A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

Suri's blue copy of the Radiant Mantle was well on its way to completion, but Zyriko was feeling anxious, because out of nowhere, he had started to feel a building sense of concern from Suri, through the link.

Suddenly, with a spike of determination, Suri abruptly stopped working, and turned toward him.

...Even under such worrisome circumstances, the transfixing stare was always welcome.

<What's wrong?> Zyriko asked. <Is there a problem with the copy?>

<No, it's fine.> To an outside observer, this conversation appeared to be a silent staring contest. <I've just realized something. Your family does not seem like the cuddly type.>

Zyriko snorted. <Nope, none of them. Never.>

Suri nodded, and her concern deepened.

<There is no way your parents would ever have let a non-mage touch you, either.>

She did have his family pegged. <Presuming to touch a Zyzz would be a capital offense for any non-mage, yes.>

The concern flowing through the link was rapidly turning into horror, but the determination was still there.

<So, you have never, in your entire life, had anyone do anything like scratch your head, or hug you, or rub your shoulders. Nothing. No human contact of any kind, with anyone, ever. Not once.> It was more of a statement than a question.

<...When I was a baby, I must-->

Suri stood up, still staring at him, and was apparently feeling too impassioned to keep the conversation purely mental any longer.

"And for twenty-one days after marrying you, I've done absolutely nothing to fix this. I've left you sitting there, every day, watching me work while we chat, in separate chairs, like we're only comrades."

Zyriko didn't need the link to perceive her disgust with herself.

"It's fine," he reassured her. "You're focussed on your work. I know you value the moral support, but I feel close enough to useless as it is, just watching. It would be even worse if you worry about me." That her concern was for him was touching, but Zyriko was mostly relieved that it hadn't been caused by a problem with the tunic. "It's not bad that we're 'just chatting.' We started out married, and now we are going back and filling in what would normally come first. I have enjoyed getting to know you better, and it works out well that we can do it while you're working. What you are doing is important. We have a mission." Suri did not seem convinced. "You can feel how I feel. You know that I'm not upset."

She stared down at him, as impassive as ever on the surface, but not underneath.

"I do know how you feel. You are not upset with me for treating you like a low priority, because you think that you are not worth prioritizing. Yes, I do have a mission, straight from the Goddess of Love, it is important, and I've been neglecting it. Shut up and follow me, Zyriko of Keyic."

Suri walked past him, through the door that connected her workshop to her bedroom. Zyriko followed her progress telepathically. She was sitting on her bed.

"Come!" she demanded.

...Far be it from Zyriko of Keyic to defy the orders of the incomparable Heiress. He sent a quick prayer of gratitude and reverence to the Goddess of Love, as benevolent as She was infallible, then rose, and walked to the doorway of the bluest room in the entire Universe.

Everything--walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, bedding, curtains--everything looked like the surface of a calm lake perfectly mirroring the sky, gleaming the blue of Suri's mana. Their clothing was perfect camouflage.

How did other people cope with being married to anything but blue mages? Zyriko couldn't imagine.

He paused to prepare himself, before crossing the threshold. So much of his favorite color, all at once, everywhere...This place was of the same rank as the Sanctum of the Sacred Mantles. Zyriko agreed with the brochure, when it advised that a period of preparatory meditation and purification was important before entering places like the Sanctuary of the Blue Goddess.

She patted the bed, to her left. "Lay here." Then she patted her lap. "Head here."

Only one thing is this room wasn't blue. Well, except him. On Zyriko's right, there was a vial of red, sitting on a vanity. Places like this did always have sacred artifacts in--

"Now."

Zyriko did as instructed. As he lay down, he miraculously had the spare mental capacity to imagine the Red Goddess' tittering the next time She linked, when She saw this little event in his memories.

"Good husband," Suri praised him.

The Red Goddess compared Her 'fuzzies' to the feeling of a good head scratch, intensifying at closer range, and...yes, Zyriko could confirm. Pretty much. She also described the origin of their intensity as a kind of positive feedback loop between Her and the people around Her, and...yes, Zyriko and Suri were now in a similar state.

<You are important,> she declared, staring down at him. <I want to be this person for you. I signed up for it, eagerly. I have just been too single-minded recently, about the tunic.>

Zyriko didn't mind this situation, but, <It's not like I've been scratching your head, either. You have things to do, and we both know that.>

Suri's ringlets flapped back and forth above him.

<You've been exactly what I need you to be, honest and open and good and...making me feel better about myself, about what I can do and what I have done, all the time. Making me appreciate what I am, and what I have. You've picked up on exactly what I need you to do, what I didn't know that I wanted you to do, and you've done it. Being married to a historically powerful, devoted empath--I pity everyone who isn't. I, on the other hand, have forgotten that you might appreciate some water, after spending eighteen years in a desert.>

Zyriko smiled up at his wife, a placid lake in human form. She seemed not to appreciate the irony of what she had just said.

