The Thantophor could sense movement. Not the movement of a mortal. The disruptions of space-time that only a personification of space or time could create. The Whenvern was approaching.
“Where are my sons, Thantophor?”
“Kinigi.”
“Why?”
The Thantophor growled. “Let me out of this dumb cage and I will help you save them.”
The Whenvern seemed smaller than usual. Making a different shape in the space around him. Arms and legs and wings. Heavily armoured. Even though he couldn’t see the Whenvern, he could sense he was ready for war.
“Why should I trust a monster like you, Arkay?”
“Because… well…” The Thantophor had no answer. “I don’t know. You have no reason to trust me at all. I am a monster, I am Kinisis’s kid and she’s proven herself to be a liar and a betrayer time and time again. How anyone has ever trusted me, I have no idea. I mean, I suppose maybe I know what happened and what Kinisis plans to do, but still…” Arkay paused, then tutted. “I also hate the name Arkay. Fucking hate it. When all this is over, I’m changing my name. A fresh start and all that.”
Whether the Whenvern was listening to Arkay’s rambling or not, he didn’t know. He didn’t really care. As far as Arkay was concerned, he and the rest of the universe had already lost. Kinisis was going to start causing mass extinctions by the bucketful. Sure, only a few hundred million had died unnecessarily (rather than naturally) since he’d been captured, but this was just the calm before the storm.
Something cracked open and a light flooded Arkay’s surroundings, causing the Void Cage to melt away into nothing. Standing in front of the Thantophor was Kairos, the Whenvern in all his draconic glory.
“Oh. You saved me.”
“I want my sons. Kenos does not know about his kid yet. Goodness knows what will happen when Kenos finds out, but he will want his child too. And I assume you, like everyone else in the universe, do not want everything to die…” the Wkenvern explained. “Currently you are the only person who I think can actually help me and perhaps stop this all from happening.”
The Thantophor grinned. “Of course I want all this to stop happening. And luckily, the list of things that need doing isn’t that big. All we have to do is stop Kinisis from turning my siblings into monsters like me, then we need to destroy the Soul Fragma at the far end of Kinigi to release all the souls and kick-start the Cycle before Kinisis fills the Fragma completely.”
Kairos started smiling as well. “You think all of this through?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?” Kairos leaned forward, his smile turning into some sort of weird frown. “Now I am unsure. Perhaps you trick. After all, you serve Kinisis for all these years. Again, I have issues of trust with you.”
The Thantophor shrugged. They had technically already been through this conversation, but he understood why Kairos was so uncertain. Technically, he and the Whenvern were supposed to be enemies, what with all the deaths Arkay had caused over the last hundred years. “Understandable… But the thing is, I absolutely hate both Kinisis and myself. I hate myself so much that I’m willing to let Kinisis be hurt in order to get out from underneath her horrible, clawed foot. In fact, I am so desperate to escape from her control, that I basically told you how to destroy the Thantophor and get everything working again.”
“What do you mean?” Kairos was confused now.
“There’s a reason why I said we have to save my siblings first…” Arkay smiled. “If you destroy the Fragma, you kick-start the Cycle, you destroy the Thantophor…”
“But that will… kill you…”
“Exactly.”