A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

"Telf! Up!"

Telf's eyes shot open at Arelvi's voice, and took in her surroundings. She covered her face with her hands.

Blue ceiling. Blue walls. Blue sheets. Blue nails. Blue hair brush. Blue washbasin. Everything gleaming, her included.

She ran her tongue across her teeth. The awe at how smooth they were had not yet faded.

It was all real. This was her life now! Every morning, or whatever passed for morning in the permanent gleam of the Empyreal Armory, she opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by blue. She woke up in a real bed, her own bed, and not just any bed, one carved from sky, with sheets woven of it, just like everything the Sky Goddess made. Like the sky-building her family lived in now, in the central nexus of the Armory, where they had first met Prosperity.

"I'm up!" she told her sister. "Don't worry! I'll get dressed."

"Frogs!"

Telf smiled. Her little sister had taken a liking to the fried frog meat that was popular among the people of Prosperity's haven.

Arelvi toddled off to await her breakfast, pleased with her own job performance, as her big sister started to pull her uniform on.

Ever since the fighting had ended, Prosperity had been very busy, mostly concerned with food and housing for the people on the surface. Everyone in the Emmoyer and Limbot domains had been in bad shape to start with--Telf knew that very well--and then battles had ruined much of what food and farmland there was, disrupted the year's planting, and damaged much of what had passed for housing. In the short term, people needed food deliveries and tents, and for the long term, farming equipment and new buildings. As much as Telf wanted everyone in the whole world to be freed immediately, the Goddess was right. There was no point freeing everyone without making sure they had food and houses and protection.

Despite being so busy, Prosperity still came by every day.

Telf smiled as she attached her earrings. It was heartwarming, and humbling, but also a little funny, to watch a Goddess Who did not need to eat fret so much about whether everyone would have enough food. She always overestimated how much people actually needed, both in a big planning sense, and as a stuff-the-children-'til-they-burst demon at meals.

While her face and nail paint were drying, Telf looked herself over in her mirror. Her mirror!

Many of the Sky Goddess' agents dressed in all-blue, but only Telf was dressed in an exact copy of everything She wore. Telf would have never dared to ask, but she had never needed to.

Frankly, she understood why people treated her the way they did. If the starving, ragged, grimy Telf of the Emmoyer domain had seen this gleaming person she had become, that Telf would have thought this Telf was some kind of holy sky priestess from the Sacred Realm, just like everyone else did. And, considering where this Telf lived, and that the Sky Goddess had dressed her head-to-toe in Her Essence, and that no one else had spent anywhere close to as much time with Her as Her Helper did, that Telf would have been pretty close to the mark.

"Helper," Telf whispered to her reflection, and put her face in her hands again. This was her life now! Forever! Her Goddess had accepted! If Ma and Pa could see her now, they would be beside themselves.

With a jolt, she double checked that everything had been dry enough.

...Phew.

Telf drew herself up, and left the room she shared with Arelvi, ready for another gleaming day. Time to get all her brothers and sisters up.

Almost everyone had been picked up by their parents, or else adopted, either by family friends, or relatives, or volunteers, but only almost. Those still here were content never to see the surface again, at least for now. Telf sympathized. This place was Safe. The Goddess was here, so nothing bad could happen.

Telf was here, so nothing bad could happen. The Goddess' Helper was aware that looking like a holy sky priestess helped with that part. All that time in front of her mirror every morning was not just for her own sake. Looking like a holy sky priestess was part of being a holy sky priestess.

She knocked on the first door, next to her own room.

"Sosanny! Ginta! Morning!" she called.

On to the next door.

"Mipo! Czel! Morning!"

Behind her, the door to Gwell and Vellum's room, across from her and Arelvi's, opened. Telf turned around.

Gwell was looking out the window in the front door. He turned toward Telf.

"There are a lot today," he told her. "I'll get everyone up."

Telf nodded. Prosperity had decided that even though She wanted to keep Her portals as secret as possible, they were too important for helping people, and making everyone feel like they were connected to Her, and each other, as part of one big community. So, every morning, more and more people came to wait outside in the nexus, hoping to talk to Telf, and listen, before she had to see to breakfast. Sometimes, people had messages for the Sky Goddess, requests and thanks, but more often they had questions, about what exactly had happened, or the plan for the future, or about the Goddesses. Telf simply told them what she knew, except she wasn't supposed to say some things publicly, like that Prosperity planned to free the whole world. She needed to be careful about her phrasing.

Even though Telf knew why it happened, and even though it was pretty much the truth, it still felt strange to look out at people hanging on her every word like she was a holy sky priestess preaching True Scripture.

"You're doing a good job," Telf praised her brother. "It helps, a lot. Thank you. I'm proud of you."

Gwell stared up at her, wryly, then looked her up and down, before staring again.

"...Yes...well...I'll be back," she told him, sheepishly, and as if he didn't already know the routine. She reached for the doorknob.

"You know, I heard one of the 'Units' picked your name, when they named themselves," Gwell said to her back, as she opened the door.

Gwell's comment, combined with the size of the crowd waiting for her this morning, forced Telf to brace herself on the doorknob for a while, until strength returned to her knees.

When she felt steady, she turned back to her brother.

"I'm glad. That must mean I was helpful."

She had to get started. This was part of being a Helper, too, but Arelvi would be mad if breakfast was delayed too much.

----

A while later, the door opened behind Telf.

"Gwell thought you might need water," Ginta mumbled, holding a cup up toward Telf. "Because you've been talking for a long time."

'Well done, Gwell,' Telf thought. Ginta had come a long way, since she had been brought here.

Telf smiled down at her, knelt to take the cup, and gulped down the water.

