Arkay couldn’t help but smile like a lunatic as he wandered around Savepoint, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. He was alive. He was free. And he had been reunited with his two blood-bound partners. But on top of that, his friends were all alive, and they were all now divine beings too. They also wanted to be trained up to become Decay Lords, which thrilled the older members of the Thantir. Also, Arkay never thought he’d say this out loud, but he was glad and thankful that Sini was alive.
Really, Arkay owed Sini his life. Which was why he was wandering over to Sini now. She was sitting on the pier alongside Phovos, and the two of them were discussing Life Goddess things and the fact that they were sisters. Apparently, Phovos had hated the fact that she was both a Life Goddess and related to Kinisis, but after discussing things with Sini, and Sini realizing that Phovos had the same Dispa problem Sini had, on a smaller scale, had been somewhat enlightening.
“Oh, hey little brother!” Sini smiled as she twisted herself round. “How you feeling?”
“Hah, I’m all over the place. Sini, Phovos, how are you both doing?”
Phovos shrugged. “I’m okay, I guess. You look pretty good, Arkay, all things considered. Very… Skyavok-y. Thought you’d look more like Kaytee now that you’re more aware of who you are.”
“Yeah…” Arkay hesitated slightly. “I was going to use my more Rethan-y form, but Retvik said I looked like Elkay so I decided to stick to what I know. I kinda don’t know though if Elkay is more like me or I’m more like Elkay or what’s going on though…”
Sini snorted. “Probably both. Kinisis did base her All-Three modifications of Elkay on what she did to Arkay. And you both have always had identity problems.”
“Elkay did get over his though?” Phovos mused. “He’s settled down. And married. You never got the chance to, Arkay.”
Sini nodded in agreement. “Pretty much. But now you’re out here, you’ll probably make yourself a bit like Elkay subconsciously, because Elkay worked out what actually works… Anyway! Little brother, come join us! You’re technically one of Kinisis’s kids too.”
Arkay frowned, then did as he was told, sitting down next to Phovos. “I’m not, but sure. I’ll be blunt, I have a lot on my mind, but the big thing right now is, well, Sini, I owe you my life.”
The former Allbirther blinked, then laughed. “Hah! No you don’t! You don’t owe me anything, Arkay!”
“You saved me from certain death.”
“Nah. You saved yourself. I just helped. And, well, so did Elkay. He pushed you into fixing yourself. But you don’t owe me.”
“I do.”
Sini tutted. “You really, really don’t. Over and over and over, you’ve sacrificed yourself for other people. You saved Phovos’s life a few times when you were one of the old Dessaron, you saved Elkay a few times, you’ve saved pretty much every single member of your Thantir buddies apart from the red flappy dragon in one way or another. But you always forget that, sometimes, you need saving too.”
“I guess…” Arkay sighed. “But I still feel like I need to repay you in some way, Sini. I’ll find a way to repay Elkay later-”
“You should sleep with him!” Phovos suddenly giggled.
“Teekay would stab me.”
“Teekay would want to watch!” Phovos continued to laugh. “Seriously, they have agreements, and Teekay already agreed that Elkay can have you as his freebie as long as Teekay gets to watch.”
Arkay didn’t know how to respond to that. Especially since he’d barely had a chance to consider sleeping with Retvik and Litvir, let alone all the other folks who found Arkay attractive. He was glad that Kayel was getting on well with Eksi and Kaytee because he was well aware all three of them wanted a piece of Arkay. With a frown, Arkay decided to nudge the conversation in a different direction.
“So, uh, Sini… are you sticking around?”
“Nah. I’m just, well, resting up right now.”
“Oh, you’re not staying?” Phovos asked. “It’s been… nice, learning stuff from you. And not being the only Life Goddess around here.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to stay. You Thantir folks are cool, but I don’t want to be dragged into Decay Lord stuff. I just… want to do my own thing for a while. Be completely and utterly free. Discover things for myself…” Sini explained. “I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do, and I don’t want to make a new universe or anything yet, but I also kinda don’t want to be a bad smell that hangs around and gets in the way of Arkay’s stuff.”
You’re not a bad smell, Sini…” Arkay tutted. “I think everyone else is fine if you want to stick around or if you want to join us or whatever.”
