A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

<Stop, right in that pocket, where you are now,> the Messenger's voice sounded without warning. <There's a supervisor patrol ahead, looking for runaways. They've started to notice that many people are missing.>

Jolts of alarm ran across Telf's body, and she froze where she was.

Telf and her siblings were runaways. The supervisors made examples out of captured runaways.

She had thought they were safe once they had made it to the northern jungle. At least, safe from supervisors. Even children knew it was dangerous to leave the paths in the jungle, but runaways didn't have a choice.

<Where should we hide? Are they coming this way?> she asked, looking around frantically. She couldn't see anything through the undergrowth.

Noticing Telf's sudden fear, her brothers, Gwell and Vellum, stared up at her, eyes wide, wordlessly asking her what to do. Her sister Arelvi, too young to walk through the jungle on her own, clung to Telf more tightly.

<No, they're not, and you're already in a good hiding place.> Telf could swear that the Messenger's calm confidence was flowing into her. <That is why I stopped you where you are. You are well out of sight, and away from their heading. That pocket should be safe. Stay there.>

Telf nodded slowly. If she couldn't see anything through the undergrowth from this spot, no one could see them, either.

<Also, the supervisors are checking whether the missing people are gathered in a single large camp somewhere, which they assume would be near a water source. They are not searching for a small group like your family.>

True, it was not easy to search an entire jungle for four people. There's no way a single patrol was searching for something like them.

<So long as you stay there, and don't call attention to yourselves, you need only to wait for them to pass by. I will tell you when it is time to move again. In the meantime, focus on keeping your siblings calm. Now, I need to go check on other groups, like yours. Wait for me. I will not be long.>

If Telf didn't trust the Goddess' Messenger, she wouldn't be here in the first place, risking everything as a runaway in the jungle. She certainly wouldn't have brought her siblings.

She had prayed for years, many times every day, for someone, anyone, to tell her where to go, for any chance to find a better life for her siblings. For this chance. She would see it through, no matter what.

She turned to her brothers, and set her sister down.

If they didn't trust Telf, they wouldn't be here in the first place, risking everything as runaways in the jungle.

"She says we need to wait here," Telf told them, quietly. "We should pray while we wait."

Telf knelt, but kept her eyes open, watching the edges of this little pocket in the undergrowth, and the canopy above. Her siblings knelt next to her, forming a tight circle. Even little Arelvi knew the pattern well.

Normally, there would be a tiny chance of the Red Goddess answering, a once-or-twice-a-lifetime blessing, but She was watching the Emmoyer domain closely, today. This morning, She had replied to Telf and many others. That had been the first sign that this day would be a special one.

The second sign had been receiving an offer from Her Messenger, an offer to guide Telf and her family to a secret place kept safe by the Goddesses. She had said that Telf had what it took to be trusted with this chance. Telf wouldn't disappoint her.

<Thank You, for helping us,> Telf prayed to the Red Goddess. <Thank You for, for caring. I don't know why You care about us, about everyone, but...I am sorry to ask for even more, but please, if You can, please help me with my siblings. They are scared.>

Telf strained until her eyes watered, hoping as hard as she could that the True Goddess would hear her.

Soon, her brothers sighed, and her sister squirmed and smiled, wrapping her arms around herself. Telf felt it, too. The Goddess' Love felt like being tucked into bed, complete with Her humming a lullaby. It was garbled and faint, but unmistakably a lullaby, the very same one She had hummed years ago, when She had replied to Telf for the first--

Telf grit her teeth. Her siblings would misunderstand if they saw her crying.

It was just, it was so good to know that the fakes were fake, that there were True Goddesses Who were not like them. The True Goddesses were like Her. So, everything would be fine, sooner or later.

"Sooner than later," Telf muttered to herself.

<It is time to move.> The Messenger's voice sounded again, in her head. <Turn around, and keep going the same way you were headed before I told you to stop. You will soon reach a wide, shallow stream. Cross it, and get in the forest on the far side. Move quickly.>

Telf picked little Arelvi back up, and motioned for Gwell and Vellum to follow her. Her brothers nodded, fear replaced by determination. They knew as well as Telf that if the Red Goddess Herself was watching them, if She approved of what they were doing, then everything would be fine. She was not fake.

When Telf reached the stream, she crouched just inside the forest's edge, hugging Arelvi to her chest. Her brothers waited behind her.

<It's safe?> she asked the Messenger.

<Yes. Dash across, and head into the forest on the far side. Move quickly, while the coast is clear.>

"Come, we need to hurry," she told her brothers, and rushed across as fast as she dared. Slipping and breaking something would be fatal, off the paths in the jungle, even if supervisors weren't searching the area, and carrying Arelvi made her top-heavy.

