Gath pocketed his mom’s badge and squeezed Essie’s hand. They always walked hand in hand when invisible; touch was the only way they knew to know where the other was. It wasn’t a big deal. They’d been playmates as infants and sparring partners for as long as he could remember. She was his best friend. Yet, since they’d kissed during the last Amekia Festival, a strange, fantastic, terrifying, yet incredible something sparked in embarrassing places when Essie was nearby. Sometimes, it lit his mind or set his heart beating so hard he thought it might pound out of his chest. Her touch ignited his senses. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he liked it. I wonder if Daddy Saille can explain it to me. He breathed and calmed himself for several moments.

Dad had told him to follow Mr. Nocht but not to enter the temple. He had to have been joking; everyone knew telling teenagers not to do something was as good as daring them to do it. Essie went with him, and, of course, they headed straight up the stairs toward the giant golden doors carved with wheat stalks, corn, and enormous trees. The temple was the most beautiful place he'd ever seen.

Professor Nocht headed through the door, and a cloud of blissfire-scented mist escaped, billowing around him and Essie, sending his head spinning and making him giddy. They began to follow but stopped cold as two soft, firm, insistent hands gripped their shoulders.

They both squeaked.

“Now,” said a tall brunette-haired woman, “you are far too young to serve inside my house.”

“I’m invisible,” Gath said. The doors opened, releasing a fog of blissfire as people came and went. Whoa, he thought as his lungs filled and everything vanished except Essie… Wow, she’s gorgeous!

“I see everything around my temples, and what I see now are two saplings needing several seasons of fresh air and sunlight before they are ready to pollinate.”

Gath's breath stopped, his heart thundered in his ears, and his hand paused its explorations of Essie’s bum… when had he begun caressing her bottom? And her fingers on his … oh wow…

“Interesting,” said Lady Amekia. “Mother is correct, but nobody listens; blissfire should be restricted to adults, and children do not belong near my temple.”

“Your temple? Who are you, lady?”

The door opened and closed, enveloping them in another fog of sweet mist. Essie giggled and pinched his bottom. “It’s Lady Amekia, silly.”

His mind focused on the sweet scent of her skin. Hunger and excitement caused his heart to flutter, and for a moment, only Essie existed. “She’s not a goddess, you are." He swallowed, searching for a gram of self-control, wondering where his self-mastery went, but curious what would happen if he didn’t find it. His hand migrated to Essie's waist, and he almost managed a grown-up tone. "Look at her; she’s not shiny, flying, or anything.”

“I need to get you away from here, or Amelia will report me to the council,” said Amekia as her head rolled back in a loud belly laugh. Her insistent hands directed them away from the giant golden doors. “My gifts and talents promote new life. I do not need wings to encourage corn to grow, a tree to bear fruit, or a raptor to lay eggs. The two of you are still under Lady Amelia’s authority, but she will not mind if I show you the gardens of my realm while the sun shines.”

The sun crossed the sky as the fertility goddess led them through her apple, peach, pear, and almond orchards. Gath gawked when they stopped at a withering tree, unable to shift his gaze as the Lady of Life caressed and spoke to the ancient plant. She picked three plums before whispering, “You have earned your rest, old friend. Leave your seed in our hands. We will ensure the next generation remembers your service. I release your soul.” She kissed each of the plums and handed them to Essie. “Plant one at your first home and the other with your first placenta.”

Essie faded into sight, a startled expression on her face. “Me? Babies? No way, I'm a Hero!”

Gath gulped. Essie’s armor liner was little more than light blue paint. Should he divert his eyes? Could he look away? Her developing body and pretty bits sparked… something… He lost track of the power circulating through his body and, with it, his light-shaping gift. He appeared beside Essie. "I want to be a Daddy. Not now, but when I'm old like Professor Nocht or powerful like the Stoneshaper everyone is talking about."

"Waiting is good," said Lady Amekea, "but don't wait too long. The two of you will ripen in another six years. You can play Hero for a few more years while you battle and tame the stone-egg hatchlings, but do not postpone parenthood, or you will be too old to play with your children and enjoy your grandchildren."

Essie harrumphed and said, "I don't want to be fat like Ms. Wendy, Mrs. Hanna, or Aunt Keekee."

Lady Amekia laughed softly, petted Essie's hair, smiled, and guided them over a wood plank across a burbling stream. Fields of corn, wheat, and more fragrant plants than he imagined were next on the tour. As tall as a grown man, oval stones marked every path's intersection. Amekia taught them about each plant, their uses, and their blessings, and with each, Gath’s curiosity grew. As the sun touched the Nebelgruft peaks, his need-to-know burst.

“Lady Amekia?”

