The goddess of home interrupted her defending the god of war, “What is done is done. We all make mistakes.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Babette laughed. She was about to tell her about what the god of war had been planning behind her back but then remembered her time. “I’m Sif. I am going back to claim my rightful place in Babette’s body.” When none of the gods answered her, she grabbed Jane and said, “I’ll force her back too if you don’t agree now.”
The god of mercy laughed, “You don’t have the power to force you both back.”
Babette smiled a cruel smile and looked at them all, her blue eyes full of mischief. “You are fools. Jesse of House Vo is at my side. She’ll give me the power to bring Jane back.” She was pleased looking at the goddess of home’s face expression, “Oh you didn’t know your little disciple had loaned out her sister to go behind your back”
All the gods were silent.
“Jesse has no part in our affairs,” the god of war said.
“I would say that her father would disagree when you allowed his daughters to be stolen.”
“Drusilla left of her own accord,” the goddess of home defended her disciple.
“And you conveniently kept her,” Babette replied quickly. “Now grant me what I want, or I take Jane now and ruin everything. Kara will be Empress and you will be no more.”
“And you think she would keep you?”
“I’ve made other arrangements,” Babette said proudly. “Now am I taking Jane or not?”
The goddess of home and the other gods nodded and agreed. Then Babette let go of Jane and was brought out of her bright dream back to the living before the seven minutes was up. However, just as Mir had suspected, her human body was fragile she still had blood in her lungs. She was struggling just enough to make it look like she needed Jesse’s help, so she resisted from fully bringing herself back.
Soon Babette felt Jesse’s shockingly warm hands on her. Hands of the other. Not completely mortal hands. Jesse was instructing her body, telling her how to heal. Helping her.
Babette opened her eyes.
Jesse looked down into Babette’s blue eyes and through a flash she saw the Afterlife and the gods. It was terrifying, so much so, Jesse passed out on the stone courtyard.
Babette lay there with Jesse slumped on top of her while Mir, Kol and others surrounded them all talking and yelling about what to do. It was complete chaos. She was Sif. She had proved it to everyone, and she had done what she needed to do in the Afterlife. Babette looked up into the grey winter sky and smiled as she watched the gossip drones above them. Finally, as Jesse came to, they both stood and Babette announced, “As the gods have proven to all witnesses here and in the Empire. I am Sif. I have returned.” She looked around at the faces and thought, None of you will ever question me again. Then her eyes caught on her human daughter in the crowd standing with her nanny. Her cheeks red from the cold, her blonde curls peeking out from under her cap and Babette went still. Not yet, she thought. Then she made eye contact with Mir while the Alliance people bowed before her.
Jesse just stood there dumbfounded and half covered in Babette’s blood. She knew what the gods were now, and they were certainly no gods. She felt sick to her stomach and more than anything she wanted to go back to Kol’s quarters and never leave. She had never wanted to leave Earth and she certainly never wanted to be involved in a celestial power struggle here. But now she and her sister had been tricked into this fight that was not theirs. Jesse didn’t know what it was exactly, but she felt it through Babette, although she was trying to mask it. And Jesse also knew by the way Babette and Mir looked at her now and it wasn’t a nasty look because she wasn’t bowing to Sif, it was something else entirely.
Kol took Jesse’s hand and squeezed it. Now they both had Babette’s blood on their hands. Thankfully, Jesse didn’t’ need him to speak. She just nodded and Kol and the few from his crew that had been allowed to accompany them slipped back through the crowd who were pushing forward to touch Babette and pray to the gods with her. It only took a few minutes to reach the Ora’s transport. Once inside they quickly made their way back to the Ora in orbit. After they docked, Jesse said nothing but went directly to Kol’s quarters. Kol gave some commands on the bridge to satisfy the basic standards to leave Alliance Four orbit but then joined Jesse.
He entered his quarters and saw her lying on his bed petting Salem who was purring loudly. She had quickly showered but had not dried her body, so her hair was still dripping with clean water. Had things not been so serious he would have made a joke. Instead he lay down behind her and pulled her close to him. They didn’t speak for a few minutes.
“You need to tell me what you’re thinking,” Jesse said. “I can’t hear your thoughts with all these blockers.”
“I’m not thinking much. I just feel terrible for you. Whatever happened with Babette, I never want to see that expression cross your face again. How can I help you?”
Jesse held up her wrist with the prisoner’s bracelet on, “Can you take this off so that I can go home?”
Kol grabbed her hand and held it close to her body as she held her tightly. He whispered, his lips against her neck, “If I could do that I would I have done it already.”
Tears fell down Jesse’s cheeks and she began petting the kitten again. His purr was the only sound in the room.
Finally, after a few more minutes Jesse said, “Give me another bracelet then.”
“What do you mean?” Kol asked coming out of the quiet depressional daze of their situation.
She held up her wrist again, “Give me a marriage bracelet. Make our relationship permanent. That way, no matter how long it takes for me to gain my freedom from Dru, I have your promise through marriage that you will wait and always want me. That you want to do this not because I force you to be with me, but because you want me, whether I have any supernatural abilities of not.”
Kol turned Jesse over so that he could look into her green eyes. They were red from crying. “I wanted you when I thought you were a dirty, backward human from the most primitive planet I had ever visited. Of course, there’s no question about our connection.” He touched one finger to his heart and then to hers. “We will be forbidden to buy any marriage bracelets now though.”
“Has that ever stopped you?”
“No,” Kol smiled, “You didn’t let me finish, I’m thinking.” After a few seconds he continued, “I believe a member of my crew is about to get married. With the promise of a lot of UCs we could ask to take his bracelets and reformat them to match out DNA.” Kol immediately got up from the bed then, kissed Jesse on the forehead, and was out the door.
Jesse remained with the kitten.
About twenty minutes later Kol entered the room and held up two bracelets. Jesse had seen her sister Dru’s marriage bracelet, but these were entirely different, they were silver and black but had pleasing geometric designs and four jewels, not two. She sat up, “And these will work for us? They look different than other marriage bracelets I’ve seen before.”
“Yes,” Kol explained, “These are typical middling class bracelets. They have four indicators as we travel far throughout the galaxy. They are more powerful than any other marriage bracelet.”