“WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?”
The door slammed open, barely remaining attached to its hinges. The two deities leaped up in shock, picking themselves up off the floor and standing up straight.
“Kenon…” Kairos stutted as the massive, heavily armoured, six-limbed golden being lurched through the doorway, turning his head to one side so its glistening antlers could pass through the gap. “You, uh, know this is my private place, right?”
The Voidborn grunted as he stepped forward. “Your private place? Then why is that thing here?”
Arkadin blinked, quickly realising that Kenon was quite clearly pissed off with him in particular. Otherwise Kenon would have just knocked. “Hey! That’s fucking unfair! Kairos invited me in here because he wanted to talk to me, and here you are, disrespecting me right off the bat!”
“You were the one who-”
Before Kenon could finish his sentence, Arkadin interrupted him, having summoned a staff for himself.
“Leave this fucking room, close the door, then knock on it and ask Kairos if you can come in!”
Both Kairos and Kenon stared at Arkadin. After a brief moment of hesitation, Kenon did as he had been asked, left the room then knocked on the door. Kairos took a deep breath, his eyes still focused on his little brother, before he allowed Kenon to come back in.
“See, that’s much better!” the Thantophor smiled. “Father, what do you want?”
“Do not call me father. You are not my son.”
Arkadin tapped his staff on the ground, sighing. “We’re doing this again?”
“You did something in those seven seconds…”
Already tired of everything, Kairos stepped forward, sheltering Arkadin with one of his wings. “Kenon, Arkay and I have been discussing this whole damn thing since it happened. He saved my life. We’ve gone through everything and frankly, we have come to the conclusion that you are the main suspect in the case of what happened to me.”
Kenon stepped back, genuinely surprised by the words coming out of the Whenvern’s mouth.
“You…”
“You fit the bill!” Kairos tried to explain. “Yisini and Epani lack the power to actually kill me. Kinisis wouldn’t ever harm us. Arkay was here with me and he was the one who resuscitated me. You though…”
“You dare accuse me…”
“Yeah, we do dare!” Kairos straightened himself out. “Where the fuck were you when I was DYING? In fact, where are you most of the time? You just sit in your fancy palace, lording around as if you own the universe Kinisis made, pretending to be protecting this place from Corruptions and things like that when Arkay does most of the work!”
This time, Kenon seemed to genuinely hesitate. He had no problem arguing with Arkadin, but his favourite little deity getting snappy at him? That was surprising. Then again, Kenon knew more about Kairos, Arkadin and their intertwining nature, so it was… almost guaranteed that the Thantophor was drag Kairos away from Kenon one of these days.
“You… know that is not true. I… I am surprised that you have let Arkadin’s slippery words get into your head so quickly.”
“Dude…” Arkadin muttered. “I’m like the least manipulative person here… Can’t even convince my own dad that I’m not evil.”
Kenon growled, leaning down towards Arkadin. “You are not my child. Kairos is not my child either but you in particular, you are no one’s child. You were just a demi-deity that was very good at killing and Kinisis felt sorry for. You were born to destroy and that is all you do.”
“In that case, you’re exactly the damn same!” Arkadin hissed. “You’re a stupid god that Kinisis pitied on and gave a basic job to so she wouldn’t feel guilty, while Kairos and I do all the time-based work around here! And why are you here anyway, aside from this vague attempt to quench the unending thirst that floods your mind and convinces you to look down on others who are better than you?”
“Because…” Kenon grunted, calming himself down. “Because I was certain you were behind Kairos’s… moment. But clearly you are not. Because you defend yourself and your fellow deity so fiercely. And yes, you did save Kairos.”
Kairos pulled Arkadin close, feeling an urge to protect him from Kenon’s presence. While he was somewhat convinced that Kenon hadn’t harmed him, something in the back of the Whenvern’s mind that whoever was behind all this was at the very least Voidborn in nature. That being said, there was no reason for Kenon to attack Kairos, since Kairos knew that Kenon liked him the most.
“Kenon, we get it, you’re blaming Arkay and we’re kinda looking at you as a suspect. But putting anger and vitriol in our way is doing us no favours. We already think it might happen again and Arkay has graciously been putting his own time aside to keep an eye on me.”
The Voidborn glanced down at Arkadin. “Really?”
“Yes, of course!” Arkadin exclaimed. “You seem to think that’s a strange thing for me to do.”
Kenon shook his head. “Hm. That is not a strange thing. In fact, I should have assumed as much sooner. You two were closer to each other than I ever was with Kairos. Especially in the Previous Universe where I considered both you and Kairos as enemies.”
“Enemies?”
“Well of course. We were all tied in a billion year duel for Kinisis’s love.”
The two deities blinked in confusion. Arkadin looked up at Kairos, not sure what to say. “I thought I was a mortal though?”
“You were. And you were the rather lucky one, slee…” Kenon stopped mid-sentence. He shook his head, then grunted to himself. “It means nothing. I won in the end. You two are now simply servant deities for Kinisis’s pleasure. As things should be.”
Kairos rubbed his head, having heard enough and now being thoroughly sick of Kenon’s presence.
“You done yet?”
Kenon nodded.
“Good. Because, honestly, I’m really pissed off at you and want you to leave.” Kairos stomped forward, nudging Kenon backwards.
“Very well…” Kenon tutted as he headed for the door. “I shall leave. But I leave you both with a warning. I may not have been responsible for what happened, but I tell you now, it may happen again…”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Arkadin snarled as he closed the door on Kenon’s face. “We already fucking knew that…”
Kairos sighed as Arkadin wandered back towards him. “Do you still think he did it?”
“Probably not…” Arkadin also shrugged. “But he definitely has a better idea than we do about what caused it…”