“So you’re… breaking up with me?”
Kairos rubbed his eyes, his massive wings aching from a hard day’s work. Phovos sat opposite him looking all confused. Between them was half a rack of ribs, part of an “all you can eat” buffet that Phovos had invited Kairos to.
“No… That’s not what…” Kairos continued rubbing his eyes. “No. I’m not breaking up with you. It’s just that I am insanely busy now. I have duties I need to fulfil and that means I’ll often be too busy to hang out with you.”
Phovos shrugged, then helped herself to another rib. She nudged the rest of them towards Kairos, who reluctantly took one of the smaller ribs.
“Are you annoyed with me?” Kairos asked as he watched Phovos chew on a piece of bone. She’d eaten half the rack of ribs herself already and didn’t look like she was ready to stop quite yet.
“No.”
“You seem annoyed with me.”
The Raptor shrugged again. “I’m not annoyed. Just confused.”
“Confused about what?” Kairos took a bite out of the rib. It was quite tasty, sweeter than he expected. “I have work. I’m a god, that’s somewhat unavoidable… Wait don’t you have work as well? I thought you were-”
“I’m not in charge of Palaestra any more since I was declared dead because Yisini destroyed my place and kidnapped me.”
“But you’re not dead.”
“I was still gone for like a week. Emergency shit went into place and…” Phovos shrugged again. “I’m taking an impromptu holiday of sorts. It’s… a mess.”
“A mess is what I’ve been left with as well…” Kairos tutted. The ribs were tasty, so Kairos grabbed a couple more.
“You want to tell me what’s going on? Because I noticed Kayen wasn’t…”
The Whenvern raised a claw. “That’s exactly the problem…” He leaned forward, so he could whisper. “Has he spoken to you yet?”
“Kayen?”
“Yes. Has Kayen spoken to you yet?”
“He called me and said he’d been stolen again and that he wouldn’t be coming in to work today…” Phovos muttered. “What has he got to do with all of this?”
“You are aware that all four of you were briefly dating gods, right?” Kairos growled. “All of you. Kayen just happened to draw the short straw and got the Death God. Well it turns out that Kenon… You remember him, right? He had basically murdered every single romantic partner Arkadin ever had. And he tried to murder Kayen. But when Kayen didn’t die, Kenon got pissed off, told Kinisis that we were making bets and decided to piss all over our dating parade.”
Phovos was blinking in confusion again. “You’re not supposed to make bets?”
“No betting on events of mass destruction. Betting on dating habits is fine!” Kairos hissed. “Kenon does that all the time. Or rather, he did. Arkadin revealed all the bad shit Kenon had done to him and flipped out. Kinisis was pissed off, demanded an explanation and had Kenon teleport us to this strange place filled with the frozen corpses of all the people Arkadin had attempted to date. Complete with unconscious Kayen lying on the floor because Kenon had tried to kill him AGAIN.”
“I can… see why Kayen wanted to take the day off… That’s fucking retarded.”
“I know, right?” Kairos snapped. “Just… Why the fuck couldn’t Kenon leave Arkadin alone? So you know what Kinisis did? She exiled Kenon. Which he fucking deserved.”
“That’s…” Phovos hesitated. “That’s good, right? It seemed like all he was doing was causing you problems.”
“That’s what I thought too! Except…” The Whenvern trailed off and started chewing on some more ribs.
“Except?”
“Except Arkadin… kinda disappeared.”
“He disappeared?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
Kairos sighed. “I have no idea. It’s as if he doesn’t exist any more. Which means I have to take up his mantle and be a death god as well as a time god. And it’s…”
Again, the Whenvern trailed off. He put down the rib he had been chewing on and put his head in his clawed hands.
“I don’t know how he dealt with it all, Phovos… There’s screaming, all the time. I should be able to deal with this… I can deal with this… but damn, it’s hard.”
Phovos didn’t know what to say. She got up from her chair and walked over to Kairos, putting her arms around him.
“I suppose I shouldn’t really be like this. Arkadin is just the result of what I start. But because I’m taking Arkadin’s duties, it means I won’t have time to be with you. And I certainly don’t want to drag you into the death god stuff. It’s often benign but it can so easily become horrible and terrifying and I want to spare you from that.”
“I understand…” Phovos smiled, holding Kairos tightly. “But if you do get some time and want to talk, please come and talk to me.”
Kairos hugged Phovos back. “I will. But I have to go now.”
“It’s okay…” Phovos patted Kairos on the back, then sat back down. “You want to take some of this with you?”
“I’m good…” Kairos smiled as he got up to leave. “It’s better that I have an empty stomach anyway.”
“Look after yourself!” Phovos waved.
“You too, kiddo!” Kairos waved back, feeling somewhat relieved. Sure, he had a shit job to do now, but at least he had a good friend.