“Remember when I told you to never come here without asking permission, Lua?” Tenuk grunted as he put a saucepan of milk on the stove. “Remember?”
Lua nodded glumly. “Yes, Tahnahos. I remember. But this is important.”
Tenuk continued to grunt as he rummaged around for two mugs and a cup of brown powder. Lua remained where he was, standing in the middle of the room. He didn’t dare sit down or anything, not wanting to anger the Kronospast.
“How important can it be? To come to the home of a mourning being, living his life in exile…”
“Self-imposed though, yes?”
Tenuk laughed. He and Lua used to be… maybe not friends, but they could at least talk to each other. That was a long time ago, back when Tahnahos was genuinely a Deitic. Next in line to the Kronospast throne. Between then and now, things had gone sour between the Kronospasts and Lua’s adoptive Anexartitai, and it was only recently that they’d started coming back together though.
Tahnahos though, Lua had no idea what had happened to him. Lua knew that he had a home on this mortal world, but he did not think he was truly one of them, did he?
“I… guess not…”
“You clearly have no idea. Did you not know that, just over a decade ago, little Tahnahos did his job right for once, nearly got executed by his own father and was saved by a bunch of Theoktons?”
Lua blinked. “That was you?”
“Yes…”
The milk began to boil and Tenuk removed it from the heat. He poured the milk into the two mugs, then added several lumped spoons of the brown powder. Finally, he offered one to Lua.
“Is that how you make coffee?” Lua asked.
“It’s hot chocolate,” Tenuk tutted. “Rethans can’t drink coffee. Gives them headaches. On top of that, it makes some Thanatians violent so it’s hard to get here in Palaestra…” The Kronospast sat down at the table, pulling up a stool. Why he was using the form of a tall, gangly Rethavok, Lua had no idea.
“Oh… Do you want me to sit?”
“Yes. Clearly this genuinely is important, since you haven’t gone away yet.”
Lua did as he was told and sat down opposite Tenuk. “Well… I don’t know if you’ve heard… about Overlord Stasis and…”
“And his stupid religion thing. Yeah, I heard. I chose to ignore it. I assume you haven’t. You have always been ever so loyal, even when chasing forbidden knowledge. That’s why you’re here?”
“Well, yes, when it comes to forbidden knowledge. And yes, I will most likely report back to Stasis…”
“What sort of forbidden knowledge this time? Plucking time feathers off Kairos? Drinking from the rivers of Kinigi? What?”
Lua watched as Tenuk sipped his drink.
“There is a new type of Veth and I want to know what it is.”
Suddenly, Tenuk threw down his mug. He did so rather firmly, but not hard enough to spill the mug’s contents. “No. I am NOT taking you to Kinigi again.”
“Why not?” Lua seemed confused. “You took me…”
“That was BEFORE all of this. Before… she accepted me.”
“She?” Lua’s confusion was only growing.
“Kinisis herself. She allows me to go to Kinigi on a no-touching basis. I can visit, but I can’t do anything, I’m only allowed to go and speak to her. And I am forbidden to ever bring any other Deitic with me, or she will destroy us.” Tenuk sighed, then picked up his mug and finished it off. “You want to see this new Veth though? You don’t need to go to Kinigi…”
“You have seen it?” Lua’s eyes lit up, doubly so, now that he knew he didn’t need to go to Kinigi.
Tenuk simply nodded. “Yes. But you don’t want to see it. Vicious. Angry. Hungry. Just like Kinisis herself. She knows Stasis and Kairos are plotting something, so she created a Veth Prime out of one of my closest friends. You want to see him, make some noise, preach in the name of Stasis, force others to do the same, and he will come.”
Lua got up and thanked Tenuk, only for the Kronospast to sigh.
“You’ll probably die though,” Tenuk sighed.
“That is a risk I am willing to take in the name of knowledge, Tahnahos!” Lua tried to speak proudly, but knew that Tenuk could see through his fake courage. “Thank you for your knowledge, old friend. Perhaps afterwards, we should meet up properly!”
“Yeah, well… Look after yourself…” Tenuk grunted as Lua left. “Would hate to see you get decapitated or something…”