Amid the tall, torch-lit pillars and flickering fire pits of Endowment Hall, Illya was hoisted up on to a waist high table as the women around her cheered and laughed.
Watching from a distance, Talla noted that Illya didn't look nearly as surprised as Talla had the night she'd lost her virginity; the night they'd done this to her.
"Ren hana," someone shouted, as if reminders were needed these days with all the double upgrades going around.
The shears were handed forward so one of the older women could cut Illya's long skirt down not just to knee length but all the way to the skimpiest of mini-skirts. It was a quick thing, done by a woman with enthusiasm if not any particular skill in the matter.
Illya somehow managed to blush and sneer at the discarded remnants of her clothes at the same time, before she hopped down off the table and grabbed her drink, disappearing into the crowd.
"Now what?" Tina asked.
"Wait for her to come to us," Talla said. "It's her first night. We shouldn't take that away from her if she doesn't want to talk."
Tina nodded agreeably, sipping her own drink. She and Talla had arranged that they would hammer their assignments for the night into the ground as quickly as possible. That guaranteed that they would be back in Endowment Hall long before Illya could be done with Zhair'lo.
So here they stood having waited by the side of one of the many crackling fires throughout the giant hall. And here they would continue to wait
"You trusted her with a lot," Tina remarked quietly, her eyes trying to track Illya's movements.
"I'm sure I'm right."
"Can you be sure we'll be right with everyone we take in?" Tina asked. "We're going to need a lot on our side."
Talla gulped nervously.
"We'll have to be careful," she admitted. "But it's a long, long game we're playing here."
"It's years between chances," Tina reminded her.
Goddesses tended to last about five years or so. That gave them about two years before the current leader died of natural causes. It was, they felt, to their credit that they did not contemplate speeding along the demise of the Goddess in any way – never mind the sheer impracticality of getting anywhere near a Goddess with a weapon.
Their plan was to wait for the natural weakening of old age to take the life of their glorious leader. At that point, all they had to do was prevent another from taking her place.
There were probably a lot of ways to prevent the ascension of a new Goddess and only three of them were murder. Or rather: one of the ways involved three murders.
Time was in good supply. Ideas weren't.
Tina hadn't been inside the Temple the last time a new Goddess had been made, but she knew people who had. The amount of security around the Queens for those scant couple of days was nothing short of insane. No amount of fortune would get through that many of Form's determined enforcers, especially considering the pool of women they would be working with.
Whom would they be recruiting?
Sealed Virgins, for starters. They were the most likely to be bitter. Not all of them had it as bad as Illya did, but they were still the best shot. After that, it was a matter of finding all of the other women who had been punished for Monogamy and seeing if they still felt the same way.
"Whatever we do," Tina said, "we have to be ready. Between the first signs of weakening and – y'know – can be months or days. And sometimes Goddesses can burn out real fast."
"You two should be more careful," Illya said, popping up next to them with a grin. "You shouldn't talk without having a look around."
Talla smiled.
"Could you really understand us with all this noise?"
"A little, since I knew what your were talking about anyway."
Illya embraced first Talla, then Tina.
"How was it?" Talla asked, observing courtesy.
"Brilliant, really," Illya said. "You have no idea how good a cock feels after using fingers for months on end."
She inhaled, heaving her new breasts at them.
"Love the skirt," Tina remarked of her unevenly cut garment.
"Could you see, uh, me from down here?"
"Not much," Talla said. "Well, kind of."
There was no 'kind of'. Illya hadn't been wearing underwear and, after the crude snip job on her long skirt, everyone in the place knew that now.
The new Initiate looked around the room to make sure no one was in earshot.
"You have nothing to fear in him," she told Talla very quietly, continuing to scan the crowd. "We shouldn't talk here, though."
"No one's nearby," Talla insisted.
Tina looked nervous.
"We can talk in the baths, tomorrow," Tina said.
"That's no better than here," Talla said. "Just keep an eye out."
Tina twisted her lips, but took a position so the three girls formed a circle and could watch over each others' shoulders.
"Now spill it," Talla told Illya.
Illya shrugged and went on.
"He barely remembers fucking whoever that girl was. He says they gave him a potion of some kind – and I can tell you that they do have potions like that – that aroused him against his will."
Talla inhaled, fresh cold air clearing a great, dark burden away from her heart.
So Zhair'lo hadn't betrayed her.
