Wise Counsel

John should have expected that Brenda would fuss over him and Senka when they returned alone, but with everything going on, his mind was more on how she was going to react to them getting attacked by a bratty goddess. And in hindsight, he really should have.

“Mom, we’re fine. We’re all fine,” he protested as Brenda looked all over him.

“Sweetie, call it a mother’s intuition, but something tells me you aren’t here to just drop off some of your loot,” Brenda said firmly. “From what you were planning, I expected you to be out for most of the day.”

“She’s got us there,” Senka remarked, earning the spirit a glare from John and a worried glance from Brenda. “There’s no point in beating around the bush.”

John sighed as Brenda leveled a concerned look at him. “Okay. We ran into a bit of a snag.”

“John,” Brenda said in the way only a mother could, one that carried a hint of rebuke to draw out the truth.

“We got ambushed by the goddess of fate and luck and thrown into an unplanned dungeon run,” John revealed. “And we all got out fine like I said before.”

Brenda quickly came to the realization just what having an unfriendly deity meant, a look of horror painting her features.

“We’re not in any danger, are we?” she asked, her face growing pale. “I mean, Verida’s a goddess and she can counter this fate goddess. But she attacked you with Verida there, right? That means she’s stronger, right?”

“Mom, Mom,” John took a firm grasp of Brenda’s shoulders to keep her grounded and looked right into her eyes. “Verida banished her after we got out of the dungeon she set up for us. Like, full on, ‘I am the boss here. You will be silent and listen.’”

“It honestly was a nice thing to see,” Senka chimed in, the spirit gently squeezing Brenda’s upper arm reassuringly. “In Pruzonia, Verida has made it clear she’s the top god. Honestly, I think Gaia was letting Fortuna get away with it because she thought it was a good, gamey way for us to get the mine we wanted. Everything interacted with John’s powers the usual way, minus us getting separated.”

The tension drained a bit from Brenda’s body, though she still looked worried.

“And outside of Pruzonia?” she asked, having picked up on Senka’s word choice.

“Verida thinks she has a way to keep us safe,” John answered. “But, from the way she was hinting at it, it might be a little involved.”

“She did also use the word ‘intimate’,” Senka clarified. “I think at the least we’ll be ending up naked like when we created the pathways.”

“Oh,” Brenda’s face grew red, “well, I suppose that would be a bit harder to swallow if yesterday hadn’t happened.”

The slight levity helped to disperse some of the heaviness the revelation had conjured and John found himself chuckling.

“That’s true,” he said. “Verida didn’t exactly give us the details. Figured it was better for her to spend the hour it was going to take for the teleport gate we’re building to finish so we can get everyone back to the clearing to formulate how she’s going to explain her plan to us. She didn’t want to try and explain things to the others via Kiera.”

“She would not have had a good time with that.” Brenda giggled slightly before her countenance grew serious once more. “How much time do we have?”

“Close to forty-five minutes,” John answered, rounding down to the nearest quarter hour.

“I think we should head over then,” Brenda said. “Maybe see if Verida needs someone a little less involved to help formulate her speech.”

“I’m not sure how much she knows about how things turned out yesterday,” Senka pointed out. “While she likely can tune out input from Kiera, she likely did get some of what happened in that room. So I think she has a good idea of how ‘involved’ you are, Brenda.”

“Well, probably should clear that up regardless,” Brenda asserted. “Could make things less awkward.”

“Suppose it couldn’t hurt,” John said. “Still going to be awkward. I doubt the others are going to expect anything like this right after going through the gate.”

“At least Verida isn’t going to try whatever her method is right off the bat.” Senka shrugged. “She could have decided to just go with it right after they step through.”

“That would be highly out of character for her and I’d be worried about the severity of the situation if things came to that,” John remarked.

“We shouldn’t dawdle in any case,” Brenda said. “Getting as much time as possible to iron out things can’t hurt.”

