“Yisini, why do you always ask these things of me? Surely there is someone who can offer a better opinion?”
Rethais rolled his eyes as he stepped into yet another weird, sticky puddle, as he followed the Allbirther deeper into her strange, experimental labs. Yet again, Rethais had been stolen from his sleep, rather than arranging a meeting like everyone else. This particular part of Yisini’s labs was especially sticky and gooey. Why? Rethais had no idea, but he was pretty sick of all this walking around.
“Because you are the highest ranking member of the race with the highest population inside this universe!” Yisini’s reply was swift as she disappeared around a corner. Rethais followed closely, as the facility was probably one of the worst places to get lost in. “Plus, unlike most other beings, you are genetically as close to perfection as one can be!”
“I appreciate the compliment, but that still does not truly answer my question. After all, the majority of us remaining rulers are all in equal standing…”
There was a brief pause as Rethais glanced around, not sure what he was looking at. Nothing came to mind, Rethais could hardly comprehend what was going on, let alone understand the weird tubes and containers with liquid inside them.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Yisini gently smiled as she moved to the centre of the room, where a large bowl-shaped object stood out from all the weird organic tubes and piping. The Allmaker coiled herself around it then sat down in the bowl, letting out a rather tired yawn. “It’s all a giant mixture of biological examples. Mostly proteins. Anyway, that’s not why I brought you here.”
“So why am I here?” Rethais asked, trying not to stare too hard at the tubes. The bioluminescent lights streaking through the tubes and pipes was oddly beautiful, almost hypnotic. With a shake of his head, Rethais attempted to bring his attention back to Yisini. “Do you wish to ask something of me?”
“Somewhat. I have been doing some checks on each of your races, but there is a small problem. Your populations appear to be stagnating. Between low birthrates and a general angst throughout each race’s people, it is possible that we end up with a negative birthrate and a population collapse. Which is the last thing we need after already having a population collapse.”
“That… sounds bad…” Rethais shook his head again, trying to focus on the Life Serpent. “Are we talking long term or short term?”
“Short term. I was under the belief that, after the Incident, there would be a baby boom. Instead, we have a rather downward depression on new births. While we have worked hard to have everyone homed and fed, there is a lack of, well, desire to produce children.”
“Huh…” Rethais fell silent, then shrugged. “The latest research that I have suggests that the Rethan population is very slowly growing.”
“You are the only race doing so…” Yisini sighed, flopping in her bowl-shaped throne. “Everyone else though? It’s a mess… A fixable mess though, if I am allowed to do so. I am concerned though that they might refuse my assistance.”
Rethais shrugged some more. “Why not just ask them anyway? You do not know what they will say if you do not ask them.”
“Yes, of course…” Yisini trailed off. “Silly me… I need to ponder some stuff…”
Before Rethais could respond, everything suddenly turned pink and tasted of purple. In a flash of light, the Rethan ruler found himself back in his office, exactly the way he had left it.
“Damn deities…” Rethais frowned as he went back to work. “Why has everything got to be so complicated with them..?”