Staring at Kannon in a completely stupefied manner, Maven opened her mouth to press for more detail about the whole tainted by darkness thing, “What do you -”

 

A bright, young voice appeared from nowhere to interrupt Maven, “Ja-ja-jaaan! Did somebody say Death and Darkness?! That definitely calls for the presence of the adorable, the stupefying, the amazing Goddess of Darkness - Henna!!” A raven-haired young girl blinked into existence following the voice, sporting an idol pose and an impish grin behind her ash grey skin and eyes of pure black.

 

She was wearing an absurdly frilly, slightly short, gothic-style dress and it felt as if it perfectly suited her. Despite appearing no older than her early teens, she was clad in an air of maturity - her atmosphere clashing severely with her absurd behavior and childish appearance.

 

The cognitive dissonance her appearance brought fried the minds of Maven and Kannon both. They made a cute couple with their matching vacant expressions and open mouths as they stared. The gears of Maven's mind had completely ground to halt and weren't about to start spinning again any time soon, so Kannon was forced to pick up the slack and begin the interrogation of her fellow goddess.

 

“H-Henna! What are you doing here?!”

 

Giggling at her sister’s foolish reaction and pinching Kannon's blushing cheeks, Henna mirthfully retorted, “Why shouldn’t I be here? I just wanted to check out my sister’s new lover! You sure do move fast, don’t you Kannon… I’m quite surprised you gave her your first kiss just after meeting!”

 

Kannon desperately rattled her head right and lift while waving her whole body in panic, “Th-That’s definitely wrong, sister! That’s very, very wrong! You should know full well that I was just giving her my blessing!”

 

“Fufu… So you’re not denying that you gave her your first kiss are you?” Henna teased, as her eyes crinkled deeply in amusement.

 

With the additional time provided by the sacrifice of Kannon’s dignity, Maven’s mind finally kicked into gear as well. Not wanting to watch any more sisterly teasing and, maybe, also wanting to save Kannon from her embarrassment, Maven jumped into the fray by asking, “So… What are you doing here, Ms. Adorable Goddess of Darkness?”

 

Satisfied with the blushing appearance of her beet red sister, Henna turned her twinkling eyes to Maven. Before Maven knew what happened, she felt a weight on her back as the mischievous goddess had climbed her way up there in an instant.

 

Maven’s right ear felt a bit ticklish as Henna puffed a warm breath into it while saying, "I'm not allowed to want to meet my sister’s new friend? I’ve honestly never seen her so close to someone, not even once since the time we all breathed life into the world of Avalon all those eons ago. Always the serious goddess act instead. Admittedly, no other mortal has ever had the opportunity come into the inner-most part of our Divine Realm like this - desperate time call for desperate measures and all that - but you have to admit it’s definitely interesting.”

 

A little miffed at being viewed as a mere curiosity to the goddess, Maven puffed her cheeks and retorted, “I’m not interested in being a exhibit to the gods.”

 

“Fuuuuuu,” Henna blew a long breath of air lightly into Maven’s ear.

 

“Kyaa!” Maven jumped as a shiver ran down her spine in response to the stimulation, but was held in place by the weight of the impertinent little goddess.

 

“Now, now… I’m not just here to gaze curiously at my sister’s new toy. We all agreed to her plan. The human race is most numerous in the world below and this gives her the most power to spare, so we all agreed that she’d be the one to carry out the search and plan. Imagine my surprise when the 'perfect saint' Kannon found arrived here and partially ended up with an attribute like mine.”

 

“My silly sister over there called it ‘becoming tainted,’ but that’s definitely wrong. It’s not like you lost any of the power you had over the light attribute. Merely, the vessel of your soul expanded and that this extra space was filled with the darkness and death you were experiencing at that moment. If my guess is correct, you could end up far more powerful then even our initial expectations. The power of darkness is completely unheard of in humans you see. Even as the races mingled and attributes muddied throughout the ages, not a single human has ever held my attribute. So, please, forgive me if my curiosity got the better of me.”

 

Maven looked at the adorable goddess of darkness and urged her to continue the story, having been mollified by the goodwill visible in Henna’s utterly black eyes.

 

Throwing her arms up in a theatrical fashion, Henna gave Maven an impish grin and sidelong glance while declaring, “I’m here to grant you my blessing as well!”