Later, when we’re done exercising and after we find a handy clump of reeds in which to consummate our engagement, gently, we approach Hypa as she and Caedi are preparing lunch for everyone.

We explain what we want and Hypa gets excited. Caedi beams as she cooks some meat in a pan on the wood-burning stove.

Hypa claps her hands and says, “When would you like to get married? Do you have many to invite?”

Wendy and I share a glance.

Wendy says, “The only people we know in the area are you and Caedi. Everyone else is… unavailable.”

“Are you sure?” Hypa says, frowning with concern. “We can send to town. Have messages sent. I’m sure your people will come if given time.”

“We’re sure,” I say. “It’s just us in the world and we only know you two.”

“Oh,” says Hypa. “That’s fine.” Her face falls as something occurs to her. “Sorry. But without family present to bless the union I’m required by my faith to consult and seek that blessing from my goddess instead.”

Wendy looks stricken. “Will that take long?” she says. Her voice is small.

“I don’t know,” says Hypa. “I’ll have to go into seclusion for a while and—.” She stops and stands a little straighter. Then she says, “That will not be necessary.” Hypa’s eyes are glowing golden and her expression has softened, grown even warmer and more open. It makes my heart break to see it, but in a good way. “I am here,” she says and there’s something different about her voice too. It’s richer and more beautiful.

Caedi falls to her knees, her cooking forgotten, and she bows her head.

Hypa reaches out to move the pan from the fire. She does so without taking up the nearby rag first to protect her hand from the heat, but her face shows no sign of discomfort. She’s not burned.

Wendy says to me, “What is going on?”

Hypa smiles at her and says, “I am Hyparien, the good Goddess of Love and Loving Passion. Invested here with leave from this vessel.” She gestures down at her body.

Well, okay, I guess that’s Hypa’s body which the goddess is now inhabiting. Right. Wow.

I say, “Oh, please excuse us. Um, should we kneel too?”

Hyparien laughs. It’s much like Hypa’s normal laugh, only more so. She says, “No, that’s not necessary.” She turns to Caedi. “Rise, Caedi Gree and know that you are loved.”

Caedi stands but is unable to look at the goddess’s face.

Hyparien reaches out with a hand to cup other woman’s cheek. “Your apprenticeship is almost over, Caedi. Will you take your skills out into the world to do good and heal in my name when the time for your journeyman work comes?”

“Yes, goddess,” says Caedi in a whisper. Tears roll down her face.

“Then you please me,” says Hyparien. “I would ask one more thing of you.”

“Yes, goddess?”

“And it is a request, not an order,” says the goddess. “You can refuse, and I’ll be no less happy with you. You have such a good heart and will do my work, I know, in such a way that pleases us both best. Whatever you choose, I know you cannot do otherwise. Know this and be at peace.”

“Yes, ma’am,” says Caedi. Her voice is stronger now and she’s blushing, but still can’t look Hyparien in the face. "What is your request?"

“I would ask that you, for a time, shepherd these two for me,” says Hyparien, indicating Wendy and me. “They are, as you and Hypa have suspected, not of this world and do not know its ways. If you do not wish to, I will send someone else. If you agree, you may stay with them as long as you like and it will only please me all the more.”

Caedi glances at us and then back to the floor. “I would like that, goddess,” she says and then, in a smaller voice adds, “If they would have me. For a time.”

“Excellent. Caedi, I thank you,” says Hyparien. “In return for this service, I grant you a boon. When it is time for Mark and Wendy to leave, you may go with them, ending your tenure as apprentice.”

Caedi gasps. “Thank you, my goddess.”

“I know Hypa told you next year, but she is being careful with you, and I deem that you are ready.” The Goddess of Love nods once in finality and then smiles at Wendy and me. “And I am well pleased with you too. You have agreed to reform the Order of the Open Heart, which was never mine but dear to me all the same, and now you have chosen to marry here in my temple, honoring me. Hypa, a favorite of mine,” she says with a wink. “Will not have to seek my blessing. I give it myself. And Caedi?”

Caedi, surprised at the goddesses renewed attention, looks up at the goddess and blushes even brighter for having done so.

“You will have to tell her all this,” says Hyparien. “Hypa will have no memory of this.” The goddess gestures to her own head. “She sleeps here, unharmed, and will return when I am gone.”

“Yes, goddess,” says Caedi, returning her gaze to the floor.

“As I say,” Hyparien says to us. “I give you my personal blessing and ask your forgiveness for telling Caedi your secret. Visitors to this world are often mistreated, led astray, or enslaved for the things they know by the powerful. Caedi and Hypa can be trusted, I assure you.”

Wendy and I nod. That sounds reasonable and not too surprising, though the enslavement bit has me worried.

Hyparien says, “I have a request to make of the both of you as well. And a boon. And a gift. You shall receive them whether you agree or not as I am the Goddess of Love not the Lady of Tit-for-Tat.” She laughs.

Wendy giggles.

“An order of monks is an order of monks,” says Hyparien. “And the Open Heart, at this moment, exists only with the two of you. The last died here over a decade ago, slain by evil men. One day, many years from now when you become masters and wish to teach others, you may decide to found an academy and expand the order. That is up to you. In the meantime, I would like you to consider forming a secret order of knights. It will not be difficult to do so. You will travel. You will live. You will make friends and allies. You will know when one of them is ready to  join you. In this way, you become a growing force for good in this world, and one that is badly needed.”

