Forming the covenant

Hera announced that she would register her marriage history with Li Jia. Of the four people present, everyone except Doreen was happy. Winslow even enthusiastically took Li Jia's hand to see what she needed to buy.

Winslow believed that if they could be entered into the marriage records, they were a legally married couple.

Naturally, they needed a grand wedding. As the organizer, Winslow would absolutely not allow anything to go wrong. Her aim was to make it unforgettable for them both.

Li Jia turned her down. She felt they were still dating and had not reached the point of walking down the aisle.

"Doesn't registering your marriage history make you a married couple?" Winslow asked in confusion.

Li Jia answered seriously, "Not necessarily. We've only just confirmed our relationship. We're dating now, still learning to adjust to each other. And even if we really do get married, that doesn't necessarily mean we'll stay together forever. Plenty of people get divorced."

Li Jia lowered her eyes to her fingertips, her voice soft but firm. "To me, registering our marriage history just leaves a record of this relationship. It doesn't mean we have to enter married life right away. I don't want to rush into settling everything because of a formality."

"I won't become an accessory to any relationship. I'm only myself."

Standing between them, Hera looked at Winslow, who insisted on holding a wedding, then at the adamant Li Jia, and sighed helplessly. "As Li Jia said, I don't think we need to rush into a wedding either."

She still needed some time to do what she wanted to do. Until then, she could not let those restless troublemakers set their sights on Li Jia.

Seeing their united stance, Winslow opened her mouth, then finally muttered, "You two just think too much. Something this wonderful ought to be celebrated in style. Fine, we won't hold it now, but when you do want one, I'm going to make it an earth-shattering affair."

The marriage registration went surprisingly smoothly. Holding the faintly glowing registration covenant, Li Jia examined it closely.

It was somewhat similar to a modern marriage certificate, a covenant document with a thin gilded border and little written on it.

Her face and Hera's appeared in the same portrait. Ancient Greece had no cameras, but the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage had special self-service portrait albums. They only had to place it on one.

Li Jia wore a toothy grin, while Hera's lips merely curved slightly, her gaze turned toward the person beside her.

Applicant: Li Jia

Respondent: Hera

Application date: July 7, tenth century BC

Covenant number: J437600-010-77-520

Note: My fate, too, will merge into the lines of your palm.

Hera had written that note herself. Li Jia gave it another couple of looks.

Oho.

So flowery and sappy.

But I like it.

By rights, after marriage, a wife was supposed to take her husband's surname.

A married couple should, after all, be a wife and her lady.

Hera did not make Li Jia take her surname. She said calmly, "I have no surname. If you need me to, I can take your surname, Vance."

Li Jia shook her head in refusal. That disgusting surname, Vance, was the original heroine's original sin, the one that had kept her oppressed all her life. She thought the original heroine would want to cast off those shackles more than anyone. She would reclaim every silver coin she owed the original heroine.

Hera removed the surname Vance from the marriage record.

Now she was only Li Jia, Hera's wife.

Before the covenant could even warm between her fingertips, Hera waved her hand and put it away.

They walked out of the hall hand in hand.

"Where else are we going?"

She asked softly. The night breeze lifted the hem of Hera's robes, carrying a faint woody fragrance.

"To the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage."

Hera looked back at her, a gentleness in her eyes unlike that of the daytime. "Writing the covenant is part of the procedure, but we still have to go there before it's truly settled."

Late at night, the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage had shed its daytime bustle. Only a scattering of prayer lanterns still burned outside, and moonlight lay like a thin veil over the white marble steps.

Li Jia followed Hera inside. There were no murmuring worshippers, no curling incense smoke, only their footsteps echoing softly through the temple.

The goddess statue in the center of the temple shone with a soft luster beneath the moonlight.

Hera released her hand and walked to the Covenant Bucket, brushing her fingertips lightly over the ancient patterns carved into its surface.

Since the day she had created the Covenant Bucket, she had never imagined that one day she would bring the person she loved here to form a covenant.

"The rule here is that every couple must touch the Covenant Bucket together to receive the temple's recognition."

As she spoke, she turned and held out a hand to Li Jia. "Come."

"Put the covenant in together."

Li Jia walked over. Hera conjured the covenant and placed it in her palm. With their hands overlapping, they dropped it into the bucket together.

The instant their fingertips touched the Covenant Bucket at the same time, tiny glowing patterns suddenly lit up across its surface. They spread along their fingertips before finally gathering into an interwoven mark at the center of the bucket.

"That's it?"

Li Jia asked softly as she looked at the mark.

"Yes."

Hera leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Now we truly count as a married couple 'with a recorded marriage history.'"

"I get it. You put the covenant away earlier because you were afraid I'd change my mind, weren't you, big sister?"

Hera paused. When she raised her eyes, her long lashes cast faint shadows beneath them. She reached out and rubbed the top of Li Jia's head. "Yes. I was afraid you'd regret it."

The tips of Hera's ears quietly reddened. She turned her face away, her gaze settling on the moonlight outside the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage, her voice as soft as the wind.

"Hot Spring Ravine is too quiet. I'm afraid you'll dislike it here and return to your homeland. I'm afraid I'm too reserved, that you'll find me dull. So many fears trouble me. I'm afraid you won't want to stay by my side."

Li Jia's heart suddenly softened, and she reached out to catch her wrist. "Big sister, aren't you silly?"

Smiling, Li Jia leaned her face closer until the tip of her nose almost touched Hera's chin. "I'd already made up my mind when I signed the covenant. No matter how lovely other places might be, none of them are as good as Hot Spring Ravine."

"Once I signed it, you'd stay by my side forever. If I went back on it, wouldn't I be pushing you away?"

"Hera, I love you. So don't be afraid."

She looked at her, looking straight at her own goddess. The light in her eyes shone more brilliantly than the stars outside the window, able to dispel every shadow in Hera's heart.

Moonlight spilled through the openwork skylight in the temple roof and fell over them, stretching their shadows long and close together.

Only their breathing sounded within the entire Temple of the Goddess of Marriage. It was so quiet that they could almost hear the moonlight flowing, yet it brought peace of mind.

There was no grand ceremony.

There were no boisterous guests, only a beautiful couple beneath the moon.

Their intertwined fingers quietly completed their most solemn promise to each other, in the moonlight, in the depths of the night.

When they returned to the Deep Hall, Doreen had been waiting at the palace entrance for some time. Seeing that Doreen had something to discuss with Hera, Li Jia tactfully went inside to rest on her own.

The moment she closed the door, the little night-lights inside the Deep Hall slowly lit up, illuminating her pitch-black path.

"What is it?"

Doreen would not visit late at night without reason. Hera went straight to the point; neither of them liked to drag things out.

"Your Majesty, the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage has never had a case of two people of the same sex becoming a married couple. This goes against propriety..."

Hera lowered her eyes to the moonlight on the stone steps. Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the place Li Jia had held earlier, where her warmth still seemed to linger.

She was silent for a moment before she spoke slowly, her voice betraying no emotion. "The rules were set by gods. Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it can't happen now."

"But this is no small matter!"

Doreen anxiously stepped forward. "Li Jia... she isn't a god, after all. Doing this will only make her a target for everyone!"

Hera raised her eyes, her gaze abruptly turning ice-cold. "Since I dared to form a covenant with her, I have the power to protect her."

Her voice was not loud, for fear of disturbing the person inside, yet it carried unquestionable authority. "Anyone looking to die is welcome to try."

"As for the rules, it's time to draw up new ones."

"Effective immediately, an additional clause will be added to the marriage regulations of the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage."

"Where the heart leads, gender does not matter."