“Let me just dump the loot and we can get moving,” John said. “Moving on to the next chapter of my ever weirdening life.”

Verida felt John, Senka and Brenda enter the Kingdom and her nerves grew more jumbled. Despite her tumultuous emotions, she kept them from radiating to Kiera. She wasn’t cutting off all interaction between them, as she had relayed that the gate was in progress and Kiera said that the mine gate had finished with no issue, but she was letting Kiera focus on what was in front of her.

“She’s going to be so embarrassed when I have to tell her I saw most of yesterday’s events,” Verida bemoaned, pressing her hands against her face. “And she’s going to practically burst into flames when I tell them just what we have to do to increase my ability to protect them!”

Despite her tribulations over the method, she was resolute in providing all the aid and support she could to her friends, though she somewhat wished her ability to do so wasn’t so tied to her connection to the natural world and the concept of spring and new life. Though she wasn’t sure if she had full access to her power, she could use a less intimate method.

The worse part was she wasn’t even aware of how much of her power was being kept from her. Gaia’s hand upon her was far beyond her ability to comprehend. She knew that she was being tethered to the Kingdom, but assumed most of that was due to her recent manifestation and the Kingdom as a whole being tied to John’s powers. Given that Gaia was also involved in John’s powers should have been something she took into account, but maybe her glossing over that was also the will of the Highest Star.

Verida shook her head. Thinking about how Gaia was limiting her wasn’t going to make talking about this easier. She wasn’t sure if anything could. She scoured what memories she’d inherited from Yerda to see if there was anything from her mother’s reign she could call upon to ease her thoughts.

Sadly, while she and Yerda were goddesses of the same general idea, the finer details in what they drew power from differed greatly in this regard. Yerda, in her prime, before the fall, was akin to the summer, and those wishing for her blessing would offer up freshly grown produce and the like. Nothing as intimate as needing some level of physical interaction to confer what she wanted to give them.

So caught up in her thoughts, Verida was taken by surprise when a knock rang out from the door. She jumped a bit and turned towards the sound, her heart pounding harder from the sudden noise.

‘Oh, I am not ready for any of this,’ she lamented before she steadied herself and said, “Come in.”

The door opened, and to her increasing surprise, Brenda stepped into the room.

“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Brenda softly said. “John told me you guys had a bit of an adventure today.”

Verida couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “You can call it that. I’m sure John gave you more details than that.”

“He mentioned another goddess and a mine,” Brenda continued as she stepped into the room and let the door close behind her, a concerned look on her face. “And that you were mostly kept on the sidelines for it. Are you okay?”

Verida blinked. She hadn’t expected that to be the first conversation she had with Brenda, or anyone really. At the very least, it took her mind off the impending conversation she was going to have later.

“I won’t say I wasn’t taken by nerves,” Verida answered, the memory of her general inability to help her friends causing her hands to curl into fists. “And having the cause sitting next to me, trying to make ‘small talk’ wasn’t pleasant.”

“I think I can relate with that last part a bit,” Brenda remarked with a slight laugh. “There’s been a lot of times I get stuck in conversation with co-workers I just don’t mesh well with. It can be rather draining. Though I never got the chance to put any of them in their place.”

“That was rather satisfying,.” Verida found herself smiling before her expression dimmed. “Though, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if I hadn’t done that.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Brenda said, drawing closer. “But we can’t go back in time. Or at least, I don’t think that’s a possibility. Magic is weird.”

Brenda’s little joke caused Verida’s mouth to quirk up into a slight smile. “I don’t think that’s a possibility. That’s a little outside of the purview of my abilities.”

Brenda chuckled before her expression grew a touch more serious. “I won’t pretend I understand everything that’s happening, or the sorts of terms for all the mystical jargon you might throw around, but I’m all ears if you want to work me through whatever you’ve got planned to keep us safe. Think of me as a trial run for everyone else.”

Verida’s nerves came back with a vengeance and she shifted on her feet.

