Interrupting Work

“Hello, Arkadin, how are you?”

The Thantophor was busy working as always. Today, he was cleaning up the remains of a collision between a planet and a very large asteroid. Clouds of volcanic ash had smothered the planet, slowly suffocating any primitive life that hadn’t been killed in the initial blast. But right now, Arkadin was dealing with the remains of the asteroid. It hadn’t hit the planet directly, it had bounced off and demolished the planet’s moon, shattering it into shards, before smashing into the planet’s surface.

“I’m working, obviously.”

Epani on the other hand was floating purposelessly. She normally would have been busy playing with stars and prancing with planets, creating and maintaining new celestial bodies, but she had been drawn to what Arkadin was doing. With a wave of her long, clawed flippers, the shards and shattered remains of the asteroid began to form a glistening ring around the planet.

“Can I help?”

Arkadin sighed. “You already have.”

“Did you want to make the ring?” Epani asked.

“I did. But that’s fine…” Clearly Arkadin was annoyed but he didn’t let it go any further. “You want to watch while I deal with the mass extinction of this planet or something or are you literally just here  to make that ring?”

Epani shrugged. Her massive body was easily the size of the moon, before it had been shattered. Her tail floated aimlessly in the planet’s orbit, scratching at the highest clouds. Normally clouds wouldn’t be so high in the planet’s atmosphere, but the asteroid’s impact had forced dust way past normal atmospheric ranges.

“Epani…”

“What?” Epani drifted some more. “Perhaps I wished to spend some time with a fellow deity.”

“Normally you don’t want to talk to me.”

“Sometimes things are different.”

Arkadin sighed. “Why are you really here, Epani? It clearly wasn’t for the ring. You normally make new planets out of destroyed ruins like this.”

Epani hesitated.

“Epani…”

“Kairos requested that I check on you.”

“Why?” Arkadin grunted. “Why do I suddenly need monitoring? And why is Kairos getting you to do it?”

“Because you absorbed energy from Kenon.”

“And?”

“I thought that Voidborn energy was not to be used by deities like us?”

“It’s not.”

“But you have that energy inside you.”

Arkadin sighed again, as he went to work burying the dead in ash, traping their bodies and beginning the process of decay. “I have been siphoning the energy out of me.”

“And doing what with it?”

“Sealing it away.”

“Where?”

The Thantophor eyed Epani suspiciously. “Why are you asking?”

“This energy is being sealed away out of the reach of the rest of us, yes?”

“Of course!” Arkadin snapped. “You think I’m stupid?”

“No, Kairos is just worried about you.”

The Thantophor tutted. “He should have come and asked me in person then.”

Epani tutted as well as she drifted off. “I said that as well. He means it well though. No harm intended. Have a good day.”

Arkadin watched Epani fly away, then went back to work. “Bye, I guess…”