Zyriko walked with Suri behind Nyrkatess and Villacqui, nominally on a tour of their flower garden. It had started with Nyrkatess flitting around like a guardian spirit of flowers. Eventually, it had progressed into something like a genuine tour, with Villacqui fondly interpreting her fiancée's frenetic chattering. Now, Zyriko felt like he and Suri were intruding.

<Can this really be what they're always like?> Suri mentally groaned. <It will be a miracle if they make it two days without having a moment in the middle of the ballroom. How can nobody have noticed?>

<Prejudice is powerful,> Zyriko theorized. <Villacqui is a well-trained pet, enthralled by the incomparable divinity of her doting owner. That owner is openly besotted, but she adores all beautiful things, and she's merely addicted to the flattery and attention provided by her pet. Insulting or harming her pet upsets her, yes, but in much the same way that she is protective of her flower garden.>

<Their parasols match the other's coloring,> Suri deadpanned.

<Black is best for keeping the Sun off, and gold is important for ensuring that everyone knows whose pet Villacqui is,> Zyriko replied, guessing a likely rationalization.

<They're on a giggly evening stroll, mirroring gestures, oblivious to everything outside their own little fairy tale, each calling the other every possible synonym of 'beautiful.' And supposedly, this is their routine. Regardless, it has never occurred to anyone in the entire Tvokess domain to think, 'Hm, maybe the Heiress seems uninterested in marriage because she already shares her bed with that person.'> She sighed aloud and massaged Her brows. <I would be astonished if their nightwear isn't like their parasols.>

So would Zyriko.

<Sure, but dearest wife, have You considered that they're both girls, so it's impossible?> Zyriko chuckled. <Seriously, if Izenakee turned the whole palace red right now, Nyrkatess' father would send out a search party, to catch whomever has been orchestrating a worldwide red magic hoax for more than a thousand years. The fakes are skilled at ignoring reality when it doesn't match their preferences.>

Zyriko felt Suri mulling it over, and then a spike of amusement.

<Even if some of the attendants do suspect, who would dare to suggest something so scandalous?> She realized. <And who would want to? Getting assigned to them must be a dream. Your day-to-day is low-intensity maid work, with an up-close view of a forbidden love story.>

<Maybe, but wouldn't there be some rumors?> Zyriko pointed out. <Nyrkatess and Villacqui were uncertain, themselves.>

<...I suppose you're right, as hard as it is to believe.> Suri turned to smirk at him. <You're very impressive, by the way. No romance can fail to make progress in the presence of the God of Courtship.>

<Unfortunately, I think this one is making too much progress,> Zyriko warned, alarmed. <We need to intervene.>

Suri turned back to the couple calmly, so as not to call attention to them--this area was under the protection of the guardian spirit of flowers, but some guests still watched from a distance.

<What, is losing themselves in each other's eyes, hand-in-hand, too blatant?> Suri asked, flooding the link with sarcasm. <How could anyone suspect a thing? They're both girls!>

At least their parasols, resting on their shoulders, combined with the plants to hide the bulk of the scene from the rest of the garden.

<Haha. Conveniently, I have the perfect excuse for an interruption.>

"Nyrkatess, could you take us back to the dock?" Zyriko called, though both he and Suri remembered the way perfectly. "My parents are about to arrive."

It was time to fill Zyriko's parents in on a few things, then attempt to gain a new ally.

----

The Keyic, Zyzz, and Tvokess families were meeting in the Tvokess' throne room, at Suri, Zyriko, and Nyrkatess' joint request. Suri had just finished presenting their proposal, formally on Her mother's behalf, and Zyriko's father now had the opportunity to speak for Zyzz.

For centuries, the preeminent red lineage had been snubbed, excluded, and forgotten while its first rank peers haggled over their spheres of influence. Many generations of Zyriko's ancestors had chafed at the mocking pity they received, every time they were forced to settle for yet another consort from a second rank lineage, for lack of better red alternatives. Zyriko knew his family's ancestral grudge well, because his father never tired of telling him about it.

Today's events were everything and more that Zenik of Zyzz had imagined when his power-marked heir was born, a dream redoubled seventeen years later, when the unattainable Keyic Heiress walked over to seek his consent to marry his Heir, since no other was worthy. In particular, this present Keyic-Zyzz-Tvokess negotiation was the best, most fulfilling gift Zyriko could ever have given his father. That was unfortunate--oh how it rankled!--but it was a sacrifice that needed to be made, for the greater good.

