“Hey, Arkay, you busy right now?”
Arkay was just about to relieve Tanos and Ret from guard duty when a friendly voice rushed up to him, appearing through a shimmering portal. Phovos had admittedly been rather lazy lately, and since she had worked out her Life Goddess type and had perfected moving around via portals, she was using them to get around.
“Uh, I was about to start my patrol, what’s up?”
Phovos was holding a familiar book, called the Θξαοωλ. Since she was normally the only Life Goddess around, she didn’t really have anyone to teach her how to use her reality-warping powers, and she often relied on a manual that used to belong to Arkay, from his very early Decayling days.
The Θξαοωλ was a book that described how to be a Life Goddess and how to twist the multiverse between one’s fingers, to make it do whatever one wanted. The book had been property of the Thantir for a stupidly long time, given to them by the first Life Goddess that allied with them, a mysterious being called Epanastasi, who was an official member for years before disappearing. The Θξαοωλ had been passed down to all Life Goddess members of the Thantir, as was tradition. But to most beings, all they would see is a plain white book with empty pages, and its contents was written in a language that defied sense.
Back when the book was passed down to Arkay, most folks just thought Arkay was also a Life Goddess, and that Synaisthyns and Hybrid/Amalgam Mimics weren’t real. The book was currently in Phovos’s hands, but she was in the process of passing it to Elkay-En, who was also a budding Life Goddess.
“I just needed a little help with one of these passages. I’m trying to help our brother, but he’s stuck and now I’m stuck too.” Phovos handed the book to Arkay and pointed at a specific page.
“Sure, I can help… Tanos, Ret, you guys mind staying put for five minutes?”
Tanos shrugged. “I don’t mind, but I want to read that sparkly book. I bet it’s got some cool stuff in it.”
Ret nodded in agreement. “It is very shiny and gem-encrusted.”
Phovos and Arkay both suddenly paused.
“You… you can see that the book is sparkly?” Phovos asked.
“Yeah…” Tanos also paused. “Wait, are we not supposed to know that it’s sparkly or something?”
“Well… yeah… The Θξαοωλ can only be read by Life Goddesses…” Phovos muttered. “Well, Life Goddesses and Arkay and Elkay. And… I guess you two I guess.”
Tanos prodded Ret in the side. “Best buddy, do you think that’s the same book Nyssi and Kayel mentioned they saw Phovos carrying around?”
Ret grunted. “Probably. I would assume that we only own one single sparkly book with lots of gems on it. We do not have many books around here in general.”
Arkay hesitated, then decided to ignore Tanos and Ret and work out what Phovos’s problem was. After all, the four Dessaron Kids were all known to do weird things on the regular, and this was a rather minor weird thing. “So what is it that you don’t understand?”
Phovos eyed Arkay. “Those two just said they can see the Life Goddesses-only book and you want to go back to my problem?”
“Yeah.”
“They can SEE the book! They’re not supposed to be able to see it!” Phovos snatched the book back from Arkay, flicked to the very first page of the book then held it up in front of Tanos and Ret. Normally she wouldn’t risk doing this, as reading things in Xa Thimiouyalagi, the language of the Life Goddesses, would cause all sorts of strange side effects to non-Zontanians, but since the two Dessaron Kids could already see the book in its real form, she was curious. “Can either of you two see text on this page?”
Tanos tilted his head to one side and squinted, as did Ret.
“Well… there are words…” Tanos muttered. “Not sure what they mean exactly…”
“Something about one being above all?” Ret suggested. “I am not sure myself.”
Phovos stared blankly at Ret and Tanos. Arkay wasn’t sure, since he couldn’t remember what the first page of the book said, so he gently took it out of Phovos’s hands and read the page himself.
“Yeah, basically, the core concept of the first page is that a Life Goddess is above all else. So… the words don’t float around the page or anything for you?”
“They just look like words.”
Phovos somewhat snapped out of her daze, then turned to Arkay. “They’re full Synaisthyns.”
“They’re not.”
“They are. They’re just not picking up everything instantly the way you did.”
Arkay tutted. “They can’t be full Synaisthyns, because they didn’t go through the spirit-severing rituals and the forced experimentation that Elkay and I went through.”
“They can read the fucking book! Only Life Goddesses and you assholes can do that! They HAVE to be full Synaisthyns!”
“But they can’t mimic time powers or anything.”
Phovos crossed her arms and snarled. “You couldn’t mimic time powers at first. The only reason you had light time powers back in my universe was because you were Kairos’s end. The reason you had time powers in their universe was because you were a full-blown mimic by then. And you think Elkay could just instantly borrow them? He went through an incubation stage as well, where he just had normal-ass powers for a bit, until we joined the Thantir proper and his powers developed properly. It took over a year for Elkay, it’s been just over a year for these guys, they’re getting stronger, and now they’ve gone from half-Synaisthyns to full Synaisthyns!”
Ret raised a finger. “While we can read the weird book, Kyr Phovos, I think maybe you are jumping to conclusions.”
“Maybe…” Arkay sighed. “But Phovos does have a point. You guys are getting stronger. Maybe we’ll need to get you checked out or something.”
“Eh, we can do that if we work out time stuff!” Tanos smiled. “Can Ret and I go now? I kinda need the bathroom.”
Phovos grunted. “Yeah, whatever. Arkay needs to get on with his shift, and Elkay-En and I will work on something else in the mean time. I’m too confused right now.”
“Alrighty!” Tanos beamed as he dragged Ret off. “See you later!”
Arkay and Phovos watched as Tanos pulled Ret through a nearby shadow and the two of them disappeared.
“I’m concerned…” Phovos muttered.
“Eh, I think they’ll be fine!” Arkay smiled. “Sure, I’m a mess, but Elkay turned out alright, and those guys are even more stable than he is. It’ll all work out in the end.”