“I don’t think anyone else noticed.”
Elkay glanced down to his side. He’d been watching ships come and go as part of his guard duties, and one familiar ship had just touched down.
“Oh, hello, Helkas!” Elkay smiled, happy to see a familiar face. Things had been busy today. A group of Pentathax had come in after running into a glob of the Nekro-Kinisis strain and they all needed fixing up. Some of the Decaylings got hands on experience in purifications, and Helkas had been excellent at getting some smaller bits of Corruption. “How are you doing?”
Helkas shrugged. “I’m actually pretty good! A bit tired though, all the hectic stuff makes me stressed and that makes me tired. But I’m happy because I also did good today!”
Elkay patted Helkas on the shoulder. Helkas was a pretty small creature and he routinely floated off the ground so he was at equal height as everyone else.
“I am glad you are doing well!” Elkay smiled some more. “But I must ask, what did you mean by what you said?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said that you did not think anyone else noticed. What did you mean by that?”
Helkas hesitated, then frowned. “Well… I don’t think anyone else noticed that mister Arkay, mister Retvik and mister Litvir were gone for way longer than everyone else thinks.”
Elkay also hesitated, then frowned. “Well… I… I get that…”
“You get that existence feels… kinda weird?”
“I would not say “kinda weird”, but it… well, yes, it is somewhat weird. We all exist in different ways but I think… I think us Synaisthyns can feel something that most normal beings do not.”
“Do you think that the Time Drakes or missy Phovos and mister Phovos noticed anything?” Helkas asked. “They… sounds mean to say but they ain’t normal. They’re kinda strange. Not completely strange like we are.”
“Hm, that is a good question…” Elkay thought for a moment. “I do not think the Raptors would have noticed, but maybe Elksia or Thassalin may have noticed? They are Time Drakes after all.”
“Should we… should we ask them?”
“I mean, we can, but they may not be able to explain things to us. Elksia admittedly just… instinctively knows things but cannot actually describe them.”
“Ah… We should ask mister Arkay then…”
Elkay glanced back at all the ships in the parking area. The Deathly Soulflame’s engines had switched off and, after a few moments, three familiar faces stepped out of the ship. They all glanced around, then hugged each other and went their separate ways, with Litvir disappearing into a shadow, Retvik walking off towards the main offices and Arkay remaining in place. Arkay only stayed for a moment though, before vanishing.
All of a sudden, Arkay reappeared next to Elkay and Helkas in a puff of orange sparkles.
“Hiya! My favourite two Synaisthyns! How are you both?”
Elkay just smiled, but Helkas found himself just blurting out his thoughts.
“You were gone for like a week.”
Arkay’s amusement faltered slightly. “Yeah. I… I wondered if anyone else had noticed. Time is a weird thing and I’m pretty sure time in that Teliavok city moved at a different pace compared to here.”
“I thought time was stable though?” Elkay asked.
“Time itself has an underlying consistent, but experienced time can and does fluctuate. But also, I just think that day was really long there and night really short… I don’t really know. Time is weird. Existence is weird.”
Elkay glanced down at his wristband and realised his shift was nearly over, especially as Galyn was heading towards the guard tower to collect his gear. So he decided to moved both Arkay, Helkas and the conversation on elsewhere.
“So, did you have fun, at least?”
Arkay went back to smiling. “I did, yes! I met family.”
“You… met family?” Helkas blinked.
“Well… kinda…” Arkay’s smiling was brief. “So, like… going back to when I was mortal, my mum was… insane, and they and their group of best friends did some sort of ritual that… uh… turned them into a new species. I was kinda… dead and serving Kinisis at this point, so I had no idea what happened to them. Turns out they disappeared inside a pocket dimension, which was more of a pocket universe that was completely separate from our universe. And it was also super far away and somehow escaped the death of my original universe and went on to just… do its own thing… Anyway, turns out, they had a Corruption problem in the future as well, and Veeyel, who was my mum’s best friend and someone I was friends with as well, made a deal to leave the universe and seal it up in exchange for the Corruption leaving it alone forever. And it turns out Veeyel has just been chilling and working with a couple of lunatic Teliavok for the last few millennia.”
Helkas and Elkay both glanced at each other, then shrugged, not really sure what Arkay was on about.
“You had fun then!” Elkay smiled. “That is good. Often you go off in your ship and come back miserable for a few days.”
“Yeah, I definitely did. And Litvir and Retvik had fun as well, which is nice. And Veeyel and Letalis and Ralian also had fun as well.”
“Who are they?” Helkas asked. “They kinda sound like you three but evil.”
“Um… actually, they’re us three but lawful good. They run the hospital dedicated to looking after other Named Trios!” Arkay explained some more. “They’re also made up of a flame, a psion and a freak of nature. But Veeyel isn’t a Synaisthyn, he just has cool shadow powers that also somehow heal people. We’re thinking of inviting them here to Savepoint one day.”
“That would be nice, they sound very interesting!” Elkay nodded politely, not sure how to respond to Arkay’s rambles. “In the mean time though, Arkay, do you want to get something to eat? I just finished my shift, Helkas finished his work experience training and you have just gotten back from a long trip. I suggest we get food.”
Arkay grinned. “That sounds great! I’d love to get food with my fellow Synaisthyns! As long as it’s not pizza. We had soooo much pizza.”
“How does ice cream sound?” Helkas suggested.
“I’ll never say no to ice cream!” Arkay beamed as he put his arms around Elkay and Helkas. “Come on now, let’s get something sweet to settle our hidden nerves…”