“Hey, Elkay, thanks for coming and speaking to me.”
Elkay sat down on the ledge, next to Arkay. They were both sitting on the very edge of Savepoint. Behind them was the Thantir’s headquarters, ahead of them was endless darkness with occasional pink clouds.
“No worries, old friend. How can I help you?”
Arkay frowned. “I wanted to ask you about how you bound yourself to Teekay.”
“Well… I had a wedding. That mostly bound us together.”
“True, true… I do somewhat wish I could have been there. But Litvir told me about your partnership promise, and I’m not sure if that was your actual binding or not. Because what you said wasn’t your actual promise that perfectly bound you to protect Teekay.”
Elkay hesitated a little. “I think, right now, you want to know two things. How I bound myself and advice on how you can find yourself too.”
“I’m right, aren’t I? The wedding promise wasn’t it.”
“You are. My partnership promise, Teekay and Litvir spent a long time sitting with me, working out what to sat at the wedding. But I… I messed up. I… I somewhat made my promise when we… consummated the marriage.”
“What did you say, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I promised Teekay that I would love and protect him forever…” Elkay sighed. “We were both slightly drunk, and I said things in the heat of the moment.”
Arkay paused, then turned to face Elkay properly. “You made a promise while fucking and it… it stuck?”
“Indeed. I did not give myself a way out either. Not that I would want to, I have always said that I will protect Teekay with my life, but I did make a promise without boundaries. However, my promise was towards the person that I also promised to love for all time, so… well… there are not many ways for me to actually break my promise myself, and I am an insanely powerful and somewhat unkillable, so I do think I am… mostly alright.”
Arkay sighed. “That is true. You don’t have anything complicated, just someone who you love perfectly and Teekay perfectly loves you back.”
“You love Retvik and Litvir though. Is there a difference?”
“Um…” Arkay shrugged. “Not really, no. It’s just an extra person. But you’re young and better at making promises, because you were also a politician. You know better in the first place. Me? I’m a deranged psychopath with too much baggage who has a fear of promises because the only reason I’m here right now is because someone broke a promise to me.”
Elkay looked Arkay up and down. “What was that original broken promise?”
Arkay closed his eyes and took an overly long and deep breath. “It was… well…”
“Take your time.”
Arkay sighed again. “I was out camping with friends and family. Veekay and Arksi weren’t around, they were doing something with Elkay-en, some sort of political thing. It was me, Psiksi, Eksi and Thitaksi camping, with some other Threan-types, I think Thitaksi and Psiksi’s boyfriends were there too. Either way, all of a sudden, these winds picked up and everyone passed out apart from me.
“Out of nothing, Kinisis appeared in front of me, while I was trying to resuscitate Psiksi. Nothings working, they’re all lifeless. So I turned to Kinisis and shouted at her, asking her what she was doing. She claimed she needed more people to turn into Veth, and she needed them sooner rather than later. But then she said that, if she just took me, she wouldn’t need the others, they could all live long lives.
“Of course, I was stupid and programmed to always protect others, and Kinisis had always been a bit… infatuated with me and my fellow Exaron, so I gave in. I said that she could have me, as long as my friends and family got to live long, fruitful lives. Kinisis seemed happy with that. She told me she’d pick me up in 25 years, so I’d have a chance to get married and potentially have kids, and after those 25 years, when I died, she would make me into a Veth to serve her until the end of time.”
“And you accepted that?” Elkay asked.
“I was 24 years old, nearly 25, at the time, surrounded by the bodies of my brothers and my friends. If I said no, they would have all died right there. In my head, I thought 25 years would be long enough to live some of my life, and everyone around me would be alive as well. So of course I said yes.”
“What happened after that?”
“Kinisis smiled then disappeared. Everyone woke up, unaware of what happened, and I finally spoke to Kass and asked him out on a date at some point. Things just seemed normal, I guess. But when I told Retvik, Tenuk and Elksos about it, Tenuk said I’d doomed myself, and Retvik suggested that I live as much of my life as possible, because he was worried that Kinisis would break her promise.
“Turns out, Retvik was right. Twenty five days later, I was shot dead in an alleyway, and was bound to Kinisis forever. Because the promise was “when I died”, not “in 25 years, when I died”. Later on, I found out that Kinisis had set me up to die in that damn dark alley. She never intended to keep her side of the promise. She just enslaved me and bound me to her will.”
Elkay stared at Arkay for a little too long, before shaking his head, patting Arkay on the shoulder and sighing.
“You poor, poor little thing.”
“Yeah…” Arkay allowed tears to slip from his eyes. “I have no idea what I did to deserve all of that. I was just a young adult who had already suffered a lot. And now I am here, billions of years later, too scared to make promises because promises always seem to break me.”
“That promise broke you. But you know what, Arkay? You should make some sort of promise to Retvik and Litvir. But you need to temper that with them making a promise back to you. You promise to protect them. They promise to protect you back. And you do not need to put a time limit on that promise, because I know the three of you love each other permanently. The same way I love Teekay permanently.”
Arkay sighed. “You’re absolutely right. I do love them forever. And I want to protect them forever.”
“That is fine. You should do that. And maybe, if you wish, you can include an item in it. Like a dagger or something. Perhaps do a proposal, which turns into a promise later on.”
“Again, you are spot on. You’re such a better Synaisthyn than I am…”
Arkay tried to get up, but Elkay grabbed him by the arm and sat him back down.
“We both have our own troubles. But Arkay, dear, you are upset. Stay with me for a while. Until you feel less sad.”
Arkay breathed deep, then did as he was told. Elkay pulled Arkay close, giving him a little hug.
“Thank you, Elkay.”
“No worries, old friend. Let us just relax for a bit and watch the clouds float by. Things will be better, I am sure of it…”