A Real Goddess Would Let Nobody Die

Izenakee was in the Sanctuary at the Temple of the Anastasis in Kanenn, taking deep, calming breaths.

She had been working tirelessly on improving Her red magic emotion-shield for the last century, since...the incident, at Her 700th birthday.

Izena had extracted a lot of value from that one. On cue,

"Think She'll faint again?" Izena asked. She didn't even bother wasting breath on snickering. It was implied. Or maybe Menelyn stopped Her.

Izenakee tried to ignore Her. She could feel the anticipation pouring off Her eldest Sister, and it was not helping Her nerves.

She would be a proper dignified Goddess this time, not some blushing bashful ten-year-old.

Izenakee was now comparable to the power level that Izena and Menelyn had possessed at the end of the Ancient War. Her shields were strong. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was, well, there were multiple.

First, Her strength was a double-edged sword. The stronger She grew, the stronger Her mind shields were, but the more sensitive She became, passively, to the emotional states of people around Her. And, if She held Herself at minimum power to weaken the 'attacks,' it also weakened Her defenses.

Second, Her irises and hair, including Her lashes and brows, had changed color over the last year with 'impeccable' timing. They were now...not the ruby of Her mana, but significantly more...pinkish.

Why couldn't it be pure ruby?! She was supposed to be the Red Goddess, not the Pinkish-Red! But, She had to concede, Menelyn's eyes were icy blue instead of silver, and it's not like Her hair was the same liquid Light as Her mana, just silver, so the mana pigmenting--now definitively confirmed to be a real phenomenon in extremely high power mages--seemed to interact with the underlying physical color in a mysterious way. On the bright side, Izenakee could still wear mana rubies in Her hair without them blending in too much.

Menelyn had squealed like an overjoyed five-year-old when the change had first become noticeable, and Izena now treated Izenakee's hair as a divine artifact belonging to the Black Goddess, even more than She did before.

"It's...it's...Her hair...it's already blushing, in anticipation," Izena had said in a low voice of awe and wonder, cradling it as if it were a priceless and delicate painting removed from its frame. "After so many centuries, look what I, My hands, have achieved. Blushing hair! It is My greatest legacy. I am complete."

...Alright. Fine. It's an indisputable fact. Their memories were all perfect. No more pretending, no more turning away from reality. Yes, Izenakee's irises and hair were now exactly the color She turned when blushing at Her centurial birthday festivals, at every one since the 500th. Maybe She would--

"No, I will not let You dye my life's work," Izena scolded from across the room.

"Phluuuuughhh," Izenakee breathed.

Most of the public hadn't seen the change in person, yet. The process hadn't finished until the last week. Impeccable timing. But they were looking forward to it. Izenakee could feel it from here. The crowd was going to lose its collective mind today. Again.

And the list of problems kept going. Third, today's 800th birthday celebration was the start of a combination event, stretching over several days. The reconstructed laboratory was due to open, and the Goddesses were going to travel from Kanenn to World's End for the ceremony, greeting members of the public along the way, lining the road, all the way there. Tens of millions of them.

The Goddesses didn't hit a new century multiple times in a lifetime. These were major events, Izena's in years ending in 77, Menelyn's in 36, and Izenakee's in 45. Everyone tried to get to see at least one, and the host Temples were rotated to make that easier.

It was year 845.

Izenakee was envious that Izena and Menelyn could just stand and wave at Theirs. Menelyn admitted that She "got butterflies." If only that was all that Izenakee experienced.

"Fssssshhhhhh." Might She actually die at Her 1000th? Izenakee didn't think it was actually possible to die from feeling too loved? But how many people were passively empathic Goddesses who had once-in-a-lifetime birthday megafestivals attended by millions of worshippers? Could Her heart rupture? Menelyn would heal Her immediately, but the memory and teasing would last an eternity.

The new laboratory was also a Temple, the grandest of the world, the only one grown with blue magic. It was to be named the Temple of the Beginning, marking where the Age of the Goddesses had started. The builders had been very proud of the name they chose: the World's End peninsula led to this Temple, at its terminus.

The top was a Dome much like any other, with visitor reception amenities like those of the old laboratory's top floor, similar in a sense to the museum-type Temples in some other cities, including Kanenn.

But, the Pool of Salvation in this Temple was instead designed as a fountain. It would cascade down in curtains of Light surrounding the new elevator shaft, filling pools on each observation deck down to the bottom of the cylinder, flowing with its characteristic not-quite-obeying-gravity slow motion. It would serve as the facility's internal lighting, and be pumped back to the top to recirculate after reaching the bottom.

Menelyn had said She would be able to fill the feature comfortably at the first Filling ceremony, and Izenakee found that easy to believe. Even at Her outrageous power, She still was expanding Her pool.

"I am starting to feel like there is a practical cap," She had said. "My pool gets larger, but it doesn't fill proportionally quickly. I will stop when it is no longer meaningful to expand, because the world can't provide mana quickly enough to fill a larger pool."

