"Aren't we going to get in trouble over this, Jade...?"

[i]"What, do you want to turn around and hand them over?"[/i]

The priestess hunches her shoulders and dares a little pout, because the truth of it is that she doesn't. [i]The goddess's smug smile says clearly that she knows that, too, and that she thinks her very special little priestess deserves treats for being so good and strong and brave. She chooses, too, to let the messages flicker across the walls of the temple, demands for the goddess and her cult to return to Akar to face judgment, along with the reassuring pings from Angela Victoria Miera Antonius and Nine Forests, letting her know that she is still flanked, that she is still safe.[/i]

"Well, where are we even going to go?" Dolly reaches up to brush back a curl of her hair, dragging the intricate harness along with the motion of her arm. It constricts, makes the motion more difficult, and makes her want to melt. "We can't go back to the Terenians yet, and we might start a war if we take two of their people back to Hybrasil."

[i]"I think I know a few places," the goddess says, waving one hand. Her eyes are still half-lidded as she digests; she will need time to be quiescent, then... perhaps she will need to learn through action again. Let the yearning of the universe turn, for a while, to watch that little minx and her impossible dream, just to make them all hungrier again for the great goddess to return. "And we can drop them off on a colony world when they're ready. After we've had our fun, and they've been properly thanked for their service to the Holy Priestess."[/i]

Dolly's tail curls, tugging against insistent ropes, and she lets out a happy little huff. She follows the tug of the harness to turn ever so slightly on course, letting her goddess optimize the way forward. The stars are like bright raindrops on a dark windowpane, and she is held, and she is warm knowing that Mirror got her happy ending, after all.

"I wouldn't mind going back to Hybrasil, later," she says aloud. "See the trees again. See my sister again. Tell everyone how you defeated the guardian deities of Terenia in order to declare the victory of one of our own." [i]Jade says nothing; she considers the contents of the message. It may be some time before some of Hybrasil's daughters can return; it may never happen again for Whispered Promise. But she looks at Dolly's warm round face, and she says nothing.[/i]

Dolly looks over at her wife, and smiles, and mimes the act of kissing the goddess's cheek. [i]And the goddess, in turn, decides to inhabit the space in front of her Dolly, sitting on the altar, and tugs her in by the leash for a proper kiss...

Just like in "Pursuit of Faith: A Goddess Romance," a story as foundational to Smokeless Jade Fires as any myth, a story that she has memorized inside of her bones.

The idol wobbles in its course, but a panicked burst of comms from Nine Forests convinces Jade to tug Dolly back to where she needs to be.

That's the agreement they made, after all, on that first night together.[/i]