“Did she just fucking disappear?” Istoria screeched as she charged out of her beloved library into the wide open plains of Kinigi. “Arkay! Did Kinisis just fucking disappear?”
“Yeah…” Arkay was staring blankly at the space where Kinisis once stood. She had been arguing with ghostly visions of Stasis and Kairos, and had started talking about how she hated her duties and wanted to take a holiday.
“Like, disappear-disappear or teleport off somewhere?” Continuity asked as he looked around, trying to work out what happened and feeling a little too impatient to wait for Arkay’s explanations.
“You need to tell us what happened right now!” Syklos demanded, pushing both Continuity and Istoria to one side. “Talk, vermin!”
“I don’t know!” the Veth Prime shouted in frustration. “I don’t fucking know! She was just there. Talking about things and getting angry. Then she just disappeared! I just… I don’t know…”
“Did she say where she was going?” Istoria asked. She could tell Arkay was just as confused as they were. As far as Istoria was concerned, she didn’t even know the Whenvern and Stasis were popping by, and Arkay had just returned from whatever quest Kinisis had sent him on, so he probably only caught the end of whatever had happened.
“No, she just said she was going on holiday and that she hated everyone…” Arkay sat on the ground, defeated and not really knowing what to do. “I suppose… I guess you gotta go get those straps, suit me up so I can run everything again. I hate doing that but…”
“No need!” Istoria suddenly perked up. She teleported off and abruptly reappeared, this time holding a book. “For once in your brief time as Veth Prime, I can actually be helpful and provide a solution until Kinisis returns!”
Arkay shrugged, his tail swaying a little. “You’re always helpful, Istoria…”
Suddenly, Iatre came running out of whatever little hole he’d set his lab in this week, shouting about Kinisis disappearing. “She’s gone? She’s gone?”
“You’re late to the party, idiot…” Syklos grunted.
“Well sorry, dummkopf, but I was busy fixing up some of your fellow Veth! Not my fault you were too rough with your stupid chest-puffing, ego-inflating pseudo-battles!” Iatre tutted then turned to the other, nicer Veth that he liked a lot more than Syklos. “So, Kinisis has gone, after the celebratory party, what do we do?”
Istoria opened up her book, then beamed as she inadvertently turned it to the correct page. “We need a holy trinity to fix this. Well, not fix this, but at least maintain the universe long-term, in case Kinisis decides to not come back for more than a few weeks. Three Veth for one Universe. One for Birth, one for Death and one for the Life in between. Which shouldn’t be too hard at all. Just need to get the different coloured straps…”
Continuity and Syklos both blinked.
“You mean… the forbidden ones in Kinisis’s bedroom?”
“Yep, those ones!” Istoria smiled.
“The kinky BDSM ones?” Continuity asked.
“Yes.”
Continuity rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine. But Arkay has to be Death, you have to be Birth and I’ll be Life. I don’t trust Iatre or Syklos for any of these roles.”
“Why do I have to be-”
“Because you’re already the Thantophor!” Continuity snapped, having lost his patience. “And when Syklos was the Thantophor all those years ago, he caused like a thousand mass extinctions.”
“Plus, you’ll look cutest in the Death Belt…” Istoria added.
Iatre shrugged, not minding Continuity’s lack of trust. “So does that mean, in the mean time, that either Syklos or I will be a Veth Prime? That’s an important job, yes?”
“No. We’ll discuss that later!” Continuity grabbed Istoria and Arkay and marched them both to Kinisis’s personal quarters. “We’ve got a universe to run!”