Dolly is speechless. Not because of Jade, not this time, but because her brain is barely capable of stringing words together. All she is boils down to feelings. Feelings are why she is panting through her nose, teeth locked together. Feelings are why her eyes are wide but she’s not smiling, not a bit. Feelings are why she’s shaking, just a bit. Feelings are why she doesn’t know whether she wants to pull this Bander in for a kiss, with teeth, or push her off the railing.

“It’s not [i]my[/i] forgiveness you need to worry about,” she finally manages to work out through her jaw, glaring (glaring? yes, glaring) at the Bander. She tries and fails to tug her hand out of that grasp, and so she improvises, slides her hand up, wraps her fingers around the Bander’s wrist. “Smokeless Jade Fires is the one who you insulted. Weren’t you listening? You come up here without purifying yourself, touch me without considering that I’m [i]hers[/i]. So you know what you’re going to do?”

She points down at the ground floor with her other hand. She’s shaking— with fear? With anger? With the tight grasp around her wrist? All that energy, ready to explode. The weight of Jade’s gaze is all that keeps her brave. That, and the fact that they still don’t deserve Jade’s fury. Not like that. Not unless, um. Unless they. Unless they had [i]thoughts[/i] about high priestesses.

“You’re going to go down there and you, all of you, are going to fall in supplication.” On their faces, wrists outstretched and crossed, haunches resting on their thighs, like defeated warriors, surrendering themselves to Jade’s judgment. “Because she’s not going to change her mind unless she sees you [i]beg[/i] for it. Okay?” Her heart’s racing. The Bander is breathing heavy and slow and her eyes are stones. “And I’m not saying this because I want to see it but because [i]I know her.[/i]”

[i]Jade hisses through her lesser mouths, an exhalation of steam, the vent of compressed air. The pirate shrinks down almost imperceptibly. Speaking directly to them, to her, again, would cheapen Dolly’s role as her high priestess, as her mediator, as her Bride. But she is right. No forgiveness for the unchastened.

And this feels good. So good. Why are other goddesses so content to act with subtlety? Why do they not make these kinds of proclamations? It is like a fire in the gut. Her Dolly was in danger, and now she is her strength, her castle, her glorious goddess whose shadow is an honor draped upon her. She drinks from the wine of victory until she is dizzy.[/i]

The Bander finally lets go. Dolly squeezes, once, pettily, and then does the same. When she turns, the stairs are wet dark stone, lit by flickering lights, vine-choked.

She takes them slowly. The sounds of the hangar are gone; the Bander has vanished. Dolly has to assume that she’s gone back down to convince her crew to humiliate themselves for Jade’s forgiveness. She’s in Jade’s world now, the one that she pretends not to notice sometimes repeats assets. Even for a goddess, making an entire secondary world has to be difficult, and it’s all just for her.

The cockpit is an ancient temple door that dilates open on its own, soundlessly, and then shuts with a soft whisper behind her tail. Inside the cockpit, inside the temple, Jade is seated waiting for her.

“Great one, worthy of praise, queen of the hunt, born of yourself,” Dolly says, sinking to her knees and stretching out her arms, laying one wrist neatly over the other. The tip of her tail trembles as she waits for them to be tied into place, but instead Jade is quiet and still. All Dolly sees is the perfect flagstone under her face. “I come to beg you to turn your face away.”

[i]Go touch her. Ask her if she’s all right. Tell her that you’re holding her, and while you’re at it, tell yourself that you are, too.

Smokeless Jade Fires sits and maintains her world, where she is present, where her Dolly sees the world as it should be, where she can be the unassailable goddess her Bride deserves.

“Did they hurt you?” She knows the answer already: the ache in Dolly’s shoulders, the tension in her muscles, the roughness where she tried to pull her hand away. But she’s not asking because she needs to find out. She’s asking because the goddess has to ask.[/i]

“I’m okay,” Dolly huffs. No thanks to you, she rebelliously thinks for a moment, and then flinches in shame. Except she [i]did[/i] act. Just… slowly. And overwhelmingly. And without being there in person.

When that would have meant the entire world.

Because she loves you, Jade. And she’ll remind you if she has to.

[i]”If they had hurt you, nothing would stop me from destroying them,” Jade hisses, and means it. Means it like venom. How dare that awful little pirate paw all over her Dolly? Her Dolly! Her perfect precious gentle loving…

Her first instinct was to intercede for them! After she was knocked down and felt up and had her heart speed up so hard it hurt her! She immediately forgave even that, because she is the sweetest, kindest, [b]best[/b] girl in the entirety of space, her Dolly, [b]her[/b] Dolly![/i]

Dolly pushes herself up onto her forearms. Stretches. Feels the burn of embarrassment at being so indulgent when there’s the fate of other people at stake. But… Jade likes this, right? Jade does this for her, right?

