Eksi sighed to himself as someone sat down next to him. He’d gone to the canteen to get some food and get away from all the medically telepath-y stuff he’d been doing over the last few hours to rest his brain for a bit, so he didn’t really appreciate this sudden company. However, as Eksi turned to see who it was, he found himself hesitating somewhat.
“Uh, hiya, um… Loopblade-6?”
“Ugh… I fucking hate that name.”
“I don’t blame you. What do you want me to call you instead?”
The creature next to Eksi looked very similar to him. Had Eksi not known better, he would have first called them Teekay, thinking they were his fellow Thantir Decayling and also fellow Skyavok, since they looked almost identical to Teekay. And, in fact, Loopblade-6’s name actually WAS Teekay, but they weren’t a Skyavok, and instead called themselves a Threan-type Retha. They were also a member of the Phantai Decay Lords, their youngest member, but as far as Eksi was aware, Loopblade-6 had been serving the Phantai for a while.
“I’ve… never actually considered it. Being a Ksa, I never really had a name, just a code, and I kinda let that follow me my entire life…”
Eksi glanced at Loopblade-6 some more, then shrugged. “How about I call you Kaytee? Just for now? Because, no offence, I know the rest of Loopblade call you Six, but that’s a stupid name. And I say that while being well aware that I think my own name could be translated to mean ‘six’ in some other, unknown language. Or I can just call you Teekay, since you’re alone right now.”
“Hm… Kaytee… I actually quite like it, but I’ll have to think about it. Teekay is fine for now…”
“So, why are you here and not with the rest of your stupid team?”
Teekay laughed weakly. “They really are stupid. Drives me insane that they all think you’re my old boyfriend, reincarnated or something. Hasn’t stopped them all from sleeping with you, but…”
Eksi chuckled. “I admit, I’m not above sleeping around, and they all throw themselves at me. But according to you, I’m the wrong colour.”
“Yeah. The Eksi I knew had completely black plating. Granted, he used to dye his yellow plating black, but still. We were all Ksa, because of our duties as body guards, we got free armour dyes whenever we wanted, since we were supposed to be unknowable. My Eksi and his brothers regularly got either their black or their yellow plating dyed on the regular.”
“Huh, what colour were they all?”
Teekay thought to himself. “Veekay used to dye his yellow armour silver so he was red and silver, Arksi dyed his black armour blue so he’d be yellow and blue, Thitaksi and Eksi both went with black and silver all over. Psiksi dyed his yellow armour green so he’d be black and green. I don’t think Arkay was ever around enough to dye his armour so he was always yellow all over. The High General never had any yellow, he was just green and black.”
Eksi thought for a moment. “See, I never understood why the Thantophor was yellow, I always kinda just guessed he was being contrary or he had different colours before he pretended to be a yellow Skyavok. I guess he was just… born like that?”
“Eksi’s mother was yellow-plated and Arkay looked exactly like his mum. Which is probably a good thing considering who Arkay’s father was.”
“And who was Arkay’s father?” Eksi leaned forward. Teekay didn’t like this and leaned back.
“You seem to know nothing about Arkay. A guy who was supposed to be your brother.”
“Mate, I only ever had three brothers. Arkay, or Arkadin as everyone called him back in my old universe, was the God of Death, who pretended to be mortal a few decades ago and helped Retvik, Tenuk and Elksia kick the Whenvern’s ass when he tried to kill the Goddess of Life.”
Teekay blinked. “You have a Retvik?”
“He’s literally my boss.”
“Flamebearer’s name is Retvik? Retvikalios Rethianaious? What happened to the other members of the Exaron?”
Eksi tutted. “His name is just Retvik. And we had the Dessaron. There were four of them. Also, Retvikalios is a stupid name.”
“They were all Retha though, yes? Most Retha always had really long names, which they shortened down. It was just Threan-types and Trehan-types who had short names, and the Trehan-types went extinct thousands of years ago.”
“No, they were all different species…” Eksi tutted some more. “Mate, we’ve been over this. Your stupid time loop ended. Things are different. Different universes and stuff.”
Teekay shook his head. “That’s the thing. Yeah, I think MY loop ended. But a new loop started afterwards. Sure, the Six Brothers didn’t die, but the Seventh, he got dragged into a new loop where similar things happened. I mean, your Teekay looks exactly like me and the rest of Loopblade, despite being a different species, and you have a team of heroes that took on a deity. Although, in my case, the Exaron took on Stasis, the God of the Void, rather than Kairos, the Dragon God of Time, at the behest of Kinisis, the Lady of the Cycle.”
