Cayal didn't say anything for a time; an immortal didn't really need to hurry with anything after all. Instead, Declan felt him reach for the Tide, watched his face as he fought the lure of plunging too far into its seductive depths. Across the office, the crystal decanter containing Declan's favourite brandy rose unsteadily and sailed slowly toward Cayal. As it neared, both of the empty snifters rose from the table to wait expectantly, suspended in front of Cayal who plucked the decanter from the air and in a single, fluid motion removed the stopper and poured. This time both glasses were brimmed, which was handy as Declan felt he could really use the drink. Declan's snifter floated back towards him without so much as a drop spilled or a ripple from its honey-coloured liquid cargo as Cayal replaced the stopper and let go of the decanter. Instead of plummeting to the marble floor with a crash however, it straightened and floated serenely down to the low, glass-topped table with a barely audible clink. The Tide Lords picked their respective glasses out of the air and sipped, Cayal letting go of the Tide as he did so.
It was a shame, Declan thought, that it took so much alcohol to get him drunk; this conversation would likely be much easier if he were. Though considering the cost, drinking enough of this particular brandy to get an immortal drunk would pay for everything else in this entire building, including the valuable paintings and sculptures adorning his office's walls and shelves, with some change leftover. Declan watched the Immortal Prince take a quiet gulp of the fiery liquor, blissfully unaware that his single mouthful probably cost more than even an average family in the developed world today could earn in a week between them. Such were the woes facing the planet just then.
Different parts of the Earth each faced their own problems ranging from earthquakes, submerging following the melting polar icecaps, flood, famine, drought, tsunamis that carried sea water inland and destroyed once fertile farmland, greenhouse gases, dying rainforests and more. But all nations alike were suffering economic difficulties and resource shortages unheard of in the modern era. Except for AEVITAS Inc. that is, which continued to buck the trend, Deke Hawkins' corporation founded to help alleviate the Earth's suffering by finding resources out in space, mining the asteroids that are all that remained of Amyrantha after the Chaos Crystal had finished with it.
"I'm going to be entirely honest with you Rodent, for probably the first and only time in history." Cayal began, as though he had rehearsed this conversation many times prior to today.
"That would make a change for you. I'm all ears," Declan tried to retort with something clever but realised too late he was probably only giving Cayal more ammunition. "And can't you use my name for once?"
"I could, but I won't and that's part of what I'm trying to tell you if you will shut up for a minute and listen". Declan did that for once, sighing, steeling himself in preparation of what might come. "And stop sighing already. You've been worse than a love-struck teenager since we got in the car." Cayal realised that he may have hit a little too close to the mark there, unintentional though it was, and any inconsideration on his part right now really wouldn't help the odd rapport they now shared. "Sorry, look, let me just talk, okay? Ignore that last part."
Declan was mature enough and way, way past the point where he would take genuine offence for an unintended slight. Millions of years of living was bound to endow anyone with a thick skin. Frankly he still found it hard to believe that he even had a rapport with Cayal.
He nodded. "Ignored, get on with it Cayal.". Declan could see Cayal was actually being serious for once so paid due attention, or at least tried to look like he did. That was evidently enough for the royal Tide Lord who saw his cue and took it.
"Putting the issue of Arkady aside for a minute, we've been here a long time. Neither of us wants to see the Earth destroyed any more than we did our home. Agreed?"
"Well now that you mention it, as I recall you were suicidal and didn't care what became of Amyrantha, or anyone else for that matter."
"Fair point, but will you at least concede that if not for my obsession at the time, I didn't actually want to see the world destroyed, or to come through the rift let alone live forever on this new world? And that I didn't actively seek it, or would have taken part in opening the rift that brought us here if not for wanting to die?" Cayal needed to make this point, needed Declan to concede it, to agree. It was where they would find the first common ground. Declan sighed. "And stop sighing."
"Fine Cayal, fine." That reply was genuine enough, even if it was forced, exasperatedly given and waved along.
"Neither you, nor Arryl, nor I wanted Amyrantha destroyed, it was our birth world. For you perhaps even less so because you were newly minted and the mortals you grew up with were still alive. We came here against our will but we must admit that in some ways this is a better world. Lukys was right about some things."
"Explain." Declan ordered, seeking clarification on where Cayal was going with this. He approached board meetings and company directors much the same way.
