Kayel knocked tentatively on the door, not really sure what to expect. Behind him, clogging up the hallway, were his three friends, plus a crazy, ancient warlord who now ran one of the biggest arenas in the known universe, someone who had insisted that Kayel take her to see the Thantophor in person. The trip in particular had been pretty awkward, mostly because they had to take two vehicles, since neither Nyssi nor the Raptor had enough space for five beings of very varied sizes, and Tenuk insisted that he have a seat and have a seatbelt on at all times.
Now they were standing around awkwardly, waiting for the door to open. Retvik had retreated to the stairwell, being a tad too large for the building overall, while Nyssi stood by the elevator and the Raptor hovered awkwardly behind Kayel. After another knock though, it was clear there was no one in.
“Well, this was a waste of time…” Nyssi muttered. “I hate to sound like Retty but we could be, like, training right now.”
“Actually, you say that…” Tenuk peered through the keyhole, then exclaimed loudly. “Key’s still in the lock! Which means he might be in! Or we can, just, you know, break in and see for ourselves.”
Tenuk’s point was interrupted by the sound of buzzing. The Raptor glanced at her phone, then sighed.
“Same number?” Kayel asked.
“Same number.”
“What number?” Retvik piped up from the stairwell.
“Literally the number two…” the Raptor frowned, declining the call. “Same number, calling me constantly, but I pick up and hear nothing.”
“Sounds like the stalker my siblings and I had when we were younglings. Somevok calling from the number 2, would never say anything, just called each of us in turn constantly for two weeks before we discovered our heritage…” Retvik trailed off. “Probably just coincidence though.”
Tenuk interrupted Retvik by knocking on the door again, much harder than Kayel had. He then knocked a third time, before trying to peer into the keyhole again.
“I still say we break in. The key is right there. Surely the Thantophor doesn’t go out without his keys, right?”
“Arkay can teleport, he doesn’t need keys!” Kayel tutted. “Plus, he’d fucking kill us if we broke in!”
“Nah!” Tenuk smiled a little. “Arkay specifically said he can’t kill us. What’s the worst he could do? Plus, we know what it’s like inside, not like he has anything to hide. And we haven’t heard from him in over a week.”
The Raptor’s phone buzzed again and was quickly silenced.
“This is stupid…”
“Come on, Kayel!” Tenuk continued to smile. “We’ll open the door, see if he’s in, if not, we’ll leave a note at the door and check back later!”
“And how do you suppose we open the door?” Kayel snapped.
“Oh, that’s easy.”
Tenuk got down on his knees, then pressed his fingers into the corner of the door. His fingers then began to flatten out and elongate, stretching back upwards. After a few seconds of fiddling, a twisting sound was heard as Tenuk managed to turn the key in the lock. The door clicked open, and Tenuk retracted his fingers, turning them back to normal.
“Tada! Also, that really fucking hurt.”
Everyone glanced inside, expecting an angry death god to be sitting at his desk, but to their surprise, the place was empty.
“I’m staying out here!” Nyssi hissed. “I ain’t getting any of this blamed on me!”
“Yeah, sure thing, Nyssi. Retvik, guard the door, Nyssi, you keep an eye out!” Tenuk immediately took charge. “You two, come in with me.”
Kayel, Tenuk and the Raptor all stepped into the apartment, waiting for something bad to happen. However, there were no traps, nothing. The place looked somewhat untouched. The Raptor stood nervously in the middle of the room, eyeing the large pile of weapons in the corner, while Kayel checked the bathroom and Tenuk checked the desk.
“Oh hey, didn’t know Arkay played video games!” Tenuk chirped, inspecting the laptop that was sitting open. “Don’t think I recognize this one though.”
The Raptor edged closer, to see what Tenuk was looking at. “I don’t recognize this one either. But it looks like someone is trying to communicate with us.”
Tenuk leaned forward, inspecting the screen more closely. A myriad of messages littered the bottom corner of the screen, all repeating similar phrases, asking where the Thantophor was. On the rest of the screen, two characters could be seen, one standing idly, another running around in circles, as if they were trying to grab the first character’s attention.
“Uh, Tenuk, what is corruption?” the Raptor suddenly asked. She wasn’t looking at the screen any more. Instead, she had spotted several sheets of paper, all with crazed sentences repeated on them, in scratchy, black handwriting. On top of the sheets of paper was a small dagger which looked like it had been made from some sort of long, thin fang.
