“You fixed things up pretty quickly.”
Aesop yawned, then waved at Aster as he appeared at the entrance to what was planned to be Elkay’s private book club room, but was now just a room full of sofas and tables, all empty. Literally a few rooms over, a deity had died, having thrown several other deities through walls and caused much calamity before their demise.
“Of course I did! I’m the god of fixing shit. I used to think I didn’t like being shoehorned into the Torr’s general “we are builders and manufacturers and all that” role, but eh, since I’m a god and do shit super fast, I don’t mind nearly as much now!”
“I guess…”
Aster made his way over and sat down on a sofa opposite Aesop. One that wasn’t still covered in plastic.
“You seem glum, kiddo!”
A sigh. Aster was tired. He’d taken breaks, as Dalosisaar had told him to, but it didn’t feel like enough.
“I am feeling glum, yes.”
“How comes? Want to talk to your drunk asshole uncle about it?”
Aster looked up. “Firstly, you’re drunk? Secondly, you are not an uncle. Thirdly, you’re not THAT much of an asshole.”
“Am a little, and will be soon, apparently. Based on what my bro’s told me. And I totally am an asshole. I’m a Torr. An upper class one. Sure, me and my family climbed to upper class, few folks manage that, but you have to be a major asshole to get there in the first place. But I’m also a god, a god who had his head fucked up by Epani when he was deified. So I ought to be nice to my fellow fucked up gods.”
“What… what do you mean by that?”
Aesop shrugged, then gulped down some of his drink. “You really don’t think that Epani didn’t fuck with our heads when she made us into gods?”
“I mean… maybe she did… but still…”
Aesop sat up. “You’re genuinely upset.”
“Because I feel like I failed my duties as the god of diplomacy.”
“Mate, you didn’t fail.”
“The Whenvern is dead. We didn’t solve things diplomatically.”
Aesop thought for a moment then tutted. “Mate, you genuinely didn’t fail. You and Epani and pretty much everyone, you TRIED to solve things with diplomacy, but Kairos refused to stand on even ground with you. You sought to make compromises, to see things from both sides and all that shit, and Kairos spat it all back at you, then turned to violence and threatened not just us, not just Epani, but the whole fucking universe. Sure, he may have had issues with Epani, but what the fuck did Elkay ever do to him? What did you or Dalosisaar or Kohra or Litty ever do to him? We served him loyally and he acted like a cunt. And, worse, he decided that every single normal person in the universe was unworthy of life as well.”
“Still…”
“No, don’t give me that shit!” Aesop raised his voice slightly. “You didn’t fuck up. You did everything in your fucking power to make things right, and that dragon was a cunt to you anyway. Sometimes you CAN’T solve shit with diplomacy. Kairos proved that. But let me put this nice and clear. Specifically to you. You. Did. Nothing. Wrong.”
Aster settled down. “I guess.”
“No, not “I guess”, you did nothing wrong. Maybe Epani did something wrong, maybe Dalosisaar was too trusting, maybe Elkay was secretly plotting to kill Kairos, I don’t know. That last one is unlikely though. Doesn’t matter either way. Kairos fucked up, Kairos deserved what happened to him, and you didn’t do anything wrong. Understand?”
Aster sighed. “I understand. But you… you seem… optimistic.”
“Someone aside from Nanik has to be optimistic. But in all honesty? All Kairos did was fuck things up. He fucking sucked. And now we got a new Time Drake who actually cares about us and cares about Epani and won’t try to kill us.”
“Hmph. I… I don’t really trust Ksini.”
“Is it because you lost all faith in Kairos? Because Ksini is just the old Allbirther but she has time powers. Apparently she always had time powers.”
“So why didn’t she come in and fight Kairos? Why did we see those Skyans and that… I think it was a Rethan with wings? I… I don’t get it.”
“I don’t get it either. But according to Elkay, Kairos and Ksini have the same time powers and Kairos could have just corrupted her. But the… other guy… Apparently that winged Rethan, they had foreign time powers that Kairos couldn’t counter, and the Skyavok with wings who looked just like Elkay was some sort of Life Goddess who was also countering Kairos somehow? I should probably ask Elkay about it because he knows shit…”
“I honestly don’t even know if I want to know.”
“Why not?”
“Time stuff is weird.”
“Oh, totally. Doubly so because I’m pretty sure one of the guys who helped us was that fucking Skyavok gladiator who disappeared after the Sudden Darkness. Honestly, they were probably the only Skyavok gladiator I liked. And, according to Nanik, they were ALL called Elkay. Apart from Litty’s dad, who is called Relkir but also… somehow could have been called Elkay? I don’t get it. Whole fucking mess was weird as fuck…” Aesop trailed off briefly. “In the mean time though, mate, you need to chill out a bit.”
“I don’t even know what to do.”
“You got any work you need to be doing right now?”
Aster shrugged. “Not really?”
“Want to go to my cinema room, invite some friends, get drunk and watch some wrestling? We can invite Kohra too, if you want. I was thinking of inviting little Litty as well, but Litty’s been busy with the family and stuff.”
“Apparently Litvir will be a big sibling soon.”
“Explains a lot. Anyway, you want to do what I just suggested? All the hard work is over, we ought to celebrate being alive and shit, and also relax a little.”
Aster took a deep breath and sighed. But after some thought, he relented. “Sure, why not? We could both do with a fun break anyway…”