Kinisis watched her son pace up and down as she picked away at a delicately iced slice of cake. He desperately wanted to leave Kinigi, Kinisis’s home, to go out and brutally murder some necromancers he had spotted in a nearby solae system, but Kinisis had insisted that he stay put. Why? Because it was obviously some sort of trap laid out by Epani. She knew that, Arkadin knew that, they all knew it was a trap, but the Thantophor’s burning dedication to his duty was getting a little crazy.
“You want some more cake?” Kinisis asked, wanting to start a conversation.
“No, thank you. I’ve had too much cake. Was supposed to be dieting anyway…”
“You’re a god, you don’t need to diet.”
“I’m a god who plays a mortal tune. I try to be like them.”
Kinisis never understood that aspect of her son. But any attempts to question it would just make Arkadin angry. Probably because he couldn’t explain that part of himself either.
“Should try to be like other gods sometimes. Get yourself worshipped or something.”
“I don’t like religions…” Arkadin tutted. “It always, always ends up with some damn cult sacrificing innocent, unsexed beings to me in an attempt to earn my gratitude and get me to do something for them. So annoying…”
“Doesn’t have to be a cult,” Kinisis suggested. “Could be like what the Ksithanai have where they just leave you trinkets.”
Arkadin tutted again. “You have no idea how much ash I got from barbequed critters, piling up in my old sacrifice pile, back when I had my house. I don’t get trinkets and gems and statues, I get incinerated animals. Which are only useful for that crappy vine plant I had.”
“Well, my sister’s kids seem to manage with that sort of thing just fine…”
“Yeah well…” Arkadin paused. “Wait, what?”
“What?”
“You have a sister?” Arkadin gasped.
“Yes, of course I do!” Kinisis beamed. “What, you didn’t think-“
“You have a sister who has her own universe and her own children and you never fucking told us?”
Kinisis shrugged. “I assumed you all already knew. After all, there are an infinite number of universes out there, some of them are basically guaranteed to somehow be related to me!”
“But…” Arkadin stuttered. “But I thought we were…”
“We are alone and unique in this little patch of the multiverse. But as you know, dying universes shoot out shards of creation, and my sister and I came from the same place, sort of. I came after she did. The old place, it was… Kinda broken from the start so it had a couple of offshoots.”
“So…” Arkadin was dumbfounded, he didn’t know what to say. “You talk to each other?”
“Occasionally. Once every few thousand years, I guess. Not so much since Kenon kinda cheated on me with her. He told her I was dea-“
“KENON CHEATED ON YOU?” Arkadin exclaimed.
“Oh yeah. Wasn’t that long ago really. You were more feral back then, so you probably don’t remember. Was after a nasty corruption attack. But we got over it. Especially once Kenon realised he was nothing without me and she already had a shapeshifting Voidborn to fulfill her every need.”
Arkadin’s jaw hung open. He stared blankly at Kinisis, not knowing how to process this new information.
Kinisis smiled at the Thantophor and playfully patted him on the shoulder. “Maybe we should go meet her one day. But it’s not worth worrying about right now.”
The Allmaker conjured up a fancy dinner table, complete with a fully cooked meal.
“You want something to eat?”
Arkadin sighed. “… Yeah, sure…”