Dalosisaar may have been trying to keep his calm as he has ordered his fellow deities around, but now that the important work had been mostly done, now that he had gathered the Twelve Anew in one place, the cracks were showing. Every mention of his name caused a sigh, every mention of Kairos’s name would invoke a growl, and Dalosisaar’s tail was flicking erratically.
“You are angry.”
“I expected you to be angrier.”
Litvir was still limping slightly, but they seemed somewhat settled. They had also been following Dalosisaar around, helping him with various chores.
“Litvir is sedated right now!” Syksis explained. “They kinda needed it, considering what the fuck just happened. Maresia and I can offer you some drugs too, if you want.”
“Can I have some drugs, please?” Aesop asked as he rubbed his head. “Preferably some good old Ksithan weed, that shit can really hit the spot sometimes. Actually, let’s give drugs to everyone.”
“I thought you Torr didn’t liiiiike drugs!” Akusasiiri teased.
“Different drugs for different folks. The poor ain’t allowed most drugs, the rich ain’t allowed some drugs. I did get bog-standard weed legalised for everyone, but the good shit is for the upper circles only.”
“Hmph! You really are a two tier system!” Akusasiiri’s teasing faded away.
“Hey, it’s no worse than your dumb society. Aside from you, how many female or, uh… genderless Athrens are there in positions of higher power?” Aesop snapped back. “Like, three? Yeah, us Torr are unequal cunts, but at least I’m honest about it!”
“Now now, missy Akusasiiri, mister not-completely-evil Torr!” Nanik butted in. “Is not time for argues! We must be at peace. Because fighting bad now.”
Litvir nodded in agreement. “We need to be friends. But we are also tired and stressed and that makes things worse. But also maybe we can talk about why we are angry? Especially you, Dalosisaar.”
Dalosisaar eyed the other deities, before turning back to Litvir. “I will talk, but I want to know why you are not angry, kid.”
Litvir shrugged. “Drugs. But also, dada is fine. They are not hurt and they went to sleep. Right now, to me, that is all that matters.”
Valksia leaned across the table. “Litvir, your adopted dad killed the Whenvern.”
“I guess. But the Whenvern was trying to kill us. Someone was going to kill the big scary evil dragon who wanted to destroy the universe.”
“I will be blunt, I would have!” Aesop shrugged. “I just don’t happen to own a blade blessed by the Dead God, nor am I called Elkay. Either way, fucker deserved it.”
A low growl rumbled through the air, followed by a loud slam. Dalosisaar had slammed his claws into the table in an unsteady rage.
“That monster betrayed us all!”
The rest of the Twelve Anew shuddered slightly, but Nanik got up from her tiny seat, walked across the table and tried to give Dalosisaar a hug. Dalosisaar wanted to push the little Vohra away, but after a painful, silent moment, he wrapped his wings around her and hugged her tightly.
“I worshipped the Whenvern for my entire life, ever since I was a little kid! I was willing to sacrifice my own damn life, spend every last breath, to throw myself into that devouring darkness, for that of the accursed Dragon Above! I did everything I could to serve him and Epani as diligently as I could!” Dalosisaar normally wouldn’t have allowed himself to cry, but he was in genuine pain. “We suffered, we made our sacrifices! And for what? For that… that… that bastard to just throw it all back at us?”
“It is okay, mister good dragon. You can cry. You are a good dragon!” Nanik gently patted Dalosisaar. He was squishing her, but it made him feel better, so he didn’t care. “Sometimes people are just bad, but they hide the badness and only show it when we are weak. But mister Dalosisaar, you did nothing wrong!”
“I have a bigger problem…” Kohra muttered. “Us Spasts were cursed by the Whenvern to live shorter lives. The bastard is dead now. I have to go back to the rest of my kind and say “oh, sorry, time god is dead, curse can’t be broken now”. And, worse, there are a LOT of heavy worshippers of Kairos. He was our head deity after all.”
Aesop seemed less bothered. “I don’t think you Spasts will have a problem. You worshipped Kairos because you pissed him off and he retaliated. With the old Allbirther coming back to replace him, pretty sure she’ll remove the curse, or give you steps on what to do to remove it yourselves. Dalosisaar’s the one who’s gonna have problems, because Thraki do genuinely worship Kairos, but you might just have to just BE their new god properly.”
“I would be a false prophet…”
“Nah, mate, you’d be the real deal!”
Maresia smiled, agreeing with Aesop. “Dalosisaar, you’re an actual Thraki who saved the life of an asshole and became a god because of it, and then went on to lead all the other gods and be the right hand man of the Allmaker. You present yourself properly, your fellow Thraki will bow down to you and treat you how… actually, better than how I’m treated.”
“I… I guess…” Dalosisaar settled down. He let go of Nanik, who patted him gently on the head.
“It will all be ok!” Nanik beamed, optimistic as always. “It is always ok! Because we are good gods! And Missy Epani and Missy Sini will make things better! They will be happier too. All we have to do is work out… how we tell people.”
Dalosisaar grunted. “Right now, I don’t want to think about that. I’m going to let Epani deal with that problem.”
“Fair enough. We need to wait for Aster and Elkay to finish up as well…” Valksia added. “I suppose Aster got the fun job of destroying all of Kairos’s stuff, but… well… we also kinda have Kairos’s frozen corpse in the other room.”
“Again, I’m leaving that for Epani. I’m tired and pissed off, I don’t think I can make good decisions right now.”
A thud interrupted Dalosisaar. He glanced across the table, to where Litvir had slumped forward and fallen asleep.
“I agree with Litvir!” Aesop snickered. “We all need a good nap. We did all nearly just die, after all…”