The Red Goddess turned around.

"Hyahahat," Suri's body gasp-whimpered on the sofa.

The fused Goddesses of Day and Night were the Sun sheathed in clothing of Void. Light grew out of Their scalp to serve as Their hair. The brilliance of Day Herself seemed to outshine the inferior Sun in the background, but Night's compensation supernaturally softened it, resulting in an impression of intense brightness disproportionate to the actual illumination, and making it possible to look through the glow and see Them comfortably.

Sensing Suri's tentative but urgent need to see, the Red Goddess gazed into Their twin pools.

"Awgkk," Suri's body was choking on the sofa, hyperventilating, so She stopped.

Omnipotence and invincibility. Survival required Her permission, and harm required Hers. A star could incinerate, or incubate. Suri would have crumpled in instinctive, animalistic surrender if she were truly in Their presence.

<Like I said, magnificent,> Zyriko agreed, <but the word is too weak.>

<...so literally deities,> Suri whispered. Even her mental voice was strained, hushed.

<Exponential growth, and time,> the Red Goddess explained.

Suri had felt the Red Goddess' power, through the link, and now she had seen, in the more standard way, what that kind of power looked like. She could not even estimate how much stronger They were than her, because Their pools may as well be infinite, for all she could measure their actual size. There were actually people on Suri's world who entertained the idea that these True Goddesses could be ignored or opposed. No. If this Authority disagreed with reality, it was reality that acknowledged an error.

Suri tried to imagine what it was like for the mortal mages inhabiting Their Garden, mages who were aware of What they lived alongside, who had seen Them in person, seen Their spells directly. How could they live ordinary lives in that environment? Suri couldn't imagine. She understood why they had felt motivated to build this structure. To wield power so absolute with matching Benevolence was...these Goddesses did not need to demand worship.

<Yes, it is as you suspect,> the Red Goddess confirmed. <One might imagine that having better understanding of the mechanics of magic, how We do what We do, would make Us seem less miraculous, but in fact it tends to have the opposite effect.>

Suri understood completely. No non-mage would ever see those pools, or perceive the mechanism generating those auras. They could never truly conceive of the scale. 'A trillion times stronger than a typical mage, or something?' No. Suri would have been able to measure a difference that small.

But as spectacular as Day and Night were, They were somehow only the second most obviously divine figure in Suri's field of view. Thankfully, the Red Goddess had spared Suri some of the initial shock by focussing on Her elder Sisters, first, but now...

Suri could come to only one conclusion. Zyriko's mind must not have been able to accept what it was seeing, and replaced the truth with some approximation of reality that it could comprehend. She didn't know where to start.

<Violet,> was the first meaningful comment that her mind managed to produce.

"Ultraviolet, more precisely!" the Violet Goddess replied aloud, and Suri heard Her through the Red Goddess' ears. The Goddess' voice matched Her vibrant appearance.

<Oh, you've done it now,> the Red Goddess warned. <She was already excited and nervous to meet you, and then your reaction was exactly what She hoped for, and what She needed to be the Goddess of Joy again. This will be like a volcano erupting after being plugged for too long. Brace-->

With a pulse of violet mana, Joy Herself appeared right in front of Suri--well, the Goddess Whose body she was cohabitating.

Wow. This--. Wow.

Unique magic.

Wait, what were these eyes?!

"Meefmph." Suri could only yelp softly, captivated. Marveling. That she had ever been compared to Beauty Herself made her cringe.

"Ohhhhh, I wish you were here in person!" A fist was clenched near each of Her shoulders, as She bounced slightly on the balls of Her feet. "I'm constantly surrounded by either people who literally worship Me, or these incomparable multi-millennial giga-Goddesses from the ancient world!" She extended Her thumbs, twisting Her wrists to point towards the other Goddesses for a second, then opened Her hands, palms up. "It's lonely sometimes! It would be so nice to have someone more like Me, you know?!"

