“Arkay, are you alright? You have been sitting up on the roof for hours.”
Arkay glanced behind him to see who was speaking. He hadn’t really been paying attention, all he’d heard was a couple of muttered words, his mind occupied elsewhere.
The Thantir Two had stopped at the tiniest of tiny interstellar pit stops, not because they needed anything, but because they didn’t know it was there. Arkay had taken the opportunity to stretch his legs, and somehow found himself sitting on the roof of the Thantir Two, staring out into the eternal Periuniversal Void
“Oh, Galyn. I’m fine. Are we heading off?”
“You are clearly not fine…” Galyn tutted, having just struggled his way onto the roof himself. He could have just teleported up there, heck, he could have just portaled all over the place, but sometimes Galyn missed simple things. Climbing onto the roof, in hindsight, was not something he missed. “Why are you up there on your own, being all sad?”
Arkay shrugged, still staring off into the distance. Galyn took a moment to note how Arkay was sitting. If his calculations were correct (of course they were), Arkay was looking in the exact direction where his old home was. A universe that, as far as Galyn was concerned, had only caused him misery.
“I feel like something is wrong.”
“Back in Kinisis’s old universe?”
“My old universe, yeah.”
Galyn frowned, then clambered over and sat down next to Arkay. “Despite everything that happened to you, all that pain and sorrow, and you still care. You are a curious being, Arkay. I would say that you are genuinely a good being, but I cannot help but worry that you have Stockholm Syndrome.”
Arkay blinked, then turned to face Galyn properly. “What now?”
“Traditionally, Stockholm Syndrome is when a hostage ends up feeling positive emotions towards their captor. Potentially reaching emotions of love and desire, despite the abuse they are going through.”
“What is a Stockholm?”
Galyn grunted. “It is… uh… a place in old Deathven. Named after a place in a universe the Overlord once briefly visited. My point is, you were literally abused by your former universe and here you are, worrying about it as if you are its parent.”
Arkay took a deep breath and a moment to clear his thoughts. “Normally it’s not a problem. I’m happy to be out of there. But sometimes I get weird, invasive thoughts. And right now, I feel like something terrible is going to happen. Something between the gods. Which I wouldn’t care much about if it didn’t put the mortals I cared about in danger.”
Again, Galyn grunted. “I will be honest with you, I do understand how you feel. But if you need to do something about it, you will have to go right now.”
“Yeah… I… Wait, what?” Arkay blinked some more. “Are you saying… I should go?”
Galyn nodded. “If you feel you can do something to spare the lives of the innocent, then yes, you should go. But you will have to go now. Even if you take two escape pods, one to get there and one to get back, it will take you a minimum of 40 hours to arrive back at your own universe.”
“You are… fine with…”
“Yes. Just try not to get yourself hurt, and try to come back as soon as possible. We will wait here until you return.”
Arkay hesitated, then stood up. The worries in his stance were gone, replaced with an unusual level of confidence. “You’re right. I should go. I WILL go. After all, I’ll only need five minutes. But I need to grab my weapons first…”