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"I am. She also just realized that our agreement is a little bigger than she imagined. I made an agreement with your daughter, Padvir. In exchange for her help, I promised that I will keep her with her family. You are her family. So are all the rest. Anyone she feels fits into that category, I will keep in her life."
"But you look like a priest," my father said, letting his eyes run over the man, confusion clear on his face.
Zeal simply reached over to my arm and trailed his finger up my bare bicep. Lace spiraled out from his touch, marking my skin just to fade as his touch passed. It matched everything else on my body and proved the point better than some flamboyant display of divine power could have.
"You humans forgot about us because we're too much like you," Zeal explained. "I am a man. I'm also a god. I may dress like a priest, but it's so I don't distract from the work they do for me. It's because I don't think I'm better than any of them, simply more powerful." Then he smiled down at me. "And her? Your daughter, Padvir, is the woman who is saving the gods. She will be a priestess that history will remember. She's also overwhelmed and hiding it well."
He bent to kiss my brow, leaving warm traces of lace in his wake, and then left again. It was comforting, in a way. I knew he was just outside, and now I knew he was "listening" in his own way, ready if I needed him. I also knew that it was ok to feel like my head was spinning.
Because my mother was dead, my youngest sister as well. My father was my father, but my brothers and sister were only half siblings. My entire childhood had been a lie, and yet nothing at all had changed. My father had sought me out. He was here, checking to be sure I was ok, but what about the others?
"Have you talked to the rest?" I asked.
His eyes dropped back to the floor. "No. I... You were here. They said I should stay away, but Temptation? I needed to know if you were a prisoner, Nariana. I came to say I'd get you out if you were miserable. I'm not sure how, but - "
"I'm not," I said, stopping him before he could go too far down that path. "But you haven't seen my brothers and sister since they were surrendered? They don't know about the baby or Mama?"
"The younger two knew about the baby," he admitted. "Not your mother, though."
"And Ichi?" I asked, using the shortened version of my oldest brother's name.
Dad finally smiled. "He thinks I'm drinking away the profits from the sales of our crop. He mostly runs the farm now. They're expecting their second child."
"They?"
"He got married a few years back." My father smiled, beginning to finally relax. "Pretty girl. Their first was a daughter, and she has hair as red as a sunset." Then he paused. "Will she see gods too?"
"Yeah," I breathed, realizing the other thing I'd missed. "If Ichi's yours, and she's his, then yes."
"And your kids too," Papa said.
I shook my head. "We don't have children. Zeal protects us from that. If we decide to have a family later, we can ask to be released, but so long as we're priests, we will not have families like that. I hope to live my entire life as a priestess." I stood to bring the tray of finger foods closer. "Papa, are you sure the others aren't yours?"
"No," he admitted. "I loved your mother. I never stopped, not even when she was selling herself to feed us all. I thought she was strong and brave, but it destroyed something inside her. She also wouldn't talk to me about it. That's why I was so worried about you in this temple. But, because she spent her nights with other men, she often spent her days with me. You looked so much like me, though. You always had my eyes. The rest? Xakiri, maybe, but I don't think so. I also didn't care, Nariana. I never loved you kids because of whose seed started you growing."
"No," I said, waving that off. "Papa, only your children can see the gods, regardless of their faith. Not Mama's. We inherit that from you."
The words were barely out of my mouth before I realized all the times Zeal had avoided talking about them. I hadn't pushed because I'd convinced myself I wasn't ready. He hadn't offered because it hadn't been his secret to share. Looking at my father, sitting before me as he tried to make up for the missing years between us, I began to see just how important this was.
"I'm the only one in seven temples who can see all the gods," I realized.
"Then it means they should treat you like a queen," my father said.
I grunted and shook my head. "Sadly, that's not how it works. There are politics in the temples, just like in the nobility."
"There aren't those things on a farm," he admitted. "Just tell me I didn't make things worse by coming here?"
"No," I assured him. "I think I needed this. I want to know all about the farm now. I need you to tell me that you and Ichi are going to be ok."
"You first," he countered. "I want to know about this man who raised my little girl up to be so regal."
"Jamik," I told him. "When I realized that I was never going home, I cried so hard. I just wanted you, Papa. Jamik and Amerlee understood, because they'd been through the same thing. Jamik bought me this stuffed bunny. It was the nicest toy I'd ever had, and it was so soft I could squeeze it as hard as I wanted. The two of them held me, promising they'd take care of me, and they did. Amerlee taught me how to be afraid of nothing. She answered every question I had about growing up. Jamik?" I smiled at the memory. "He's a guardian, and he kept me safe. All of me, Papa, not just my body. He held my hand, played games with me, and warned me about boys when I got older."
"He sounds like a good man," my father said.
I nodded. "They showed me how to grow up, encouraging me to stretch my wings, but were always right there to catch me if I fell. I wasn't the best student. For the first ten years of our education, I was nothing impressive at all, but I knew I was loved. I don't think I would've gotten that anywhere else." I nudged the tray toward him, encouraging my father to nibble. "See, in the Temple of Temptation, we deal in the base emotions, but one of those is love. We love hard, and it's allowed. We just love each other, not the patrons we might lay with."
"Your man," he said, hesitated like he wasn't sure that was the right word, "is he with someone tonight?"