Izenakee wondered if it would be possible to look at Her now, if not for the moderating effect of Izena's black. Probably not. She gave the impression of being ludicrously bright, but somehow it was possible to look right through the brightness, like the brightness was only going off to the sides of the viewer's eyes.

The opening of this new Temple was connected to the fourth and final reason that Izenakee was feeling nerves today. After opening the Temple at the surface, They would need to descend and open the one at the floor. The singers had, understandably, come to revere Her for Her intervention on their behalf. They would be waiting in the water at the bottom level of the laboratory, having assured Her that they were quite capable of phasing through the outer walls at will, with their blue magic.

Incidentally, that had explained how the monster had gotten into the facility, originally.

The people of the surface had redoubled their affection for the Red Goddess when the success of Her extermination campaign was announced. But, the singers were most assuredly Izenakee's biggest fans. They would be meeting directly for the first time soon, and She would be bringing them mana morsel feeding devices, to fulfill Her promise of food in the extraordinary fashion befitting a Goddess. They would surely be able to replicate and recharge them, with their own magic.

"Tchhhhhhaaaaa." Now or never.

As ready as She'd ever be, Izenakee left the Sanctuary and headed toward the Temple's door.

She hesitated at the entrance. Was She really ready?

Yes, She was. She had to be.

"Please, open it," She said to the nearby Guard, gulping and bracing Herself.

The city was covered in red, and the dawn sky was exactly the pinkish-red of Her hair and eyes...She sighed in resignation. Menelyn is the day, Izena is the night, and I'm dusk and dawn? Even a Goddess can't escape the whims of fate.

In any case, She was very proud that She remained conscious and even standing this time after the 'red magic attack' hit, but...

"It's all, the same. Perfect," Izena wheezed, enjoying every moment of the high point of this century. "All of it. Face. Hair. Sky."

...She wasn't wrong.

Millions of people, all wearing red, in the bleachers set up in the plaza, and in the windows of the towers surrounding it, and along the streets leading away in every direction, everything coated in red.

Izenakee could feel what was pouring off of every one of them, toward Her.

Her eyes were watering. Her breath was catching. She did work very hard, had worked very hard, every moment of every day, for centuries, to model The Creed perfectly. To help. It was nice to be...appreciated. But, She would prefer a little less worshipful, visceral intensity. It was too much, for an empath. It was always too much.

"Guggghhh."

She wiped Her face. Her knees were a little wobbly, but She was still standing this time. Maybe it was the weight of experience. She could replay these moments in Her memories at any time, to prepare.

As She was thinking that, She noticed a strengthening trend.

<So many think of Me as the Goddess of Forgiveness now. And the Goddess of Love,> Izenakee said to Her Sisters. <Those are about as common as 'Empathy' or 'Listening.' Even though I exterminated an entire species, and-->

<Uh, You reassure everyone You talk to that We love them, that their mistakes can be forgiven so long as they strive to follow Our Creed? While caressing, kissing, and hugging them the whole time!? And the single most common thing You counsel people about is romantic problems?> Menelyn interrupted, amused at this rare failure of empathy. <They don't mind that You don't forgive unforgivable malevolence. You're not the Goddess of Naïveté. And everyone understands that...that We're just too...too different, and We have things to do, so of course You have no personal romantic experience. What Goddess could?>

...This Sister wasn't wrong either.

"And in fact, that probably helps," Menelyn added aloud, "because it makes it feel like You belong to everyone equally. You can love everyone, and they can love You."

"Also, pink," Izena said abruptly, with perfect minimalism, and in a manner so incongruously solemn compared to the content that it got a giggle out of Izenakee, despite Herself. She smiled, looked down, and shook Her head slightly. Izena really was a master--

Oh, that--Oh no. The crowd will think--Aggghhhh. The millions-strong euphoria. Mmmmmfffff.

Her damned Sister. She knew it was hard for Izenakee to pick up on Her schemes under the circumstances.

"Bluhhhhhhhh." Alright. Still conscious. "Let's--let's head to Solenn."

"Here, let me clean You up first," Menelyn offered.

"Would a hug help, too?" Izena added, cackling.

Usually, it didn't really matter, but sometimes, it was so very strange that Her Sisters spoke with the same mouth. Izenakee smiled.

"Yes, it would."

The crowd loved it. This world had the kind of Goddesses that mopped tears of bashful joy and gave each Other hugs in front of a crowd of millions on the youngest's 800th birthday. The kind of Goddesses that exterminated evil telepathically, to enable the rebuilding of a wonder of the ancient world, with no expectation of reward.

They were so glad that they had been born in the Age of the Goddesses, those Goddesses there, standing in that doorway. You could see Them with your own eyes, hear Them with your own ears, go chat with Them, and They would be happy to see you!

Especially the youngest.