“Hm…”
Arkadin scanned the tattered yet silky sheet of paper, then copied down each line onto a new, fresh piece. He delicately made sure that each word was spelled correctly, then noted down a series of numbers next to each one.
As Arkadin worked, he’d catch the glances of beings working around him. The automatic, mindless snake-like beings that worked tirelessly to keep this library in order. The library though was not a normal one. It was the dreaded Meat Library of Yisini, where the Goddess of Life kept all her notes from her experiments. The reason why it was called the Meat Library was pretty obvious, as the walls and floors were made out of squishy meat, while the myriad of book cases were made out of bone and cartilage. These could be easily moved either by the snake creatures or the strange tentacles on the ceiling above. The ceiling tentacles were also great for dissuading intruders.
Of course, with Arkadin being the God of Death and all that, all the fleshy machinery in the room had opted to just work around him. Normally, Arkadin wouldn’t have sneaked into the Library, he wasn’t even really allowed in here, but he needed information. The guards weren’t going to stop him, nothing would. He was a death god, after all.
Luckily, what Arkadin needed wasn’t much and was easily found. Once he had gotten over the fact that everything had been written down on paper made of fur and hair (or occasionally the odd slice of skin or stomach lining), he’d managed to find what he was looking for. A list of all currently alive, sentient, sapient and technologically advanced races that had access to interplanetary travel.
What Arkadin didn’t know however was what exactly each race looked like, and, more importantly, how many of them were alive. He needed to know their population counts. Currently though, he was just copying everything down to be researched later.
A very deliberate cough distracted Arkadin from his work. Arkadin didn’t look up. He knew who it was.
“Heya, Yisini.”
“What are you doing in my library? You left dirty black footprints in the doorway.”
Arkadin shrugged. “Sorry about that. Didn’t think the meat floor would react so negatively to my aura. I won’t be long.”
Yisini slithered into the area, surrounding Arkadin and the desk he was working at with her long, slinky tail. Like her servants, Yisini was incredibly serpentine, but her scales were made of hard crystals, rather than, well, scales and skin. Arkadin though simply continued with his work.
“I want you out of here.”
“I’ll be out of here in a moment.”
“I want you out of here now.”
Sighing, Arkadin finally looked up at Yisini. Her amethyst eyes were focused directly on him, ready to fire purple lasers at a moment’s notice.
“Knowledge is to be shared, Yisini. I just need this li-”
“WHAT FOR?”
“Everyone else gets their vast collections of loyal followers. Kairos messes around with Deitons and anything draconic. Epani has the Vohra. You have your vast collection of Temthans. Kenon has his Rethavok. I want some followers too.”
“You’re not allowed followers. You’re the death god, you’re supposed to be cold and alone.”
“A cold and lonely death god is how you end up with regular genocides. I’m lonely and cold. I don’t want to be. I need a hobby.”
The Allbirther tutted, crossing her arms. “So why do you need that list?”
“Kinisis said no more than one billion.”
“Oh…” Yisini grunted. “That’s… That’s a bit too high.”
Arkadin shrugged, going back to his work. “It’s fine. I don’t think I’m going to need more than 500 million anyway… And that’s assuming anyone will even have me.”
“Hmph, whatever… Just make sure you clean up and lock up when you’re done” Yisini did not seem amused in any way. She uncoiled herself and began to to slither away, pausing only to shoo away several of the snake guards. “Just don’t get into that religion shit. It’s no good. A fucking awful stain to remove from a society.”
“Will do, sis…” The Thantophor snickered under his breath at the absurdity of Yisini’s comment, then went back to work.