A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

Kennalaria had become frustrated with some aspects of ultraviolet magic over the years.

Jumping herself and mapping were possibly the easiest spells to use in all of magic, of any color. Even Mennie's easiest spells required at least some ability to sing properly, Izzie's easiest spells still needed to be spoken precisely, and Keekee needed to zero in on the correct pitch for Her target. The easiest ultraviolet spells were artless screams and calls.

On the other extreme, if there was something more difficult to use in all of magic than ultraviolet's foresight, she wanted to know what it was. There was so much information that it was hard to pick out useful bits from the noise. She saw the future and present at the same time, and different futures showed different amounts of time ahead, depending on the level of predictability of what happened. For now, she could avoid the overload by avoiding maximum power, but she worried that expanding her mana pool in the future seemed likely to turn her foresight on all the time, unavoidably. She hoped that it would be easier to use then, if the extra power made the future and present easier to distinguish. If not, she would be in serious trouble. She just didn't have enough time to sort through the constant flood of information.

So, because these spells were either too easy or too completely impossible, she could not do anything to improve. She was so much worse at helping than her Sisters, and could do almost nothing about it.

Almost nothing.

Jumping something else to herself felt like normal difficulty. Matching an object's reply to her call, based on its form and size and motion relative to her, was challenging but not too different from how standard red magic required matching a target's emotional state.

This she could actually improve. So, she practiced it to death. Constantly, all the time, until mana exhaustion forced her to stop. This was how she could get better at helping, as an ultraviolet mage.

But Kennalaria's Sisters did more than cast spells. They were also good at talking to people and making them feel better, so she worked on this, too. How else could she be more helpful?

Kennalaria asked Keekee to let her listen in on Her Listening, and watched her Sisters' conversations with people who came in person in the Temples. Her Sisters often had too many people to talk to, and amazingly, many of the people waiting were happy to talk to Kennalaria instead. So, she talked to them, using her Sisters as a model.

Kennalaria also noticed how important it was that her Sisters looked the part--she would never forget how little Kenna had felt when the Goddesses walked into her hospital room--so she surrendered completely to Izzie and Keekee's pampering while Mennie squealed, every day. It made her feel spoiled that literal Goddesses put so much effort into making her pretty, but it was obvious that They loved it...and she had to admit, it was really fun to be a 'pretty little cutie pie.' Anyone else in the world would look silly wearing Twilight's ridiculously girly glossy dark violet outfits, but Twilight did not. That was what Twilight always wore, and everyone loved it! She looked almost as magical as her Sisters, especially after she got the spell that kept her from getting sick. When she was younger, she was embarrassed by all the attention and praise and fawning, but...she had nothing to apologize for. Her Sisters said so, all the time.

And tonight, just now, she felt like all of her practice, all of her effort, had finally paid off. All of it had come together. She had finally, finally, finally been able to help someone in a way that her Sisters couldn't have. It wasn't perfect, not like her Sisters, not even close. But only an ultraviolet mage could have done that. She had a lump in her throat on the whole ride back to her Sisters, and finally cried with pride when Keekee told her how well she had done.

She was going to do more of this. So much more.

And she would figure out her foresight some day, even though it was so frustratingly impossible.

----

Larvilo inspected his painting. It was quite nearly finished, but he didn't have the glow of the Pool of Salvation near its surface quite right yet. It was hard to capture something so magical in an oil-based paint.

The Helpers in the Temple of the Liberation had been kind enough to let him set up a canvas and leave it in place inside the Dome for the last four months, while he worked, so that he would always be working from exactly the same perspective. It was to be an image of the Pool of Salavation with its statues, as they appeared at night, illuminated only by the Pool. Relatively few people came to the Temple at night, so he could work mostly undisturbed.

Larvilo might be one of the last artists to capture this scene as it was now, he thought with a smile, if a statue of Kennalaria were added to all the Temples when she turned twenty-five. She had turned twelve three months ago, during the Goddesses' previous stint at the Temple, before the one that had started two days ago. He had noticed little hints of the celebration taking place in the Sanctuary at the time: Guards and Helpers smiling while chatting a bit more than usual, some violet party favors scattered around, and the like.

He had seen Kennalaria in the Temples while he worked. She really was just so adorable, it defied belief. And she was so...earnest, and so...loved. No one could interact with her and think anything other than "this must be the cherished little sister of Goddesses."

As dusk turned to twilight, he began to prepare his paints. He fumbled the jar of black, and watched in horror as the paint headed towards his nearly-finished months of work and...splashed on a glowing girl that had suddenly appeared in front of it.

Larvilo was frozen in a mix of surprise, horror, relief, and more horror at the fact that he had felt relief.

How?! What was this timing?!

...He had just spilled black paint on Kennalaria, of all people.

