“Normally, I don’t mind my bright yellow armour, but it’s going to be fucking hard to hide the fact that I killed a fucking god…”
“That thing was a god?” was Nyssi’s confused response.
No one had really slept, and Nyssi, Tenuk and Kayel were all camping out in Retvik’s living room, every other door and window locked and blocked, living off chicken nuggets, porridge and a bag of sugar. They knew that the universe outside was looking for them, desperate to thank them for what had happened, but none of them were ready to publicly out themselves. Sure, they were popular gladiators, and Retvik had been somewhat publicly known for years, but this was different. Everyone knew. Everyone was asking. To the point that they’d all shut off their communicators and weren’t allowing themselves contact with the outside world.
“Of course it was a god!” Tenuk snapped. He’d felt weird ever since he’d shapeshifted into the creature that had broken in and tried to kill all the other gods. “It spoke that weird language we sometimes catch Arkay speaking!”
“Arkay speaks Shadowtongue though…” Kayel weakly argued.
Tenuk got up and angrily crossed his arms. “No he speaks your weird cult language AND a higher language! She spoke to us! She spoke to me and Retvik! And then she switched to Panlex when she realized I had no fucking clue what she was saying! Right, Retvik?”
Retvik grunted but didn’t say anything. Ever since they’d been magically teleported home, Retvik had been sitting in the corner in the kitchen, his knees pressed against his chest and his arms wrapped around himself, remaining awkwardly silent and unmoving.
“I think we should take him to a medic or something…” Kayel lowered his voice. “He’s really not right.”
“To be fair, none of us are…” Nyssi frowned, getting up to grab herself a glass of water. She had considered getting drunk to bury her worries, but she also didn’t want to drink alone. “Retty, do you want anything?”
“N-no thank you…”
The addition of the words “thank you” was a good sign. Retvik had said little else aside from the odd yes or no. Nyssi patted Retvik gently on the head as she got her drink then returned to the living room.
“We’re all in shock!” Nyssi tried to remain somewhat calm. “It’s just that we’re all dealing with it in a different way. Tenuk’s eaten half a kilo of unadulterated white sugar, Retvik’s just gone non-verbal while he’s trying to process what happened.”
“You seem oddly fine, Nyssi…” Tenuk tutted, going back to his bag of sugar.
“I kinda just stabbed it and threw a rock at it. Kayel and Retvik did the actual killing.”
“Yeah but, like… we’ve killed before…” Tenuk paused and hesitated a little. “Well, you lot have. The most I’ve done is help put down a Thragger. We helped kill a god before. In fact, this is the SECOND time we’ve helped kill this Kinisis thingy! Why are we like this?”
No one answered at first, everyone trying to think of their own answers.
“I suppose I’m kinda upset about the whole universe seeing me use Phantasma abilities for more than just shadowjumping…” Kayel eventually muttered. “I mean, you really think us assassins just shot or stabbed people? No, we cut them into pieces and made them disappear. But also we did kinda just kill a god on live television, after beating the shit out of the Temthans of Anarchy in a Dessaron match.”
“Shapeshifting into that creature just felt weird. I didn’t do any of the killing but I feel dirty…” Tenuk admitted. “Like, I shouldn’t have done that or something. She seemed really angry at me for doing so.”
Nyssi shrugged. “I’m just amazed I’m alive and am really hoping our lives aren’t ruined by all of this. Kinda don’t really want to be famous for saving the universe, especially when the gods themselves were struggling.”
“She said my name.”
Everyone turned to Retvik. He hadn’t spoken properly in a while.
“She spoke to me directly. Said she had killed me before. That thing killed someone called Retvik who looked like me, then asked me why I was not dead.”
Everyone glanced at each other. Nyssi though just shrugged again. “No wonder you’re silently freaking out, Retty!” she smiled. “You’re scared and confused and you try to hide that by no longer processing emotions and just going silent. We’re here for you though. You’re safe with us.”
Retvik grunted, then finally found the strength to get up and join the others in the living room proper.
“I feel sad for this other Retvik who is now dead.”
“Well, good news, Flamebearer isn’t dead. He’s utterly heartbroken, but he’s not dead.”
A new voice echoed through the room. Standing behind them was a young, female, black Spast with yellow fur cuffs and bright, golden eyes.
“Uh, Arkay, why are you a chick?” Tenuk blinked, feeling very conflicted. “And why are you a Spast?”
“Whole fucking universe saw a hunky yellow Rethan with wings get his arm cut off, so I decided to make myself different for a bit. I brought food, because I really don’t know what else I can offer you four, aside from apologies.”
