A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

Upon first returning to Rokesha, Dekel had described the White Goddess' Island as a place so obviously sacred that his ship had hesitated to send a landing party, even in their desperate situation.

"The reef and forest are sculpted by the proximity of Salvation's Benevolence into living art. The fruits of the trees heal and fill with vigor any who eat them. Near the center, the Essence of Her Miracles pools upon the ground in a shaded grove, trees leaning to bask in its radiance. The only animals are birds with plumage matching Her hair, who gather to iridesce in Her Light, and are so secure in Her Peace that they approach any without fear."

Already, this account had been enough to plant the seeds of a taboo, which Menelyn's comments later had sealed.

"That island is My Sacred Peaceful Garden, My most precious Sanctuary. Sullying it is blasphemy. Most of all, I will not tolerate any harm to My birds."

The Goddesses permitted and forgave nearly anything, and demanded little in the way of special treatment. In response to repeated inquiries, They confirmed as blasphemous only violence and threats in Their Temples, sexualizing Them, and sullying Their Island. So, what had been intended as a warning against mistreatment birthed an absolute taboo on looking upon the Island of the Goddesses, in the same way as none would look inside any Sanctuary. Of mortals, only the crew who had found the White Goddess had ever seen it, much less stepped foot on it.

Menelyn had decided that while the taboo was more extreme than She intended, it was in the best interests of the local ecosystem, especially the birds, and tacitly accepted it. Else, the Island's inevitable status as a major pilgrimage destination would likely cause it harm.

The Island of the Goddesses had thereby become Their getaway location, when the world seemed in a reasonable state, and especially when something that needed to be done could just as well happen on the Island. These trips were especially valuable to Izenakee, since She could get away from the constant empathic assault of civilization. Only the Temple of the Stars had a similar effect, but there it was too strong, allowing Her to hear haunting whispers from other worlds.

Justifying today's trip, Kennalaria needed some test subjects for spells. She needed a small, peaceful animal that would stay nearby for a while, and even if the Island's flightless birds weren't such a perfect fit, She felt a mysterious aversion deep in the core of Her being to the idea of testing Her magic progress on anything but them.

As always, She was swallowed by fluffballs as soon as They landed. The birds loved sparkles as much as She did.

She waddled inland, regretfully jumped out of Her birdsuit into Her Mother's old cliffside home so She could focus, and sat down, cross-legged.

In the meantime, Her Mother began the naming ceremony for the current generation. Meaning, She gasped out names as She suffered a savage and unprovoked tickle attack by the fuzzy legions. To a mortal, trying to issue unique names to several hundred birds of very similar appearance while at the bottom of a pile of them would be futile, but a Goddess with a perfect memory would always remember who was who. Always.

Kennalaria would have a fuzzball of Her Own to name soon enough.

She made a call with Her magic, a metaphysical soprano ringing across the Island. Everything on it and in the surrounding reef promptly appeared in Her mental map, through which She could listen to any reply to Her call by focussing on the position of whatever had made it. Now that Her power had roughly doubled, nearing Her hundredth birthday, She had greater sensitivity to replies, so She could resolve more sophisticated ones, linked to more complex targets. And, She had grown highly skilled at repeating the sounds She heard. Humans were still beyond Her, but perhaps a small fuzzy bird...

She searched the Island for a suitable candidate. One reply was, like all of them, something long and in its totality unpronounceable with a physical vocal apparatus, but the first syllable was a reasonable approximation of 'Glee.' She grinned--She already knew what his name would be--and began trying to repeat his reply to Her call with Her magical voice.

An indeterminate time later, a bird appeared in Her lap, and looked around in confusion. Spotting Her hair, sparkling today, he jumped on Her head and began chirping in, well...

"Hi Glee!" She sang. "What a wonderful name you have!"

Kennalaria looked down at Her Mother, or rather, the pile She was underneath. Keekee was waddling next to Her, giggling some derpy nonsense about how the fuzzy birds were, in fact, fuzzy birds.

"Hey Mom!" She called, pointing to the bird on Her head. "Can We keep him?"

Menelyn tried to think carefully despite Her distractingly ticklish situation. She had never taken a bird off the Island, even one that was clearly happy to go, because She had not wanted to spoil their innocence. The Island was so peaceful that they trusted naively, but the mainland...hmm...had She become too stuck in Her ways?

Wasn't the mainland just a big Island, now?

They could care for a bird properly. They ate exclusively fruit, which was easy enough to get, and She was the Goddess of Purity, so it would be easy enough to clean up after him.

"Yes. Yes, I think We can. But We should take two, so he will have a friend."

Kennalaria began to search for one with a suitable name.

----

When the Goddesses stepped out to a violet-covered Benevin, They were greeted by the customary roar. But then, it hushed. The Violet Goddess and Her Mother had shiny white birds nestled in Their identical hair.

The legend of the Island of the Goddesses and its birds, so sacred to Salvation that to harm them was blasphemy, was well-known.