But his painting wasn't ruined!

...And there was no way Justice would forgive him now, after that thought.

Kennalaria looked as surprised as him.

"I...I did it!" she sang. "I was in time!"

Then she looked at him, and must have noticed his worry. She smiled and waved him off.

"Don't worry about me! I foresaw the spill, and jumped in the way on purpose. It's not your fault. If I were better, I would have been here before the paint spilled in the first place."

Noticing that Larvilo still looked unconvinced, she continued.

"My Sister can clean me and my clothing easily, but your painting is an irreplaceable masterpiece, and no cleaning of paint off a painting could be perfect. It would be too hard for the magic to figure out the original pattern, and restore it. I am glad for an opportunity to be helpful."

Then she turned to inspect the painting, ignoring the paint dripping down her face and chest. She turned back toward him.

"You're so close to finished. It's amazing how much progress you made since I saw it a few months ago. Make sure to show it to me when it's finished!"

Then she bowed, and disappeared, as suddenly as she had arrived.

Larvilo stood for a while, staring at his painting.

It felt like it was missing something important. He would need to come back in thirteen years to finish it.

----

Izenakee watched Twilight doing her zoned-out half-asleep thing that she did whenever she was really focussing on practicing her foresight via her mapping. They were in the Benevin Sanctuary's common room, which was still decked out in violet from her thirteenth birthday three days ago.

She had said that she had an idea, and wanted to try it. And now, her mind and mana felt...accelerated, somehow, even though she was completely limp on the sofa. Then, without warning, she disappeared.

Ten seconds later, she reappeared and dropped to her knees.

"I did it!" she exclaimed, gloved fists clenched near her shoulders as she leaned back in celebration, smiling at the ceiling. "Gemzin would have tripped, but I stopped it! Before it even happened!"

What exactly she had done was bursting out of her mind, and Izenakee's eyes widened.

Goddess of Omens, indeed.

----

Twilight stood in her closet in the Sanctuary of Kanenn. She always felt like her name was Twilight in her closets. How could she not? Which glossy and frilly dark violet dress, glossy violet tights, glossy violet shoes, and long glossy violet gloves, should she wear today? She didn't always get to wear the tights and gloves, because it was sometimes too hot, but she wore them whenever she had the chance, and in Kanenn, she always could.

<Feeling fabulous?> Keekee teased from Her room.

Twilight grinned.

<Like the Goddess of it. I love Kanenn.>

Look, jumping around in these absurdly girly outfits feeling like a dainty fairy crossed with a glamorous badass was the best. So, that's what she did. And she felt like Twilight the whole time.

She pulled her violet selections onto herself the ultraviolet way--she had a lot of practice with these particular items--and jumped into the common room for her dawn spell. Izzie nodded approvingly at her choices--as if they were ever very different--and wiggled Her fingers with a grin. Twilight grinned in response and spun around to see what Izzie would surprise her with today. Twilight had been grinning a lot in the last two years, because she had figured something out about her magic right after she turned thirteen.

When the spell finished, she left the Temple, equipped with Mennie's usual but-what-if-an-asteroid-hits-you? shield, to go find people she could help. As she went, she did tricks, posed for pictures, and signed autographs for fans like she was some kind of famous singer. Meeting her made people happy, and that made her happy. Hmm, maybe she actually kind of was a famous singer? She was getting singing lessons from Mennie, and her voice resembled Her Sister's as much as her appearance did...but no, none of these people knew. She wasn't famous for her singing. Not yet.

Two years ago, Twilight had found a way to get time to think. With time to think, she could use her foresight. And with her foresight, she could be way more helpful.

Walking the streets of Benevin, she screamed, after emptying her mind of any destination.

It was so simple. She had long ago tried screaming while imagining herself not moving to see if that did anything, but it didn't. She just jumped in place. It had never occurred to her until shortly after she turned thirteen that maybe something would happen if she completely wiped anything resembling a spacial destination from her thoughts. Instead, she slowed her own perception of time. Her screams weren't completely artless after all.

With all the time in the world for the next second, Twilight checked if anyone within range of her call was going to need a helping hand soon.

She was so thankful that she could just walk around helping people and being fabulous as a full time job. What a life.

About 80 paces forward and left, a man was about to drop his container of some liquid after he tripped on the step. Easily cleaned and healed, but it was better to prevent a mishap than to undo it.

Sure, it wasn't like she was capable of preventing the end of the world right now, but her Sisters helped with little problems, too. The Creed said "help those who need help," not "make sure to save the world when necessary but otherwise there's no need to bother."

Grinning at how impossibly cool it was to be the world's first ultraviolet mage, she jumped.

The only ways things could be more perfect were if her outfits were made out of mana, and she could jump wherever she wanted.