“No, this cannot be right… Are you Arkay?”
Arksi craned his neck round to see who was talking to him. He’d been happily sitting there, waiting for his next bottle message from Nenth, when a giant shadow had been cast over him. Problem was, it was dark down there and Arksi hadn’t noticed the shadow in the first place.
“Uh… Who are you?”
That was the only reasonable question Arksi could ask to the four meter tall monster standing behind him. It was clearly not something from the Maza systems. Thrope-like, with two pairs of arms, weird, clawed feet and a chest nearly as wide as Arksi was tall. It also had stupid brown antlers that clashed horribly with the creature’s black and gold body.
“Answer my question first, mortal. Are you Arkay?”
“No.”
It was a Deitic. It had to be. It looked eerily similar to that being that challenged the Dessaron to some sort of stupid contest…
“Who are you?” Arksi repeated. It couldn’t have been that Stasis guy. It couldn’t have.
“I am Stasis.”
Arksi blinked. Sometimes, he hated being right.
“Really? Because you must be pretty dumb to confuse a blue and gold Rethan with a yellow and black one.”
Stasis growled. “Well, I do not see things as you do. I see far more colours than you could even imagine, and see individuals via their souls and their abilities to kill my children. Normally I can spot that horrific little Dessaron monster a mile away, but somehow, I have been lead astray…”
Arksi blinked again.
“So the question is, mortal, who are you?”
More blinking.
“Um. I’m Arksi. With an S and an I. Not an A and a Y.”
Stasis appeared to look at something in his hand, a small, round, golden device. “Arksi. Hm. A relative?”
“Possibly. What’s it to you, and why do you want to see Arkay?” Arksi wasn’t sure how open he could be with this creature. Ideally, he wanted to run away and tell Arkay, but he had no idea whether Stasis was reading his mind or not. “Are you reading my mind?”
“Oh, no. I am an honourable being. Unlike Kinisis and Kairos. Despicable, the pair of them. I wished to speak to Arkay. On personal matters. But your existence intrigues me.”
“How so?”
Stasis glanced at his device again. “Tell me, little mortal, have you killed any Deitics recently?”
“Not that I know of. Although there was that weird mutant kentavron that attacked us. Bastard wouldn’t die until I chopped its head off.”
“Then you possibly have.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Arksi interrupted. “I thought you wanted to speak to Arkay or something.”
Stasis sat down next to Arksi and tapped his chin with his upper left hand. “I thought Arkay was one of the most powerful Theoktons alive. But here I am, sitting with someone vastly more deadly than even the Threan Menace. It boggles the mind how I have not discovered you already, and even more so that you have not discovered your own abilities.”
Arksi shrugged, not really sure what Stasis was on about. “The Dessaron will need a replacement soon, so maybe I’ll sign up. Plus, it means I get a pay rise and I can use that to buy nice things for Nenth…”
Stasis ignored Arksi’s little ramble and continued on with his own. “Very well. In the mean time, could you please point me in the right direction?”
“Um, sure…” Arksi pointed towards a particularly dark cave, which had a stream running through it. “He’s down there. He said he was going fishing, that the tiny caves were homes to bigger fish.”
Stasis stood up, then started stomping off towards the cave. He didn’t say thank you or anything.
Once the Deitic was out of sight, Arksi rushed off back to the settlement, to tell Arkay what had just happened.