“They’re coming for us.”
Arkadin had been pacing up and down for hours. At first, it was amusing to Kinisis. She enjoyed seeing her son worry, mainly because she was glad that he had emotions. But that enjoyment only lasted about ten minutes, when she realised what he was thinking about was possibly genuinely worrying.
Still, Kinisis had tried to make Arkadin feel better. Treating him to sweets and cakes. Listening to music with him. Trying to start conversations. She even let Arkadin sleep in the comfy chair. But no, nothing was cheering up the little death god.
“You keep on saying that!” Kinisis finally snapped. “Who are they?”
Arkadin quickly apologised. “Sorry, I was talking about my siblings.”
“What about them?”
“They want in. They want to break the doors down and get me out of here.”
Kinisis lounged around on a pike of cushions, rolling Arkadin’s words across her tongue. “They… want to get you out of here… Hm…”
The Thantophor continued to pace up and down. This behaviour was now beginning to annoy Kinisis.
“Why don’t you come here, have some lovely cake with me and talk these things through?” Kinisis asked, offering a plate with some chocolate mud pie and whipped cream on it. “You need to talk about your feelings more anyway.”
Arkadin grunted, then sat down. Kinisis nudged the plate towards her son, continually doing so until he finally accepted it. He unwillingly swallowed a mouthful, then quickly changed his mind as he realised the cake was genuinely nice.
“It’s just…” The Thantophor didn’t know where to start. “I’m really enjoying spending time with you. I never really get to do this. Because the others are too demanding and too loud and I don’t want to intrude.”
“You should visit way more often though!” Kinisis beamed. “Even if you’re going to be stuck here for a while. Where have you been living anyway, with that cute little Kronospast mortal?”
Arkadin nodded. “I didn’t have the heart to reclaim that land Yisini took.”
“You should have. That was your land and you just let your sister take it.”
“She gave it to-”
“Fuck that former deity, that was your home!” Kinisis tutted.
“But you made me…”
Kinisis raised one of her delicate eyebrows. “I made you angry but I didn’t force you to destroy your own home. You did that in anger. That’s old news though. You should speak to Yisini and get your house back at least.”
Arkadin shrugged. “I guess. But the others are all being… weird.”
“You can sense it?” Kinisis asked. Her attention was briefly distracted by a very large cookie. She swallowed it whole then turned back to Arkadin. “Of course you can. You and your siblings are connected.”
“If we were really connected, they wouldn’t be getting insanely jealous that I’m spending time with you…”
The Thantophor sighed, then helped himself to more cake. He finished one slice then devoured several more slices, before pushing the plate away.
“You’re a hungry boy!” Kinisis smiled.
“I shouldn’t get hungry.”
“You can have cake. It’s just cake. It’s not like you’re consuming the souls of billions of mortals!” Kinisis was still smiling.
“It could-”
“Not from eating cake. Cake won’t suddenly turn you into a Devourer. Don’t be silly.”
The Thantophor sighed again, then picked at a final slice of cake. “I guess… It’s just… Everything feels weird lately. Like my siblings are being idiots. And that they’re willing to murder, just to get at me.”
“They do that anyway!” Kinisis beamed. “Why is this time any different?”
Arkadin shrugged. “I don’t know. I just don’t want things to needlessly die, as always.”
Kinisis patted her son on the head. “Don’t fret, little one. Let your siblings have their fun and games. And if things get nasty, we’ll sort them out. Like we always do. Alright?”
The Thantophor smiled, just a little. “I guess…”