"Although I am not normally inclined to be so generous, my Heir has persuaded me that this arrangement would have its advantages," the Zyzz Patriarch proclaimed.

Incredibly, yet so predictably, both he and Zyriko's mother had repeated their mistake of wearing heavy crimson-and-black Zyzz-style robes in the tropics. Although the Tvokess palace was more beach resort than humid jungle, Nyrkatess and Villacqui wore light, sleeveless gowns and used parasols because that was what this climate called for. Zyriko's parents would assuredly be unable to go outside for the duration of their stay.

Nevertheless, the sneers on their faces had stayed fixed in place since the moment they recovered from shock, after arriving in the harbor, with a single exception: when Suri privately demonstrated Her special ability, as part of Her explanation of what She had achieved. Zyriko's mother was still fondling the cleaning flower that she had watched Suri create, hours ago. It was the most prized gift a mother-in-law had ever received.

'The greater good,' Zyriko reminded himself. 'It's for the greater good...'

"The birth of that Fijoji girl is a troubling development," Zyriko's father continued, repeating one of the arguments Zyriko had made to him, earlier. "If, in a few decades' time, she feels the bite of envy...Or, even if she doesn't, there will be another, in a century...Well, I am not ignorant of the problem that confronts our illustrious lineages, surrounded as we are by spiteful pests who would seek to subvert our glory at the first perceived opportunity. Let us join together, from three corners of our continent, to secure it against our petulant inferiors in the age to come."

'Wowwww. Did you spend the last hour composing that line?' Zyriko wondered.

According to Villacqui, Zyriko's existence, and the timing of his birth one year to the week before Nyrkatess', was the primary cause of the Tvokesses' raging inferiority complex. Now that the Keyics had spent the whole day as the center of attention and envy, only for Zyriko's parents to arrive and rub it in, their hosts' craving for a power-marked heir of their own must be more excruciating than ever before.

For the hundredth time, Nyrkatess' father looked back and forth between his Heiress and her Keyic counterpart, as he considered his own decision.

'Yes,' Zyriko thought. 'If you look past the glow, and the mana coloring, and the timelessness...There is something about Nyrkatess that looks rather similar to Suri, isn't there?'

Nyrkatess' impossibly perfect health was only skin-deep, but that was enough for a tantalizing connection.

"She would be power-marked within three years?" the ascendant Patriarch questioned, cautiously. "That could be verified?"

"That is My best estimate," Suri confirmed. "But I hope you will forgive Me if it proves to be, perhaps, five years. The means by which Nyrkatess will achieve the transformation are different from Mine in the details, and the pace depends to some extent on her, so I cannot be certain how long she will need. As for verification, you know as well as anyone that no hair dye can simulate genuine power-marking."

Nyrkatess' father rapidly tapped his middle finger on his knee, clearly trying to find the catch he must be missing. "And she will be entitled to any of your sons? You will agree to publish this, in a written declaration?"

Zyriko discreetly watched Villacqui. Amazingly, even for so delicate a conversation that there were no guards or attendants in the room, Nyrkatess' parents still had her sitting on a stool beside their daughter's throne, in the same arrangement as on the docks. Nyrkatess had predicted as much, but it was still incredible to see. That said, with this opportunity to observe Villacqui's act, Zyriko could understand how it was possible. The giggly, smitten fiancée of the garden had vanished without a trace, replaced by a facade of elegant, obedient passivity that never slipped, not even in response to a question that must have stung. Her owners thought they had a well-trained pet, but in fact it was the pet who had programmed her owners. Why worry about what a doll might hear? Expensive and loyal Villacqui made Nyrkatess' parents feel more prestigious in the same manner as extravagant jewelry, and they perceived no downside, so there she sat.

Nyrkatess, too, was proving that she could play a role when it mattered, her eruption at the harbor notwithstanding. She sat in her throne with regal dignity, a painting of a storybook Heiress. Who had a large, ivory flower in her hair.

Suri acknowledged the question with a single nod.

"Strictly speaking, any willing son, but let's speak plainly." She swept Her gaze pointedly over Nyrkatess, and smiled wryly. "What son would be unwilling, as she is, never mind once she has transcended into an ageless goddess?"

"In truth, Nyrkatess would be solving a problem for us," Zyriko added, suppressing his nausea. "Suri and I have wondered if it might be too cruel to have children, without any worthy consorts available. While we would still have none for a daughter, at least we would have one for a son."

