A trip to the grand baths.

They laid there. Bare, sweaty, messy.

Well, Noriko was certainly a mess drenched in sweat and fluids.

As her Lord discovered, it just didn’t stick to him. Though he did his best to stick to her, lying beneath her, their naked figures still together. Though no longer writhing in pleasure. Just sharing a breathing that seemed to synchronize.

It was tempting to lay there all day, and a certain amount of recovery time was warranted. During which, Noriko drew little circles upon the broad chest of her Lord, and gave him occasional adoring puppy-dog looks, before glancing away.

“She seems quite satisfied, but unlike deities, the mortal races are driven by their manifold needs.” The voice said. “While you can go without, she cannot. It is an excellent chance to bond, too. Really, half the point of a bath is taking one with your followers. Not just for the sex. Not entirely.”

Words many of her fellow gods still in the world lived by, apparently.

“Well then? You’ve heard us both speak plenty. Go on! Vocalize your desires!”

The wanderer obliged.

“Are you okay?”

Noriko stared in wonder, and then coughed awkwardly.

“Ahem. Apologies, my Lord, I assumed you would not speak. I am… wonderful. A lifetime of holy poetry and song, and I do not have the words for it.” She smiled. “Though my lack of composure at the moment would be embarrassing to show to anyone else.”

She could show anything to him, and in fact, wouldn’t and couldn’t hide any side of herself. That was how they both felt, though her Lord had yet to wonder how much of his feelings were reflected from the bond they shared. They basked in that emotional glow just as much as in his own warmth.

Noriko imagined filling the silent temple was the crackle of the roaring fireplace… until she looked over, and saw a tiny fireball leap from his finger, to the hearth, and it went up in a column of fire.

He took a while to compose what he was going to say, as they watched the dancing, leaping flames bring life and light back to the abandoned atrium.

The silence was a comfortable, cuddly one. She was so soft everywhere.

“This temple must have many baths. When you are rested, show me.”

Noriko blinked at his choice of words. “Show, my Lord…? Ah. If I may dare a question, are you perhaps new to this world?”

He nodded.

The voice whistled. “Not slow on the uptake. Not nearly as slow as you, oh manly brick. Well, you’re hardly the first deity to come walking out of the wilds. In fact, some version of that origin is the legend for nearly every god, stretching back forever.”

“In that case, I shall do my utmost to advise you!”

Noriko leapt to her feet, still bare, still dripping.

“Of Autumn and her people, that is! What little I know is yours! Though of course I cannot presume to lead, I can at least serve as a demonstration. Bathing is important. A key part of worldly culture. We cannot all be as pure as you, Lord.”

Having just said she couldn’t, she then promptly led the way to the baths.

To perhaps the last one that still functioned and drew water from the endless pipework running above and below the temple. It was open to the clear blue sky overhead, and as it was floors above the ground, needed no more of a perimeter than a waist-high wall for safety on its outward side.

Providing anyone who took advantage of it a view of the forests, and the great river winding its course north and south. There was so much life; the green trees, flocks of birds and fish. Animals ran free through the wilderness, unthreatened by the arrows of hunters yet, nor the claws of nightmares.

Autumn’s unspoiled abundance was breathtaking.

This was the world he’d been born into, and in less than two days, he had seen, and experienced, so much.

The voice was very pleased with Noriko, as she ran the pumps and filled the impressively-massive central bathing area with steam and foam and water. The bath was many times larger than could be needed for just the two of them, but nobody was present to object.

From the enormous architecture and designs, excess was the law of this temple.

“Woman, worshiper, priestess, archer, adviser… she’ll have no end of uses, and do it all with earnest joy. That is all I meant, so do not be upset with me! You are not upset...? N-Not everyone is born with such devotion, but the principle endures. Mortals need freedom to survive, but they also need order. It is their nature. Provide some of both. Too much, or not enough, and your followers will not flourish.”

It was hard to deny her advice, considering he knew so little, and she had experienced so much. Including the decay and loss of her flock. Whatever happened to him, he swore upon this beautiful world and its countless wonders that he would never allow that to happen to his own.

If Noriko was mortal, then Noriko would die, but only at peace, many years hence.

She sat on the edge of the stony bath, unaware of his somber thoughts, kicking her legs across the water. “Hot, for there are natural springs on the spot this was built. But not so hot as to injure. Though I suppose that’s only a concern for me… I’d imagine you could take a bath in flames and not feel it, Lord!”

That wasn’t something to test out anytime soon.

The priestess giggled, giddy and light-headed even before the vapors got to her, and she slid her womanly figure down into the water. Inviting with a smoldering look over her shoulder as she brushed long black hair out of the way.

“Come when you are ready, my Lord. The water’s fine, and I can tell you much of Autumn while we bathe, should you require it.”

The wanderer submerged himself into water for the first time in his life.

The joy of a good, cleansing bath in pure, hot water was truly universal.