“This is beginning to annoy me…” Kairos grunted as he hovered above the small, rocky moon. On the surface, the outline of a strange impact crater could still be seen. A couple of days of wind storms though had started to destroy it, just as the winds had destroyed the evidence of other impacts.
“Why?” Epani asked. The colossal space being drifted around, playing in the nearby planet’s gravitational fields. “Are you annoyed because our brother is still missing or because you have not found him in a timely manner?”
“Both of those reasons. But also the fact that he’s run off again. I thought…” Kairos grunted some more, gazing off into the stars. “I thought maybe I was getting through to him. Because he’s a bloody mess and I’ve been trying to push him along into fixing it.”
Epani thought to herself as she swung herself around the planet and back towards Kairos. “You were trying to fix him?”
“In a way, yes.”
“How so?”
“Well I just wanted him to be a proper, respectable deity the way we are. Proud, strong, wise and not spending all our time hiding in dark places. Because that is what Arkadin does. He shies away and creeps about like he is some sort of demon, not a god.”
The Panelix tilted her head to one side, not really following Kairos’s words. “You want him to be like us?”
“Yes.”
“With the pride and the egos and the decision-making and the ability to use our godly powers to the fullest?”
Kairos nodded. But the smile on his face faded when he realised that Epani didn’t agree with him.
“You… you have differing opinions, I assume?”
Epani tutted. “Do we really want a vastly intelligent, emotionally secure and certainly capable death god or do we want the timid, unwilling death god that we have now? Because there are pros and cons to both, but as things currently are, existence is good. If Arkadin became willing to use his potential, he will become much more dangerous, yes?”
“I guess?” Kairos shrugged. “But is it not unfair to keep him pushed down?”
“He pushes himself down, Kairos. Yes we mistreated him in the past, but Arkadin’s sufferings are self-created.”
Kairos fluttered around Epani. “So what are you suggesting? That we leave Arkadin to his own devices, that we give up on trying to find him and trying to help him, risking that his internal destruction starts to seep outwards? Because that’s only going to end in misery.”
“Oh, no, not at all. I am merely suggesting that we stop looking for Arkadin.”
“But why? He might be in pain, and a pained death god is an unpredictable one.”
“If he was in pain, he would have taken it out on someone else. The universe is quiet right now. He wants to not be found, so we will give him what he wants.”
“You do not know what he wants though!” Kairos protested.
“Nonsense! He wants to remain hidden, so we let him remain hidden.”
Kairos sighed, then relented. “You’re right, Epani. I don’t like it… but…”
“But what?”
“Eh… Kinisis won’t be happy that we’re not doing the job she gave us…”
Epani laughed, swishing her finned tail around. “If Kinisis really cared, she would have gone and found Arkadin herself!”
The Whenvern blinked. “That… that is a good point…”