Of course I was going to be punished. Of course I was, I had strayed. It was a beautiful moment of blasphemy and folly, and now my goddess had to make it hurt so I would never stray again. She was so kind to take me back, so kind to accept me in spite of my failure, so obviously this punishment must be a kindness too... Right?

My Divine Punishment has to be a kind thing... Right?

"Uhhh, Renee? Lutice is calling you." My Divine Punishment speaks in a sing-songy voice, one which makes every cell in my body flare with a hatred I thought had died months ago. "There's a paying customer here. Shouldn't you be, y'know, attending to them?"

I take a deep breath, this pain is the price I have to pay for having been Renee Arbour again for those beautiful, glorious hours. I must endure My Divine Punishment, and I must endure it with something approaching a smile.

"Of course. I apologize for the delay, mademoiselle. Please put the full tithe upon the altar and we can get started. Full tithe. Up front. No refunds." ... Well, my expression certainly approaches a smile.

"Full tithe? You couldn't do an old friend a favor and give her a discount?" She leans in, her faux begging is a pair of dancing knives upon my nerves. "She'd do the same for you, y'know."

"Everyone is a stranger in the Grove of Velvet, that's the whole point. Full tithes for everyone, because everyone is equally a stranger." I resist the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose, or to punch My Divine Punishment right in her stupid, beautiful, stupid face.

"Ah, but some of us aren't, are we? Hehe, why, a certain Kerskan general wasn't much of a stranger to you at all, and she got a freebie from what I heard!" Her smirk makes me realize she knows she's not getting this service any cheaper, that she’s simply enjoying making me suffer.

... Where did she hear about my blasphemy? "... Renee Arbor committed the sin of making love with a certain Serena Pollineux in this grove, yes. But the Priestess of Velvet in Alsace is a devoted supplicant, and devoted supplicants charge the full fare."

"And if I wanted to make love to Renee Arbor, rather than fuck a priestess of Velvet?"

"Then dream of the past, because that's where you'll find her." I can’t resist my venom any longer, practically spitting my retort…

Her faux pout betrays amusement more than it does any genuine disappointment. "Boo... Alright, I'll get you your money... I'm sorry, get your goddess her money."

... Boo... I did steal that little verbal tic from her, didn't I? ... Renee Arbor stole that little verbal tic from her, I merely inherited it from a dead girl. I watch as My Divine Punishment counts out every coin, placing them upon the altar painfully slowly, as if challenging me to stop this tragedy from unfolding. But I can't stop this. Renee Arbor, she would stop this, but I have chosen Velvet, my goddess, and her servant has no business stopping a perfectly normal transaction with a random stranger. The final coin is placed upon the altar, and My Divine Punishment looks almost disappointed.

"... So, we're doing this?"

I step forward, there’s no point in talking anymore. I simply have to get through this and I can finally be Velvet's again without difficulty, without pain, without punishment. I start to undo the buttons on My Divine Punishment's dress... Soft wool, green with yellow ribbons... I once believed her dresses were the most beautiful in all the world.

"Look at you with the enthusiasm. Not even slowing down to savor it, you're so unlike the Renee I knew." More taunting, if she thinks she can get a rise out of me like this then she has another thing coming.

I work the buttons all the way down her form, resisting the urge to tear one off out of spite. Priestesses of Velvet have no need for spite, it would be blasphemy for me to express the anger of Renee Arbor.

"Were you like this with all your other playmates, all business? Hehe, it's like you've forgotten how to make a girl feel special, like she stands out from amongst all your other paramours." She doesn't seem in the least bit pleased that I am undressing her... Which seems odd, she did just pay to fuck a priestess of Velvet, why is she so disinterested?

I remove the last of her buttons and slide her dress off her form, which she lazily allows me to do. She now stands in the grove of my goddess in just her underthings... Pink, just a little salacious, a little risqué. Not something she'd have worn back in the day. These are something new. And... Something that fails to excite me nearly as much as Serena's undyed cotton underthings did.

