Kriss and Celeste’s revelry over their success in saving the Jöln man was cut short by the pale white faces of Arabella and Valleresa.

“Your Radiance.” Arabella said with a horror-struck expression. “How am I going to clean that!?” She pointed down at Celeste’s dress and Celeste just shook her head.

“Are you alright Radiance?” Valleresa leaned down and helped her up from the ground. “You’ve been cut. Let me look at that.” She shot Kriss a dirty look while he rose by himself next to her, then began to prod away at the small cut on her cheek.

“I am fine sister, I assure you.” Celeste shone a smile back at Kriss. “Nothing has ever happened to me under Kriss’s protection.”

Valleresa rolled her eyes. “Thankfully it seems shallow.” She said, wetting a handkerchief and wiping away the blood on her face. “Or it is now. You do have a habit of healing quickly.”

Arabella stepped forward with a harrumph and began patting off the mud on Celeste’s dress. “Be that as it may, it is not proper for you to be rolling about in the mud. What if Brother Gardinal saw you like this?” The Jöln girl was seeming more and more like one of the priestess initiates Celeste knew in the temple.

“Brother Gardinal would understand the need to save a life. It is our duty to the Mother Arabella, yours now as well if you are to be a sister of the faith.” Celeste responded, leaving Arabella with only her grumbles.

After they had all recovered, and Celeste had convinced Valleresa that she had not been grievously injured in the excitement, they continued along their walk.

Striding along, they fell into a sort of comfortable formation. Celeste and Kriss walked at the front, Kriss slightly ahead watching the people intently. Behind them, Arabella and Valleresa followed, whispering conspiratorially to themselves. In the past few weeks, those two had seemingly become sisters all but name. Celeste felt a warmth at watching the two of them whisper among themselves, pointing at various different spots and occasionally slapping one another in a playful way. They were friends in a way that Celeste knew she could never get to be.

Those two were her closest friends, her most trusted confidants, yet she would never get to be gently slapped by either of them. Neither of them would call her a boy crazy fool or tell her that she was being silly. She was the Prophetess, and the Prophetess was never silly. Looking around now, Celeste saw a great many women strolling through the streets arm in arm with one another. They laughed, they cried, they showed who they were to one another. Celeste didn’t get to have that. It was not the life the First Mother had given her. She knew she should be thankful to have been blessed as she was, she knew that her life was full of gifts many could only dream of. Yet still, looking back at her two closest friends, now already closer to one another than either would ever be to her, Celeste felt a deep sorrow.

“What’s wrong?” Kriss asked, pulling Celeste from her pathetic self pity. She shook her head, only now realizing her eyes had begun to moisten.

“N… Nothing. I just got something in my eye.” Celeste lied to him, rubbing at her eyes with her one clean sleeve. Kriss grabbed her hand and brushed away the tear in her eye.

“We both know that’s not true Eth… Celeste.” His gaze was strong. It felt as though he was diving into her soul, and she felt her heart skip a beat at the experience. Then he blushed and looked away. “I… uh… I forget myself Your Radiance. Apologies.” He let go of her hand and began walking ahead of her again.

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“Kriss, no.” Celeste called out, grabbing his arm as she rushed up to his pace. “I… I like it when you call me Celeste.”

“It’s not proper Your Radiance. If Brother Gardinal heard…”

“Then only when it’s just us two.” She told him, linking her arm through his. “Our secret.” She smiled, looking up at him. He blushed and nodded.

“As you say, Celeste.”

They walked for a long while like that, quietly for most of it. She held to his strong arm, and he stood as her support. For some time, they discussed their lives since they had split. Kris told her of his time running about on the streets after he realized he couldn’t just keep visiting the temple all the time. When she had pressed as to why he had stopped coming, he would only close up. So she never pressed hard, whatever had kept him away it was obviously a sore spot for the man, and she had no wish to run him off again.

“A lot of people pray for you still, you know that right?” Kriss told her as they walked through a part of Southshore Celeste didn’t recognize. “A bunch of the kids we grew up around, some of the women who let us sleep inside on cold nights, even some of the merchants we stole from still beseech the Mother to watch over you. Southshore never forgot you Celeste, no matter how far you were.” He smiled at her as he spoke, but Celeste felt a sense of confusion.

“I never left Southshore though. The Temple is here, and I have gone on my parades often to see the people.”

“From atop your litter? The Temple is in another kingdom entirely from Southshore, Celeste. And in this kingdom, we have missed you.” Kriss smiled at her, but there was sadness in his eyes.

“The longing has not gone unrequited.” She responded. “I think perhaps... The things you truly care of are never far from the heart, you see. No matter what it may seem.”

“And how does it feel to return to your homeland?” He asked, patting her hand that wrapped his arm.

“Like returning to a warm bed on a winter night.” Celeste responded. “Full of plush and silk.” She smiled at the memory. Of all the things she missed from the Temple, she felt she missed her old bed the most. The one Gardinal had given her was nice, but he was a soldier and had said on more than one occasion that he preferred the comfort of packed dirt for sleeping on. She had no difficulty believing that.

Kriss chuckled at her response though, and that brought her attention back. “What’s so funny?” She asked.

“You’ve seen such a wondrous world Celeste. I’m glad you got out, for you to have seen it.” He forced a smile. She had been careless with her words, of course she had been. Kriss had grown up on the streets, he had never known silk pillows and warmed winter beds. She must have seemed a silly girl to him. A pampered child.

And perhaps she was, she realized. Was that not the life she had lived since leaving the streets? Since leaving Kriss?

“I’m sorry.” She eventually said, looking up at him. He returned a quizzical stare.

“Sorry for what?”

“I left you.” She responded. “I abandoned you to these streets while I ate all I wanted and slept in comfort.” Celeste shook her head and felt tears sting her eyes. “I’m sorry Kriss. While you suffered, I sat in a temple and did no good for anyone.”

“Don’t be silly Celeste, you gave hope to the people.”

“No, I did nothing in the temple. But maybe now I can do better. Because now there is something for them to be hopeful for.” Celeste felt a determination rising within her now. “There is pain in these streets. Pain that I can help with. Be it through calming the rage of a gang leader, or showing the weary souls their way to the Mother instead of the Chaos. I can see that I have done more good in these few weeks living outside of the temple than I ever did in a decade within its walls. I will not let my momentum falter. I will do the Mother's will, and I will bring the people of Southshore back into her light.” She kept repeating it in her head as well. She would help them, she had to help them. Nobody else would.

Celeste felt Kriss’s rough hand envelop hers, and she looked up into his big brown eyes. “I know you will.” Kriss spoke softly, barely more than a whisper. “Somehow, I always knew you would.” From his lips, more than Celeste ever had from her own mind, she believed it.