The Violet Goddess turned to the nearby recorder to make introductions.

"This is Glee. He's a boy," She said, pointing to Her Own head, then She pointed to Her Mother's counterpart. "And she is Glow. They will be accompanying Us for the next few years, and you can meet them in Our Temples. Please be kind! They like pets on the tops of their heads and underneath their wings."

Glee and Glow hopped off Their heads and into the speechless crowd of millions. The Island's birds always liked to say hi to everyone. It was fine for them to hop away into the crowd. They would never get lost, because they would always hear Twilight's call.

----

The Goddesses had just arrived in Esto, as anyone could tell from Love's aura suddenly poofing into existence. Emizza's three-year-old daughter, Lillit, apparently already knew what this meant, running in to demand that they "go see birds!" Emizza was worried. The initial rush right after They arrived meant it was unlikely that there would be enough to go around. But, the Goddesses always prioritized young children. Maybe there was a chance. So, Emizza called her wife and told her to meet them at the Temple when her shift ended.

As they disembarked from the train and moved toward the door to the Temple of the Sacrifice, Emizza couldn't help but laugh at the situation. There were four literal Goddesses inside this Temple, and Lillit was mostly interested in Their pet birds.

As soon as they entered, the Violet Goddess appeared in front of them.

Emizza averted her eyes and looked at Lillit instead. She had never been able to look directly at any of Them. It was so emotionally intense--awe tinged with gratitude and admiration and an enveloping blanket of security--that it scared her. She needed to keep things toned down, inside her mundane comfort zone.

"You're a Goddess!" Lillit gasped.

Yes, yes She is, dear.

"Yes! I'm Luck!" She said, waving and smiling at Emizza, while crouching in front of Lillit.

"I jumped over to see you because I didn't want you to be sad! Coco, Teetee, Zeez, and Honker are all taken right now, but that's alright, because I have a better idea!" Luck leaned in to murmur a conspiracy in the young girl's ear, forcing Emizza to look at her daughter's feet. "The birds all really love shiny hair, like Mine." She pointed to Her Own gleaming silver braid. "And they love sparkly hair even more! What do you say I make your hair sparkly?"

Luck looked at both Lillit and Emizza for permission. Lillit was clearly very much on board with this idea, so Emizza found herself nodding.

The Goddess smiled, and took Her gloves off. A glittering violet liquid appeared in Her hands.

...Is She...is that...seriously?!

Lillit squealed and stomped her feet. Luck smiled even more brightly, and started running Her hands through her hair.

"Spread all throughout her hair, My Essence will be safe to look at. Don't worry!"

Emizza couldn't take it any more. She collapsed to her knees, and gave thanks for being born in this world.

"And We are thankful that you were born here," the Violet Goddess said, without looking up from Her task.

Emizza sighed. "How? Just, how? How are You possible? How can You spend all Your time doing this every day?"

The Goddess looked up this time.

"I cannot see the past, but allow Me to make an inference. When your daughter asked to come see Our birds today, you did not even consider refusing, even though it would cost a lot of your time to come to Us, and you personally would receive no tangible reward for the time you invested. You worried only about your daughter's joy, and cast all else away. How was that possible?"

The Goddess paused for a few moments.

"We love everyone who follows The Creed, and that is all that matters, isn't it?"

Emizza stared at her daughter's now glittering hair.

"All I did was prevent a little misfortune before it spoiled your efforts," Fortune Herself concluded. "You had already done the hard part, every day for years, before you walked through the door."

Emizza kept staring at her daughter. She thought for a while.

'Turn adequate into abundant. Turn satisfactory into extraordinary. Turn acceptable into spectacular.'

"Haaat, haaaaah." She turned, looked directly at a Goddess, and allowed herself to be overwhelmed.

So divine that reality was unable to contain Her, impurity unable to touch Her. Transcendent beauty, and hands that worked unique miracles. Tireless benevolence; She was born from the Light of Compassion Herself. Immortal, three centuries old, with wisdom to match, as humble as She was confident.

A real Goddess, one pace away, staring back into her eyes, completely understanding what was happening, patiently allowing Emizza to get her fill, suppressing Her overflowing joy for now in favor of the serenity better suited to the current situation.

Emizza's breath was catching, and she felt a paradoxical combination of being cozy and safe while in freefall, but she knew there was nothing to fear. Only good things were allowed to happen to her right now. This Goddess Who loved her would prevent anything else.

"Yes," the Violet Goddess said quietly. "I am your Goddess, yours to look at. Take Me for granted; I am. That leap of absolute faith is terrifying for an adult, but liberating. We want it for you, and We would betray it as soon as you would betray your daughter. Now, it's almost time for Zeez to spot Lillit's hair, but first, your wife will arrive soon. It's best to go to My Mother's Pool and clean up before she gets here, or she will misunderstand." Her gloves jumped from the floor back onto Her hands and arms, to Lillit's squealing delight, and the joy sprang back to life. "Take a hand, each of you!"