"I am trying to, Rodent. Lukys made us promise not to interfere, to let life evolve here with only a little encouragement from us. Without the politics and jostling for power that occupied the immortals on Amyrantha every time the Tide came in. No Jaxyn or Tryan, no Krydence or Rance, no Diala the minion maker, no Lyna, and thank the Tide no Syrolee, no Brynden or the others. We've survived here for tens of millions of years without strife between the immortals, without the mortals even knowing about our existence, without cataclysms sending humanity back to the stone age every few millennia" Declan raised his eye brow at that last statement. "Okay, fine, one cataclysm, but it wasn't my fault" Declan's eyebrow remained where it was. "Fine, fine it was my fault. But I was pretty upset at the time. And who misses the dinosaurs anyway?"
"You were upset I'll grant you that much. Took you twenty thousand years to come out of your cave and stop sulking"
"It was only fifteen thousand years" Cayal said defensively, clearly not the first time he'd had this particular argument.
"Coming outside to stare silently at the sky for an hour before returning to your cave for another five thousand years doesn't count." Declan retorted.
"Fine, twenty thousand, whatever, it's not important." Cayal said hurriedly, preferring to gloss over the point than concede that he really had been sulking for twenty millennia and had to get used to the idea he really wasn't ever going to die. "Lukys did lie to me anyway, or at least didn't use the Skull of Doom to kill me when he had the chance. I mean he did kill the damn rat in the end. And probably all the other immortals we left behind too. Or at least, so we thought." Back to Arkady again.
"What's your point Cayal?" Declan asked, increasingly uncomfortable by the conversation he was forced to take part in. This time Cayal sighed.
"Look Rodent, in case you haven't noticed, you and I are in this together. Arryl too; I'm confident enough to speak for her in this as well. We were all born on Amyrantha, while the other four that also made it through have been hopping from world to world, and destroying them in their wake for more years than we, or even they, can count. We three are our own little Trinity." Cayal was referencing the trio of Arryl, Ambria and Medwen, three immortals who wanted no part of the politics that seemingly went with being a member of their exclusive club and formed the Trinity, Goddesses overseeing the welfare of the Crasii of the Senestran wetlands. A noble if harmless cause and a reason to wake up each day... not that they had much choice in that part.
"We three were born on Amyrantha," he repeated, "and mourned its destruction. We still mourn for it. And you and I particularly would have been quite happy back then to see an end to the immortals. Me so I could die, you because you were the 'Golden Boy' of the Cabal of the Tarot." That stirred some long forgotten and ancient memories in Declan, memories of the eccentric purple-haired Tilly Ponting, Guardian of the Lore, Head of the Pentangle, the inner circle of the Cabal. He had indeed been a part of the inner workings of the secret society, a group dedicated to collecting any and all information about the immortal Tide Lords with their ultimate goal to rid the world of them once and for all. Even after he became immortal in a fire that got out of control, his mortality immolated out of him even as the flames consumed Lebec Prison, he still sought out Tilly and later endeavoured to discover a way to kill the immortals if he could, or prevent them destroying the world if he couldn't. Had he succeeded, he might also have been able to rid himself of his own immortality, live a mortal lifetime with Arkady in a world free from the Tide Lords. To be young and naïve again he mused. Cayal continued oblivious to Declan's reminiscences.
"We both came here against our will but have long since made peace with it. Neither of us wants to see this world destroyed. Both of us are glad for a world without more like us causing problems for mortal and immortal alike every time the Tide comes in. Both of us agreed to hide the Chaos Crystal to curtail the possibility of another rift, starting over again on another world, destroying this one in the process." Cayal paused for a second while Declan absorbed this. He knew all of this of course, but could never have admitted it, at least not aloud, at least not by choice and least of all to the Immortal Prince. And he guessed that if not for Arkady reappearing, Cayal would never have either. Cayal worked himself up to the hardest part now. "Both of us loved Arkady too, Rodent. Both of us missed her and mourned for her and both of us shut up about it in case it pissed the other one off."
"Then why talk about it now?" Declan asked, though he knew it was a stupid question even as the words left his mouth.