"Thank you, Ginta!" she said. "I have been talking for a while! Want to help me? This man here, Ral, wants to know if the Sky Goddess has any instructions for us. Can you tell him what She wants?"

Ginta took the cup back, and nodded at it.

"Help people when they need it, for no reward," she murmured.

"That's right!" Telf exclaimed. "The most important thing is to be like Ginta! Bring people water when they're thirsty, just because it will help them. If you can do that kind of thing, then you are a helper, and everyone loves helpers, the Goddesses most of all. People helping people is what makes the Goddesses happiest."

The Sky Goddess emerged from between two rows of shelves on the far side of the plaza, approaching Telf. The crowd formed a little lane towards the doorway.

"Hello Telf! Hello Ginta!" She called, waving with Her right arm. She was carrying a mysterious package shaped like a small log in Her left arm, plus Her instrument.

Telf waved back, and stared straight at Her as She approached. Part of the Helper's job was modeling how this Goddess wanted people to treat Her. The fakes made people stare at the ground, and that needed to be untaught.

When She reached the doorway, Prosperity set Her instrument and package down, and knelt to give Telf and Ginta quick greeting hugs.

"Can I join for breakfast, today?" She asked Ginta. "I'm not much of a cook, but I can clean dishes!"

Telf snorted. Even Ginta smiled a little.

"We're having frogs," Ginta murmured. "Arelvi always wants frogs."

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack, if Telf allowed it.

"I know! She loves them so much!" Prosperity giggled. "Do you like frogs?"

Ginta shrugged. "Yes. But not like Arelvi."

"Mmm," the Goddess agreed. "I'm more like you. They're good, but I wouldn't want to eat them all the time, you know?"

Telf felt the same way.

"Are my parents with Your Sisters, in the Sacred Garden?" Ginta asked, out of nowhere.

If the Sky Goddess was caught off guard, She didn't show it. Unflustered, She cupped Her hands together, and liquid sky pooled inside them.

"Not in the same way that you are here, with Me," She answered. "But watch."

More of Her Essence rose from the surface of the pool and shaped itself into what must be little lifelike models of Ginta's parents, smiling at their daughter.

"Our memories are perfect," the Sky Goddess explained. "We never forget anyone who speaks with Us. Your parents called to the Red Goddess, and She heard them. They spoke with Her. That is how We knew you needed help, and knew where to find you. Since they spoke to Us, they are part of Us forever. And in the same way, they will always be a part of you."

A little version of Ginta appeared next to her parents.

"And you are part of Us, too. We will never forget."

The sky-scene suddenly shifted. Ginta's family was huddled around a set of pebbles and sticks, moving them around and laughing. Some kind of game?

"This was your mother's favorite memory, too," the Sky Goddess said.

Maybe Telf was a crybaby, but she felt like this didn't count.

"Not, Pa's?" Ginta sobbed.

The scene shifted again. A younger Ginta ran out of a hut with her arms raised, while her mother stood in the doorway.

"Would you like Me to make one you can keep?" Prosperity offered.

"Nnnn," Ginta refused, shaking her head. Suddenly, she turned around and went back through the front door, then into her room, second on the right after Telf's.

"Is she alright?" Telf croaked, quietly.

Prosperity absorbed Her Essence, and stared after Ginta.

"Yes," She said at last. "I think she'll be ready in time for breakfast. We should leave her be, 'til then."

After collecting Her package and instrument, She rose, bowed to the tearful crowd as if to apologize, and stepped inside. Telf followed.

The Goddess was already seated on a sky-stool, immediately inside the door, with a carving of Ginta's favorite memory slowly assembling itself in Her hands.

"So, what do you have for Me, today?" She asked.

Hesitating briefly--she had some other things to say--Telf started the list of this morning's messages.

"Another group of village elders came to say that many of their people are treating everything You give them as too holy to use for daily life."

Prosperity smiled a little, shaking Her head.

"So, it seems like it really is a common problem, but they all thought Your idea could work. Giving everyone something intended for a shrine might make them less reluctant to actually use the other things."

"Did they have suggestions?"

"Many. The most popular was sky-carvings of You playing Your instrument. Everyone agrees that it felt very, very sacred when You played Songs of Salvation, at memorials."

Too late, Telf realized that bringing up memorials right now had been thoughtless of her. Prosperity's face showed nothing, as She focussed on Ginta's carving, but Telf knew better.

"Well, I am the Goddess of War. I had better be good at memorials," Prosperity said. "I will try a few designs during today's lessons."

Nope. Telf had acted like nothing was wrong, for her siblings, too many times for this to work on her. The Goddess would need to wait for the rest of Her Helper's report.

"Maybe it's true that the White Goddess wouldn't need to give Ginta a carving. Maybe it's true that You are only a substitute. I don't know anything about that stuff, because I'm just some slave girl who did her best and was lucky enough to get hugged by Prosperity. Maybe my imagination isn't good enough for Your older Sisters. Doesn't matter. I know Who answered my most important prayer. I don't dress in white every morning, not even red. I am Your Helper because You are my Goddess. You have my faith. And You know who else thinks You're enough? All the parents of everyone in this home You made for us, including mine."

Ginta's carving was finished. Telf's Goddess was staring at Her nails.

She turned to Her Helper.

"I hope you know what all those parents would say to you. Including yours."

Telf shrugged. Prosperity smiled, and shrugged back.

"We just do what We can do, right?" She said. "And amazingly, it seems like maybe We're good enough, doesn't it?"

She glanced at Her package, then grinned at Telf.

"So, My Sisters want to speak with Our new Helper, and I've finally managed to make an upgraded copy of a very special, very ancient, very sacred item that should make that possible. Should I tell them that My Helper belongs to Me alone, and you aren't interested?"