A priestess of Nesirith, blue robe rippling like water, leads her to a small round room in the back of the temple.

There's a boy about her age there, leaning against the wall with an air of casual boredom, and a priestess of Vaneda standing calmly with her hands folded; they both look at the door when Tila enters the room.

Does the boy have something to do with why she was brought here? Presumably.

"Hello," she tells him.

"Hi," he says, smiling. The priestesses gesture for the two of them to stand facing each other in the middle of the room.

"Amideth Tila Adaen," says Nesirith's priestess.

"And Ashazei Tael Ismani," says Vaneda's.

"The gods have seen the balance of the world reflected in you," Nesirith's priestess continues. "On the first day of the coming year, you are invited to return to this temple and join your hearts in marriage."

"We are pleased to offer you these gifts as tokens of your betrothal," says Vaneda's priestess, and she produces a god-star pendant made of silver and set with beautiful gems in the six divine colours, which she gives to Tael. Nesirith's priestess gives a similar necklace to Tila.

Wait what.

Okay it's kind of obvious what. Just. What??? She doesn't really think of herself as a destined soulmate kind of person--who is this fellow--she's sure he's lovely, the gods are supposed to be very good at this. Just. Her? Really?

She tentatively smiles at her--fiance. Gosh. If this turns out to be some kind of huge mistake they have until the first of the year to figure it out, right, and this is probably a good thing.

He grins at her and steps forward to take her hand.

"Nice to meet you!" he says. "I know the way out of the temple and after that I'll be completely lost, I got in on the skytrain two hours ago."

"Nice to meet you! Do you at least have somewhere to stay? Don't worry, I know the city like the back of my hand."

"Oh, they gave me a house, I just haven't been to it yet. Thirty-something Rose Street? I have it written down."

"Oh, good. Well--do you want me to show you the way there, or do you want to do something datelike, what with the whole being-engaged thing."

"House first, I think. But then maybe a datelike thing."

"Cool. I'm guessing if you're my soulmate you'll like at least one of cute little tea shop, cute little food shop, and cute little knife shop. If none of those appeal or they do but don't sound sufficiently datelike I can come up with other suggestions!"

He just kinda beams at her.

She giggles and twirls a little. "C'mon, let's go find your house."

He leads her out of the temple and then, as promised, has no idea where to go from there.

Fortunately, she does! Rose street is in the fancy part of town; Tila's been there less than most of the less-fancy parts, but not none.

"Wow," she says when they get to his house. "Nice house."

"That is a nicer house than I was expecting," he says, gazing up at it. "Like, a lot nicer. Wow. Not that I was expecting a shack, but," he gestures up at the - muchness of it.

"I mean I figured it'd be fancy since, you know, Rose street, but yeah this is beyond what I was thinking of." No do not say--no. Wait. Soulmate. "It honestly kind of feels like it's challenging us to have sex in every room of it."

—he looks at her and bursts into delighted giggles.

"What?"

"You're amazing, that's what."

She gives him a brief speculative look and kisses him.

He kisses back.

Mmmm, excellent. Best outcome.

Eventually she breaks the kiss and beams at him.

He beams back.

"I guess there really is something to this whole soulmate business!"

He giggles, hugs her, and kisses her again.

Oh, good. She kisses back enthusiastically.

Mmmmm.

Maybe at some point they should go into the house.

He's a little too busy to think of suggesting it, though.

Eventually, after a significant amount of kissing has happened, she comes up for air and says, "So did you want to see the inside of your house or just the outside?"

"Inside sounds good."

"Mm. --Knife shop first might be more fun, depending on whether you just want to see the inside or do obvious inside things."

...well now he has to kiss her again.

"I think the knife shop can wait."

Kissssss mmmmm.

"Alright," she says, a little breathless.

"I mean, unless you don't think I can hold your attention without a weapon," he jokes.

"Mm, I bet you can. Only one way to find out, though."

Right, into the house they go. The house is huge and stunningly gorgeous but right now all Tael cares about is the quickest route to a reasonably comfortable item of furniture. Hey look, a couch, that'll work.

Disrobing while kissing is a challenge but one that Tila has experience conquering.

Tael is too impatient for that. His clothes catch fire and burn away, leaving him in nothing but his god-star betrothal pendant.

--That is unexpected! And honestly kind of hot.

Oh good. Back to kissing.

Oh, yes. She finishes getting her clothes off, although she also leaves the pendant on.

He does his very best to hold her attention.

Her attention is thoroughly held.

Perfect.

He's using teeth, right, she is so in favor of teeth.

He wouldn't dream of omitting such a crucial component.

Ohhhhhhhh good.

Eventually, he ends up flopped on the couch with his arms wrapped around her, looking at her like she's the most wonderful thing he's ever seen.

She sighs happily and snuggles closer. "That was awesome."

"You're amazing."

"I never expected a soulmate, but then, I never imagined you."

"You're perfect." He kisses her.

Happy affectionate snuggly kisses!!!

Yes those.

"I don't think I quite know enough about you to say perfect but you're definitely amazing."

He smiles crookedly. "Oh, I'm definitely not perfect."

"Mm?"

"Mm." Nuzzle.

Nuzzle. "Is it something you want to talk about? I'm--good at listening."

He laughs softly. "It's not - I don't know. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably not that."

"I'm not thinking of anything in particular. It just seems like having something you can't talk about would be--worse than not."

"?"

Shrug. "I--don't want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me. Secrets can be stressful. If it's not that way for you then that's fine, just...I want to make you happy."