<M-more like You!? Me?!>

"Yes! You're actually a little stronger than Me! And compared to Them, you and I are basically the same age!" Then the Goddess gasped, eyes widening, and Her hands clenched into fists in front of Her shoulders again. "Do you sing?! We could sing!!"

<I--I don't sing, but I play the, uh, it doesn't translate. Harp?>

The Goddess did a spinning leap, Her hair trailing behind Her like an evanescent cape.

"E-ven bet-ter!" She sang, wriggling in place. "Nobody but the singers of the abyss dares to play instrumentals with Me! We could make some myth-i-cal per-form-an-ces!"

Another flash of violet, and She instantly had Her right hand on Her chin, the other arm folded underneath, across Her ribs, while Her head rocked back and forth.

"Agghh! It's so frustrating! I want to kidnap Suri and jump away with her but she's stuck in Keekee's head! Baaaah!"

With a jumping half-spin into yet another pulse of violet mana, She appeared next to the Goddesses of Day and Night.

"Oh, Moooom! It's so frustrating!"

Reading Suri's confusion, the Red Goddess explained.

<Kennalaria incarnated from Menelyn's mana, so She treats Menelyn as Her Mother, and Menelyn treats Her as Her Daughter.>

Suri knew she had become numb, because that sentence didn't inspire anywhere close to the degree of shock it warranted.

"Ohhh! I want to meet her! I want to see her with My Own eyes!"

With the sparkling onslaught directed at a new target for now, Suri felt a vague anxiety drain out of her.

<Don't worry, She was a bit pent up, and excited to meet you. It's not always that intense.>

Zyriko sighed. <Sorry.>

----

Menelyn agreed with Her Daughter. It was frustrating.

They would eventually liberate Suri and Zyriko's world, but Kennalaria was still nearly two millennia away from having the strength necessary to get Them there, by naive extrapolation. That time represented a lot of suffering. It represented many people who would need help. People who mattered.

For the bulk of two millennia, They'd been able to do so little to help. Now, at last, They had powerful allies there, in both political and magical terms, but time would claim them soon. Zyriko and Suri might have children, but there was no guarantee that they would be as powerful or benevolent, certainly not across many generations. Once Zyriko died, They might lose the ability to contact his world at all.

"Can We at least take them to the surface?" Kennalaria pleaded. "Show them what a world can look like? You can still maintain the connection, right, Keekee?"

Izenakee nodded.

"Now that the link is formed, it's easy enough. I only need to be up here to detect Zyriko's call. I offered to give Zyriko a tour some day anyway, and in fact, I think We should head to Benevin. It will be a good place to cover Our history, and I want to show Menelyn's old tunic to Suri. I might as well wait until We get there to explain why."

Before Menelyn could ask any questions, Kennalaria was already jumping Them to Benevin.

----

Suri's view flashed a few times, and finally settled on what looked like it might be a sitting room?

<Where is this?> Zyriko asked.

"This is the common room of one of Our Sanctuaries, the one in Benevin, a major city on Our Garden! Sanctuaries are the places where We live, inside Our Temples!" the Violet Goddess' voice replied, from behind and to the right. "Benevin's Temple records Our history, in a museum!"

...The Goddesses lived here?!

"Yes, We do. 'What is the point of a Goddess Who takes more than She provides?'" the Red Goddess replied. "You said that yourself, and it is because you and Zyriko understand this, and similar principles, that I want to show you Our most powerful magical items. Our followers know that We are here, due to My aura, and I am about to let them know that We need to access what is called the Incorruptible Altar."

Suri swallowed. That name, combined with the knowledge that these Goddesses were not delusional pretenders, was imposing.

"Please, Izenakee," the Sun Goddess moaned. Even Her voice looked bright! "There is no need to legitimize and spread that kind of language. I am happy to show them Our tunics, I assume You have a good reason, but please spare Me."

"Yes, a very good reason. I think Suri will be able to copy them, with blue magic. Yours is the one that really matters, of course."

Suri had never seen a magical item that her mana couldn't replicate and power, that was true, but a divine artifact from 'the Incorruptible Altar' of True Goddesses? That seemed like a different league.

