“Yisini, Arkadin, where are you both?”
Kairos’s voice echoed across the young solar system, but he hadn’t received any response from either of them for hours. Not getting a reply from Arkadin was somewhat common, but Yisini not answering calls? That was very unusual. Especially since she was always the first to arrive at Kinisis’s randomly timed god meetings. Annoyingly though, instead of sending Epani to find them, Kinisis had sent Kairos after them. Epani was always better at finding things.
This little solar system was the last place they had both been seen. Or rather, felt. Mortals nearby had felt the presence of both deities, even if they hadn’t seen them, but they weren’t present on any of the planets.
“Yisini? Arkadin? Where… Oh…”
Suddenly, one of Kairos’s calls was answered. But not verbally. He had found one of his targets.
Lying on the surface of a small moon was a familiar serpentine form. With a flap of his wings, Kairos zoomed down to Yisini’s location, not quite sure what he was looking at. As he got closer though, he realised that something was wrong.
“Yisini?”
The normally rather chatty Allbirther didn’t respond. Landing by the serpent goddess’s side, Kairos quickly realised that Yisini was unconscious. Breathing, healthy, but unconscious. He also noticed that the Allbirther had a very large bump on the back of her head.
“YISINI?”
Yisini didn’t respond to Kairos’s shout. But his cries did grab the attention of someone else.
“What happened, Kairos?” Epani asked as she drifted by. “Why is our sister unconscious?”
Kairos shrugged. “I don’t know. But she is injured.”
“She banged her head.”
“She clearly bashed her head against the moon. Must have landed funny.”
“But why is she here?”
Kairos glanced at Epani. “I… I don’t know.”
“The God of Time doesn’t know.”
“You act as if I can magically know everything.”
“You can.”
Kairos sighed, knowing that wasn’t how things worked, but also knowing that there was no point arguing. He could have tried to look back into the past, but unfortunately that rarely actually worked. At least not if Arkadin had been around. Something about the death god’s presence did something to Kairos’s time abilities, meaning he couldn’t see things clearly.
“So what happened?” Epani asked.
“I… I don’t know…” Kairos hesitated. “I can’t really tell. All I can see is that Yisini grabbed Arkadin and Arkadin threw her off… She must have fallen and bashed her head…”
Suddenly, another presence arrived. A brilliant glow appeared above Yisini, then quickly faded.
“What silliness are you all up to now?” Kinisis asked as she fluttered around, inspecting each of her three children. “Did you play too rough?”
Epani pointed at Yisini’s unconscious body. “No, we did not. But Arkadin clearly did.”
“And where IS my little Arky?”
Kairos and Epani both shrugged. Kinisis put her hands on her hips and tutted.
“You didn’t scare him off, did you?”
“Of course not, mother…”
Kinisis tutted again, then turned back to Yisini. She began to grow in size until she was large enough to pick Yisini up in her arms.
“Do you have any idea where he is?”
More shrugs from the time and space deities. Kinisis tutted some more, summoning a portal in front of her.
“Well, do me a favour, you two, and go and find him. I’ll take Yisini home and nurse her back to consciousness…”
The Allmaker disappeared, taking Yisini with her. Epani and Kairos stared at each other.
“Well, that sucks…” Kairos grunted as he flew off.