Sini peered into the tiny bedroom where Arkay was sleeping. He’d been hard at work, destroying a particularly aggressive Corruption, a mindless subsection of the Nekro-Kinisis strain, that had tried to latch itself to the bottom of the universe, where the old Earth Bones used to be. It had taken a while, but Arkay had beaten the Corruption back and re-sealed the hole it had made. Now though, Arkay was in the form of a small, black cat, snuggled up on a pile of cushions on a large bed and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully for once. Sure, he’d had a rough time mostly (thanks to the other deities) but Sini was doing her best to make sure the God of Entropy remained sane.
However, Sini had… other motives as well. Over the last seven months, there had been a huge spike in attacks against the universe. These spikes though were consistent, and they matched the patterns of highs and lows of exo-universal threats over the millennia. This particular spike had been pretty harsh, mostly because of the brand new, recently formed Nekro-Kinisis Corruption which had been attacking constantly, but also because a couple of genuinely awful, hideously powerful beings had passed by.
What was important though was that they had all come through this mostly unscathed. In fact, all things considered, the four deities of this universe were all perfectly fine. And Sini was certain this was because she and Epani had given Arkay more freedoms, and, in return for those freedoms, his ability and desire to predict the universe had increased.
There had been a small setback though. Arkay had experienced some… glimpses into the future, where he’d lost his mind. And in order to avoid that future, Arkay had gone cold, relinquishing his right to spend time with mortals, and keeping contact with the universe in general to a minimum. Sini though, she was under the impression that something else was going on, and either Epani or Kairos (or maybe both of them?) had tricked Arkay into seeing those future flashes, forcing him to hide away. Sini was now trying to find a way for Arkay to get his rights back, without bothering the other deities, but also without triggering the unknown series of events that could cause Arkay to lose his mind in the first place.
Now that Arkay was asleep, this was a perfect time for Sini to… gather some more personal data. She’d managed to grab hold of Arkay’s personal communicator. Sure, it was locked with a password, but that wasn’t a problem for Sini. Unbeknownst to her fellow deities (mainly Kairos, the Dragon God of Time), Sini had powers she hadn’t told anyone about. In a previous universe Sini had looked after, she worked not just as a Goddess of Life, but as a Goddess of Time as well. While most of her time-based powers were being held back by this current universe’s laws, Sini still had some sway. And she was now abusing that power to unlock Arkay’s communicator and open a specific messaging application.
Really, Arkay had too many messaging applications, and all of them were currently stored in a folder labelled “no”. He had the divine app the four deities used for more casual conversations and messages, the Ola messaging app used by most mortals, and four separate, in-species apps, for the four races he was the matron deity of. Weirdly, Arkay also had a messaging app for Lanex, Spasts and Temthans too, although those all seemed unused. The most important app though, the one Sini was interested in, was called Wyvern.
Wyvern was an app which Arkay used to communicate with beings outside the universe. Mostly Arkay’s two blood-bound partners. The two mortals-turned-deities that Arkay had become a Decay Lord alongside, before, as Arkay would put it, he was “dragged back into the universe-running business”. As part of his going cold and cutting contact, he had stopped talking to them. Sini wanted to talk to them. To find out who they were. And how she could make use of them.
There were quite a few unread messages, mostly from someone called Souldrainer. Unlike most of the other communication apps, this one seemed to be text-only, but it had a voice chat as well. Sini knew this name, it was one of Arkay’s blood-bound. Both Souldrainer and Flamebearer, Arkay’s other companion, were old-universe Rethavok. What Sini considered to be a previous version. An inferior version. Sini had improved on the Rethavok (and every species in this universe) significantly. However, Sini had met Flamebearer before, back when he was mortal. Souldrainer was a complete stranger to Sini.
Feeling curious, Sini opened up the messages from Souldrainer. They were all similar. Asking Arkay if he was well. Begging Arkay to message him back. Telling Arkay that he cared, that he was worried about Arkay.
Sini had intended to hit the back button, but this app wasn’t very well designed. She’d somehow accidentally pressed a call button. And Souldrainer had immediately answered.
“Hello? Arkay! Are you there?” a voice echoed from the communicator.
“Oh dear…” Sini muttered. She closed the call. Immediately, Souldrainer called back. Sini declined this time.
A message popped up. Souldrainer was asking if Arkay was there. This was followed by another call. Sini made sure she was out of earshot, that Arkay was still asleep, then answered.
“Whoever you are, let Arkay go at once. Let him be.”
Sini thought to herself. The voice sounded… vaguely familiar. An old mistake. An experiment that didn’t go as planned.
“Huh. Litvir Kaldieridos. The Ruiner. Funny how the only real Rethavok who survived the old universe are the best and worst of their kind. And funny how Arkay bound himself to both of you.”
“Who are you? And where is Arkay?”
“Oh, Arkay’s fine. He’s asleep right now. Been hard at work, killing Corruption for me. Epani and Kairos do overwork my little brother at times, sadly.”