The Sun Goddess thought for a moment, before responding. "I see. Perfect item replication makes sense, as what happens when a blue mage achieves high enough power. Their whole brand of magic is mimicry and item creation, and a white mage of Suri's level would be immortal."

...Seriously?! It was obvious that strong white magic provided the Goddesses' immortality, but even Suri's level being sufficient was amazing. Would a white mage as strong as her ever be born, given how much rarer white was than blue? Um...it seemed unlikely. White was closer to red than to blue. There wasn't a single power-marked white mage alive, currently.

<My copies aren't completely perfect,> Suri clarified. <I have never been unable to replicate an effect, but the items are always my blue color.>

The White Goddess nodded, but seemed melancholy. "The color is not a problem. You and Zyriko could prevent a lot more suffering if you had copies of My tunic, if you can keep them charged, but We'll need to talk about the sacrifices that living such lives would demand from you. And also, the practical concerns."

Suri was willing to make whatever sacrifices the White Goddess had in mind if that would 'prevent a lot more suffering.' That had been her driving ambition since she was a child, watching the Red Goddess do what she could not.

"I love Benevin," the Black Goddess sighed contentedly, interrupting Suri's thoughts. Suri knew Who it was, since Her voice inverted the White Goddess' brightness effect. "The Helpers here have a special talent. If I ever have a mental lapse and momentarily ponder whether it might be possible that I am not the Infinitely Magnificent and Gorgeous Avatar of Divine Justice, I need only to recall My most recent memory of a museum brochure. Make sure We grab one, by the way."

It was good that the Goddesses had something that helped Them remember. Suri was glad.

"We may as well do the full tour first," the Sun Goddess said, not acknowledging Her Sister, "since the tunics are...You know..."

She trailed off.

"You really are a Star Temple," the Black Goddess said after a flash of violet, and then picked up exactly where Her Sister had trailed off.

"'...in the Sanctum of the Sacred Mantles, cloistered in the deepest heart of the Temple, resting upon the Incorruptible Altar, which is under continuous guard to prevent the desecration of its Holy Sanctity by the breath and footsteps of mortals.' Look, it says right here."

She indicated the passage in Her newly-acquired brochure.

Suri's expectations for this tunic went from high to astronomical.

"Ah! This is new. 'Pilgrims wishing to view the Sacred Mantles are strongly encouraged first to purify themselves in the Temple's Pool of Salvation, and to meditate on whether they are truly prepared to engage with the profound divinity imbued within these most sacred artifacts.' Hmmm, I think We should be fine, though."

Seriously, what did these 'Sacred Mantles' do?!

The Black Goddess kept reading for a bit.

"Heh. This will get Her for sure," She mumbled, then Her eyes rolled. "Tch. Stop it, Menelyn!" She hissed insistently. "I am trying to read! This is serious contemporary philosophy written by distinguished academics! Did You know that Your Daughter's existence serves as counter-evidence to the proposition that beauty is subjective? By demonstrating that Beauty as a divine ideal exists and can incarnate? Because that is what I just learned from this authoritative source!"

Suri wanted her own copy of this brochure.

"Pft. 'For none can dispute that Hers is the objectively perfect humanoid form.'" The Black Goddess snickered. "We should introduce these guys to Zyriko."

<I am never going to live that down, am I?> Zyriko groaned.

"Let's goooo!" the Violet Goddess said, obliviously bouncing on Her toes in the doorway...in a fashion that looked just a little as if She was underwater.

...She definitely wasn't quite heavy enough, like Her heels weren't pushing into the ground as hard as they should, and Her arms were hanging too lightly, Her shoulders too loose, Her sparkling, transparent veil of hair rippling in slow motion.

<...Is She actually made of the mana of the Sun Goddess?> Suri asked.

"Nope!" the Goddess in question responded. "My Mother's mana made Me Who I am, but I am not made of it. My floatiness is an effect of My magic, like My Mother's glow and Izzie's anti-glow and Keekee's fuzzies! I am slightly decoupled from space and time, so gravity doesn't have the same authority over Me as it does over others!"