“Would my mouth be able to stop you?” She asks, all husky, eyes a little closed, trying not to collapse in on herself like a white dwarf star, feathers whispering on her shoulders. “My goddess, my mistress, my star-speckled lady.”

[i]FUCK.

Jade feigns indifference, but her fingers, treacherous, are already digging a groove in the side of her god-created throne. The cleft between Dolly’s breasts is a knife in her ribs, viewed from the cockpit cameras so that she can enhance, loop, incorporate the sight into herself without having to command Dolly to look down. The look on her face is what beauty [b]is[/b].

Her gratitude tumbles together with her desire to possess with her validation, her vindication.[/i]

Jade pretends not to notice, but Dolly can feel her eyes on her, and it’s…

The hot little knot building inside of her since the Bander bowled her over is getting much more insistent. Even when she’s mad at Jade, she’s hopeless; the attention of a goddess makes her weak at the knees. The thought that she — [i]she[/i] — is who Jade chose. And Jade’s staring, and Dolly wants her to stare, and Dolly wants her to do much more than that. Much, much more.

Then Jade stands. Her feet don’t quite touch the floor as she stalks forward, all power, all control, all for her. An apology? Maybe. Jade’s not likely to explain herself for what happened on the stairs, any more than she brought up that headbutt on Akar.

[i]”Your mouth is easily stopped, my prisoner-in-flowers.” Two fingers on Dolly’s lips. A promise of more. Later. Soon. “But if I were to let it… perhaps. Your voice is sweet, even when it is not soaking into cloth.” A thumb, stroking its way up her chin, the nail dragging. She feels the shiver up Dolly’s spine like it was her own, and the growing arousal, too. It’s further validation.

“But I am angry,” she continues. “My power has been ignored. My [b]property[/b] has been defiled. Why should I give the unworthy mercy?”[/i]

“Because it will bring glory,” Dolly whispers around those fingers. “Let Hybrasil know you forgive those who beg your forgiveness. That you may be swayed by supplication.”

[i]”Someone must be punished,” Jade says, wrapping her tail around Dolly’s back with aching slowness. When Dolly starts to reply, she slips her fingers into that perfect mouth, presses down the tongue, dreams it wet and hot against her fingers, and Dolly obediently wraps her lips around them and stares up with such longing that chains rattle in her blood and it is only the role that stops her from giving Dolly everything, [b]everything,[/b] as much as she can for an apology for freezing up, for letting the pirate touch her, for letting her ever get hurt. The subtle bob of Dolly’s head, once, makes her invincible diamond burn too white-hot for thought.[/i]

Jade drags her fingers out and wipes them on Dolly’s cheek, a simulated coolness that still sends her plummeting. Jade, please. Jade, this is the Bride’s duty. Jade, she’s never going to get tired of this. Jade, give her everything you’ve got, as soon as she comes back, don’t leave them there waiting…

“Punish me. I will suffer in their place.”

[i]She tilts Dolly’s head up, up, exposing the gleam of her throat, and this is vulnerable, isn’t it, you all know it, your teeth are all so sharp, and the collar is your only protection.

“If you break,” and Dolly nearly breaks just hearing it, her body begging to betray her, “I will place it upon them once more.”

Then she pushes Dolly’s face to one side, not enough to make her sprawl, to risk hurting her, but enough to make her look like she is. And that’s important. Because Dolly wants to feel like she’s been sent sprawling by the power of a dismissive goddess (because she wrote it, three different times, two different stories).

“Now go. Tell them that your…” Her bare foot prods at Dolly’s treasures, eliciting a gasp, a reflexive reach up to steady herself that she stops of her own accord before her fingers can reach her top. “[b]Piety[/b] has convinced me. That they are to wash themselves, make their offerings, and depart knowing my mercy. Then return to me and I will see myself [b]revenged.[/b]”[/i]

hnnnnnnnnngh fuck Jade you are going to make her walk out with her thighs clenched, [i]not[/i] touching her, so that she can perform, so that she can say the priestess words, knowing she doesn’t get rewarded until she’s done? Jade Jade [i]Jade.[/i]

She presses her forehead against Jade’s foot, trying to give her ideas, and says, trying very hard not to pant or drool, “As you will, bright huntress, promised victory.”

And she mouths “thank you,” because she means it.

[i]And Dolly thanks her, which means she did a good job of being a goddess, and she salvaged what happened, and she is going to apologize thoroughly and at length with the best that she can give. After all, she loves you, Dolly. And she has to prove that she deserves you.[/i]

[Dolly and Jade take comfort in each other’s company and increase their Harmony to 2.]