“What do you want?”
Kairos didn’t answer. He was working.
“What is your problem?”
Still no answer.
“Kairos, I am speaking to you.”
Kairos grunted, then glanced up. Standing over him was Epani, who had intruded his personal space. His last personal space. However Epani had a cohort today. The little formerly exiled Lanex who, as far as Kairos was concerned, was heavily to blame for, well, a lot of things.
“You are not alone…” Kairos tutted. “Didn’t have the courage to come alone.”
“Aster is only here to persuade me from instantly becoming violent with you!” Epani hissed.
“You’re weak, that’s why you’re considering violence.”
Epani stepped forward. She was colossal. Monstrous. The way she used to be, before she took a more motherly form. “I am the weak one? YOU are the weak one! You go straight to violence! The moment you are told no, you get angry, like a pitiful little child! And since you dared lay your hands on me, you have broken your Motherbound contract!”
“I am not Motherbound to. I was Motherbound to Kinisis.”
“Kinisis is dead. Kinisis was a monster who manipulated you, who tricked you and hurt you. I took you in. I sheltered you. I protected you from your fears and demons. I defended you from your myriads of mistakes! In all ways but name, you are Motherbound to me.”
“I do not care.”
“You do not care? After all I have done for you? I have sacrificed so much for you! I sacrificed my our guardian pet for you, I sacrificed my own damn sister for you! And what do you do in return? You throw it all back at me. Like the ungrateful asshole you are!”
Epani made herself larger, towering over Kairos. She was uninterested in what he was doing. She had demands, she was going to make them.
“I am not ungrateful.”
“You bloody well are! Sitting here in your stupid castle while others suffer! I used to defend you from your actions, even when you caused pain to others. But I am not doing that any more. As far as I am concerned? You have forfeited any and all rights to peace and safety. You are not welcome in this universe any more. Not in your current form.”
Epani’s statement made little sense. Kairos stopped what he was doing and paid attention properly.
“What do you mean by that? You need me here. You need me to control time.”
“In a way, yes. But you are only needed to keep the Forward Flow stable. I can fix time anomalies myself. My Twelve Anew can also assist in fixing them. Your requirement as an active deity is shrinking. I have found ways around you.”
Kairos sneered. “You need me. You can’t deny it.”
Epani smiled. “We trapped Arkay, the End of your Flow, the Vital Decay of the River in a coma for a month. The universe was fine. I was locked away at the same time. The universe was fine. Simply put, all I need from you is your body. I can seal you away, trap you inside a coma, for as long as I wish, and the universe will continue spinning, it will spin better, because you are not physically present to bother it.”
“You-”
Epani raised a claw, silencing Kairos. “Now, now, let me finish. First off, I would dare do such a thing. The most important thing right now is the universe. I do not care what I need to do to keep it safe. If that means I have to imprison you in your own mind, then so be it. But that is why I am here with an ultimatum.”
Kairos hesitated. He could see what Epani was about to do. But he could also see that, if he fought back now, Epani would skip her ultimatum and go straight on with her plan to imprison Kairos. And for some reason, because of… something unknown, Kairos couldn’t see what that plan was. Maybe that was the real reason why the Lanex was present.
With a wave of Epani’s hand, the room was suddenly surrounded by shimmering diamond. Kairos sighed and backed down slightly.
“Fine. What is your ultimatum?”
Epani smiled properly. “I will put this in simple terms that you can understand. If you renew your Motherbound oath and bind yourself to me and my will, you get to continue being yourself, conscious and active and a bit of an asshole, and you will get your full protections, as per standard Motherbound rules.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Then I place you in a painful, disorientating and nightmarish coma until I no longer need your abilities. And when I no longer need you, I will eject you from the universe, where you can brave the vast, infinite unknown by yourself and perhaps, in the far future, find some other Life Goddess to baby you.”
Kairos thought for a moment. He didn’t want to bind himself to Epani. He’d never get what he truly wanted out of her. There was no permanent immortality, and no true love. Not the love Kairos desired. But he also wasn’t a fan of having something done to him that he knew was genuinely awful. After all, he was the one who had locked the old death god away in a coma, he was well aware how agonising that was. Worse, Kairos knew he was on a timer. Epani was well aware he could slow things down to think and plot to himself, and the diamond walls (alongside an external force, probably one of the other Twelve Anew) would allow Epani to react fast enough if Kairos acted poorly now.
All Kairos needed to do though was to stall. Just for a bit.
“I will consider a new Motherbound Oath. But I want it all in writing. On both sides. A true and proper contract. After all, I want my own terms and conditions. Once a contract has been written, once it contains all that we both want, once we have discussed it, like the adults we are, then I will retake my oath.”
The Allmaker seemed satisfied with Kairos’s words. “Very well. I shall write a contract. But you are to remain on your best behaviour until it is time to sit down and discuss your new oath. Any inappropriate actions will result in pain. Understood?”
Kairos nodded. “Understood. May I return to my work now?”
“You may.”
Epani snapped her fingers. The diamond walls disappeared, and then Epani disappeared. However, the little Lanex remained where he was.
“Um…” Aster muttered. “I take it you’re not… going to do anything stupid, right?”
Kairos eyed the young deity.
“I’ll… take that as… an okay or something…” Aster shuddered slightly, sensing something was off, but not knowing what. “Uh, how do I get out of here?”
Before Kairos could answer Aster’s question, something dark pulled Aster through a nearby shadow. Kairos was right, the other Twelve Anew had been listening in. Not that it meant anything. None of the Twelve Anew had any real power anyway.
With a growl, Kairos went back to work. He had vastly more important things to worry about.