“Gonna be honest, I was kinda hoping that Arkay would at least say thank you to us or something…”
Psikay was unamused, borderline angry. Which was weird because Psikay was normally incredibly chirpy. His three strange friends weren’t a good mood either.
“Like, you said Arkay was pretty chill, Kuta! But he woke up, shrunk down and then immediately buggered off!”
Kuta sighed, fiddling with a pen on their desk. “He used to be. But I do not think that was really Arkay. Not the Arkay I remember anyway. That was a tattered, broken being who had given up on literally everything and just wandered off to a new prison.”
“You’re absolutely right, darling Kuta!” Sini hissed as she teleported into the small office, unintentionally covering everything with slime. “There I was, hoping to nudge Arkay into being a happy, independent death god, doing better for both himself and the universe, and he just fucking threw it all away. This wouldn’t have fucking happened if Kairos hadn’t interfered in the first place, but Arkay getting stuck inside his own mind has convinced him that he’s better off being cold and going back to his old, lonely, friend-less ways…”
Sini tutted to herself, then inspected the four mortals. They’d given up their own time to work for her. They’d done a good job. And Sini was definitely impressed with how they’d survived an attack from the Whenvern. She owed them all.
“Well, I’m sorry that Arkay’s gone and ruined his own existence again, and you have all had to deal with that. You deserve to be rewarded, and I will reward all of you, and your underlings. The universe doesn’t know that Arkay’s technically back on his feet, and it’ll be five days before Arkay is actively doing his duties as well. So, for those five days, I’ll arrange for everyone working here to have some nice, free, all-inclusive 5-star hotel goodness…”
Kt’Ara raised her hand. “Excuse me, Ioz, but us Banikans-”
Sini shrugged. “There’s a hotel for Banikans here, amazingly, since there IS a local Banikan population. Kuta, you and your fellow Rethans will probably end up with a few bumped heads at the Temthan resorts, but your skulls are armoured and you don’t have any Ethranioi-likes with you so you’ll be fine.”
“That’s nice and all, but what about our jobs here, and what about our jobs tracking the whereabouts of you deities?” Anthoula asked. “That was a duty given to us by the Death Wolf, and he’s no longer, well, friendly.”
“I am somewhat concerned about what we will do now in general, especially as the Lady of Light is active again and Arkay is no longer in a position to be our matron deity for any of our races…” Kuta added.
“I’ll be really, really blunt, Kairos and Epani aren’t going to take the Skyavok, Ksithans or Banikans under their wing, and I can’t really do so either because it’ll look like I have a monopoly on the universe. Technically, I already do, I am the Allbirther after all, but they won’t want me having too much sway considering what just happened between the four of us. But at the same time, I’m sure Arkay will step in to protect you if your races need it. For the Rethavok and the Lanex, things will be a bit trickier, but I need to have a conversation with the others before I do anything…”
Sini trailed off again, then frowned. “The four of you though, I want you to continue doing your jobs. In fact, I’m going to make your lives a lot easier.”
“How so?” Psikay asked.
“Part of Arkay being… reset means that he will have his trackers be put back into him. Those annoying little purifiers removed the trackers when Arkay got a bit ill in late Jan, but he’s getting them back. At the same time, I’m going to be emailing you four about whatever Kairos and Epani are doing, and I’m going to do the same for the Temthan, Vrekan and Lanex groups that do the same shit you four do…”
“What about the Spasts, Athrens, Thraki, Torr and Vohra?” Anthoula interrupted. “Surely they-”
“The Spasts and Vohra already have their own systems, Kairos would harm the Athrens and Thraki if he found out they were tracking him and I hate Torr and they have a system of their own so whatever. Either way…”
“What’s wrong with the Torr?” Anthoula interrupted again. However, Psikay, Kt’Ara and Kuta all grunted.
“Their higher ranks are not pleasant to work with…” Kuta frowned. “Loud, demanding and arrogant. Often unwilling to compromise as well.”
Sini smiled weakly. “Yes, basically. I AM working on trying to fix the Torr, but blatant, unchallenged end-game capitalism is one hell of a beast to fight when I’m kinda not allowed to break it all and start again. Either way, I will make sure you can continue your duties. You all deserve to at least know when one of us is angry and you need to stay away. I’ve uprooted your lives enough as it is, you all deserve to keep your jobs and have some semblance of stability. Is that alright with you all?”
The four mortals all glanced at each other, but eventually nodded in agreement.
“I got one question though…” Psikay lowered his voice. “What’s going to happen to Arkay? Is he going to go back to only interfering directly in desperation only?”
Sini took a deep breath, then went back to frowning. “Yes. He’s gone back to being cold. He won’t be talking to any mortals for a long, long time. And he won’t remember anything that’s happened in the last year or so either.”
“You seem upset about that. Even though Arkay is your shadow, your antithesis.”
“Arkay is my opposite, yes, but decay is an important part of both life and the universe in general. And Arkay has always done more than just his duties as the God of Death. He defends the universe with his very existence in every way he can. You all understand that. But he let Kairos and Epani convince him that he doesn’t deserve happiness. I tried to change that, but I made mistakes, Arkay has given up and now my little brother is going back to being cold and alone.”
The mortals all glanced at each other again.
“I did not know you cared that much. We always thought Ioz was the enemy of our Sotanaht. We were wrong.”
“No, it’s completely understandable. I’ve been cruel to Arkay in the past. I learned I was wrong. And my attempts to make amends just made things worse…” Sini sighed some more, then picked herself up. “I’ll leave you all to it. I’ll arrange things and you can all relax for a while. Thank you for your time and service, and do me a favour and pop out a few kids for me. Bye.”
The Allbirther rose into the air, then vanished through a pink portal in the ceiling.
“Well, my soldiers will be somewhat pleased, at least. They deserve a break…” Kuta eventually muttered, before abruptly pausing. “Please excuse me, I have some calls to make.”
Psikay, Kt’Ara and Anthoula watched as Kuta disappeared through a nearby shadow. Psikay shrugged, then did the same, to go and tell his fellow Skyans the news.
“That could have gone worse…” Kt’Ara grunted. “Still, I am sad for our Sotanaht.”
“You’re not alone there!” Anthoula tutted. “Definitely not alone there…”