“I am surprised you asked nicely, little Decaylings…” the Whenvern growled as he hovered above the ship, blocking its passengers from passing. “I expected to see more of you, in force.”
Kairos eyed the two beings up and down. One of them he immediately recognized. Retvik had been a former mortal in Kairos’s previous universe and neither of them really… got along. The other being though, Kairos was certain it was from a distant place, but it did vaguely remind him of a Vohra, one of the races that inhabited the new universe he was guarding.
“We just want to talk to Arkay, see what he wants and put measures in place to make sure he’s safe,” the tiny one explained. The fact that its eyes glowed oddly ice blue and part of its brain appeared to be sticking out bothered Kairos somewhat. “We’re not stupid, we won’t take him by force.”
The Whenvern snarled, glancing over to the main entrance of his crystal palace. In the doorway, his serpentine sister Yisini could be seen, waving cheerfully.
“Why should I believe you?”
The tiny being shrugged. “Well, you don’t have much reason to. I brought Retvik here with me in the hopes that he’d be able to persuade you, but maybe I was mistaken? We do just want to talk though.”
Kairos glanced at Retvik again, tutting. “So you are a Decay Lord now?”
“Not yet,” Retvik replied uneasily. “Still learning the ropes. Got a lot of power to get used to as well.”
“Does that… thing… genuinely want to help?” Kairos asked. While he certainly did not like this mortal-turned-deity, he at least knew that Retvik was an honourable being. “Or is this some sort of elaborate hoax? We’ve had Life Goddesses circling on and off the last few days, not to mention passing Thantir ships like your own.”
“I know it all seems suspicious, but Decay Lord Kal and I do genuinely just want to talk to Arkay,” Retvik tried to explain. “I mean, he was formerly in the medical bay on a large Thantir ship and someone blew up part of that ship to get to Arkay. Last thing I want is for someone to come along, try to get to Arkay and, uh, blow up your universe… again…”
“I guess…” Kairos relented, flapping his wings and landing on top of his palace. But neither of you are allowed to see him on your own. Yisini and I are going to keep an eye on you.”
Retvik and the tiny Decay Lord followed Kairos to the door, and Yisini led them both inside. The crystal palace was huge, but only really because it had to cope with Kairos’s large size. Aside from everything being sparkly and translucent, there wasn’t much to see.
After walking down a few massive corridors, the purple serpent led the Thantir towards a balcony, where a hammock was rocking from side to side. As soon as the occupant noticed he wasn’t alone though, the hammock immediately stopped moving.
“Are you here to take me back?” Arkay tutted.
“No, not at all!” Kal seemed to reply in two voices. There was a swift moment of telepathic chatter, before Kal turned to the others. “Do you mind if I go over and speak to him?”
Yisini shrugged, Kairos nodded.
“I guess.”
“Alright…”
Kairos watched as Kal handed something to Retvik, then silently made his way over. The tiny Decay Lord stood by the side of the hammock, then waved his shielded hand. Everything suddenly seemed quieter.
“Hey.”
“Hi…” Arkay grunted. “You here to take me back then?”
“No. I just want to recommend that you come back to the Thantir. Not because they’re better or anything, but because I don’t want the rest of your family to get hurt.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you think the beings that want to control you will stop because you’re hiding inside a universe?”
Arkay frowned, twiddling his thumbs. “I… didn’t think of that…”
“It’s fine. You ran away in a panic. You’re stressed and you haven’t had a chance to recover, so you do and say dumb things…” Kal seemed to sigh, his ice blue eyes flickering. “Heck, I said some… absolutely awful things to Tah when we fell apart.”
Arkay turned to Kal. “What do you mean by that?”
“There’s six of us. Four of our bodies were destroyed. It was all of our faults, but we all took it out on Tah. But we were all also considered “the baddies” so no one else cared that we were in pain. Still hurts now, especially since it’s Tah’s body we all share. Enough of me though, what do you want to do?”
The little Decayling looked at the little Decay Lord. “You’re asking me?”
“Yes. That’s why Leh and I are here.”
Arkay went back to frowning. “I don’t know what I want to do. I just know that I’m tired of being told what to do.”
“I get that. And whatever you do in the end, I’ll respect that. But I do want to insist that we not stay here.”
“In case someone targets this little universe or my friends, I know.”
Kal clambered onto the hammock alongside Arkay. “It genuinely sucks. Especially since we can’t really say we’ll protect you better. We showed that we can’t, what with that femtosecond explosion. But maybe if you stick around for a bit, get past all the stupid Decayling stuff, become a Decay Lord and get yourself a ship, be as free as you like.”
“I…” Arkay stuttered. “I… kinda like that idea… Maybe then people would stop trying to constantly rope me back into the universe business… I can’t do that. Not again… I just… can’t…”
Kal paused for a moment, then fiddled with something on the side of his head. With a tut, he then turned back to Arkay.
“Okay, right now, you’re only talking to me. You’re talking to Koh. No one else. They can’t hear us. My siblings can’t hear us. No one in the omniverse or the void can hear us. What do you want to say?”
Arkay looked at the curious mechanical being, then wiped a tear from his eye. “I wish I’d just died that day. Rather than have to deal with all of this.”
Koh leaned forward, putting his hand very delicately on top of Arkay’s.
“I know exactly how you feel. Sure, it would have been easier for me to die in the bottom of a deep cave. Sometimes, when I am at my lowest, I want to go back there. Turns out though, being dead sucks, it’s cold and lonely and empty. I don’t have any wise words for you, I just put up with being alive because being dead is no better. Now, the question is, what do you really want to do?”
Arkay fell silent, thinking to himself. Koh patiently waited for an answer, ignoring the impatient, silenced Time Drakes behind him.
Finally, Arkay came up with an answer.
“I want to learn about the Life Goddess powers stuff. But I want to do so as a Decayling. So I can one day be a Decay Lord on my own and make my own decisions.”
“Well let’s go and do that then.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Arkay hesitated, then got up from the hammock, smiling for a change. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go do what I want…”