Once they were deep into the trees on the far side, the Messenger spoke again.

<Well done. Now, I can tell you what I have been guiding you toward. There is a small platform, hidden on the ground about a hundred paces northeast of where you are now, underneath brush.>

<Hidden? By you?>

<No, by agents of the Sky Goddess. I did guide them past patrols, much like how I am guiding you.>

Telf stopped, stared ahead at nothing, then looked up. The blue of the sky peeked through the canopy and clouds, above her.

The Sky Goddess!? The actual Sky Goddess had answered Telf's prayers!?

Her brothers were confused.

"It's alright, I'm just listening," she reassured them.

<What is the platform for?> She tried to keep her expectations under control, stay grounded, not get ahead of herself.

<It is a magic portal made by the Sky Goddess. It will take you and your family to Her home.>

Telf shuddered in a breath, and her heart skipped a few beats. At least her knees didn't give out.

<She is looking forward to meeting you,> the Messenger added.

With a spike of shame, Telf looked down at herself, then her siblings. Even at the best of times, they were all too filthy to go into a Goddess' home, and as they were now, caked with jungle muck? Impossible. Maybe if they went back to the stream and--

<She disagrees,> the Messenger interrupted. <She has invited you all, and is waiting for you. It is the fakes who are unwelcome. They are unclean. It is is they who would taint such a sacred place. Not you, not your brothers, not your sister. The fakes don't want you in their homes, they call you unclean, but the Sky Goddess is not a fake. She wants to meet you, and She will be sad if you refuse Her invitation.>

Telf grit her teeth again, holding back tears once more. Just a little farther.

<If you are still worried, then let Her hug you, and you will understand.> Then, a few beats later, she added, <She says She would like that. She's looking forward to it.>

Telf stared straight ahead.

"Northeast," she said to her brothers, voice steady. "We're almost there, one hundred paces. There is a portal to the sky, made by the Sky Goddess. It will take us to Her."

Arelvi squealed, and looked up. Gwell and Vellum seemed completely unsurprised, as if they had known where they were headed from the beginning.

...Come to think of it, duh? A place kept safe by the True Goddesses? Of course the Messenger was leading them to the sky. What else had Telf expected?

She worked her way through the jungle, checking every step carefully, with her brothers following close behind.

<How do I use the portal?> she asked.

<When you stand directly above the platform, you will feel in your mind a sense that there is a sack of fluid, beckoning to you, mentally. At the same time, your mind will instinctively reach out to the sack. Once you feel this yearning for a connection, focus on it, sink into the feeling, and fully accept the link with no hesitation. Once you have formed the link, imagine squeezing the fluid out of the sack, like squeezing air out of your lungs. The portal will activate, and you will appear in the Sky Goddess' home.>

Telf swallowed.

<This fluid, is it...?> She was too thrilled by the possibility to finish the question.

<It is the divine power of the Sky Goddess, stored inside the platform, for you to use,> the Messenger confirmed.

A shiver ran up Telf's spine. The True Goddesses' answers to prayers weren't halfhearted.

<You're almost there. The platform is at the base of that tree, on the northern side. No, to the right of that one. Yes, that's the tree. When you activate the platform, make sure you are touching all of your siblings.>

Telf circled around to the northern side of the tree.

<Just shuffle around a bit, right there, until you can feel that sack of fluid in your mind. The platform is hidden well, but you will find the spot, soon enough. Try not to disturb the brush concealing it too much, so that it stays hidden in the future.>

It was not long until Telf experienced everything that the Messenger had described. The beckoning of the divine power felt as if the Sky Goddess were reaching out, offering aid, and all Telf had to do was reach back, and take Her hand.

She did.

Holding onto Arelvi with her left arm, she extended her own right hand toward Gwell and Vellum.

"Hold onto my hand, you two. We are going to be guests in the home of the Sky Goddess, so be on your best manners, okay?"

"She can't be the Red Goddess, right?" wondered Gwell.

"Right, I don't think so," Telf agreed. "The Sky Goddess must be blue. One of the Red Goddess' Sisters."

<She is the Red Goddess' youngest Sister,> the Messenger confirmed. <And She is very, very blue.>

Telf smiled.

"The Messenger says She is like Arelvi," she told her siblings, nuzzling her sister's forehead. "She's the youngest!"

Arelvi liked the sound of that! Gwell and Vellum smiled back at Telf, and grabbed more tightly onto her hand.

"And, She wants to hug us!" Telf remembered. "She really is like Arelvi!"

Satisfied that her siblings would behave themselves, Telf exhaled, and instantly found herself in the sky.