“How long has she been like that?”
“Since we arrived on Portalia.”
“Wow…”
Thymos and Phovos both watched over Mavri, who had been silent apart from the odd whimper for about twenty for hours now. She wasn’t physically hurt, but deep down, she was heart-broken. The betrayal of her own children had torn at her soul. Mavri knew that one day, she wouldn’t be on good terms with her children, that they would splinter off and do their own things, but no one had expected them to abruptly turn on her the way they had.
“I don’t know what to do, big sister,” Thymos sighed, finally looking away, if only to wipe a tear from his eye. “I mean… it was peaceful. They let us leave. Perhaps I should be thankful to still be sucking oxygen. I wish I knew what to do…”
The little green Raptor shook her head. She didn’t know either. Phovos had only heard about it when the Sixteen publicly announced what they’d done. The first thing she did was arrange flights to get her siblings off Thanatia 2, the Thanatian home world, and get them somewhere safe.
“Maybe we should take Mavri to bed,” Phovos finally suggested. “Things seem bad, but she’s clearly not digesting any of this. She gets some sleep, she can absorb what happened and we can start fresh tomorrow.”
Thymos nodded, then helped Mavri to her feet, leading her out the room. “Second room to the right, yes?”
“Yeah.”
Phovos waited while Thymos sorted out their little sister. From the other room, she could hear him muttering to himself, the same little calming spells he used to mutter when they were little. Phovos thought to herself just how long ago that was.
Finally, Thymos came back. He’d changed his robe while he was in there, switching it out for a simple wrap around his groin.
“Is she settled?”
“Yes. Whether she sleeps well or not, I don’t know.”
“How about you?”
Thymos fell silent. He began fidgeting, fiddling with his bone and gemstone necklace. His eyes were focused on anything but Phovos.
“Thymos?”
“How can I settle?” Thymos suddenly snapped. “How can I? I have just lost everything. I was content living a somewhat simple life. Mavri did most of the fancy stuff, I did the background stuff, everything was fine and happy.”
“Doesn’t mean things won’t be better. We can fix this. Or something. I don’t know…”
Thymos sighed. “That’s what bothers me. I don’t know. Everything was stable. Now everything is uncertain. What are we going to do?”
Phovos shrugged. Normally she was the panicking, paranoid one. “Well, there are some positives right now.”
“Like what?” Thymos growled. “How can there be anything good about any of this?”
“You’re not dead.”
“Apart from that?”
After a moment, Phovos unexpectedly laughed. “You’re now officially retired. You could do whatever you want!”
Thymos blinked. His entire, muscular Thanatian form seemed to freeze in confusion. He then sat down on a chair, unsure what to do with himself. Phovos grabbed a chair and sat next to him.
“Brother, you’ll get better. Mavri will get better.”
“I know.”
Phovos put an arm around Thymos and smiled. “You can stay here as long as you want. Let the kids do what they want to do. And when they fuck up, which they will, you can jump right back in. Until then, take a break. Relax. Go on holiday or something. Alright?”
Thymos nodded. “You’re right, sister. You’re always right.”
“Not always. Just most of the time,” Phovos grinned as she got up. “You want something to eat? I have a ton of sweet things in the cupboard. I know you were on one of your silly diets but, well, why not, just this once?”
Thymos smiled as he joined Phovos in the kitchen. “Sure, why not?”