Jolán shuddered and raised her head in disbelief. In the moonlight, the Goddess's profile was cool and serene as jade, revealing neither joy nor anger, but those words had unmistakably come from her lips.
"Thank you, Goddess! Thank you, Goddess!" Jolán kowtowed repeatedly, oblivious to the blood seeping from her forehead as it struck the rubble. "I'll bring my sister to pay her respects right away!"
She scrambled up and staggered toward a dark corner at the edge of the ruins.
Watching her retreating figure, Blaidd leaned toward Ranni's ear and muttered, "One wasn't enough, so now you're giving him a pair?"
Ranni glanced at him. "You have a problem with that?"
"N-no." Blaidd hurriedly shook his head. "I just think you're being far too good to Tarnished."
"Good?" Ranni snorted. "Once those two women have him tangled up so badly he can't get out of bed, he'll learn what 'good' means."
Blaidd fell silent. So was this a reward or a punishment?
He decided not to ask any more questions. He couldn't fathom a woman's mind, much less a Goddess's.
A moment later, Jolán returned.
A woman of roughly the same height followed behind her, wearing the same black armor and exuding the same air-if Jolán was a drawn sword, this woman was a dagger hidden in the shadows.
"Anna, kneel!" Jolán pulled her sister down before Ranni.
Anna clearly hadn't grasped the situation yet, but she never disobeyed her sister. She obediently knelt and raised her head, revealing a face that strongly resembled Jolán's, though her features held a little more gloom and a little less valor.
Ranni studied the sisters.
The same devotion, the same loyalty, the same-brokenness.
She could see the cracks deep within their souls. They were brands left by dark prisons, wounds accumulated through