“I suppose ripping off the bandage couldn’t hurt,” Verida muttered. “Um, before I start, there is something I need to tell you first. I, em, know about what happened yesterday, at Estelle’s place. Not in all the details but, you know.”

Brenda gently placed her hand on Verida’s shoulder. “I had a feeling you might have known. You didn’t seem too confused about things when we came by after the mall trip, and I can’t see Kiera just telling you outright.”

“I tried not to look, but Kiera wasn’t exactly in control of what she sent me,” Verida revealed in shame. “I, um, haven’t really told her that I saw some of it.”

“I think you should be up front with that before revealing how you intend to protect us,” Brenda advised, letting her arm drop back to her side. “Just to make sure we’re all on the same page. Yesterday was quite the time, so I don’t think anyone’s going to be too mad with you for feigning ignorance of what happened. You were just trying to spare our feelings.”

Verida felt a bit better about that part of her revelation but still felt the weight of nerves upon her. But, she took a breath and organised her thoughts.

“To start, I should probably explain a bit about an aspect of my powers,” she began. “While I am a nature goddess, it would be more accurate to say I most embody nature during the spring. Of the time of new growth. To push my powers to the level needed to ensure protection from other divine beings, we need to align ourselves to that concept. Of new life, new beginnings.”

“Wait,” Brenda interrupted in an urgent tone, holding up a hand. “You aren’t talking about getting pregnant, are you?”

Verida’s eyes widened and she sputtered at Brenda’s question, her face growing warm. “T-that’s not at all what I’m intending!”

“The ‘new life’ part of your opening could be taken as otherwise,” Brenda said with a sly smile. “I’m not sure I’m ready to be a grandmother yet. Or to be a mother a second time.”

Face still ablaze over her faux pas, Verida quickly asserted, “N-no, there’s no intention for anything like that happening! It’s just that I need something to build the protection on, and s-sexual acts have a strong thematic link to my domain. Intimate acts in that direction should give me a solid foundation to ensure my aegis remains a long term protection.”

“Dear, I’m teasing,” Brenda assured the flustered goddess. “But I think it’s a good idea that we’re rehearsing this. I think Beth and Aeolia would have had a field day if you said that to them.”

Verida let out a groan and buried her face in her hands. “Ugh. Why is this so hard?”

Brenda stepped closer and pulled Verida into a hug, causing the goddess to stiffen.

“It’s because you don’t want to mess things up with everyone,” Brenda softly said, her hands rubbing soothing circles into Verida’s back. “This is going to be a big ask, and if things get weird, it might lead to hurt feelings. It’s normal to be afraid of ruining friendships, especially when you’re trying to do something to help them. But, I don’t think anyone’s going to think worse of you for this. And I also think that you might be making things out to be a bigger problem than it has to be. Call it intuition, but I don’t think any of the others will have a problem with taking things to the next level. I certainly don’t.”

To further show her acceptance of the situation, Brenda closed the short distance between her and Verida’s lips. The goddess took in a sharp breath before their lips meshed together, her mind running through a number of thoughts before Brenda’s soft and tender lips and gentle hands dominated the current of her mind. She did manage to maintain the separation between her and Kiera’s minds. The bluenette getting a preview of what might be waiting for them was the last thing Verida wanted right now.

The worry and tension faded as she melted into the physical affection. They lingered still, but Brenda was doing one hell of a job to quiet them.

Brenda broke the kiss after a few seconds, far too short for Verida’s liking. She smiled at Verida. “Guess I still got it. Feel better?”

“A bit,” Verida said. “Can’t say I expected that.”

Brenda’s smile turned into a satisfied smirk. “After yesterday, and with everything John and the others have gone through in the past few weeks, I think waffling about is something we can just skip.”

“Let’s hope the others see it the same way,” Verida muttered.

“Oh, I think they will,” Brenda firmly said. “They might need some convincing, but I don’t see any real downside they could use to counter your offer. Now, let’s go outside and wait for those gates to link up.”