“It’s, uh, like, some kind of cancerous parasitic thing that can affect deities. Arkay asked us to help him kill some when we, uh, kinda disappeared…” Tenuk’s eyes scanned the paper. “Did Arkay get himself infected with corruption or something? I thought he said he couldn’t get corrupted?”
The Raptor shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”
Tenuk turned back to the screen, reading the messages that had been left. There were timestamps, but the times didn’t make much sense. The other character had been messaging Arkay for at least a day. Tenuk considered replying, but accidentally nudged the mouse, causing the idle character to move. The other character immediately picked up on this and sent a new message.
“Arkay! You have been gone for ages! Are you alright?”
“Oh fuck…” Tenuk muttered. “They’re talking to me.”
“Who?” the Raptor perked up.
“The character in the game…”
Before Tenuk or the Raptor could do anything, Kayel suddenly interrupted, his head sticking out from the bedroom.
“Guys, looks like there was a struggle. Arkay’s bedroom is a mess. All his weird, uh, model things and stuffed animals are all on the floor, like something knocked them over.”
“Do you think one of the other deities kidnapped the Thantophor?” Retvik asked from the doorway.
“Maybe?” Kayel had no idea. “Tenuk, what do you think?”
“I… I don’t know…” Tenuk didn’t have any answers. “I’m… gonna ask these guys here.”
Another message popped up on the screen, asking if Arkay was there. Hesitating, Tenuk awkwardly tapped on a keyboard that wasn’t made for Spast fingers.
“Uh, I’m not Arkay, I’m Arkay’s friend. I think Arkay is corrupted or something.”
There was a brief pause, before a new message appeared.
“That is not good. Do you know where Arkay is?”
“Uh, no.”
The other character stopped moving. Tenuk assumed they were typing again. However, they stayed still for quite a long time. Eventually, a much longer message appeared.
“I have some associates that can help. I will call them and give them the coordinates to your universe. Find Arkay and take him to the northern most point in your universe and meet them there. They will be in a silver ship with six stripes down the side. They know Arkay, they will fix him up, they have done so before. If you need assistance, speak to your Time Drake, Kairos, he should be able to help you further.”
Tenuk, Kayel and the Raptor all stared at the message, not sure how to reply to it. However, they didn’t get a chance to, as a screech echoed through the room, followed by the sound of two heavy thuds. Both Retvik and Nyssi were now lying unconscious on the ground, with a rather large, blue and silver-scaled Thraki standing on top of them. Wisps of silver energy danced around the being, and its eyes glowed gently.
“What are you mortals doing in the home of my fellow deity?” Unlike most Thraki, the voice of this being was smooth, almost angelic, similar to the soothing voice of an Athren. However, as it inspected them, its eyes dimmed somewhat. Its snarl turned into a vaguely bemused tut. “I recognize you. You are little Arkay’s friends. The ones that assisted against Kinisis, and the Undead One that Arkay has always sought to protect from Sini’s prying eyes.”
While Kayel and the Raptor remained upright but confused, Tenuk immediately dropped to the ground, muttering Spast prayers under his breath, not daring to look up at the divine being standing before them.
“Are you Kairos?” Kayel innocently asked. “Like, the Whenvern? The Dragon God of Time?”
“I am. What are you doing here?”
“We were looking for Arkay…” Kayel decided to just be honest. “The Raptor here was getting messages from a divine source and thought the Thantophor wanted to speak to her so we kinda brought her here, but Arkay’s not here but he left a message saying he was corrupted and his computer is on and the vok on the computer said that they know someone who can help him and that you could help…”
The Whenvern towered over Kayel. Its breath was cold and the air around it seemed to shimmer ever so slightly.
“Really?”
“Y-yes.”
A grunt. The Raptor edged away slowly, she was trying to hide her fear underneath her hoodie. Unfortunately, her phone abruptly buzzed, causing her to emit a small squeak. The Whenvern immediately turned towards her, snarling. It waved its wing-claw and the Raptor’s phone floated out of her pocket and into the air in front of Kairos. He then glanced at the messy desk.
“So you are the unfortunate mortal Epani chose. It is… convenient that both you and the dagger Sini requested I find are in the same location.”
Kairos reached for the dagger that was resting on the desk, then paused, having caught sight of the laptop screen. He quickly scanned the messages, including a new one that had just appeared.
“If Kairos does not believe you, tell him that the Thantir just wish to help.”
The Whenvern’s snarl returned, but petered out, becoming a long, drawn out sigh. He picked up the dagger, then waved a wing over the two collapsed bodies on the ground. Both Retvik and Nyssi spluttered back to life.
“You five, come with me. We might as well try one last thing before Epani gets her way…”