“You… think he was lying?”
Kohra had been running around both the Library Near the Centre of the Universe and the Castle at the Centre of the Universe for days now, zooming about, looking things up and doing research into things he wasn’t quite sure about. And he had done so in a slight panic, unable to find what he needed, unable to put his thoughts into words. But finally, Kohra had worked something out, and he was presenting his information to Dalosisaar, Elkay, Valksia and Syksis, with Murum’Va by his side, hoping they’d understand.
“You mean when we spoke to Sokradoraik?” Murum’Va asked. “You said he “did something” but you were unsure what.”
Kohra nodded uneasily. “Yeah, exactly that. When we confronted him about the blips I had picked up on my Corruption detection networks in his palace. You told him we had a right to be there under Epani’s Accords of Protection, that we needed to make sure everything was safe.”
“What do you mean?” Dalosisaar frowned. “Was it that… weird stopping of time that Kairos sometimes does when he needs to think?”
“He does that?” Syksis muttered.
“I thought you couldn’t stop time!” Valksia exclaimed. “Time literally cannot stop.”
“It’s not actually stopping time. Kairos can slow time down locally, for a brief moment, and he then fast-forwards time when he is done to bring it back to the universe’s temporal constant!” Dalosisaar explained. “It’s very hard to notice though, since Kairos does it seamlessly. But you can somewhat pick up on it. Or at least, I can. And you can too, Kohra?”
“Yeah… It’s… it’s an electrical thing. Because, like, there’s charged electrons in the air, right? But sometimes… I don’t know how to explain it. But there’s a drop in that charge when everything suddenly goes super slow. And I noticed that change when he was talking to us. But he didn’t just do it in front of us, where we were talking. He did something with his tail as well. Because we couldn’t see all of him. His tail was off, doing its own thing.”
“What does he mean by that?” Syksis frowned.
Elkay shrugged. “The gods all have really super long tails for some reason. And they can do stuff with them. One time when I… ran into Arkay, his tail was off cleaning a floor one room over while some of his shadow tendrils were wiping blood off a nearby window.”
“You… ran into Arkay?” Syksis asked, now both distracted and curious.
“Well, I served him, I was his Shadow. But… also… I kinda… fucked up a couple of assassinations when I was younger and Arkay helped me clean up…” Elkay admitted. “Still, that’s not important right now. Kohra, you are suggesting that Kairos slowed time down in order to hide some evidence of him doing something he shouldn’t?”
“Basically, yeah. But I don’t have any real proof of what he actually did. All I can say is that his statements made no sense. He had a whole room full of containment canisters where he’d capture then destroy Corruption that hit his palace, but then stated that sometimes he needed to, and I… kinda quote, take samples deeper into his palace, to better work out what strains they are, before he destroys them. But why would you take a sample INTO the universe and not have a lab right there where you are working, in order to minimise risk?”
“And why would he not tell us that he has this system in place?” Valksia added, with a lot of concern in her voice. “Dalosisaar, you saw it yourself, the universe nearly fell because Kairos was hit by Corruption! Even if Kairos’s words are honest, that he IS just testing samples and faster methods of destruction, Kairos is putting himself at huge amounts of risk!”
Dalosisaar sighed, then nodded in agreement. “You’re absolutely right. That’s way too much risk. But at the same time, we don’t really have anything concrete that we can take to Kairos to confront him. We’ll just be going in saying “you shouldn’t be doing that!” and have nothing to back it up.”
Elkay seemed less worried. “I think we inform the other deities and then we sent a mob to Kairos’s stupid palace, confront him properly and tell him directly that he can’t be doing this piss and putting the universe at risk.”
“Maybe… Maybe we shouldn’t do that…” Valksia countered. “We don’t want to antagonise Kairos. Or, rather, antagonise him further and have him block all access to his palaces, where we may need to go, and have him do more things in secret. I think we take this information to Epani, talk to her about it and have her back us up when we confront Kairos.”
“That is a fair comment…” Syksis sighed. “Epani will at least back us up, no matter what. She cares about us and our safety, more than she cares about Kairos and his comfort. We’ll have a better chance getting through to Kairos if Epani agrees with us, because he doesn’t want to have to confront and argue with Epani.”
Elkay frowned. “We can’t just keep on dragging Epani into everything.”
Syksis frowned back. “I know, I know. It sucks. But we don’t have a choice when it comes to Kairos. He’s an asshole. He’ll take it out on us. I mean, Dalosisaar literally has a permanent scar on his face from dealing with Kairos, and poor little Litty doesn’t need yet more bite marks on their arms.”
“Eugh… I hate that you’re right… So, Dalosisaar, will you get this to Epani nice and quick?”
Dalosisaar nodded. “I’m going to finish up the urgent stuff I need to do and then immediately go to Epani. Kohra, can you come with me?”
“Yeah… I want to come… Can Murum’Va come too?”
“Actually… yes, Murum’Va, I need you. Elkay, Valksia, Syksis, can any of you join me?”
Valksia and Elkay both nodded.
“Alright, good. Give me an hour and we’ll meet at the Castle at the Centre of the Universe. Epani needs to know about this…”