Then, he lost a staring contest for the first time, but consoled himself that no eyes could remain open under these circumstances.

<You got me out of that desert. Being around you and your family, accepted into my new home, has been the only 'water' I could ever need.>

<You got yourself out of the desert,> Suri countered. <All I had to do was not stop you from saving us both.>

<Which required a lot of trust from you. A giant leap of faith. Thank you, for that. And, you didn't need to be so welcoming. You could have used me as a name of convenience, but instead there's a vial of red on the vanity over there, and I'm wearing your color.>

Suri did not reply, only running her right hand through his red curls for a while, her left hand resting on his chest. Zyriko sympathized. Composing coherent sentences was challenging.

After some time, she wondered aloud, quietly, "How are you still sane?"

Zyriko was feeling a little drugged, but he did his best to answer.

<I'm used to being overwhelmed by 'fuzzies,' from linking to the Red Goddess.>

Suri snorted and flicked his cheek.

<Dork. I mean growing up like you did. Feeling everyone's suffering, but needing to ignore it, hiding that you felt it and pretending that you didn't care. Being completely alone. Starved of anything positive.>

<Oh.> Look, Zyriko's brain was doing its best. <Basically, I endured from one chat with the Red Goddess, to the next, starting after the first one, when I was thirteen. Before that...spite, for my parents. Contempt. I was determined to survive long enough to reach the age where they would leave me unsupervised, so I could try to contact Her. Help Her destroy everything they stood for.>

Suri did not reply immediately, but Zyriko could feel her ambition flaring.

<We will,> she vowed. <And for every year you were forced to endure, you will have more than a century with me. I will make it happen.>

Most successful gambit of all time. Ever. In the entire Universe.

Suri wriggled out from under his head, and Zyriko sighed regretfully, but then he learned that she had only been repositioning for a bedside hug. Apparently, her list of things that he'd been denied had become a checklist for today. So, uh, it was shoulders next, right?

Yup.

----

Suri sighed regretfully as Zyriko's mind left hers. He had fallen asleep, or close enough that the link had collapsed.

Well, back to work. Her copy of the White Tunic would be finished, soon enough. That was the first step of keeping her promise.

----

"The White Goddess, says, that if it isn't perfect, She can't tell," Zyriko wheezed. "Your resizing seems fine. She thinks it will work. You can put it on, and let it, try to draw your mana."

Suri still got a thrill from hearing and speaking the Language of the Goddesses aloud. It was much easier for Zyriko to pass words along directly, than to translate in real time, so they would speak exclusively in the Language when meeting with the Goddesses. Otherwise, they only used it mentally, partly to avoid building a risky habit, mostly because it felt sacrilegious to speak the Language of the Goddesses aloud for routine conversations.

"She recommends, going to full power, first, since the initial draw, will be heavy," Zyriko strained on. "Once you're already in perfect health, and perfectly clean, it won't need as much, for maintenance. But during this initial, transition, to immortality, it will need a lot. Draw deeply, or it may overdraw you. Fatally."

Suri got the picture. Assuming that her mana really was able to replicate what the White Tunic needed, and that her copy worked, she should be prepared for the possibility of critical mana exhaustion.

"She reminds you, it needs to be, against your skin. Lowest layer of clothing. Small undergarments, are fine. Bonus, it will keep them clean, and in good condition, too."

Suri nodded. That was how the White Goddess had worn the White Tunic, and wearing multiple layers in the Keyic domain would be impractical, anyway.

Before undressing, she told Zyriko, "Keep watching. If you can't see, They can't see. We've been literally married for more than a month."

Zyriko chuckled. "True."

Suri was feeling more bashful than she was acting, and her empath was surely aware and in a similar state, but they needed to treat the situation with the seriousness that it deserved. Although...

"...She's giggling, isn't She?"

"All of Them."

Figures.

Well, no point in delaying any more than she already had.

Once she was down to her undergarments, with the blue tunic in her hands, Suri paused. It hit her: If all went well, this was the only item of clothing that she would wear for centuries, at least. She would barely ever take this tunic off. She would no longer sweat, no longer get dirty at all, no longer age, no longer forget, no longer get headaches or any aches or pains, nor illnesses of any kind, maybe not even need to eat, starting at this moment. She would glow. She would be barely affected by days without sleep. She would no longer really be just Suri anymore, not the mortal she had been her entire life. She was being elevated, by the intervention of literal Goddesses.

The immortal who wore this tunic was an eternal empress with a genuine divine mandate. She was an implacable conqueror to her enemies, and a guarantor of liberty and prosperity to her subjects.

If it worked.

Suri took a deep breath.

She filled her pool until it started to hurt, and pulled the tunic over her head. Immediately, it began to drain her, at a pace too rapid for her to match. She sucked in mana to replace what she was losing as much as she could.