Putting lingerie on a corpse doesn't make it stimulating.

"But really, none of us were particularly special, were we? Not to the wild child, the one who flitted from person to person like it was nothing, who kept entire books full of sketches, little paintings of us all. All of us playmates exactly the same."

I feel a cold sweat, paired with the sudden compulsion to strangle My Divine Punishment in the middle of the grove, to stuff her mouth with her coins and choke her on them. To hurt her like she is hurting me... But she’s hurting Renee Arbor, the girl I am divinely obliged not to be. I remove her brassiere and dutifully place my hand upon one of her breasts, softly kneading it as I have learned to do. Maybe if I get started in earnest then Her Divine Punishment will finally be quiet.

"You would have invited anyone to run away with you. I was just the last option you had left-"

"Will you shut the fuck up?!" ... I am screaming.

Priestesses of Velvet have no need for screams, Renee Arbor is screaming…

And My Divine Punishment smiles a cruel little smile at Renee Arbor's little outburst. "Make me."

"I'm trying!" I focus my attention on my duty as a priestess, on performing my role.

"Kiss me."

... What did she just say? What the hell did she just demand of me?!

"I'm not going to kiss you!"

"Why not? I paid good money, didn't I?"

"For me to fuck you, yes! But not for me to kiss you!"

"How much then? I have a very full purse; I'll pay whatever tithe your little goddess demands."

"There is not enough gold to make enough coins on the surface of Lutice! There is not enough paper or ink to write a banknote that expresses the sheer amount of money it would take for you to make Velvet make me kiss you!"

"Well then I'll just have to keep talking, won't I?!"

I look down, my hands have recoiled from My Divine Punishment's form, they are by my sides and they are shaking... My Divine Punishment is shaking too, she isn’t enjoying herself anymore.

"... He wasn't much, he certainly wasn't you. But at least he was mine-"

I kiss her... Renee Arbour kisses My Divine Punishment. Denise Bellamy kisses me right back, tasting just as she did back then. And now my hands are upon her again, all the while Denise's arms hold me tightly. She guides me to the floor of the grove, not letting up for a second as she lays me upon the soft grass of the Grove of Velvet. And now securely atop me, she slips away for just a second to smile.

"Gods know I missed that."

But I’m not smiling... I’m bitter old Renee Arbor again. "And all you had to do was pay out the nose for a tithe and then torture a poor priestess just trying to do her job."

"I'd pay that tithe any time. And I couldn't care less about any priestess, I care about you."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it..." I run a finger over her back, wondering if perhaps I can push Renee back into the grave by performing my role... Which I soon found is impossible. "So how is William anyway? Does he even care you're out fucking someone else?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"I'd be concerned if he was, seeing as how he's dead as my dear dad is. Both of them died in that 'Battle of Alsace' that your new friend put us through." Denise giggles rather bitterly, clearly having a little bit of venom all her own, even as she runs a finger over my chest. "Isn't it funny, that girl who finally 'made love' to Renee Arbor, who made love to you, just so happened to kill my entire family. It's a weird world we live in, isn't it?"

"... I'm sorry for your loss."

"No, you're fucking not." Denise is giggling, but I can sense something desperate in it, something in need of rescue.

She’s right of course. I have absolutely no sympathy for either the dead Mayor or Denise’s dead husband. I’m not even entirely certain I have sympathy for her, merely some residual desire to touch her from long ago. One which, like Renee Arbor, simply will not die no matter how much it’s killed. Even as I know I can’t perform my role as priestess, my hands keep moving... Renee Arbor's hands keep moving over Denise's skin, remembering just what spots will make her squeal...

I’m doing it again. I’m being blasphemous again; I am Renee Arbor again.

And now Velvet can’t protect me from the pain that brought me into her service. "... I'm not, you're right... Were you ever sorry for mine?"

Denise seems confused, both appreciating my touch and yet having clearly lost control of the situation, unable to answer that question. "W... What do you mean?"

