“You’re a genius, Sini.”
“Oh, little brother, I know!”
The opening of Sini’s Oasis had gone insanely well, to the point that she had actual customers passing through and using the facilities, and those customers weren’t just the handful of folks she’d invited. It turned out, a combination of pretty pink and lilac lights mixed with the fact that there weren’t any other Life Oases in the Kinigian Wilderness meant that there was genuine demand for Sini’s services.
However, Sini had many secondary goals, that were slowly being worked on in thanks to the Life Oasis. A lot of those goals were secret goals, but as soon as Arkay had stepped foot on the oasis, he worked out one rather specific goal instantly. And now that the opening party was mostly over and Sini was on her own, Arkay was desperate to talk to her.
“No, seriously, you’re a genius.”
“I know. You don’t need to repeatedly tell me.”
Sini led Arkay to the very edge of the oasis. A little bench was set up, looking at an old, familiar sight.
“It’s so weird, seeing our old universe from this point of view…” Arkay sighed. “I know I often complained about being trapped inside it, but it was a nice universe.”
“It is a nice universe. You and I did a great job looking after it. Kairos and Epani not so much, but Epani realised in the end that perfection required maintenance, and that she needed to do more.”
“Have you peered inside or anything? Or gone close to it?”
“No. Too scared to. We’ve been tainted by the darkness. We’re part of the void now. Unbound and alone. But I desperately want to know what’s going on inside, which is why, before I left, I secretly moved some olanet satellites really close to the edge of the universe. I can just about pick up a handful of communications. Sure, I don’t know how Epani and Kairos are doing, but the signal is just good enough to connect to a few news websites and chat apps.”
“How… how are things?” Arkay asked.
Sini shrugged. “From what I can tell, everything seems mostly fine. Although I might have messed up a little bit.”
“How comes?”
“I didn’t know little Retvik still had his old in-universe apps. He and Nyssi spent an hour text-chatting with Retvik’s little sibling Relkir. Turns out Epani and Kairos found my, uh, Rethan bloodline combination experiment and… turned it into an actual living Rethavok.”
Arkay eyed Sini. “You used some of Kuta’s genetics.”
“Actually, I didn’t. I used Litvir’s.”
“… What?”
“I worked out the reason why there was no Litvir in our new universe. And it wasn’t because Epani forgot to make a Litvir to distract you because she didn’t know who Litvir was. Well, it wasn’t entirely that. It turned out, Kuta had a parasitic twin inside them instead of a proper left ovary, that was growing and acting exactly like a cancer. But it was only really a handful of organs, and it didn’t have a brain or any sort of nervous system. Epani gave it a brain and a proper physical form, then, as a sick joke, called it Litvir…”
“That…” Arkay stuttered. “That is… horrible.”
“Yeah. And totally the sort of horrible thing that amuses Epani…”
Sini suddenly pulled Arkay close.
“Just so you know, when you get a chance, take your Litvir to a doctor, preferably a Beh’en one, because that’s the closest you’ll get to an expert. Turns out, Kaldieridoi all seem to come with half-dead parasitic twins pretending to be ovaries. I think the whole “Kuta situation” back when you were Decaylings destroyed and… repurposed the dead parasite in Litvir, but get him checked out when you can.”
Arkay blinked. “Fucking really?”
“Yeah. Admittedly, I let my crazy scientists go completely off the rails with the Kaldieridoi, but I kinda didn’t expect any of them to, well, live. I toned it down a bit in the new universe. Litvir’s probably fine, but, like, just in case, you know?”
“Ugh…” Arkay’s confusion turned into a tut. “You always manage to both impress me and make me worried at the same time.”
“Well, I’m going to worry you even more now.”
“What-”
Sini laughed. “I’m kidding. I’m actually going make us both a bit sad. Seems like being a death god, even for a little bit, tends to make one infertile, completely killing both male and female reproductive cells. So feel free to ditch the condom, because you’re completely infertile.”
“I guessed as much, since you and Epani did cut my ovaries and testicles out when you brought me back to be a death god…” Arkay suddenly paused, then turned to Sini. “Wait… you… you were a death god for a little bit…”
“Yeah… turns out we’re both barren. I can create life as a Life Goddess, but I can’t physically have a child, the same way Kinsis gave birth to Epani, me and Phovos.”
Arkay hesitated, then wrapped his arms around Sini, hugging her as tightly as possible. “I’m so sorry…”
Sini hugged Arkay back. “It’s fine. I’ll survive. The last… however long it’s been… I’ve been learning a lot about myself, about everything. It’s been bumpy.”
“I should have been here for you.”
“No, Arkay, you’ve done nothing wrong. You don’t need me hanging around. That’s why I built this place… well, one of several reasons, so we’d have space between each other. If I need you, you’ll come to me. If you need me, I’m right here, waiting for you.”
Arkay sighed, then hugged Sini some more, before letting go. “You’ve really changed, Sini.”
“I had no choice but to change.”
“Yeah, sure, but you still chose the direction in which you changed. You changed to be a better person.”
“I’ve still caused many atrocities.”
Arkay shrugged. “I’ve been a death god for two and a half universes. I’ve committed many atrocities too. Many of them unwillingly, but the damage is still there. We’re monsters. But we try to be better.”
“I guess…” Sini trailed off, then glanced off at her old universe. “I hope everything is alright in there.”
“It’s still there, so I guess things are fine…”
“Yeah…”
Arkay and Sini both fell silent. After a while, Sini turned back to her little brother.
“You’ll visit occasionally, right?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, little brother.”
“Thank you too, big sister.”