“Hello, Ksini.”
Relkir glanced up from their desk at the Rethan standing above them. They were a pink-plated Rethan that was perfect in pretty much every way apart from their pink and purple eyes. And the aura of miniscule time-altering fluctuations that always followed Ksini around, but most Rethans couldn’t notice that outside of Relkir and their eldest kid.
“How did you… wait, of course you know.”
“I have seen you before…” Relkir tutted as they moved everything to one side. “When the Lady of Light decided she was angry at us for no damn reason and caused an earthquake that destroyed the high-rise residential district where I and a lot of other workers at the Kentron lived at the time. I was in hospital with a concussion and you weirdly asked me to have a kid with… with Kuta of all beings.”
Ksini tutted back. “That is true, yes. Funny how you couldn’t get over Kuta’s fangs but have accepted Litvir and their fanged appearance no problem.”
“Litvir is a child and should not be mocked. But Litvir is also, apparently, a combination of all the bloodlines. They have fangs but they are also somehow conventionally attractive, and they also do things to keep themselves attractive, like trimming their claws and higher-caste plating and wearing proper armour. Kuta only started trimming their claws when they started dating my damn sibling.”
Ksini suddenly snorted. “Ah yes, little Retvik! Such a stud of a Rethan and he turns out to be a massively submissive bottom.”
Relkir hesitated, then glanced at the door to their office.
“Kid, I already know how to silence the world around me so I can talk about things the average person isn’t supposed to know about. And I know you and Retvik still speak occasionally.”
“Oh…” Relkir sighed, then decided to get on with things. Because they didn’t know if other Rethans had noticed Ksini coming into Relkir’s office or not. Their own little time glances suggested that no one would mention Relkir speaking to this Rethan, but that didn’t mean that no one had seen the deity. And the faster Ksini was gone, the better. “So, why are you here?”
“To check up on you.”
“I am fine though.”
Ksini went back to tutting. “I need to make sure. You literally control time. I know where you are no matter what because you cause the same time-fixing fluctuations that I cause, you have the same damn aura, and I need to make sure you’re not breaking causality or anything.”
“I am not breaking causality!” Relkir exclaimed. “I mean… the old damn time dragon decided to break causality and got themselves killed! I am not to blame for… whatever I may be doing!”
Ksini leaned forward. Relkir took a deep breath to calm down, then wished they hadn’t. They couldn’t deny it, Ksini was a better Time Drake than Relkir was, and Relkir had just inhaled some of the former Lady of Life’s weird pheromones.
“Relkir, you are to blame for all of this. You’re the one who killed the Whenvern.”
“I did… I did no such thing…”
“You did. You forced that dirty little cursed blade into Kairos’s skull. You still carry that dirty little blade.”
“It… it is just a normal dagger…”
“It was blessed by Arkay.”
Relkir fell silent and stared at the blade they normally displayed so proudly on their desk. After a while though, they just went back to sighing.
“I wish you would stop trying to blame all of this on me. You think I want to outlive everyone and everything? You think I like randomly seeing time slow down around me because my instinctual lower brain is protecting me from something? You think I like any of this? I hate it. But you cannot take it away from me, and you constantly trying to make me feel bad about something I did in a maddened rage to protect my injured child just… I do not know what it does to me, but it makes me feel wrong…”
Relkir paused, then closed their eyes, allowing that red and blue glow to show.
“And you know what makes things worse? Every time you come here to check on me, I start to remember more and more about what happened that day. And the more I think about it? Why were you not there? You sent in a Rethan from a previous universe, someone who you had personally tortured, to fight the fight for you!”
“I… I didn’t want Kairos to-”
“Nonsense! You took over the Whenvern’s duties during the Sudden Darkness, when the Whenvern was infected with Corruption the first damn time! I could not have predicted that the Whenvern was going to die, what was going to happen in that damn library, but you higher deities bloody well could have!”
Ksini glared at Relkir. “You done yet?”
“No. I want you to leave, and to stop doing these random check-ins on me. They stress me out and make me remember things. If I do something genuinely wrong, then sure, come by and help me fix things. But in the mean time, leave the check-ins to someone who does not make me stressed and anxious, or at the very least make an appointment with me like everyone else does. Now please, leave.”
“You had questions. Questions you haven’t asked.”
“I am too angry to ask them now. I want to get back to my normal, mortal life and I want you to leave.”
Ksini hesitated, then smiled. “Alright. You can deal with this mess yourself. Toodles!”
In a puff of pink particles, the Lady of Time disappeared. Relkir though swiftly realised that they still weren’t alone. Standing in the doorway were Generals Ritlir and Vaksavar. And quite a few other 100th Legion and Below 20 Legion soldiers.
“Relkir Rethianos,” Vaksavar growled. “By the jurisdiction of the Potentially Dangerous Hidden Abilities Law, you are under arrest. Will you come quietly?”
Relkir sighed to themselves, realising what had just happened. In response to angering Ksini, Ksini had leaked Relkir’s previously unknown abilities to the Master of Generals. But a quick glance forward heavily suggested that Relkir comply in every way possible. They didn’t want even more problems after all.
“I will come quietly…” Relkir muttered as they disarmed themselves and allowed Vaksavar to handcuff them. “But I am exercising my right to remain silent.”
“Good. You should have known better, hiding your… ludicrous hidden abilities from all of us.”
Relkir didn’t say anything, despite the mean comment. They just let Vaksavar lead them away, silently trying to work out the best way out of this mess.