"Because she's up there Rodent." Cayal pointed toward the darkening sky through the large, panoramic window, the neon haze of Tokyo at deepening dusk seeping in through the glass, subtly painting his office with coloured, flickering hues. "She's alive and immortal. We have to deal with this for a few reasons. I also know for a fact that you're not as stupid as you look, or as you dress for that matter and are as well aware of that as I am." Declan could tell this was what this entire conversation had been leading to and decided his best course of action was to remain silent. "Considering she's alive and was mortal, not just mortal but without even any immortal blood in her, there is a lot here we don't know. The first question needing to be answered, did Lukys use the Chaos Crystal to transfer Elyssa's immortality and consciousness into Arkady's body after all, the same way he did Coryna's from your namesake, Coron the Rat, into Oritha his mortal wife? If so, then it's not Arkady up there but the Immortal Maiden, who you will remember, was almost as powerful with the Tide as you are... though obviously not quite so powerful as me" Declan smiled a smile he didn't feel for Cayal's attempt at humour, but what he was saying was quite serious, even if it was an implication that he had both already considered, and greatly feared. Elyssa was as self-serving as any of the other immortals on Amyrantha had been. She had aided Lukys in opening the rift only because Cayal had promised himself to her, and further had promised Arkady's body to her. The chance to be beautiful and desirable, to be free of the curse of eternal virginity that had always plagued her... for that she would have done anything. Even if it meant destroying a world.
"So what?" Declan prompted, his unease about discussing Arkady growing.
"So what?" Cayal parroted. "So what Rodent? We either have an immortal Arkady, or an immortal Elyssa in Arkady's body aboard your wretched exploration vessel. She doesn't speak any Earth language, has no reason as to how she came to be there, understanding of being immortal and if she's also a Tide Lord, then who knows what might happen? Simply by being found, Arkady has started the mortals asking questions we don't want to answer and religions worshipping her as the herald of the Second Coming if the news channels are to be believed."
"Well that's not likely considering who was behind the First Coming, is it?" Declan genuinely smiled at that, enjoying watching Cayal squirm.
"I already explained in Paris that wasn't my fault, they weren't supposed to see me getting up again. Anyway, maybe I will miraculously reappear. It's almost High Tide after all, and I haven't been worshipped for... well just over two thousand years." Cayal quipped. Declan waited again, no answer really needed to that. "So we need to do something, you and I. Everything I said before, we both know it's true so let's just skip arguing about it and get to the point. We're in this immortal thing together, Rodent. We're as much brothers as we're ever going to find in this very, very long lifetime and we both want the same thing here. Now I have an idea that should fix things."
"Should?" Declan asked, trying hard to ignore the disconcerting and sudden openness in Cayal, who subconsciously Declan had already long considered a confidant, if not a friend... or a brother. He just didn't want to admit it. At least not to this man.
"We have three problems as I see it. And if we do this right we can solve, or if not, mitigate all three."
"They are?"
"First, we need to get Arkady to Earth. Second, we need to keep the mortals from finding out anything about us, or at least anything more than they already have. Third, we need to keep Lukys and the others from looking for the Chaos Crystal."
"Those are pretty big problems. And why do you even care Cayal?" Declan knew Cayal did care, but he wasn't ready to let Cayal know he knew that... yet..
"I don't want to see this world destroyed like Amyrantha was. That's why we're both here after all. But this is about something more important than you or me for once, Rodent." Even 'Rodent' had for many millennia become almost a term of endearment for Cayal. Declan had long since become used to it. He was paying attention now.
"What is that then, O' Immortal Prince?"
"This is about Arkady, Rodent. Not about you or I. Not about the Skull, not about the mortals, the other immortals, 'Asteroid Girl' or anything else. It's about her. We owe her that much. And if it is Elyssa up there and not Arkady, we need to deal with that too for pretty much the same reasons." Cayal leaned back, he'd said his piece. Now it was up to Declan. Only he, as Deke Hawkins had any resources that might help. He thought for a few moments, his mind processing everything his... immortal brother, had told him then found his resolve. He nodded.
"Fine Cayal. Tell me what you have in mind." He said with conviction. Now that he had made the decision to act, he would see it through. Cayal smiled and leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees, hands clasped.
"Magic and science, Rodent. We need magic and science. I'll be providing the one, you the other. And between us we just might pull it off. Now shut up and listen, here is the plan."