Negotiations, Living as the Goddess’s Faithful, and Marriage

Securing the neem oil without drawing attention to myself was more difficult than I expected, but within a week, I was running out of space to store it. Negotiations with Lord Gwendar proved even more arduous, but after constant pestering, he agreed to meet us alone.

“I gave up on saving myself long ago. Now that I’m finally free of your father’s trickery, what makes you think I would be your willing pawn?” Thus was his initial response when we told him of our plan.

Chika seemed downright offended. “Think of all the lives you could save.”

“I serve the goddess, not the people.”

“That attitude is exactly why I wanted to get rid of you in the first place!” Her outburst was too loud. Even though we were alone in the church’s garden, someone might have overheard that. “Who do you think the goddess exists for, if not the people?”

“If your true purpose in requesting this meeting is to bombard me with heresy, then I’m wasting my time.”

Sensing that he wasn’t bluffing, I spoke up to prevent him from leaving. “You wouldn’t be a mere pawn. Receiving a vision from the goddess would give you more authority over the temple than ever before.”

That caught his attention. “You may be right about that… Still, what you’re asking for is too steep a price. No one person can control all the priests, even one blessed by the goddess. I would have to purge many devout men and women before the priesthood would accept Lady Chika.”

Upon hearing that, the anger drained from Chika. “That’s the last thing I want, but if it will save lives…”

Lord Gwendar smiled, well aware he had taken control of the negotiations. “So let me suggest a different trade. You will share the secret with me, and in return, I will use my authority to gift Kythrana and her brood to our new territories.

“Kythrana?” Chika and I asked at the same time.

“A vormarnok who lives here in the gardens. She was brought to us when her scales were still soft, a large gash across her side. I was skeptical that she would survive, but she showed such determination to live that the goddess granted her wish. A few months ago now, we discovered that she had buried a clutch of eggs. Because she had no mate, we assumed they were lifeless, an affront to the goddess, but when we attempted to remove them, we were surprised to find young vormarnok growing inside.”

“Asexual reproduction?” Chika gasped. Lord Gwendar and I looked at her in confusion, so she clarified. “A type of divine blessing from the goddess.”

“Verily. Without a mate, what other explanation could there be? The lizards are tame, accustomed to the presence of humans. It would not be impossible to transport them to areas where the lumirats are too numerous. Perhaps the goddess will see fit to bestow more blessings upon them, and vormarnok could spread across the former lands of Drakarnor.”

“Reintroducing captive animals to the wild is fraught with difficulty,” Chika murmured, “but they have no natural predators. As long as they can learn to feed themselves, they should be fine. It’s worth a try.”

“But it’s a poor trade,” I said. “The emperor could simply order the temple to surrender the beasts.”

“Not so,” Lord Gwendar countered. “Kythrana and her children are well-loved by the priests and the faithful, and the Empire funded Lady Chika’s extermination of a large pack of vormarnok. There may have been extenuating circumstances, but there will be consequences if the Empire attempts to seize them by force.”

I wasn’t ready to agree to those terms, even if Chika looked willing to accept them. “All important considerations, but I have proposed to Chika, and I will not be allowed to marry without religious approval. I need guarantees that she will at least be tolerated by the temple.”

“Is that all?” A hearty laugh escaped Lord Gwendar’s guts. “There’s a much easier way to achieve that. She need only demonstrate her submission to the goddess by consuming the sacred fruit.”

“I already did that. You witnessed it yourself.”

“You ate one fruit. You must partake regularly, like the rest of us. Only once they can see proof of the goddess’s love upon your teeth will the other priests accept you.”

Chika made a face as though she had just been sentenced to eat mud. I knew she disliked the taste of vitafelars. The prospect of forcing her to eat them for the rest of her life was simply too cruel. I began to object, but she cut me off.

“I’ll do it.”

“You don’t have to. We’ll find another—”

“No, I want to do it. You told me that I belong here, after all. It’s time I start acting like someone who lives in this world.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to give up your culture. Even the emperor’s wives are allowed to practice their own traditions.”

“I won’t give it up, not completely, but I told you, didn’t I, that I was determined to survive here, even if I had to change? Animals that don’t adapt to their new environments eventually perish, after all.”

“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” Lord Gwendar agreed. “Come see me when your teeth start to change, and we’ll make a big to-do out of it. It’ll be a relief to finally accept you as one of us.”

Unlike Lord Gwendar, I had mixed feelings. “You don’t have to force yourself to change. I don’t care what the temple says. I love you as you are now, and I’ll find a way to make our marriage stick without their help.”

Chika’s cheeks flushed, and she took my hands in hers. “Remember how I told you I had given up on marriage before you proposed? I was worried about feeling different than my family, not being able to experience things as they do. If I instead raised my children to be like me, they’d similarly be outcasts. That future seemed too lonely, but then you told me that I belonged. I’ll always be from Earth, but I want to truly belong to this world. Won’t you support me in this?”

“Of course I will.” How could I refuse? “I love you no matter what you do or don’t eat. I just didn’t want you to be unhappy, but if this is what you desire, I’ll ask you again: Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

⁂

“Can we afford to really use an entire fruit for the ceremony?”

Chika’s question was reasonable. As I marveled at the vitafelar in my hand, I shared her awe. How long had it been since I had last held one myself?

“We can, thanks to you,” I answered.

“Thanks to us. Honestly, even though I suggested it, I was never confident we could convince the public to trust us with their lives. When people got sick near the start because we couldn’t remove enough oil from the water, we would have been finished had you not convinced enough influential people to stick with it.”

When she put it that way, I realized we really were a great team, and we were about to become an even greater married couple. In my heart, I still had doubts about how Chika was forcing herself to adopt local customs, but after many long conversations with her, I understood it stemmed from her deep-seated desire to be accepted, and her enthusiastic joy that she finally belonged somewhere. When those feelings faded, I would be there for her, to help her rediscover who she truly wanted to be.

Holding the vitafelar between us, we approached the altar where Lord Gwendar was waiting.

“The sacred fruit binds us all in the worship of the goddess,” he intoned, “but it also binds couples together in matrimony. When they bite the fruit, they will be joined as one.”

I took a brief moment to look at those gathered around us. The emperor appeared exceedingly bored and signaled me to hurry it up. Nalindra had a look of pride on her face, as if she was Chika’s mother, happy that her wayward daughter was finally marrying. She scowled at me when she caught me looking, however.

And then there was Chika. As we both leaned in towards the fruit, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. When I set off for Aelirynth, I never could have imagined I would meet such a wonderful woman, or the ways in which we would change each others’ lives. I didn’t know what future lay ahead of us, but as long as we supported each other, I was confident that we could rise to any occasion, solve any problem, and find happiness together.

“Ready?” I whispered.

She smiled in response, and we opened our mouths wide, sinking our teeth into the fruit.