Arkadin paced around his living room, pausing occasionally to re-read the message on his screen. He had been doing this for about an hour now, trapped inside a miniature loop of indecision. The cause of this indecision was quite simple. He had received a letter from his sister, and in it was, well, a tale of treachery. A sinister plot, yet to be started.
Really, the sender of the letter surprised Arkadin. Epani, Arkadin’s elder sister, had always been somewhat cool and collected. Or, at least, she wasn’t completely insane. Arkadin had been the victim of many of Yisini’s crazy schemes, and Kairos had tried to kill Arkadin on numerous occasions, but Epani’s attempts at containing the former death god were pretty low. More importantly though, she had always seemed somewhat happy with her existence, being a creator of stars and planets. Getting a message that basically said that she was trapped in a loop and needed help escaping was… out of character for her.
Still, Arkadin could see what Epani was getting at. Yes, she had seemed happy with her duties, but she had also always been under Kinisis’s influence. When things… got bad and Arkadin finally escaped, Epani was under the impression that she was remaking Kinisis’s universe in her own image. It seemed that now she wanted to do things her way, only for Kinisis to still be influencing her. She wanted to escape the same loop Arkadin had been trapped in for so long.
Arkadin though felt uneasy about the whole thing. He had already escaped that mess, he had escaped the drama and pain and torture. Was he really willing to go back, to dip his feet back into that cesspool? This though was where the guilt was creeping in. He had escaped and now she wanted to escape too. It would be wrong of him to leave his sister to suffer. Heck, this whole thing might not have meant freedom for just Epani. If things went right, Yisini and Kairos might be able to be free as well.
But really, there was one thing that scared Arkadin the most. The idea that, if Arkadin died, he’d end up trapped back inside Kinisis’s cycle. Epani had added that note to her letter almost as an aside, but there was an air of truth behind it. What was stopping Arkadin from being reincarnated inside one of Kinisis’s cycles again? As far as Arkadin was aware, he had been reincarnated inside a Kinisian cycle at least three times, potentially more. While he was definitely free from Kinisis right now, after he died? Or if something happened?
It briefly occurred to Arkadin that maybe this was some sort of trap. Maybe Kinisis was using Epani to lure Arkadin back. That didn’t seem to be Epani’s style though, nor Kinisis’s style. If Kinisis wanted Arkadin back, she had methods she could use, and Kinisis was known to outright kidnap people. That was how she got him in his previous reincarnation. Still, if this meant Arkadin could get some sort of… revenge on Kinisis… well…
Arkadin paused, then reread Epani’s letter and picked up his communicator.
“Heya. When do you want to meet?”
…
“Alright. I’ll see you soon.”