Sylvael sank down heavily on her favourite couch in our own sitting room, and pulled her bare feet up so she could wrap her arms around them. “I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to get that cat.”

One of her new friends, a black cat with white paws and belly and half his face, climbed onto her lap, and she cuddled him close. From the other end of the couch, a black cat with a white streak on his forehead and, not currently visible, a small white spot on his chest, got up to lie down again, pressed against her leg. They were littermates, brothers, and had decided that they liked Sylvael. It was mutual.

I joined her, slumping in the recently-vacated corner. “I think you’re right.”

More precisely, while we knew where it was, there was simply no way we could steal it and escape. At the centre of the Omphalos was a simple shrine, which held a human-sized statue of a cat, a tabby beautifully worked in gold and black enamel with eyes of green and yellow tourmaline: the avatar of the cat goddess Aumret. At her feet were three figurines the size of their real-life counterparts. One was carved from onyx, so delicately that the white bands in the stone formed the cat’s white chest and throat, though I couldn’t imagine how, and the eyes were yellow topaz. One was carved from moonstone, with eyes of blue aquamarine. And the third was our target, the carnelian cat with green beryl eyes. At least, we thought it was, even though we’d been told it should be in a compact pose. All three were in playful poses, as though caught in a moment of affection and kittenish good spirits. The moonstone one lay on its back, paws in the air, with the carnelian one standing beside it with a paw raised, and the onyx one crouched with those yellow eyes fixed on the tail of the carnelian one.

The shrine was just too open for us to steal any of them, with a domed roof overhead and four arches supporting it, the interior visible from all directions.

I sighed. “We’ve been here for over a fortnight. These are genuinely kind and friendly people who care about each other and believe in personal responsibility along with personal fulfillment, all in the name of their goddess.”

“And they take good care of the animals.”

“That too. They genuinely have, if not divine protection, then some kind of very powerful magic watching over them, which might very well mean that even if we were to somehow scoop up that cat and walk away with it unnoticed, the Gate wouldn’t let us leave with it. Which is purely hypothetical because I doubt that there is any way we could even get outside the shrine with it. We just don’t have the skills a thief would, which makes it all the more ridiculous to force us to do this.”

“Maybe he couldn’t find a thief.”

“Or maybe the Gate wouldn’t let a thief through. Who knows? But we have to somehow do the impossible in order to leave the Omphalos safely without always wondering when that damned wizard will suddenly send us as a gift to Caulsey, and in order to get him to change you back.”

“Um. Yeah. I’d, um, rather stay a girl than get us in trouble with a goddess. That would be... okay. But we can’t go explore new places and find things if we can’t leave here safely.”

“I honestly have no idea how to solve this one, Syl. I’m sorry.”

The room was silent for a long moment.

“Maybe we should just ask,” Sylvael said.

“What?” That jerked me out of another cycle of morose rumination on the trap we were in.

“The Sisters are all wonderful. If we tell them the truth, maybe they’d help us. They really like helping people.”

“We came here under false pretenses, intending to steal from them.”

“But we didn’t want to.”

In the middle of forming a sentence pointing out that it was a bad idea, I stopped. While Syl had been revelling in the library and the history of the place, I’d been talking to the people. Several of them had found their way here when desperate, and had found this a place to heal and thrive. Invariably, they spoke of the Sisters’ compassion and sympathy. This might be a cloister of sorts, but they were clearly aware that life elsewhere was less sheltered and idyllic.

“Syl... it’s risky. They might understand. Or they might not. And if they throw us out of here, we’re in seriously deep trouble.”

“I know. But what else can we do? Sit around forever feeling sick and guilty, watching for a chance that might not happen, and never travelling anymore?”

She had a point.

“All right. I can’t think of anything else. Actually, I couldn’t even have thought of this one. Let’s go to the shrine. As soon as you can extricate yourself.”

The Sisters wandered, and could be anywhere, but one or another always showed up when someone was at the shrine for more than a passing moment. It seemed like an appropriate location for the conversation, even.

Hands linked, we left the apartment that was starting to feel like a home, and made our way through the settlement to the shrine. It was easy to find: the interior of the dome was studded with small crystals that shed a gentle glow, easy on night-adapted eyes but enough to make the cat statues clearly visible. The jewelled eyes caught the light.

We traded greetings with several of the women on the way.

At the shrine, we found Rose kneeling on one of the cushions strewn about, her gaze on the golden tabby. We stayed back, hoping not to intrude, but possibly we were less quiet than we thought: she turned to greet us with that contented, open smile.