“You are Sini, yes? Will you let me speak to Arkay?”
“I just told you, he is asleep.”
“You can wake him up.”
Sini shrugged. “Tell you what, tell me why Arkay loves you, tell me why you’re so worried right now, let me tell you why you’re the worst Rethan ever and then I’ll wake Arkay up and you can talk to him.”
A grunt trickled out from the other end. “I consider Arkay to be a friend and a partner, someone I am not just honour-bound to, but blood-bound as well. Perhaps even mind-bound. When we are close, we feel each other, and when we are apart, we yearn for each other. But you foul monsters keep Arkay imprisoned, enslaved to you.”
“That… is fair. It’s not forever though. You’ll have Arkay back one day. I promise.”
“Do your promises mean anything?”
“More than Epani’s promises. More than Kinisis’s promises. You though, little Litvir, you are… beyond the worst. The next step of Rethan evolution, but you killed them all. Because you were unwilling to share.”
A tut. Not what Sini expected.
“I am perfectly aware of my sins, my horrendous past. Are you aware of yours?”
“Heh. I am, actually. If anything, you and I, we walk similar paths.”
“And how have you come to that conclusion?”
“Well, we were both monsters. Doing anything and everything to fulfil our own, personal goals, regardless of who we hurt and kill in the process. Letting the ends justify the means. Took an accident and a selfless soul who could look past our evil to make us pause and think.”
More grunts. “Arkay changed you? A cruel Life Goddess, accepting change?”
“Yep. You changed too. Pretty sure both Arkay and that absolute hunk of a perfect Rethan changed you. You probably changed out of fear at first, these powerful beings that would tear you apart if they knew everything. But as they accepted you, you realized that you could also be better. That there was more to existence than your own survival. Sure, there was plenty of fear in there as well. I bet you told Retvik that you killed the Kaldieridoi because you saw them as a threat to the Rethavok, when, in reality, they were only a threat to you and your plans to your own bastion of power. Don’t deny it, once your plans to extend your life were completed, you were planning to claim it all, until Retvik defeated you and Kenon beat you to it.
“The question is, Litvir, did you genuinely change? Or are your burning, hidden desires still there? Or are you just hiding in fear, cowering in the shadow of the truly perfect, knowing that they will tear you apart?”
There wasn’t a response straight away. Sini didn’t expect one.
“I suppose it is both. Like I said, I know what I did. And I am aware that Retvik would certainly kill me if he knew my original, more selfish intents. But he is capable of looking past that as he pushes me into being a better person. I may live in Retvik’s shadow but I am fine with that, because I am slowly improving myself.”
Sini smiled. “You know what, Litvir? I like you. I genuinely like you.”
“I do not reciprocate your opinions. May I speak to Arkay now?”
“You know what? Sure. I’ve grilled you enough. Let me go and wake him up!”
Sini muted the call, still smiling. She was about to make her way into Arkay’s room, but she abruptly paused. Standing before her were both Kairos and Epani. And they had both instantly realized what was going on.
“What part of ‘no contact’ and ‘going cold’ do you not understand, sister?” Epani snarled as she snatched Arkay’s communicator from Sini’s hands.
“I… I can explain…” Sini stuttered. “I was just… trying to work out if there was a way… to avoid Arkay’s glimpses without forcing him to be miserable…”
“He can suck it up for a decade!” Kairos growled. “Why do you suddenly care, and why are you risking literally everything? And for what? Two pathetic little Rethans who aided Kinisis and her stupid oasis?”
Epani handed the communicator to Kairos, who quickly used his time powers to scan everything that had just occurred. He telepathically shared this information with Epani, who then took the communicator back, close the call then typed out and sent a message, but not to Litvir. She then waved her free hand across the communicator, generating a small magnetic pulse that erased all the data it contained.
Sensing all the commotion, Arkay appeared behind everyone, looking utterly confused and having turned back into his normal, armoured self.
“Uh… what is going on?” Arkay asked.
“Sini tells us you’ve been talking to people outside the universe…” Epani smiled cruelly as she gave Arkay his communicator back. “More than just your two friends. You’re not supposed to be talking to anyone at all. Unfortunately, this means we need to extend your time spent cold to two decades. Also, I have wiped your communicator, as you will not need it any more.”
With a snap of her fingers, Epani and Kairos both disappeared, leaving behind an awkward lack of sound. Arkay stared at Sini, silently demanding that she explain herself.
“I… I just wanted to… speak to your friends… To see what makes them… tick…”
Arkay didn’t respond at first. He continued to stare at Sini, then too a long, drawn out breath. “Well… thanks to you, I clearly no longer have friends…”
“I didn’t mean it. I didn’t think… I didn’t know they’d find out about them…”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Arkay sniffed as he headed back into his borrowed room and started packing up his few remaining belongings into a box. “And there I was, thinking you actually wanted to help me…”