Izenakee's day had gone through some serious ups and downs.

It had been her tenth birthday. She had been asking her parents for an enchanted item that could make lightning or fire like her namesake. They had been very reluctant, since such items were expensive, and not just for the initial purchase price. The Goddesses had found and trained only a small handful of blue mages in the decades since Their Return, and they had better things to do than to charge trinkets for young girls.

So, Izenakee had been very pleasantly surprised when her parents had given her a small rod that could apparently shoot weak lightning bolts that morning.

This had been a serious up.

They had said that it apparently still had a little bit of charge left in it, that they couldn't justify having chosen to name their daughter literally "like Izena" and then deny her wish to be like Izena, and that Izenakee would be responsible for convincing someone to recharge it after it ran out. And that she absolutely must never ever hurt anyone with it, or Justice Herself would despise her.

She had been absolutely ecstatic. Izenakee had never even seen an enchanted item with remaining charge before, and her parents had managed to find the perfect one. She had ran to the nearest field where she could fire it safely as fast as she could, and immediately tried to link with it.

It hadn't worked. Absolutely nothing had happened. It was like the rod denied her existence. Or more like, it denied that it was enchanted, claimed that it was just a normal rod.

This was a serious down.

Izenakee's parents were confused. They thought they had been able to link to it fine, that it was definitely a legitimate enchanted item, and they were pretty sure they hadn't been swindled, but they didn't dare to do a test-fire and waste the precious charge before Izenakee got to use it.

They went to the merchant who sold it, to confirm that it was working. He assured them that it was, and urged her parents to fire it once. It worked for Izenakee's mother, as the merchant had said it would.

When her parents had asked why it didn't work for Izenakee if it worked for them, the merchant had frowned at first, and asked Izenakee what she had experienced. Izenakee told him. He had thought for a while, then looked at her.

Izenakee had never seen a man smile as brightly as that merchant had.

"You, little girl, might be a mage," he had said to her. "You should go see the Goddesses as soon as you can. They're looking for people like you."

This was a serious, serious, serious, serious up.

Her parents had stood in stunned silence for a frustratingly long time, before she'd managed to convince them that they should set off for Rokesha immediately. It was the nearest city with a Temple that the Goddesses frequented.

And now, they were standing in the main chamber of the Temple of the Sacrifice, the night of the next day.

Izenakee was staring at the statue of her namesake, above the Temple's Pool of Salvation. Her heart was pounding. The Goddesses were due to arrive in Rokesha the next day, she had been told, coming southwest from Their identical Temple of the Liberation in Ezenta.

When the Goddesses' Helpers in the Temple had heard why Izenakee's family had come, they had encouraged them to stay and wait overnight. The handful of mages in the Temple were asleep, and the Goddesses were more skilled anyway, so she might as well wait for the Goddesses Themselves.

Izenakee should sleep, she knew, but that was not possible.

Eventually, she had leeched enough courage off Izena's statue to turn her attention to the Pool below it. She was acutely aware that she was now staring directly at the Essence of the Salvation Goddess. She couldn't believe that it was real. Well, she could, but she couldn't at the same time.

It was really the White Goddess' own mana, right here in front of her. A genuine divine substance. Something produced by a real Goddess, right here in front of her. She could touch it if she wanted to. She could see it with her eyes. It was real. This could bring people back from the dead. It could purify, had purified, the corruption of the enemy of all humanity. This Pool of Sunlight, right here, glowing in the darkness of the nighttime Dome.

Izenakee's whole body shuddered a breath.

Could it be that she was really a mage, that she could do something like this? That she was going to meet the Goddesses personally? Speak to Them, with her own mouth? Hear Them with her own ears? That the Goddesses would be happy to see her?

That was already incredible enough. She didn't even dare to put words to her strongest hope.

She stared at the pool for hours, and tried to leech more courage from her namesake's statue.

When the Temple lit up even brighter than the Pool kept it, she didn't even realize that it wasn't dawn yet.

"Hello! Young lady, what is your name?"

Chills went down Izenakee's spine. She had heard Her with her own ears. She turned, and saw Her with her own eyes.

She channeled the courage of her namesake, to speak to Her.

"My name is Izenakee," she said, and was proud that her voice did not shudder. She'd been preparing for this for hours, mentally reviewing her Language of the Goddesses lessons.

The Goddess chuckled and smiled. "I suppose you would like Me, Izena, to speak to you, then?" She said.

"Y-yes." Izenakee couldn't believe it. It was happening.

"Izenakee, do you know what a red mage is?"

"Haa...," Izenakee could only squeak-moan in response. Her knees gave out, and she fell to the ground.

The Goddess chuckled again. "It looks like you do?"

Izenakee could only nod and swallow.

"It looks like you suspected already that you might be a mage?"

"Yes, enchantments do not work for me," she managed to say, breathlessly.

The Goddess nodded while kneeling next to her.

"Do you know that you need to be activated? Would you like Me to do it for you, now?"

There it was. She hadn't even dared to think that thought all the way through, earlier. Activated as a mage by Izena Herself. A dream so extraordinary that she'd never dreamt it. Izenakee would not miss this chance. She resummoned the determination that she had accumulated from the hours staring at the Pool.

"Yes I do, and yes I would," she said with conviction.

"Good," Izena said. "You have drive and focus. I approve."

"Me too," the Goddess said suddenly.

"That was Menelyn. We have been hoping to find a red mage some day. You are the first, and you are reasonably strong, too. Red mages were always the rarest kind. We have a plan for a project to listen for prayers for help from around the world, and your abilities are the part that We need most. We hope that you will be interested in helping Us with it, but that is for the future. For now, hold onto Our arm, stay sitting, and try to relax."

...The Goddesses needed her? Izenakee? Izena Herself had said so?

She didn't mind that she would never be able to shoot lightning bolts.

Izenakee's whole body shuddered in the first breath of the rest of her life.