Kairos found the Thantophor sitting quietly in a Skyavok tavern, sipping a fizzy drink and not doing much else. Around him were a bunch of Skyavok, all drunk and merry and sharing stories. Kairos wasn’t the most knowledgeable on their culture, but the Skyavok present were all most likely L-Class Ksa, especially since the sign outside mentioned something about special offers for L-Class patrons and one of the Skyavok there was almost certainly the All-Ksa, the leader of the Skyavok. That also explained why there were quite a few heavily armed bodyguards at the door.
Not that the bodyguards bothered Kairos. If he wanted to, he could just stand at the door, proclaim that he was the Whenvern (which he obviously was) and demand to speak to the yellow pretender. He could also just rip the roof off the building or something like that. But Kairos didn’t want to be loud today. He wanted to be quiet and peaceful and not get in the way of the Thantophor’s choices. He may not have understood why Arkadin was hiding among mortals again, but he could at least respect that decision.
Kairos had to be sneaky. And he knew just how to do it. With a flick of his clawed wing, Kairos shrunk down, changing his form from that of a beautiful, shimmering silver dragon into… one of those Skyavok. With shimmering silver armour of course. He’d probably gone a little over the top with how nice he looked but that was fine, this was a form he was going to use for twenty minutes and never use again so that didn’t matter.
His next trick was to teleport himself into the bathroom at the back of the tavern. As long as he was already inside, no one would bother him. Hopefully. As far as he could tell, there was no way into the bathroom from outside, so at least he wouldn’t appear too suspicious.
As soon as Kairos teleported inside though, he noticed something was wrong. Arkadin was no longer at the table.
“That look suits you.”
He was… standing in the bathroom, waiting for Kairos.
“You think?” Kairos asked.
“Yeah. Why are you here?” Arkadin glanced back at the door, making sure it was shut. “You know I asked to be left alone.”
Kairos shook his head apologetically. “I know, I know, and I’m sorry. I didn’t want to bother you. But I’ve been having dreams about the Before and I really, really feel like you should know about them.”
“Are they dreams where Kinisis is trying to cause mass genocide across the whole universe via using me as her slave, while some relatives of some sort try to stop me, then I get locked up somehow and you free me and we sleep together then save the day with the help of Kenon and the aforementioned relatives by destroying a massive dam?”
The Whenvern blinked. “That… is really specific.”
Arkadin tutted. “I know. I don’t get many memories from the Before but that… stuck with me…”
“How so?”
“Because that’s the only mental image of sexual intercourse that I find remotely enjoyable?” Arkadin sighed. “I’ve been sitting here for two hours with those drunken retards. I had completely forgotten just how… sex-crazed some of them could be.”
“You need an out?”
“No. I’ll deal with it. But why are you bringing up those dreams as well?”
Kairos blinked. “I wanted to know whether they were real or not. Maybe not that dream in particular… I mean I get lots of dreams…”
The Whenvern was clearly a little bit embarrassed. Arkadin could tell. He felt embarrassed himself.
“Is there a reason why… you brought up the whole… sleeping thing from the before… with me?” Kairos finally stuttered. “Because you’re… not the one to talk about that…”
“Yeah well… I’ve been thinking about that sort of thing a lot lately and it’s frankly something I can’t talk about with anyone.”
“You could… talk about it with me, I guess?” Kairos suggested, unsure whether he was making things worse or better. “I mean, I won’t judge. I can’t judge, really.”
Arkadin looked behind him. “I guess. But not today. Not for a bit. As much as I’m not really enjoying this current scenario, I am enjoying being around mortals. It’s refreshing.”
Kairos gently put an arm on Arkadin’s shoulder. “Then I’ll leave you to it. If you need me, call me, okay?”
“Will do…” Arkadin smiled, just a little. “Thank you.”