“Where the fuck am I?”
Everything was a little bit too bright and white. Arkay blinked, trying to open his eyes and see where he was, but gave up. Instead, he tried to shield his eyes with his hands, but Arkay quickly discovered that he was tied down.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” a familiar voice hissed, as long, glistening claws reached in to Arkay’s little prison, immediately freeing his poor, aching limbs. “We thought you’d left or something!”
Finally, Arkay managed to adjust to the light to finally see what was going on. He was in some sort of strange, plastic cell, filled with broken machinery. Bright lights hung above Arkay, swaying gently from a light breeze. Everything seemed broken and destroyed, aside from the three, glowing entities that were looking over him.
“Uh, Yisini, what… what’s going on?” Arkay stuttered, trying to come to his senses.
“I dunno, ask Kairos and Epani!” Yisini shrugged, looking as confused as Arkay was. “I thought you were dead and then I thought you’d gone off to be a Decayling or something.”
Behind the amethyst-scaled serpent were the shimmering, draconic form of Kairos and a small, red being that looked exactly like Epani except shrunken down.
“Has he been here all this time, Epani?” Kairos asked, a concerned expression on his sharp, toothed face. “Have you been hiding him?”
“No! No! Not at all!” Epani was immediately defensive. “I thought he was gone! I thought you and Kinisis dealt with him! I saw you send him off into the stars alongside the Decay Lords! Yet somehow, here the Thantophor is, in a box inside my universe!”
Kairos didn’t seem to believe Epani. “So you weren’t using him to make things easier in your little universe, using him as an engine of death so you wouldn’t have to deal with decay yourself?”
Epani frowned. “That… is only half the truth. I… I found the box here and realised it was doing… something I did not understand. So I did not touch it! Had I known that our littlest sibling was inside… well…. uh…”
Everyone fell silent. Arkay blinked quietly to himself, only just realising where he was.
“I’m… home?”
“Technically? No!” Yisini tried to be friendly. “You’re in the universe Epani, Kairos and I rebuilt. It’s a small project. Nothing much, really. Better than when we had Kinisis here at least!” The Allbirther paused. “Speaking of Kinisis, did she put him here?”
“Kinisis spent ages looking for him, so I’m going to assume no, no she didn’t…” Kairos sighed. “None of this makes any sense. Arkay, can you… No, of course you can’t shed any light on this.”
Arkay still wasn’t really paying attention. He stared at his hands, then at his siblings, then back at his own body. He felt… weirdly stronger. As if he was actually… whole. Or mostly whole. At the very least, he felt slightly less confused.
“Have I really been in multiple places this entire time?” Arkay finally asked.
“Uh, yes…” Epani admitted. “We do not know how, but here you are.”
“Do I… have to stay here?”
The other deities glanced at each other. Epani seemed genuinely sad, Kairos grunted, but Yisini simply shrugged.
“Nah. Not if you don’t want to.”
“Yisini…” Epani interrupted. “If Arkadin is to leave, I need to untangle him from the universe first.”
“How long will that take?”
“Not very long. But you cannot just leave. Not as you are.”
“Can I stay here? Just for a little, once you’ve untangled me?” Arkay asked. “Because… well, I kinda don’t really know what to do with myself now. And I think I need… some family time, if that makes sense?”
The other deities all hesitated, then nodded.
“Sure!” Yisini beamed.
“For a while…” Epani sighed. “But I do not want… any unwanted visitors from your… outside places.”
“I’ll get in touch with the Thantir and let them know…” Kairos added. “They’re probably already looking for you anyway, Arkay.”
“Probably…” Arkay shrugged as he stretched out his arms and legs. “But if I’m brutally honest? It’s actually kinda nice, being back here…”
“Really?”
Arkay smiled. “Yeah, really…”