“How will we know?” asks Wendy. “Um, when we’ve found a knight?”

“You will know,” says Hyparien, smiling. “It will not be confusing, I promise. You shall see.”

“What should we call ourselves?” I ask.

“What you will,” says the goddess.

“The Knights of Love?” asks Wendy.

I shake my head. “Corny,” I say. “And a bit on the nose. How about the Knights of Hyparien?”

Hyparien leans down at me, smiling. “Using my name is no small matter,” she says. “It will make you enemies, should the name and your association with it become known. The men in gray armor who wounded you are members of the very group that murdered the last of the original Order of the Open Heart. They are known as the King’s Paladins, though they do not work for the king and are not paladins. They will kill you and Wendy if they can and anyone else putting my name to their lips with any degree of reverence or respect. They care for power more than love and see fear and violence as the way to acquire it.”

“Then they’re stupid,” I say.

Wendy says, “Morons.”

Hyparien laughs, stands erect, and says, “I have chosen well. The Knights of Hyparien?”

I bow facetiously. It’s probably the only way I can bow. “In honor both of you and my benefactor,” I say, flourishing a hand at Hypa.

“You knob,” says Wendy, rolling her eyes.

Hyparien laughs again. “Oh, I have chosen very well. Very well then, you have my blessing for the Order of the Open Heart, the Knights of Hyparien, and your wedding which may happen at once,” she says. “But first, a boon for each of you.” She turns to me. “You, Mark, are already among the quickest in this world. Your intelligence, however, is merely high, ranked at four. I would grant you a five there, placing you among the brightest that exist as well. What say you?”

I blink. “Um, okay,” I say.

“Granted,” says Hyparien and she touches me, light as a breath, on my forehead.

I stagger. At first, nothing seems different though I know that can’t be right. I’ve gotten the notification that my Intelligence is now set at five, but I thought I’d feel it more. But it’s not a feeling is it? It’s thought and that, now that I think about it, if you’ll pardon me, that is different. It's like its slower and quicker at the same time. It’s very strange.

But Hyparien has turned to Wendy. “You are very strong and very perceptive,” she says to my fiancée. “Though not as strong in the latter as you are in the former. I would grant you a five in Perception, so that you might see better when to be strong and when something else might be better.”

“A five in Perception?” says Wendy. “Yes, please.”

And Hyparien touches her on her brow.

Wendy sways in place.

I move to steady her, but Wendy holds up a hand, smiling.

“Thank you,” she says. She looks at the goddess funny then says, “Wow. You really are Love.”

“Yes, I am,” says Hyparien.

“I love you,” says Wendy to the goddess.

“I know,” says Hyparien, and I find myself wondering if she knows the reference. The goddess winks at me and says, “And now the gift!” She leans down and puts her hands on her knees. “Caedi will not hear this, nor will she remember we spoke in this fashion,” she says. She nods at me. “The knot in your chi can be cured, completely unraveled, by asking Hypa for another Blessing of Loving Passion, while you’re accessing your Erota, at precisely the same moment she did so last time. Ask her tomorrow.” She smiles. “Tonight is just for yourselves.”

“Another…?” I say and then I figure out what she means. I blush. Hard.

Wendy, seeing that, says, “Oh! You mean—. Oh my.”

I say, “Is that the only way?” I’m getting upset. “I mean, I—. I didn’t mean to, but I—. And she might not want to…. Again. Um.”

Hyparien’s smile has only grown wider. “Shall I tell you?” she says. She looks at Wendy. “Hypa will not mind if I do but I think that with Mark I will have to be very plain and it will shock and confuse him.”

I want to say something, but I have no idea what and besides, she’s not talking to me.

Wendy nods. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” she says and giggles. "My poor Donut."

Hyparien looks me in the eye. “My priestess does nothing she doesn’t want to do. The blessing she gave you, that of the Blessing of Loving Passion, as I said, is rarely given and it is given in precisely that way. She knew what might happen when she kissed you then, there, and she was very happy with the results. All of them.”

I say, “When I—?” I came on her face. Just a little. And I healed a bit too. That has to be what she means. All--?

Hyparien nods. “Yes. When you,” she says, and her voice has turned husky. I’m horrified to feel my cock begin to stiffen. “She enjoyed the taste of you,” says the goddess. “Both she and Wendy think about that moment very often.”

I look at Wendy, who is blushing. She shrugs.

“There is no jealousy here,” says Hyparien. “Wendy loves you and Hypa is my priestess. There is only love.” She glances down at me and grins. “And passion,” she says and laughs.

“Really?” says Wendy. “Here? Now? In the presence of a goddess?”

It’s my turn to shrug. It’s not like I can control it.

“It is not in Master Lyda’s journal,” says Hyparien, standing. “But it was traditional for the two monks getting married into the Order of the Open Heart to channel chi and Erota while doing so. It is a display of power and honesty, as well as love. Be well, Mark. Farewell, Wendy. Do well, Caedi. I go.”

Hypa blinks and her eyes are back to normal. She looks at each of us. “What is it?” she says.

I cover my crotch and Wendy bursts out laughing.