Arkay waved his hand, telekinetically clearing up the table so he could place a massive bag on top of it. He’d visited three different takeaway places, having brought pizza, burgers, fried chicken and crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
“I don’t even know why Kinisis thought… other Retvik was dead. When she attacked the Thantir, she intentionally left Litvir alive even though she stabbed him the same way she stabbed Epani.”
“Is Litvir like, your boyfriend or something?” Nyssi asked playfully. “You mention him a lot. Or her. I assume he’s a Skyavok or something, right?”
“Old-universe Rethavok, actually, Tall, muscular but oddly skinny, glowing purple eyes and tattoos, vampire fangs, heart in the wrong place due to a genetic defect, terrifying psionic powers that put Epani to shame…” Arkay trailed off, helping himself to some food because no one else was eating. “Either way, I’m blaming myself for all of this, and we need to discuss what to do with you four, because I’m a fucking idiot who didn’t cut off tele-communications before jumping in to stop Kairos from getting corrupted, and since everyone saw, Kairos and Sini can’t just use chronal and medical amnesiacs to make everyone forget.”
“Yeah but is this Litvir guy cute? Would Retvik like him? Would Kayel like him?” Nyssi kept on asking questions. “What do you mean, psionic powers? Does he have telepathy?”
“Why are you asking if Kayel would like this imaginary Rethan?” Tenuk butted in. “Kayel’s a Skyan!”
“Rethans have an exception for Skyavok when it comes to interspecies sexual relationships!” Nyssi seemed like she knew way too much about this particular topic. “I mean, really, it’s only the Torr, Lanex and Vrekans that have complete bans on interspecies relationships, but if a Skyan can have sex with a Thraki in the disgusting way Arkay and Kairos did, I don’t see why Kayel and Retvik could, I dunno, hook up or something!”
After a brief moment, Nyssi fell silent, realizing that Arkay was staring at her and everyone else looked quite uncomfortable. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she was more scared than normal, despite the Thantophor being barely 1.2m tall.
“Are you done yet, Nyssi?” Arkay snarled.
“Yeah, sorry. I kinda just… deal with stress weird.”
Arkay shook his head and sighed. “It’s fine, Nyssi. But, to answer your questions, no, our Retvik probably wouldn’t like Litvir, because Litvir is a bit of a dick. But both that and my bad choices in romantic partners are not what I want to talk about. Because, well, I don’t fucking know what to do with you four.”
“Are you going to kill us?” Tenuk whispered.
“Can’t even do that. So I’m just gonna directly ask, what do you four want?”
The four mortals all glanced at each other.
“What, like a wish?” Kayel asked. “Because, well, aside from the obvious, I only have one major wish and I’m not allowed to say it.”
Arkay tilted his head to one side. “Unless you want the universe to end or something, how bad could one wish be?”
“It would… be too revealing, and makes no sense from someone who was a former assassin. I also assume you can’t bring people back from the dead.”
“I can’t, no, unless they died a maximum of 2 minutes ago. 10 minutes if they are suffering from below freezing temperatures. The brain dies too quickly without oxygen and any longer and I just end up making zombies…” Arkay frowned some more. “I can pull some strings and grant some larger wishes later, but what do you all want right now?”
“Reassurance that we won’t be punished for anything?” Tenuk suggested. “And maybe some protection. And money. I want money.”
“But not all the fame!” Nyssi added. “I don’t wanna have to hire bodyguards or something just to go shopping. I also want to have some holiday time and the ability to go to sleep again without having nightmares.”
“I’d be happy with some extra money and the reassurance that people don’t work out why I’m no longer a Phantasma…” Kayel sighed. “And also maybe not have everyone constantly ask me about being a Phantasma because it’s mostly a genetic thing and a state of mind that’s trained into you from the moment you hatch.”
“I just want a hug.”
Arkay stood up and looked his friends up and down. “I’ll see what I can do. Can’t promise everything but I’ll do my best. But I can definitely give you a hug, Retvik. I’ll be honest, I need one myself.”
The Thantophor wandered over to where Retvik was sitting, climbed onto him and wrapped his tiny, Spast arms around the great beast. This was followed by Kayel, Tenuk and Nyssi all joining in. After a little too long, they all let go.
“So what are you going to do now, Arkay?” Kayel asked.
“Hmph. I have to go fix the Great Arena, then I need to sew up some holes in the side of the universe, and after that, I need to tidy up my apartment because Kairos trashed it because he’s angry. But once I’ve done all that, Sini said I can take some time off, so, uh… I don’t know. I’ll probably leave you guys alone a bit though, you’ve seen enough of me.”
“Fair!” Tenuk smiled weakly. “But you’ll pop by and visit though, right?”
“Yeah, I guess…” Arkay frowned as he got up. “I should get back to work. Enjoy the food, you all look starving…”