With all the chaos that had gone on recently, Relkir had been struggling. Which was why Relkir was doing something to ground themselves. They were on a walk, playing their silly little game, wandering around the streets near their parents-by-partnership’s home, while Gath was spending time playing with (and taking many photos of) their brand new baby. Relkir said they would only be an hour, and on their trip, they had been requested to buy a few bits from the shop (mostly more jars of baby food, since Retvik was a hungry baby and Litvir had secretly been eating it as well), so now that Relkir was feeling a bit better, they decided to head to the little kiosk a few blocks down, grab the bits they needed.
As Relkir reached the kiosk’s front door though, they looked up from their phone and realised they were very much not about to walk into the kiosk. Everything inside was crystalline, but there were meaty tendrils running across the walls.
A brief blue and red swirl drifted from Relkir’s eyes. They looked forward, peered behind them, sighed, then decided to step into the new, strange room. While they had seen alternate paths where they didn’t step inside, all those other paths ended up with Relkir unwillingly coming into this very mismatched mess.
“You’re learning way, way quicker than I expected.”
That voice belonged to a literal deity. Ksini was the new Lady of Time, having replaced the old Time Drake. But she was also formerly the Lady of Life. But her current mood was hard to judge.
“Is that a good thing or a…” Relkir paused. The blue and red returned. Relkir found themselves suddenly rather scared. “What do you mean, you are excited to have another Elkay to play with?”
“Oh. Oh dear. You can look both ways.”
“You experimented on that very nice Rethan!” Relkir snapped, pointing a finger at Ksini. “You hurt them, you messed them up, you completely and utterly destroyed their life and legacy, for no damn reason!”
Ksini shrugged. “I did, yes. I was a different person back then. I was a monster. Sometimes people learn not to be monsters. Sometimes they don’t. Kairos didn’t learn. That’s why he’s dead now. Little murderer.”
Relkir grunted, then crossed their arms. “You are the being who cursed us Rethans with an overly violent desire to protect their young. And what I did was not murder. It was self-defence. Since the Whenvern was trying to kill us all. They literally threw my beloved child through multiple walls. And… I do not remember what happened after that.”
Ksini shrugged some more. “Honestly, all valid points. I routinely forget that you’re genuinely intelligent. You’ve already worked out a lot already. But I’m going to be blunt, I need to put a stop to that.”
“If you are threatening to kill me, then would that not just create a new Time Drake, one potentially even harder to kill? But…” Relkir paused again. “You just want me to stop. I cannot do that though, not easily. You were forced to become a Time Drake. You can turn it on and off. I cannot do so, because it is instinctive to me. Somehow.”
“You became a Time Drake while in a very primitive, instinctual state. You are also incredibly, incredibly young. Outside of any children Kairos may have produced, the next youngest Time Drake was in her sixties when she was blessed with control over the Forward Flow, and it seems that, the younger you are, the more easily it comes to you. That’s why I’m concerned. You’re growing in power too quickly.”
Relkir grunted. “Well, I am not a threat to you. I do not want to be the God of Time for a whole universe, I just wish to raise my kids, love my partner and do my duties as an advisor.”
“You’re still a threat. You’re fine now, you’re satisfied now, but you will watch every single one of your loved ones die, and you will grow cold and bitter.”
“That is somewhat true, I will watch others grow old and die, but I accepted that a year and a half ago when I started dating Gath, I accepted that when I started worshipping the Oath Keeper and I accepted my own fate on the day I was due to be executed, when Retvik took my place. That is the nature of the universe you and the Lady of Light built…” Relkir trailed off for a moment. “Admittedly, I am new to this Forward Flow stuff, but I do have a question. There is an… alternate path, stemming from Retvik sacrificing themselves for me. But I cannot see it at all.”
Sini closed her eyes and thought back. Her temporal energies were more of a purply colour. But after a moment, she opened them up again and sighed. “A river of time completely dammed up and run dry. There’s no way to see that river because Kairos willed it so. Kairos was… to put it politely, stupid. But the Time Drakes he sired are all insanely powerful. Which is why I see you as a threat.”
“I understand, but I genuinely have no desire to harm you, as long as you do not harm me or those I care about!” Relkir tutted, then closed their own eyes briefly. “Alright, I know I cannot settle you down with words alone, so what actions can I take to make sure you do not fear me? Because there is definitely a path here where you try to hurt me and then get two Defensive Stance Rethans hurting you.”
A knocking sound could suddenly be heard, deeper within Ksini’s meat and crystal fortress.
Ksini snarled. “Just keep your stupid powers hidden, and no cheating to win lotteries and stuff. You live as normal a mortal life as possible, until I work out what to do with you.”
“Very well!” Relkir tutted. “Lotteries and gambling are mostly illegal among Rethan territories anyway. Throwing money down a pit for no reason. May I leave now? My kid is probably getting worried.”
The knocking continued. Ksini weighed up her options, then relented.
“Fine.”
With a wave of Ksini’s hand, the door behind Relkir opened up, revealing the street they had been walking on.
“Have a nice day!” Relkir smiled as they left, gently closing the door behind them.
Once the coast was clear, Ksini growled to herself, then went to answer the knocking at the other end of her fortress. She wasn’t at all surprised to see Elkay standing there.
“What?”
“Uh, hi!” Elkay could tell the Lady of Time wasn’t happy. “I just got a text from Litvir asking where their dad is. You’re not… doing anything, are you?”
“No. I was just… giving them a few rules. I just sent them back home.”
“Oh, alright. I’ll leave you to it then!” Elkay replied as he disappeared in a puff of black shadows.
Ksini stared at where Elkay had once stood, then sighed and went back to work.