“Yes, Son of the Night Blades?”

Gath laid a hand on a blue-striped egg-shaped stone and asked, “What are these rocks?”

“What do you think they are?”

“They look like eggs, but they’re huge.”

“My Uncle Cove,” said Essie, “he’s the Stoneshaper. He said they felt alive, but they were really old. How could they be alive?”

Lady Amekia clapped her fingers on her palm. “Well done Professor Nocht. Yes, they are eggs, and some still contain life.”

Dax rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “How?”

“Where I come from, there are frogs that sleep through the winter, frozen in ice, and fish whose eggs wait buried in desert sand for the return of rain.”

“Wow,” the pair said.

“On Castlelianova, everything requires Elystria to live. Some, like us and your brattiraptor friends, need very little, but many others demand huge amounts of power. Those creatures would starve when the crystal moon was too far away. So, how do they survive?”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Gath’s eyes lit up. “They lay stone eggs like your fish or frogs.”

“Exactly. That is why we’re here.”

“We? Who else is here?”

“{God of war}, {list of all known living gods}, but I haven't seen Feardorcha, Wasserlyn, Gisaluna, or Heim.”

“They’re all in Porto?”

Lady Amekia nodded.

“Are they here for a convention or a party?”

The Goddess's chuckle faded into a sigh. “We’re here to help defend the city.”

Gath asked, “From who? Is the Northern Arc Alliance going to break?”

“Not yet.”

“Then who?”

Amekia patted a stone egg as they passed. “Elystria is moving too fast, and The Hatching is hundreds of years ahead of schedule.”

“The rocks? Professor Nocht is right?”

The Goddess nodded.

“The eggs are everywhere…,” said Essie.

“There’s tens of thousands of these things,” Gath said as he rubbed his eyes.

Lady Amekia scruffed his hair. “Porto has forgotten history.”

Essie said, “You have eggs scattered around your temple.”

“Oh, these are my friends,” Lady Amekia said as she pointed to a blue and grey ovoid stone. “That’s the son of Quip, my friend and favorite mount.”

Gath wrinkled his brow and cocked an eye. “You rode something that small?”

“Skydrakes grow up into prismatic dragons,” said Lady Amekia. “Befriend one if you can, but don't try and ride it until it gives you permission. Your AI guides will teach you.”

Gath exchanged looks before turning their befuddled gazes on the goddess

“You’re jesting…”

“My mom has one,” offered Gath.

“Uncle Cove, Aunt Keekee, and two of their daughters have talking family bands,”

“Mother Amelia! I swear,” said the Goddess. She stabbed her finger at the ground, and two shrubs burst from the soil. They grew into a loveseat wide enough for the pair to squeeze into. “Sit down. Do not move until I return.” Lady Amekia spun and stalked away.

The pair sat; his arm slid over her shoulder, and she nestled against him. It was strange, exciting, and somehow right. They chatted about this and that, shying away from smiling glances that left Gath wondering what the adults knew and if he would have to kill them for obtaining forbidden knowledge.

The sun had drifted towards noon when Lady Amelia jogged up the path, somehow making her movements both dignified and sensual. “Wonderful, you are still here. I had a wonderful chat with Brother Eldrin and his sweetheart, Lady Silvara—”

“You went to see the God of the Death and Judgement and the Mistress of Assassins?”

“Sush, young man. Yes, I visited your patron deities. They are pleased with your progress. They were also a little put out that you came to see me, not them. Explaining why you were in my gardens… well… I’m glad I got out of the Temple of Judgment alive.”

“I still might change my mind,” whispered a voice like velvet-covered steel. “Sister, are you certain this pair is ready? They are barely teenagers.”

Gath and Essie spun in a coordinated dance, placing Azure blades at an invisible throat.

“Oh,” said Lady Silvara, “well done. Eldrin will be amused.”

A line of blood traced down Essie’s throat, and a warm line running down his chest told him he had also been pricked.

“Silvie,” said Lady Amekia, “they are useless dead.”

“True. Put away your toy's children; it is time for you to grow up a little.”

Gath sheathed his blade and returned it to his storage pouch. He stared at where his instinct told him the Mistress of Politically Expedient Demise waited. Bowing was inadvisable; this was one diety you watched even when she was invisible.

“Extend your left wrists, children,” sighed the Goddess of Assassins.

Gath frowned. There was no way in the nine hells he would be sacrificed, not now, and definitely not at the Temple of Amekia.

The Goddess of Unexpected Death growled, “I swear on my husband’s holy gavel I will not kill you today.”

A breath Gath hadn’t realized he’d been holding burst from his lungs. He extended his hand next to Essie’s.