“Hello. Don’t mind me. I find time every day to say thanks for being able to live here instead of out there, and it’s been a busy day.” She got to her feet in one smooth motion, and her expression turned grave. “Are you all right? You both look rather troubled.”

“We have... a predicament that is definitely troubling,” I said.

“This is the place to ask for help. The Sisters are very good at finding solutions. Just call them. They’ll hear you and come. Whatever it is, I hope it gets resolved quickly and well for you. Good night.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Good night.”

Sylvael took her at her word: she walked up to the centre of the shrine and said, “Astrenna? Lunessa? Heliara? We need your help. Please?”

I considered just sitting, then decided to kneel on Rose’s abandoned cushion instead. Adding a prayer to the top of the chain couldn’t hurt. “Goddess, we never meant you or your people any harm.”

It wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t see the Sisters approach, since I was facing the statues, but I heard Syl’s startled squeak and turned.

All three Sisters approached from different directions; in the moonlight, Lunessa’s skin and hair and Astrenna’s dress were very visible. Heliara reached us just a few strides before the others. The pale light of the dome crystals washed out her colouring, but by daylight she was vibrant: her skin a warm rich golden tan, her long unbound hair a striking brown mingled strongly with gold and red, her eyes green as summer leaves. More solidly built than slender Lunessa or curvy Astrenna, she typically wore loose trousers that sat low on her broad hips, and a very simple halter that supported her large breasts. She wore a hammered choker like those of the other two, silver for her, with large intricate silver hoops in her ears. I kept finding myself fascinated by her very green eyes.

“If you need help,” Heliara said, “then we’ll do what we can.”

“We lied,” Sylvael said unhappily. “But not because we wanted to.”

“Start at the beginning,” Lunessa said calmly, nudging cushions into a circle with a foot. I rearranged myself where I was, facing them; Syl claimed one beside me, and reached for my hand.

I told them about Enzaneth and his proposal, the offered pay and our objections, then the blackmail. When I got to the transformation charm deception, Sylvael’s hand tightened around mine to the point of pain. The rest was quick to relate.

“And we don’t know what to do now,” I said. “We’ve been feeling worse and worse, the longer we’re here. We aren’t thieves, or at least we never intended to be. We normally just retrieve lost things. If we leave, he can target us, but we can’t stay if we’re lying.”

“And you can’t be who you truly are if you can’t leave,” Astrenna said. “This is not a prison.”

“There’s a very simple solution,” Heliara said, getting up from her cushion. She stepped around Syl and I, on her way to the statues.

The carnelian cat statue moved, as fluidly as a living cat, and curled itself into a compact ball, head resting on its own tail and paws tucked against its belly.

She picked up the cat, cradling it in her hands, and handed it to Sylvael.

“Give him what he asked for. I believe I know his grandmother. She failed. He will as well. He has no comprehension of the goddess, the Omphalos, or us.”

“He believed,” Lunessa said in amusement, “that a simple physical transformation could deceive the Gate? He knows nothing.”

“Don’t fear,” Astrenna said. “He cannot hold what he does not understand. Complete your bargain and free yourselves. Go on with your explorations, but come back to us whenever you wish.”

“We don’t even know where we are,” I said.

“There are many places in the world that the Omphalos opens onto,” Lunessa said. “You’ve been here. Ask Aumret, and you could find the Gate in front of you on any road, now.”

“And besides, we can’t, once we get him to undo the change he did.” Syl’s hand flexed in mine.

“If the Gate let you through once, it always will.” Lunessa and Astrenna both rose as well. “Everything will be fine. But thank you for having the courage to tell us the truth. We thought something was wrong, but it’s not uncommon for those who find their way here to have something dark behind them, and to find it difficult to speak of. It isn’t always so easily resolved.”

The onyx cat and the moonstone cat both moved, repositioning themselves so they were closer together, the onyx one poised to lick the head of the moonstone one.

“Won’t everyone wonder?” I asked.

Heliara shook her head, smiling. “It won’t be the first time. Set your hearts at peace, dear ones, all will be well. Get a proper night’s sleep, and finish your business with this wizard as quickly as you can so you can proceed with your lives in freedom.”

All three walked away together, Heliara in the centre.

Sylvael and I were left alone, looking at each other. Syl looked down at the cat in her bare hands, then up at me.

“That worked well,” I said, rather weakly.