Until now, Suri had not been entirely convinced, even by the Goddesses, that her copy would cast its spells independently, that it would have a will inside able to draw mana, from her, of its own volition. As it turned out, transcendent millennial Goddesses did in fact know what They were talking about. A perfect replica was a perfect replica, full stop.

...Suri had replicated the Echo of a Goddess inside a divine artifact, on the first try!

"She says you're fine, for now," Zyriko reassured her, his voice still strained by the Red Goddess' power. "I'll tell you, if They say you need to take it off."

Suri scrutinized her arms, as she focussed on optimizing her mana intake. She was starting to glow, very faintly, so faintly for now that she wouldn't notice if she didn't know to look for it. It was not exactly the sunlit glow of the Goddesses, but instead a reflection of sunlight, the soft blue gleam of a habitable planet. Her blue. Although subtle at first, it strengthened steadily.

Slowly but surely, she began to feel a bursting-with-energy sensation, exactly as the Red Goddess had described the effect of the White Goddess' magic, a sense of being perfectly alive caused by impossibly perfect health. Her alertness was improving, too; brain fog she didn't know she had was steadily fading away. It was too early to be certain that her memory would indeed be perfect across centuries, as the Goddesses described, but Suri would not be surprised.

"Still fine," Zyriko updated.

Suri nodded.

Hours passed like this, with Suri carefully managing her mana, and Zyriko continuing to pass along the Goddesses' status assessments.

She passed through critical mana exhaustion, her physical lungs heaving in sympathy with her overstressed magical lungs, her pool in danger of destabilizing, but eventually the tunic's drain slowed enough for her to turn the corner. She was able to replenish her mana, comfortably, as fast as it was drained, and soon enough, without conscious effort. The process still wasn't complete, but it would surely finish safely and passively from here.

Suri had been pushed so nearly to the brink, but not over it, that she suspected the tunic's will might have instinctively calibrated its own draw. She said as much.

Hearing no reply, Suri looked over at Zyriko.

He shook himself out of a stupor.

"Uh...sorry...I, uh, I don't think They heard. They're just laughing at me," he explained, sheepishly.

Suri replicated her mother's wry smile, and shook her head, glowing blue ringlets flapping. "What did you say this time?"

"That--That's the thing...I...nothing. That's what They're laughing at. My mind kind of...blanked out, and I was, you know...Ah." He listened briefly. "The White Goddess says it's possible. Her Echo wants to, keep you alive, and clean, not kill you. It's also possible, that it's related to you being, right on the threshold, of immortality, if you were a white mage."

Her poor husband was going to have a stroke soon. It was amazing that he wasn't immobilized, never mind managing a reasonably normal conversation.

Looking down at herself, all Suri could really see of her new appearance was that she was glowing. She walked into her bedroom, and looked herself over in her mirror.

The general impression she gave was comparable to the Red Goddess'. She had a similar pattern of striking, inhuman coloring, she glowed, and she gave that sense of being immune to time and entropy, but lacked a spectacular visible aura like that of the Black and White Goddesses, or the completely supernatural appearance of the Violet Goddess.

The Violet Goddess' title was safe, but at least now being compared to Her wouldn't make Suri cringe. As much.

Taking in her appearance, Suri acknowledged reality: She would not look out of place standing among the Goddesses. The significant differences were that her glow was blue, while Theirs was pure white sunlight, and her pool was incomparably smaller, except not compared to the Violet Goddess'. And also, she was at least a full head taller than all of Them.

The reflection staring back at Suri was the Blue Goddess of her dreams, indisputably she was, except for her mana limitations.

The same limitations that the Violet Goddess currently had. Suri had promised to think about that. It was much, much easier to consider the point seriously, staring at this reflection.

"Thank You for giving me time," she said. "I will use it to do whatever I can do. I cannot promise that I will succeed, but I can promise that You will not regret giving me a chance to try."

"The Violet Goddess says, you are welcome, and She wants to see you, with Her Own eyes, as soon as possible."

"Likewise," Suri replied. "Although, I think my mind will end up as blank as Zyriko's, when it happens."

Suri looked down at herself again. That really was her. That was her, in the mirror. She really did look like a radiant, timeless, incorruptible, literal goddess.

This morning, she had been mortal! How was it going to feel, to have a perfect memory? Would she need to eat? She probably should, even if she didn't need to, to reduce how much the tunic needed to repair. It would save mana.

This line of thinking led to an awkward question. If she was going to ask, now was the time.

"...How far does the cleaning go? Will I...um..." Sigh. As blasphemous and awkward as it felt, this was important, and these Goddesses were not the type to be offended by this kind of thing. "Should I expect to need to use the toilet?"

Zyriko blinked a few times. "They say 'probably not, if you wear it permanently.'"

...Suri had been as mortal as anyone hours ago, and now she was...this.

Well, time to show her parents. They were going to lose their minds, Suri knew, and she didn't blame them at all.

What would non-mages think? Suri had no idea.