"Mm. I want to make you happy too." Kiss. "I'm not really the secretive type."

Kiss. "I don't expect you to have trouble with that."

Giggle. Kiss.

Mmm lovely kisses.

"Well, we can thoroughly scratch this room off the checklist."

Kiss.

"I love you," he says, hugging her.

Awww!

"You're a sweetheart," she says, hugging back.

He laughs. "It's a new look on me but I think I like it."

"I like it too!" Cheeksmooch.

He giggles delightedly.

"Is the sweetheartness-being-new part of what you meant by not perfect? --Alternately I can stop prying."

"Mm..."

He considers how to explain.

"...Me and my parents, back home, we had this thing going on where I'd do something criminally horrible and they'd find a way to cover it up and tell me how disappointed they were and then I'd do something else and start the whole thing over again. Eventually I got so fed up that I decided to stop being horrible just so they'd stop hiding it like that."

"Wow, that's way worse than my mom."

He laughs. "Oh? What'd your mom do?"

"My dad died while she was pregnant with me and she sort of--lost interest in parenting without her beloved coparent around. She wasn't materially neglectful or anything, I always had clothes that fit and food, but she never made more than a token attempt to pretend to be more interested in her child than her dead spouse."

"Yeah, that's pretty bad."

"Yeah. I mean, I'm fine, but lots of kids would have been hurt worse than me."

"Most kids probably would've been fine with my parents. Well, maybe. They only got really annoying when I started doing things I would've been arrested for if I'd been anyone else's kid. I don't know if they would've been perfectly nice to somebody who wasn't growing up into a violent bully, or if they would've found other things to complain about."

"Were you trying to get arrested or just undeterred by the possibility? I think most people who do horrible things would be glad to have the ability to get away with pulling arbitrary shit."

"I didn't exactly mind not being arrested, but... everybody'd act like nothing happened, if I hurt somebody bad enough they'd move away and people would just stop talking about them, like they'd never existed in the first place. It was creepy."

"That is creepy."

"Yeah." He sighs. "That's the north for you. I hear Okaiva's much more civilized."

"Yeah. Welcome to the City of Not Creepy."

"I like it here so far!"

"Remind me what fraction of your time in the city has been spent having sex with me so far? I'd hardly call that a feature of the city."

"They did give me this lovely house to have sex with you in!"

"True, the house is very lovely. Want to go check another room off the list?"

"Mmmmm." Snuggle. "I'm so cozy, though."

Awww that's so cute. Clearly the correct thing to do here is pet his hair.

Yes! Yes it is!

She nuzzles him. "Best fiance."

He nuzzles back. "The gods did a good job setting us up."

"They did!"

"I couldn't ask for a better person to marry." Kiss.

She kisses him back and shivers happily. She wouldn't marry him today, but they have almost a year to be sure. She strongly suspects they'll be sure.

Snuggle. Adoring gaze.

Mm yes those things. They are good things and there should be two of them.

So cozy!!

Yes it is.

"You're so warm."

"You're so soft." Kiss.

She tilts her head to meet his lips, making a happy little noise as she does so.

So soft and cozy and good!!!

She is all those things.

Eventually she says: "I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

"Yeah, me too." Nuzzle.

Nuzzle. "It might even be worth interrupting the coziness over."

"Or I could just cheat with magic because I'm lazy and comfortable."

She giggles. "Yes, that's also a possibility."

He kisses her.

Shaped air picks up a small table and pulls it closer to the couch; the wooden surface sprouts a shimmering curtain of flame, and when the flames die down a few seconds later, the table is unharmed but there's a loaf of fresh bread on top. He flicks his fingers at it and it falls apart into slices.

"Ooh, that is some nice cheating," she murmurs against his lips.

Kiss. "Mmhm."

"It seems," kiss, "like it might be difficult," kiss, "to kiss you and eat at the same time."

"Oh, probably." Kiss.

She grabs a slice of bread, eats it, and then goes back to kissing him.

Oh that's a good plan.

Mmm yes.

She winds her arms around his neck and slowly rolls her hips against his.

This is going to be such an inefficient way to end up having sex in every room of his house, but on the other hand, mmmm.

They can have sex in every room of his house later. For now, mmmmm.

Mmmmmmm she's so good. Best prettiest softest coziest.

He has successfully rendered her insufficiently coherent to list qualities that he has the most of like that.

Oh good! He's so proud!

She comes with her head thrown back and blood trickling across her skin from the place where his teeth are buried in her flesh.

Mmmmmmmm yes perfect.

And now he is starting to feel like there is not enough space on this couch to snuggle the way he would like to snuggle. Clearly the solution is to scoop her up and carry her somewhere that more closely resembles a bed.

She gives a startled yelp and then giggles delightedly, kicking her feet in the air.

Flomp! Snuggle!

Snuggle!

"You're so cuddly," she sighs happily, nuzzling his shoulder.

"Well you're very cuddleable!"

"I am." Nuzzle. "So're you."

Mmmmm cozy snuggles.

Absolutely those.

"You have such a great smile," she sighs with cozy contentedness.

"Well, so do you!"

She nuzzles his nose. "No wonder we're such a good match the gods betrothed us!"

He giggles.

Mmm.

She snuggles a little bit closer and gives a soft happy sigh and her eyes drift shut.

So cozy! Cozy and warm and soft and good.

Cozy warm soft good asleep fiancee.

That is one of the best kinds of fiancee!

It is! So incredibly snuggleable. Clearly the most important thing in a fiancee.

She is his favourite and he loves her so much.