“Dalosisaar, start explaining, NOW.”
The Thraki god of unity actually found himself shuddering at how intense Elkay had just shouted at him. He wasn’t alone there. Eleven of the Twelve Anew were present in the Grand Hall at the centre of the universe, and a good five of them had also jumped in surprise. Kohra and Nanik were almost scared of Elkay’s anger, and Murum’Va and Syksis were slightly nervous because they were well aware that Elkay was a former assassin and a very good assassin at that.
“It is… complicated…”
“I don’t care, start explaining!” Elkay hissed. “Litvir took a beating for you, because they tried to defend you from… SOMETHING! Fucking tell us what is going on. Before I get angrier and make Nanik rip the truth from you.”
“I do not want to so that…” Nanik muttered. “It painful.”
“Don’t care. Tell us what the fuck is going on.”
“It is… strange and concerning though.”
“All the more reason for you to explain!” Valksia clicked her beak in annoyance. “You’re the God of Unity, you’ve not been doing your job. You’ve been keeping secrets.”
“I have to though.”
Aster took a slightly calmer path. “Dalosisaar, you don’t need to keep secrets from us. We’re all in this together. We all need each other and we all care for each other. Right now though, Litvir is bruised all over, you’re clearly in pain and none of us know where Kairos OR Epani are! We have problems right now, and you talking is how we start fixing them. So, please, explain.”
Dalosisaar took a deep breath and sighed. It took him a little too long to put his words in order. “Well… uh… Kairos is unhappy with his duties and has been trying to teach me how to be a Time Drake. So I can be a backup if the universe needs it.”
“And… and that requires the Whenvern to routinely attack you and hurt you?” Syksis exclaimed.
“Yeah. Apparently.”
“Uh… Why?” Syksis was confused more than anything else. “Pain doesn’t do anything to help people learn in a positive manner.”
Dalosisaar rubbed his face. While the cut had healed, his cheek still felt bruised and sore. He briefly wondered how Litvir was feeling.
“They are trying to work out how to talk to their dada without seeing them!” Nanik perked up, then quickly apologised. “Sorry. Did mind-reading by accident. Mister Dalosisaar, your thoughts are very bright and angry and painful right now. Mister big scary Kairos has been hurting you a lot. A lot more than you say.”
“It turns out that learning how to control and maintain the flow of time of the entire universe is much harder than I thought!” Dalosisaar growled. “It’s not simple in the slightest! One mistake and I could inadvertently cause the bloody universe to end again!”
“That… doesn’t mean that Kairos should be physically abusing you though!” Syksis argued back. “I’d bet a pretty penny that the wound on your face wasn’t caused by you using time powers wrong.”
“Because it wasn’t…” Dalosisaar admitted. “That was because I questioned him. And if I’m honest… I don’t know how you all managed to stop him. Because I’m pretty sure he was going to beat Litvir to death… They’re… they’re going to be alright, right?”
Elkay crossed his arms and growled. “Litvir is lucky they have black skin and heal fast, because it’s their first birthday tomorrow and I said I’d go meet them and their adopted parents and now I fucking can’t because we need to deal with your stupid piss.”
“Wait…” Maresia interrupted. “Why are you doing stuff specifically for Litvir’s birthday? And why aren’t we doing anything? Didn’t we all agree to kinda not do birthday stuff?”
Elkay hesitated for a moment. “Well, since we’re forcing Dalosisaar to be honest, I might as well be honest too. I just happened to be present when Litvir… hatched? Woke up? Was born? I’m not sure. Either way, they somewhat thought I was their actual mum for a while. Now Litvir has proper… well, adopted parents, they have bonded properly to other Rethans, but I did somewhat want to spend some time with Litvir for their first birthday.”
“That’s oddly sweet of you…” Dalosisaar grunted.
“I am both a former assassin and a grandmother, I can be sweet and terrifying. But that’s all beside the point. Dalosisaar, you should have told us this from the start. From the first time that bastard dragon dared lay a hand on you. We’re the Twelve Anew, we’re the faces of the universe and technically family now. We can’t have one of us sneaking off learning things in secret and also being beaten in secret. Also, I want to learn time powers too. We really, really should not be putting something as insanely dangerous as the fundamental work of the Forward Flow onto only one of us twelve.”
Everyone was about to nod in agreement, but Elkay’s last sentences caught everyone else off guard.
“You want to learn the River too, orkim evyaks? You have that strength?” Murum’Va asked.
“In all honesty? No, I probably don’t. But we can’t just have Dalosisaar learning this stuff on his own too. When Kairos believed he was corrupted, we spoke to Epani, and she said that, if she or Kairos were to fall, then we would have to keep the universe alive ourselves, and without Epani’s presence, the universe would die within a thousand years. If we learn how to do their duties, we can keep the universe alive and safe, even if the worst should happen… Alright, maybe we shouldn’t be, no offense, teaching Litvir, Nanik or Kohra-”
“Hey!” Kohra snapped. “I can learn this stuff too!”
“You’re nineteen years old. Also, where the fuck have you been this entire time?”
“I’ll always be nineteen years old, technically! But you all were literally saying that we need to do shit together, this is the exact sort of thing we need to be doing together!” Kohra wasn’t particularly intimidating but everyone knew he was right. “As for where I’ve been, I’ve been checking all my tele-comm networks for the presence of the two elder deities! As far as I can tell, based on a roaming satellite link and some sound-gatherers I borrowed off Akusasiiri, they’re both in one of Epani’s hidden labs, arguing. Or rather, they were. Epani is heading this way right now.”
“Do we… do we tell Epani what happened?” Dalosisaar asked?
Elkay glanced around, seeing that Aster and Murum’Va were nodding, then frowned. “I think so. We need to be honest with her.”
Nanik though didn’t seem too upset or concerned. “She probably already knows! I think we will be okay!”
Dalosisaar sighed. “Well, glad you have some optimism, because I don’t…”