“Ullaich dà choloinidh sìol airson an cleachdadh,” said the goddesses in unison. Each pricked the wrists of both teenagers.

Gath shivered and scrunched his shoulders as a tingle spread from his wrist. It itched like a zillion bugs swarming under his skin, and he fought the urge to dig at his body and rip whatever it was out.

“Now,” sighed Lady Amelia, “we are going to Bond the two of you. This is a Sàs, not a marriage, but these,” she held out two thin titanium bands, “will not function without the link between you. Do you consent?”

Gath rubbed his wrist; the two pinpricks itched like he’d been stung by a hive of cinderweavers. “Are we old enough to give our permission?”

“He has a point,” said Amekia.

“What would Lady Sazha say?” Asked Essie.

“Sazha? The goddess of truth and honesty? She’d be peeved over the half-truths you’ve told yer mommies and daddies and lies told to the world by your knickers. Nay, lassie, my man is a better judge of the law, and he’s given his blessing.”

Essie huffed. “I’m supposed to trust the God of Lawyers?”

“Nay, that’d be my daughter. Ye can’t trust her a lick—“

“Very true,” said Amekia with a snicker. Gath and Essie, I spoke with Elder Eldrin. He checked current and ancient laws. Sàs hasn’t been used outside of royalty for eons, but it is legal. If the union isn’t broken, it will become a fully bonded marriage in six years.”

Gath gazed into Essie’s eyes. Gods, his best friend was pretty. Did he want to be joined with her? “Do you want this?”

Essie giggled, nodded, and gripped his left wrist with her left hand.

Gath’s heart started doing summersaults as he returned the grip.

A crowd gathered, prostrating themselves in a circle, as the Goddess Silvara materialized and placed a Bonding Bracelet on each of their wrists.

The Goddess Amekia removed her sash and reverently wound it around their forearms as Silvara chanted:

Tha thu mar aon, an sàs, aon air cridhe, inntinn, corp, agus anam, ach neo-chrìochnach gus an ochdamh co-là-breith deug agad. Mar sin abair Ban-dia na Beatha agus murtairean!”[1]

“Speak your names,” said the goddesses.

“Gathen Andrew Sallie.”

“Ellicia Sarah Nightshade, princess of the Duskfire Brotherhood.”

“Congratulations,” said Lady Silvara as she faded away.

They toured several more gardens, the Goddess Amekia answering questions and quizzing them to test their knowledge and understanding of plants, their properties, and their uses. Gath's curiosity overcame his restraint as the sun touched the mountain peaks. “Who are you? How do you know all this stuff?”

“Study. I was the biologist for my section of colonists.”

“What school did you attend?”

“University College London,” said Lady Amekia with pride and a little smirk. “Have you heard of it?”

“No, mam,” said Gath. I wonder if that’s in Valles Verde. I’ll ask the Professor.

“I am not surprised. Now, the sun is setting, and you two must scamper across the street. The High Guardian of Children has a hot meal, warm beds, and a light dress to cover Miss Essie’s high-tech underwear.”

Essie started and gasped and squealed as her hands shot between her teats and pretty bits as if she couldn't decide what was more important to hide. “Oh, gods! My liner is empty.”

“Stop drooling, Sir Gath,” chided Lady Amekia, “You are still too young to give anyone a hungry stare, and Princess Essie deserves your worship, not lust.”

“Sorry…”

“Do not babble. Instead, give Essie your shirt and shorts.”

“But—”

“Reverence and defend your friend and Sás. She has a wonderful body for her age, yet, like most pubescent girls, she is afraid and ashamed of how she is maturing.”

Gath pulled his half-shirt over his head, handed it to Essie, and untied his shorts. A hint of worried panic crossed his face. “Why? Is there something wrong?”

Lady Amekia chuckled and scrubbed Essie’s hair. “She is healthy and ripening right on schedule. Neither of you has cause to be embarrassed, yet nobody should compel the Duskfire Princess to display more skin than she wishes.”

The sun drifted below the mountains as they passed a score of statues, most pregnant or caring for babies. None of them looked like Lady Amekia. The goddess sat on the grass at the gates and motioned for them to join her. She drew a book and a small bottle from her pocket and set them in Essie’s palm. “Give the book to your Uncle and the pills to your mother.”

The container rattled in Essie’s hand as she cocked her head and peered at Lady Amekia.

“It is Revasculin,” said the pretty deity, her shoulders drooping slightly as Gath scratched his chin and shared raised eyebrows with Essie. “Queen Sera will understand. Now, off with you, and do not return until you are adults.”

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[1] You are one, engaged, one in heart, mind, body, and soul, yet incomplete until your eighteenth birthday. So say the Goddesses of Life and Assassins!