They would never have a son, of course, and Nyrkatess would never marry him if they did, but if all went as planned, she would be a century-old Matriarch before anyone suspected. This was all about making sure Nyrkatess had a second investiture in her future, nothing more.

"Indeed," Suri agreed. "So, Nyrkatess would have the status of family, effective immediately, as if the marriage had already happened, although We will need to focus on achieving her transformation, for the foreseeable future."

Nyrkatess' father had commanded her to make a choice before her investiture, so she made one.

"I accept the joint Keyic-Zyzz petition, conditional on my parents' judgment that it will cause our divine lineage to prosper."

While the timeline of this arrangement was unprecedented, the basic idea was not, and what were time and age to immortals?

Nyrkatess' father silently stared into space, occasionally looking back and forth between Suri and his daughter, still tapping his knee as he continued to search for the catch.

In the meantime, his wife said, "You mentioned pests on this continent. Before we agree to any alliance, we must know the truth of that business in the east, concerning Emmoyer and Limbot. I assure you, we will keep your confidence."

Suri smoothly shifted into a haughty demeanor so totally alien to Her true self that it gave Zyriko chills. The 'goddess of goddesses' was speaking, and those listening had better be grateful that She deigned to favor them with the honor of hearing Her voice.

"What else can worshippers believe, when they witness Me and Zyriko, but that the so-called gods and goddesses who have had the gall to demand their worship are no more than impostors? All who see Us yearn to live in Our domain, and they are willing to fight for that privilege." She paused just long enough for it to be meaningful. "Would it surprise you to learn that not a single supervisor patrols the interior of any territory subject to Keyic authority, because Our worshippers' perfect loyalty makes supervision unnecessary?"

Every single false god who had ever lived considered non-mages to be vulgar, inferior creatures, while simultaneously obsessing over how to obtain from them the level of respect that Suri described.

"Inhabitants of the former Emmoyer and Limbot domains are especially content with their new circumstances," Suri concluded. "They wholeheartedly believe that the Sky Goddess has come to transform this world into one as Prosperous as Her Sacred Realm in the heavens."

Both Suri and Zyriko's parents snickered, but for very different reasons. Zyriko watched Nyrkatess'.

'You're concerned about your daughter's competence,' he thought. 'Will we manipulate her, and make Tvokess into a junior partner? That is surely the catch, but there's no avoiding it, is there? We'll either manipulate her now as Heiress, or we'll manipulate her later as Matriarch, and the only differences will be whether she resents you, whether Tvokess is a party to this alliance from the outset with formal guarantees, and whether she has a chance of transforming. Suri does seem to have taken a liking to her, and who knows? If Nyrkatess spends a few decades as the Keyic Heiress' protege, perhaps some of Her competence will transfer. More than anything else, none of Nyrkatess' suitors can offer anything nearly so prestigious or lucrative as this deal.'

"I would feel more confident, if you could tell me more of how the transformation process works?" Nyrkatess' father appealed.

Wordlessly, Suri unhooked Her right shoulder guard, and lifted it just enough to expose a small section of the divine artifact underneath. Nyrkatess' parents gawked in astonishment, which increased a thousandfold as Suri materialized a cleaning flower in Her hand.

"I am a real Goddess," She stated, with the same sense as declaring the sky to be blue. "To create a miracle, I need only to think it. All I can say, in the time of a single conversation, is that there is a reason it will take decades for Me to guide Nyrkatess through her transformation, as it took Me decades. But make no mistake: Our appearances have a hint of similarity because she has the necessary potential. I know it when I see it."

When She finished the flower, Suri handed it to Nyrkatess' mother.

"I assure you, it works perfectly," Suri pledged. "Please do keep My secrets. I trust that you agree it will be advantageous to Our alliance, if My true abilities remain mysterious. Nyrkatess will learn everything."

Zyriko remained silent, metaphorically hiding behind Suri, so he would be an afterthought. Zyriko of Keyic, Messenger of the Red Goddess? Slander!

Speaking of afterthoughts, another person whose appearance had a hint of similarity to Suri's was sitting to Nyrkatess' right, but if the Tvokesses didn't ask about Villacqui, there was no need to bring her up. Surely, her current state must be the limit of what could be done with a 'tainted,' if Suri couldn't even help Her Own parents!

The ascendant Patriarch took a deep breath, after inspecting the cleaning enchantment of the flower.

"I can agree to your proposal, then, conditional on Nyrkatess becoming verifiably power-marked within a few years. If there are no objections, I will make the announcement at her investiture."