Sini hated silence.
Normally, whenever Sini worked, she’d do so in one of her many labs, which were often filled with all sorts of life. Chirping insects, songbirds, the cracking of twigs and the rustling of leaves as creatures foraged through the undergrowth. If she was in one of her higher level labs, designed for experimenting on sapient life, then there’d at least be the low sounds of moaning and pleasure, as Sini worked out the best ways to spread better genetics through her beloved twelve species. Even her old torture labs, filled with the screams of the unluckiest beings alive, was preferable to silence.
But Sini needed the silence. She was currently working in her Anti-Corruption lab. This lab was perfectly sealed off from the rest of the universe. In it, she kept dead, inert samples of various types of Corruption that had tried to break in. Originally, when the universe was young, Arkay and Kairos, Sini’s godly sibings, would diligently destroy anything that came too close, but Sini convinced Kairos to keep samples, so she could study them. This practice stopped and started over time, mostly as Kairos withdrew from dealing with corruption and Arkay became far, far more effective at destroying it before it was even close to becoming a threat.
The last sample Sini had collected was from 2000 years ago, when a particularly nasty strain got in and immediately targetted Epani, instantly causing her to go insane. Sure, they managed to contain the rampaging Panelix and not too much damage actually occurred, but the whole scenario scared Epani, to the point that she actually gave Arkay more power, so he could better fight corruption in the future. Considering how Epani and Sini had always kept the death god under their control, this was quite a shocking move at the time.
Sini tutted to herself. Arkay was a good death god, he didn’t need to be so strictly controlled. And, currently, Sini was worried that the poor thing was corrupted now. That was why she was in this lab.
Behind Sini, there were four vats. Each one glistened in a different colour, the largest being jet black. As well as samples of corruption, Sini also had samples of blood from both herself and her fellow deities. She used these as a base line, to make sure everything was safe. The extra large vat was filled with Thantophor blood, which would destroy any corruption it came into contact with.
At least, normally it did.
In one hand, Sini held a vial of similar blood, but this was… tainted. Every test Sini had done had given her the same result. That the black blood contained trace amounts of corruption. However, the corruption was already dead, unlike the swabs Sini had tested beforehand. Arkay’s blood was doing what it was supposed to do, it was definitely killing the corruption, but not at the speed it normally did.
This was both good and bad. On the plus side, given enough time, the death god could eventually destroy the corruption in his body. Unfortunately, he’d need at least a couple of decades in order to do so at the rate that this corruption was being destroyed.
The bad news? Well, the bad news was that the Thantophor was, well, corrupted. And this was something Sini hadn’t expected to ever happen. Sure, she and Epani had set up protocols in case this exact thing happened, but it wasn’t supposed to happen.
As to why? Sini wasn’t exactly sure. Every time a new strain of corruption popped up, Arkay would destroy it and Sini would make a vaccine for it. Most of the time, this worked, to the point that Sini had managed to vaccinate all four of them against the major strains of corruption. Heck, it had worked no problem when Sini found herself briefly corrupted, she and Epani had managed to find an old vaccine that fixed her up no problem. The last corruption that struck had been smart, hiding in hard-to-reach places and suggesting that Sini influence mortals to do its bidding, but they had killed it in the end. Even if it required more blood than usual.
A thought popped into Sini’s head. She reached over the table to where she had placed the initial mucus swabs she had collected from her brother. They were currently sealed inside a small canister, and had triggered the positive result in the first place. She took one swab, then peered at it via her microscope.
Just as she thought, living corruption.
Sini then took the swap and dipped it directly into the vial of blood with dead corruption in it, then put it back under the microscope. This time round, the corruption was dying. It seemed that the corruption was hibernating in the few areas in Arkay’s body where his toxic blood couldn’t reach it, in his otherwise redundant breathing organs.
This was good. This meant the corruption could be contained. She just needed to follow standard protocol, and the problem could easily be fixed.
Swirling her fingers around, Sini summoned a small disc and placed it on front of her, tapping it four times. After a moment, a small holographic model appeared.
“Hey, Sini, is everything alright?”
“Not really…” Sini frowned as the model flickered erratically. “Tests came back positive.”
“I… I see… What should I do?”
“I need you to go back to your little apartment and quarantine yourself. Put all your godly duties on autopilot and stay in one place.”
“I can do that. Anything else?”
“Drink plenty of water, try and stay calm and relaxed. Have a nap, if you can.”
“Alright…” There was some hesitation on the other end. Sini could tell that Arkay was anxious.
“Don’t worry, little brother. We’ll sort this out. Just gotta follow protocol. I’ll get Epani or Kairos to pick you up and bring you to my quarantine labs in a few hours, once I’ve made my preparations.”
“You’re not going to try and kill me or anything, are you?”
“Not at all! Arkay, please, I have this under control. Close yourself up and we’ll be with you shortly.”
With a worried nod, Arkay closed the connection, and the yellow model disappeared. Sini then picked up the disk and put it down again, this time tapping it twice. A new model appeared, this one tinted red.
“Sini.”
“Epani, we got a little problem. Arkay’s a little bit, uh, corrupted, but his body is already fighting it off. We just need to follow protocol and-”
“I will get started immediately.”
Instantly, the connection cut off. Sini tutted, then started tidying up, placing all the apparatus into a large box, ready to be incinerated.
“It’s fine, he’ll be fine…” Sini reassured herself. “We’ll fix this…”