"Where do I even start?" The venom in my voice is slowly allowing itself to become anger saturating my tone, even if not my hands. "The loss of my best friend, the loss of my last love, the loss of the skin on my legs?! The loss of Renee Arbor... Were you ever sorry for these things?!"

"... You're crying."

... She’s right. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. Priestesses of Velvet have no use for tears, I am beyond redemption now. My hands finally stop, my body shakes, Renee Arbor can never go back to being a dead girl. Renee Arbor once again has to be me, the still living girl who nevertheless was murdered. And who is still in pain, even almost a year later.

Denise above me doesn't know how to respond to my sudden breaking down, remaining utterly silent, until finally muttering... "... Well, let's see them then."

"S... See what?" I look up at her, but getting a good picture of her is hard through the tears.

"Your legs. If I'm responsible for it, then I should take responsibility."

... I slowly, shakily, pull up my robe, exposing the burned flesh of my legs to the world. Priestesses of Velvet are supposed to be physical perfection, no one wants to see a priestess' burned, red, partially melted legs... Denise genuinely wants to see Renee Arbor again. She slides down my form, there is no more smiling, no more taunting, no more cruelty. She kisses my legs tenderly... If I were a masochist, I’d describe it as 'lovingly'.

"Denise... What are you doing?"

"Oh, you do remember my name." There’s a chuckle there, but it’s all business, and is only a brief interlude between rounds of lavishly serving my legs. "I'm kissing them better, obviously."

... I burst out laughing. I can't help it, not only is that the most 'Denise' thing I have ever heard, she says it with such dispassionate sincerity that it almost makes me believe she can do it. It’s a painful laugh, one that brought me back to how we were in the misty past of a little over a year ago. Before she left me for William. Before she and the others set me on fire. Am I even allowed to be the slightest sliver happy to see her again after what she did?

If nothing else, she has me in a laughing mood, even if in a slightly hostile one. "You really think that you can fix my burned and half-melted skin just by kissing it?"

"Why would I fix what's already beautiful?" More sincerity... But I can hear cracks behind her neutral tone. "What isn't beautiful is the way you think about yourself."

... This isn't fair. She gets to poke and prod at my insecurities until she’s drawn me out of my coffin, pulled me back into the land of the living just like Serena had. But apparently turnabout isn't fair play because she has always been alive! There's nothing of hers for me to draw out of the grave!

Well... There might be something, but it’s hardly going to be funny. "... I know why you all did it, why you all dragged me to the pyre... But how could you? How were you able to? You were all friends, precious playmates, I loved you all. So how..."

She stops a moment, before gently laying a kiss between my legs and looking back up at me. "It's because you loved us all, I think, that we could do it... None of us could have you, because you happily belonged to everyone. I can't speak for any of the others, and neither can they seeing as a lot of them are dead now, but... I certainly couldn't feel safe knowing you had me, but I didn't have you."

"... I never demanded that you belong to me-"

"But I wanted to belong to you! ... The things we did were things I couldn't do to someone who didn't own me, heart and soul... I was all for you, so why couldn't you be all for me?!"

And there it is, the thing I can pull from Denise... Jealousy. "... I just wasn't built that way, Denise. I loved you truly, and I'd have loved you forever, but I don't think I can be owned. I don't think I can 'belong' to anyone except myself. And that means recognizing all the beauty of the world, rather than just specific little patches."

"Well, how could I ever be sure then? That you'd love me forever? If you can't be mine then how do I know you'll stay?!" She looks about ready to cry, looking in my eyes as if she can claw out an answer that will satisfy her.

"... Because Renee Arbor loves you still, even after you set her on fire. She misses you still, even after she died. And that hurts, Denise. It hurts in a way I simply couldn't take... Being Renee Arbor was just too painful after what the people she loved had done."

"... Which is why you became a priestess?"

