.
“Huh, weird…” Nyssi shrugged as she went back to work.