Kairos’s day had been very busy. His morning had been spent fixing temporal anomalies caused by a supernova happening inside a miniature black hole, which had made time seem a bit weird on some nearby solar system. The planets had been shot towards the black hole because of the supernova, but rather than getting sucked in the same way their sun had, the planets had slingshot round and were travelling… way too fast for Kairos’s liking. Luckily all it took was to nuke the black hole and slow the planets down and the problem was all fixed.
After that, he’d had to sit through some boring thing with his father, Kenon. The same old thing about protecting oneself from Corruption and other nasties. They all knew about this sort of thing but Kenon always insisted on repeating himself. He sat next to Arkadin for a change, who seemed genuinely glad to see him. Epani was on her own as usual but Yisini was weirdly not present. Kairos assumed she was with Kinisis or something.
Once the meeting was over, Kairos was supposed to have observed a bunch of Kronospast rituals, but he wasn’t feeling it. Something else had caught his attention, and Kronospast rituals these days were boring anyway.
What he had seen was a tribe of Thraki. Thraki who didn’t seem to know who to worship. And for some reason, they were calling to Yisini for guidance. She just hadn’t answered yet.
Normally Kairos would have moved on, but these were Thraki. They were wyverns. Draconic beings with large, bat-like front arms and raptor-like hind legs. Scaly all over, with plenty of spines and horns and such. These Thraki reminded Kairos of himself. Right down to the fully formed hands they had on the end of each arm. Having both wings and actual hands attached to their front limbs made them a rather capable species. They actually had dexterity.
But they had other issues. Their lives were somewhat satisfactory. They had food, water and shelter. They had community. But they didn’t know what else they wanted, what else they needed. They had no art, no culture, nothing special. Just the bare minimum they needed to survive. So they felt cold and empty.
Rather than visit them straight away, Kairos felt compelled to observe them first. Most species generally formed some sort of culture as they evolved, yet these Thraki were devoid of such things. All they ever did was the bare basics, and they never seemed to derive any joy from any of it. They had science and technology and magic. They had electricity and running water. They observed the stars. They were aware of the existence of deities, and how the universe worked. But they were hollow.
The more Kairos watched, the more he began to learn why other species were always so much more… developed. Perhaps this was an experiment created by Yisini. Perhaps.
As night closed in, Kairos found himself still observing the Thraki. He felt… sorry for them. He genuinely pitied them.
He had to do something.
But what?