"Velvet had need of me, not so much need of Renee Arbor, so I cast my lot in with her. The one who hadn't hurt me, the one who could take it all away. I put on the robes; I fucked strangers for tithes... And I felt nothing."

"And they never saw your legs..."

"And they never saw my- Wait, how do YOU know that?"

"... I may have perhaps, occasionally... Been watching."

"... Why?!"

"Because I knew I fucked up!" That scream carries the last of the anger Denise is capable of holding, and after it she simply lays her head upon my lap, desperate for comfort. "William was all mine, but I could never be all his. I never loved him, and I think we both knew it. Heck, I think even Dad knew it, given how much colder he was after he officiated our wedding... I made the wrong decision, not running away with you. And it hurt. It made me want to see you again, the right choice I might have made. But all I saw was the priestess of Alsace, wearing the skin of the woman I belonged to, and that only made the hurt even worse. And that hurt was left to stew for months and months... Until that general, that Serena Pollineux, managed to bring Renee out again! It was beautiful! And I hated her for being the one to do it when it should have been me! ... And I hated myself, for letting her do it, when it should have been me."

"And you hated me for being dead?"

"... Yes... I hated you too... First time around for you being you, and the second time around for you not being you. I just... I've never been fair to you... I've been so cruel."

"... Then maybe you should kiss it better."

There is quiet in the grove for a while then, everything is utterly serene as we try to process the things we just admitted... And then, I hear the tearing of velvet cloth, and feel Denise's lips slowly kiss their way up my form, as she tears my robes to expose my bare skin all the way along. Eventually her lips reach mine... And what follows are more beautiful, beloved blasphemies…

Eventually I wake again in the Grove of Velvet, stripped of my vestments and having again sinned in the eyes of my goddess. There will be no chance for forgiveness this time, I am well and truly alone.

Denise is still sleeping, she didn't nearly have Serena's stamina and was out cold after only half as many blasphemies, so I have to face the morning cold alone again... And I feel that same urge to run away, now that I am Renee Arbor again, but without anyone to help me through it.

I shake Denise awake in a sudden panic, I can't run this time... There’s nowhere to run to. "Denise, please, get up, please please please get up!"

Groggily she manages to open her eyes... She was never a morning person, not even back in the day. "Oh... Good morning, Renee... Hehe."

Hearing her giggle manages to calm me a little, and having her wake up next to me helps curb my body's inexplicable desire to run away to nowhere. "... It's been a long while since we've woken up together like this, hasn't it?"

"I missed it a lot... I dreamed about it a lot, wishing that my marriage was all a bad dream, that I'd wake up next to you again." She leans in and gently kisses my nose, before casting her eyes downwards. "When all I really had to do was just... Choose to wake up next to you."

"Yeah well... I doubt it'll ever be exactly as it was back then but... It's good to have this back."

"Best 100 grams I ever spent."

"..."

I slowly disentangle myself from her, and shakily rise to my feet. I walk to the altar and remove the coins from it, one by one, as if daring Velvet to stop me, to take me back again. She doesn't, and soon I have Denise's entire tithe in my hands, which I lay on the ground in front of her.

"... You didn't fuck a priestess of Velvet, remember. You slept with Renee Arbor."

She looks at the coins on the ground with reverent eyes, before grabbing my hand and pulling me back to the ground, atop her this time. "You... You really are Renee again."

"Bitter old Renee Arbor... Crying old Renee Arbor... Scared and confused Renee Arbor-"

"The Renee Arbor I love." She wraps her arms around the back of my neck, holding me close, knowing for certain I can't be sad for long when I am right up against her like this. "The same Renee Arbor that I'll be taking back home, along with those coins. Neither one of them belongs in this little grove anymore."

"... I... I don't know if I can accept that, not if I can't give you what you want-"

"Maybe you can't belong to me... But maybe I was being a little unreasonable by wanting you to." She leans up and playfully kisses my lips, gentleness clear in her little mischief. "Maybe it's okay if you simply belong with me."