Eksi thought to himself for a moment. “While you’ve got a point, I don’t think Arkadin, Arkay, whatever the fuck we’re gonna call him, I don’t think he’s the cause of the loop. I think he’s just a victim.”
“Why?”
“Because Kinisis is dead, Stasis is probably dead and Arkay keeps on changing. And I kinda don’t think the Panelix and the Allbirther existed in your universe. But Kairos? The Whenvern? The Dragon God of Time? He’s… pretty consistent in all of this. Because, according to Retvik and Litvir, Arkay managed to get out, he became a Decay Lord, but he got dragged in to being the Thantophor again.”
“Like I said!” Teekay exclaimed. “A loop! Just a different one! But a similar one because Time Drakes are single-minded and repetitive and stick to what they are familiar with! The Dragon God of Time, our Kairos, he is your Kairos as well. That is why we have so many similarities, because Kairos repeats things, because he doesn’t know any different!”
Eksi took a deep breath. “Well, that fucking sucks for Arkay.”
“Ugh…” Teekay sighed, then rubbed his eyes. “I… I regret what happened with Arkay. I left him, he spent months trying to win me back. He gave up, then died a week later. Stolen away by Kinisis and made into a Veth. Sure, I settled down with… well, technically you, and I was happier than ever, but I often wonder what would have happened if I’d let Arkay back in. Probably wouldn’t be here talking about it.”
Eksi hesitated, then put an arm around Teekay. “Well, let’s be fair here. How the fuck were you supposed to know that the guy you briefly dated would end up being trapped in a fucked up time loop? Especially, based on what you’ve told me, Arkay was the most normal of this group of seven freakish siblings?”
“He wasn’t normal. He had… completely mortal parents, but he was one of the Exaron, he definitely wasn’t normal.”
“Still, it’s not your fault.”
“I dumped Arkay while he was recovering in hospital.”
Eksi blinked. “Alright, that is definitely a dick move, but still… like… we’re just normal mortal fuckers. All of us Thantir? Apart from the super old guys, we’re just, well, mortals, that got made into gods at the last minute. There’s no fucking way we could have predicted any of this shit, and I’m pretty sure that you Loopblades are no different.”
Teekay sighed again, then fell silent, thinking to himself. “I… I fucking hate it here. Would I be able to join the Thantir?”
“I thought you weren’t allowed to leave the Phantai or something? That’s what Litvir said when those stupid Blades tried to put Galyn on trial.”
Teekay’s shoulders dropped. Eksi was pretty sure Teekay was on the verge of tears. “Yeah… we’re not allowed to leave… I forgot about that… Plus, you guys already have a way better Teekay on your team already. Shocktrooper is a billion times nicer than I am. And I’m the nicest and most sane member of Loopblade.”
“Well… it’s not like we’re going anywhere for a while, so, while you can’t leave, you could always just, I dunno, work with us or something. You have telekinesis, right? I’m sure Litvir and Kal can train you in all the Voidborn removal stuff we now do.”
“I thought you guys were going to leave. The Phantai bosses have been real assholes to you.”
Eksi shrugged. “Yeah, we’re leaving at some point, but Retvik and Litvir want us to do our Decay Lord Trials and become proper Decay Lords before we set off again. Doubly so now we know why Elkay’s a freak.”
“Ugh… Good luck with that. I know they made them kinda easier now since you have to do it in groups, but I had to fight a Voidborn on my own and nearly died, and we’ve all heard stories about the Missing and their Decay Lord Trial.”
“Heh…” Eksi smiled a little. “It’s so weird that Retvik, Litvir and Arkay have no idea how well-known they are. Sure, no one knows them by name, but everyone’s aware that those three survived a trial designed to kill them… But yeah, I’ll talk to Litvir if you want, see if he’ll let you join us for a bit. As, like, hired help or something. How does that sound?”
Teekay smiled too, just a little. “That would be… amazing. Thank you.”
Eksi patted Teekay on the back. “No worries. Although you might need to change your name or something. We already have a Teekay.”
“Yeah, I get that. I guess I can think of a new name for myself… Thank you for this chat. It’s helped me greatly…” Teekay sighed one last time, as he tried to get up, only to find that Eksi wasn’t letting him.
“There’s something else on your mind.”
Teekay tutted. “There is. But you… you have better people to be with.”
“Says who?” Eksi smirked. “I’ve slept with the rest of Loopblade. Might as well go for all six.”
“You’d… be… willing?”
Eksi put a finger to Teekay’s lips. “Oh, definitely. After all, you’re the nicest and most sane of Loopblade. Which, according to my experience so far, means you’re also probably the best in bed…”