“I am genuinely concerned about how many vok here want to keep Beh’enlu…” Retvik grunted as he and Litvir filled out some paperwork.
It turned out, sect leaders needed to report back to Deathven proper on a regular basis. Galyn used to do this stuff so Retvik and Litvir didn’t need to, but the appearance of a baby Beh’evok, Galyn’s species, had thrown him off, and Galyn was now spending most of his time looking after the baby. Vikalos had been helping Galyn, and Itaviir had done nothing but patrolling guard duty ever since the ship the baby was in had nearly destroyed Savepoint’s parking area.
As to why Itaviir, someone who was normally as steady as a rock, was drowning in his own anxiety and refusing to sleep or do anything apart from patrols, it was because he felt he was to blame for the crashed ship and its mostly dead occupants. And Itaviir continued to believe this when the resident Time Drakes and Psions of the Thantir tried to tell him otherwise.
“I admittedly thought you would be one of them…” Litvir grunted back. “You always wanted kids.”
“I wanted kids with Gath, back when I was both mortal and married…”
“This is similar. Also, you could have adopted someone. Still can, if you want to.”
Retvik tutted. “I do not want a baby of another species though. I wanted to be a mother.”
Litvir tutted back. “Why on earth would you want that? It is nothing but agony and stress.”
“Do you ever get motherly urges?”
“No! Of course not!” Litvir frowned. “I did my damn time raising kids. Until Kuta and I killed almost all of them, alongside their hideous, traitorous mother.”
Retvik sighed, then thought for a moment. “So, I assume us having kids will never be in the picture?”
Litvir blinked. “You… thought there was a chance of that happening?”
“Uh… a tiny chance… A very, very tiny chance. But…”
Retvik trailed off. Litvir also trailed off, mostly because he realized he’d upset Retvik.
“I am sorry.”
“It is not your fault, Litvir.”
“It literally IS my fault. I am denying you one of your dreams.”
Retvik sighed some more. “You are, yes, but it is mostly my fault. Sure, as the second Rethianos, I was not allowed kids, but I could have adopted a kid whenever I wanted to. But I did not. Gath went on to have a kid without me. That ship set sail a long, long time ago.”
Litvir grunted. “As sad as that is, I am surprised you are acting so negatively to the baby Beh’evok.”
“It is causing our mentors genuine pain. Yes, Elksia is helping out, so are Kayel, Kuta and Ret, but none of us know what we are doing, and this is not a safe place for a baby to be in. Also, it is not a Rethan baby. It is a Beh’en baby that apparently takes a hundred year-strings to get to teenager-hood, let alone adulthood.”
“That is a very fair point!” Litvir went back to tutting. “It is fine for Vikalos, he is already a vastly ancient being. Most of us are very young in comparison. That baby needs to be looked after for as long as I have been alive. And even Galyn is struggling, despite the fact that he had a kid when he was mortal.”
“When Galyn was mortal, they barely lived as long as Spasts do. And by Spasts, I mean the cute fluffyvok, not the weird rubbery monster your Tenuk is.”
“According to Tanos, the average lifespan of a new-universe Spast was only a thousand years though!” Retvik exclaimed.
“Exactly. That is probably why Galyn is struggling. If I had anything worth betting, I would bet that baby Beh’ens in Galyn’s universe aged more like us Rethans do.”
Retvik shrugged. “I guess… Still, the space between universes is not a good place to have raise kids that are not the same species as us, and we all do not understand… Still…”
Litvir looked up and glanced at Retvik. He’d caught a stray thought. “Retvik, I am not getting you pregnant.”
“Your little sibling is considering getting my younger eq-”
“No. Not happening.”
“What’s not happening?” Arkay asked as he stepped into the office. He had been on guard, shapeshifted into a vague Beh’en form, but he quickly shrank back to normal as he noticed the mood in their office was a bit odd.
“Litvir picked up a rogue thought of mine.”
“What sort of thought?” Arkay asked some more. “Is this about the little crying thing that won’t fucking shut up because it keeps on getting wind and Galyn and Vikalos both suck at helping it burp?”
Retvik grunted, then nodded. Litvir tutted and nodded.
“Retvik wants kids. And he was thinking about offering his body as tribute.”
Arkay glanced at Retvik. “Babe, I love you dearly, but are you sure about that? Having a kid, laying an egg, while partnered with a crazy Psion and a former death god? Doubly so since Litvir is still somewhat traumatized with what happened with Kuta, and it’s literally impossible for me to have kids?”
“You cannot have kids?” Litvir butted in rather unexpectedly.
“Yeah…” Arkay hesitated a little. “Even as a mortal, my fertility was non-existent, because I was technically a hybrid. But it’s ironic somewhat because I’m pretty sure my mother was hyper-fertile for some reason.”
“You were… a hybrid?” Litvir gasped a little.
“Mother was a Threan-type. Father was half Threan-type, half Trehavok. Which makes me one quarter Trehavok too…” Arkay trailed off. “I don’t want to think about that. But if you’re worried about the Beh’en baby, I think we can all agree that we can’t raise it as one of our own, since we don’t know how they grow. And Galyn, Itaviir and Vikalos don’t need this extra stress.”
Retvik frowned. “You are absolutely right. But we need to make sure it is safe until we re-home it. The last thing that baby needs is to be close to people infected with Corruption or Kenic Spores. And it is… unfair to ask about kids with either of you.”
Litvir wasn’t bothered. “We can always adopt in the future, I guess. But I would rather adopt a teenager or something. I do not want to deal with an actual baby again. And I would at least want ot give an older kid the childhood I wish I had.”
“Fair enough. But Litvir, you do realise you will be an uncle one day, right?” Arkay smiled a little.
“Oh no, Arkay, that was very mean of you!” Litvir snarled.
“Ah, relax!” Arkay teased a little. “You don’t need to worry about that for a long time. Kuta is a traditional Rethan, they want to get married before they start trying for kids. And they have to become Decay Lords for that to happen.”
“True, I guess…” Litvir frowned, fell silent.
Arkay and Retvik both sensed his discomfort and made their way over to Litvir’s desk to give him a hug.
“Thank you, my dears…” Litvir eventually muttered. “Fingers crossed we find a more permanent solution to this baby. Because, admittedly, it is both cute and getting on my nerves.”
“Eh, we’ll work something out!” Arkay smiled. “We always do.”