“I don’t want to join you though. I need time on my own.”
“Fair… Arkay sighed. “But I don’t want you going out there on your own with nothing. Will you… I dunno, let us give you a ship or something?” Arkay paused, then turned to Phovos. “Also, since when did Litvir have his own, really cool ship?”
“The Phantai gave it to him.”
“Was this after he ran away? And I had to astral project out to light some flares around his ship?”
“Yeah. It’s that exact same ship, just renovated and given a coat of paint. Phantai claimed the ship was haunted and forced Litvir to take it.”
“Huh…” Arkay trailed off, then turned back to Sini. “Still. You at least need a form of transport or something. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger, flying around on your own.”
Once again, Phovos had an answer. “We’ve got those spare Life Goddess ships that Kinisis made. The ones we used to infiltrate the Diamond, the Crystal Doom’s base. Pretty sure we used Tenuk’s and Teekay’s spare ships… and named them after you and Epani… and kinda got them a little beaten and battered when we escaped the explosion… But Tahvra’s one is still miniaturized and untouched. He’d happily give it to you, just as a thank you for bringing him a new friend.”
“Kinisis had multiple ships?” Sini blinked. “I thought she just had the Kiniseon One… which I’m pretty sure Epani trashed after she killed her.”
Phovos smiled. “She made copies and miniaturized them. You can use Kinisis’s old Theoglossa language to reactivate them.”
“Please take one of the ships, sister…” Arkay whispered. “I really don’t want you getting hurt and I want you to have a safe place to sleep as well, since you’re not staying here where I can protect you.”
Sini reached over and patted Arkay on the head. “Well, since you asked nicely, and since you have a spare ship, I’ll take it. It’ll all be tech I’m already used to. But don’t worry too much about protection! I took on the Unending Ancient One half on my own. I’m good.”
“What ARE you going to do though, if you’re not going to make a new universe though?” Phovos asked. “There’s fuck all in the Kinigian Wilderness.”
“This place is named after our mum?” Sini asked back.
“Yeah, annoyingly. But I prefer it over the old name. Apparently some of this sector was called the Phovon Gap.”
“Oh. That’s much worse. No offence.”
“None taken.”
Sini thought to herself for a moment. “If there’s not much out here, what business would be useful?”
“Well, there’s not a single Life Oasis around here…” Phovos shrugged. “Closest one is in the Ventra Expanse, apparently.”
“Would be a bit hypocritical of me to make a Life Oasis when I constantly bitched about my mum running one.”
“Yeah but our asshole of a mother built it on top of a universe, which caused more problems than it solved.”
Sini shrugged as well. “That is very, very true. Well, I’ll put it in the idea bank, while I cruise around the sector for a bit. See the sights, have fun, go partying, stuff like that.”
“Do you have any money though?” Arkay hesitantly asked.
“I’m pretty sure I could trade a small amount of that mixed up dead Voidborn stuff for a pretty penny!” Sini grinned. “Got a ton of it. Epani gave me LOADS. Turns out, we still had a huge supply buried on one of her species’ planets somewhere.”
“Ah…” Arkay seemed content with that answer. “Well, if you need more, turns out, I’m accidentally loaded. Sure, I stopped getting my Deathven income, but when I was getting that, I was making a small fortune every month because I’ve… kinda killed a lot of universes…”
“Well, Kinisis DID used to loan you out to kill universes for other Life Goddesses…” Sini wasn’t at all bothered. “And I’m pretty sure you Decay Lords have some sort of UBI based on murder. Which is pretty hilarious to me.” Sini glanced at Phovos. “Do you need me for anything, little sis?”
“It… is so weird that my sister is the Allbirther.”
“Former Allbirther. I’m just Sini now.”
“Still…” Phovos hesitated a little. “I’d like it if we kept in touch at least. But, also, I think Elksia wants to talk to you before you go.”
“I’ll do that. I’ve been meaning to anyway. Elksia’s a little angel. But for now, I’d like to just sit here and chat with my little sister, if that’s alright, little brother?”
Arkay smiled as he got up. “Yeah, sure. I kinda got to readjust and stuff, and everyone wants to talk to me. I’ll see you all later, alright?”
“Yep. Have fun, Arkay!”
“Will do.”