Suri did not fully understand what She meant, but she did understand that it only enhanced Her impossibly delicate, gossamer appearance.

<Zyriko, I need to say something,> Suri declared. <If you do not think She is the most beautiful being that has ever existed or could ever exist, you are insane.>

The Violet Goddess smiled and giggled. "I like you more all the time!"

<I do see what you mean,> Zyriko agreed, exasperated. <I can't explain it. I just...your blue is just so pretty. That's all I can say.>

"Awwwww!" the Goddess said. "I do hope Keekee's idea works so I can meet you in person some day!"

<Meet us?!> Zyriko was confused. <You could arrive sooner?>

"No," She pouted. "Sorry. But if Suri really can make copies of My Mother's tunic, they might slow your aging enough! And you could help a lot of people!"

Suri's pulse was pounding. Her expectations that this divine artifact was something very special were met.

<This tunic, do You mean...it confers Your immortality? Is that possible?> she asked.

The Violet Goddess nodded rapidly.

"Something like that! It's not perfect, not as good as My Mother's spells, but you'll see! It is many thousands of years old, but nothing around it has aged enough to notice, least of all itself, and everything is perfectly clean! It would run out of power too quickly to be usable for most people, but if you are strong enough to charge your copies as fast as they are depleted, then it might work well enough!"

Suri wanted to ask more, but they had left the Goddesses' Sanctuary, and there was too much else to see.

"Hello Firetz, and Demois," the Sun Goddess greeted two approaching men dressed in armor matching the Goddesses' colors, shielded by liquid sunlight. Suri marveled again at how even the White Goddess' voice seemed bright. "I am sorry for dropping in without warning, but We need to examine Our tunics."

The one She had called Firetz shook his head.

"It is and always will be an honor, Holy Goddesses. We shall accompany You to the Sanctum."

Suri had been able to tell that all of the True Goddesses were petite, but only now did she fully appreciate how petite They were, especially the Goddesses of Day and Night. If not for Their obvious authority and divinity, black and white mana pools so bottomless that the world around Them was distorted, Their body could be mistaken for a child's.

'Ah, Their hair isn't actually made of Her Light,' Suri realized belatedly, with the opportunity to view Them from behind for the first time. In truth, it was gleaming silver, reasonable for a power-marked white mage, but reflected Their glow so brightly that it looked like strands of the Sun Goddess' Light at a glance.

<Are these men formal bodyguards?> Zyriko asked.

<Yes,> the Red Goddess replied. <They are members of what We call the Trusted Guard, an elite group of volunteers. They primarily protect Our Sanctuaries, and also help to maintain order when We appear in public. Without them, Our appearances would be liable to cause stampedes and frenzies, born from enthusiasm. It does not help that We are all so short, since that can cause people to try to jostle for a better view when We are lost in a crowd.>

<Are they all non-mages?> Zyriko asked, at the same time that Suri asked <Will we meet any members of the public?>

<Yes, all members of the Guard have always been non-mages, to honor their origins. We will cover that history soon, in the museum. And, to Suri's question, We are about to enter the main chamber of the Temple to access the museum. There will be many members of the public there. We were not scheduled to be here, so things may be a bit emptier yet more chaotic than normal.>

<Do mages volunteer to serve You as well?> Zyriko carried on his questioning.

<We prefer to think of it as volunteering to help Us, but yes. Mage volunteers are most valuable as instructors in the mage training program at Our Temple in Ezenta, a city to the north, or in other roles, like complimentary cleaning or enchantment charging for those who need it, or assisting Me in listening for prayers and talking to those who need someone to talk to.>

An entire world order based on listening for and answering prayers. This really was a Garden of Goddesses.

"Ah, My section at last! 'The world has flourished beneath Her rays of withering magnanimity.' Wow, I can tell these guys know Greatness when they see it, but what does that even mean? I need details! How exactly am I being praised?"