Psiksi was utterly overwhelmed. For at least two year-strings, he’d believed that his universe was destroyed and he was the only accidental survivor. But it turned out that his universe was remade and reborn into something new, and there were other beings who had survived. Various twists of fate had meant they’d all grouped up together, and now, it seemed, the majority of the Thantir were actually from the same place, some sort of universe affected by the now-dead Life Goddess Kinisis.
Among all those who had survived, apparently, was Psiksi’s little brother Eksi. Well, not that little. Eksi was only a couple of minutes younger than Eksi, but still. However, Psiksi had noticed that Eksi was hiding. He didn’t want to confront Psiksi, because he somewhat knew what would happen.
Admittedly, Psiksi was aware that his telepathy had faded a lot, ever since he became a Decay Lord. Sure, he did get some badass light powers, and his magic light sword and daggers never let him down, but anything telepathic was weakened, probably because Psiksi had been alone and separated from his kin for so long. Even though he’d been at Savepoint for a few hours now, he had noticed that his telepathy was both slightly stronger but also somewhat dampened by the local Psions. While Psiksi could feel Skyavok-based telepathic auras, there was something totally alien doing the actual work.
Apart from Eksi being in hiding, everyone else had been lovely. It was nice being around other Skyavok again. Even if Kaytee wasn’t technically a Skyan. And Psiksi had no real idea what Arkay was, apart from being a former god of death. But he seemed absolutely fine and was also happy to see Psiksi again.
However, eight individuals, the Thantir’s newest set of Decaylings, only two of them were born in the same universe Psiksi was from. However, Kuta and Talok had both been sucked into the whole universe-being-remade-by-Epani thing and had lived new lives. Thassalin had apparently been a Time Drake for multiple universes, including his original one. But the other five were both familiar and not familiar. According to Elksia, who weirdly had time powers as well now, Epani’s reimagined universe had a bunch of duplicate individuals, mostly to keep Arkay trapped and under Epani’s control. But the races were still similar… apart from the weird (and stupidly cute and young Spast. And one of the new Decaylings was a Skyavok.
A Skyavok who had the same name as Psiksi and Eksi’s mother. Except this Kayel, who had a surname (apparently that was one strange new addition in the new universe) only partially looked like their mother. He had darker skin, almost black, and he was yellow all over. He was also in his low thirties, had formerly been K-Class before he changed his name and he was hot as fuck.
So hot in fact that Psiksi kept on stealing glances of him. Really, Kayel reminded Psiksi of the first time he had met the old Thantophor. He wasn’t just shocked by how sexy Kayel was, Psiksi had caught himself drooling a little, visibly showing that he was turned on. But unlike the old god of entropy (who seemed way happier now he wasn’t the Thantophor any more), Kayel seemed like a perfectly normal and reasonable person. Well, not THAT normal, Kayel was out here, learning to be a Decay Lord rather than living inside a universe, but he was still perfectly fine.
The brief time they’d spent talking, Psiksi hadn’t said anything blatantly sexual, but he really hoped Kayel was single. Kayel and Kaytee though both said that they’d talk to Eksi, and get him to come out of hiding. And it seemed that Kayel had managed it, because, in the corner of his eye, Psiksi finally spotted his only-just little brother.
With a sigh, Psiksi stood up to greet Eksi. Eksi was clearly scared and cowering somewhat. And unlike Kayel, who wore a hoodie and arm and leg bands, or Kaytee, who was wearing full armour (Psiksi was sure it was Phantai armour), Eksi wasn’t wearing much. Just a loin cloth and stomach wrap. Psiksi was wearing armour too, his standard Alsyr plating, mostly silver.
Psiksi growled and raised his hand, ready to start shouting. But after a moment of thought, he put his hand down.
“I’m sorry, Psiksi…” Eksi immediately apologized. “I should have told you. About the job at the stupid oasis. It just… all happened so quickly. I got whisked away by the old Allbirther. And I didn’t know that killing Kinisis would fuck things up so much. I should have given you a line to contact me. And when… all this happened? I just… assumed you were dead. I never looked into it. I was wrong. I was completely wrong. I hope you can forgive me, but I understand if you don’t want to.”
Psiksi took a deep breath. “Yeah, you did fuck up. But I get it. We all got fucked around by deities. And our universe, what was left of it, no one could have predicted what all these stupid Life Goddesses do. And, frankly, the fact that I survived and got, well, completely and utterly yeeted out of the universe? Neither of us knew we were still alive.”
Eksi sighed. “I just assumed everything would be alright. It wasn’t. I fucked up. But I want to make amends, Psiksi. I just don’t know how.”
Psiksi shrugged, then put a hand on Eksi’s shoulder. “You don’t need to make amends. What’s done is done, we can’t go back. You did some stupid shit, but we’re young, dumb people, mistakes happen, and it’s a miracle I’m alive anyway. Eksi, little bro, I forgive you.”
“Thank you…” Eksi whimpered slightly.
“It’s fine. I got some cool powers out of all of this anyway.”
Eksi smiled weakly. “Hah… I just got massively amplified telepathy and telekinesis. Seems like we all got cool powers, since Teekay has electric powers and Kayel has… uh… all the powers.”
“Alright, I’m glad you brought up Kayel, because he’s fit as fuck.”
“He totally is. I haven’t managed to get under his hoodie and loin cloth yet though…” Eksi trailed off, then sighed again. “Are you going to go back to the Alsyr?”
“I… I haven’t decided yet…”
“Well, if you want… we could get some ice cream together? Like we used to?”
Psiksi smiled. Eksi smiled properly.
“Sure. Sounds nice.”
“Cool. Thanks, brother.”
“No worries, Eksi. We’re good.”
“I appreciate that…”