Silence. I can already tell that he was blushing and regretting his decision to come here in the first place.

Now that I think about it, where are my clothes to change into? I only really had my dress from this evening.

Looks like it can't be helped…

"Damien, I need clothes to sleep in," I called out.

More silence. Oh, he must be suffocating in embarrassment right now.

"I'll be right back," Damien said, walking away.

I heard a door click and giggled to myself. He's so much fun to toy with. Poor man doesn't know the first thing about intimacy, but he's going out of his way to do things for a lady in the dead of night.

While he was gone, I decided to dry myself off with the towel and head back into the room. The choker that was left on the bed was glowing, but I couldn't hear the goddess.

I guess I can only hear her if I put it on.

Clutching onto the bath towel around me, I lay on the bed, holding onto the necklace.

"My child? Are you sleeping yet?" The goddess asked.

"I'm not even wearing the necklace yet. I can still hear you?" I gasped.

"That's because you're so special. My lovely child, please sleep soon. We're losing moonlight."

The glowing stopped. I glanced at the clock on the wall. 9:21pm. It's not that late. I wonder what she means by that.

The door opened and shut, "My liege, I found a robe…"

My head swung around to meet Damien's eyes. He was frozen as he looked at me in my towel. Oh no, this is too much for him.

I quickly got up and walked to the human statue, "Thank you. Now, turn around. I don't want you to faint."

He was still frozen; the only thing moving was his eyes. I sighed. I took the bathrobe from him and set it aside. If he's going to stay frozen, might as well thaw him out, right?

"Damien~" I cooed, giving him a hug.

He flinched, blushing madly, "I'll turn around…"

"Good boy," I said, backing up from him.

Reluctantly, Damien turned around. While his back was turned to me, I dropped the towel that covered my body and threw on the robe. It seemed tight enough, so I went back to Damien and hugged him from the back.

He flinched again, "You're teasing me, my liege."

"Teasing you is fun," I admitted. "And you're not telling me to stop anyway."

I took hold of his hand and led him to the bed, "You should've told me that you want to act like a couple sooner."

Damien blushed, "I didn't know how to go about that. My apologies."

I let go of Damien's hand and faced him, cupping the left side of his cheek. I maneuvered his head so that his eyes would look into mine. He doesn't realize how seductive those eyes look.

"I'll take it slow with you," I whispered.

"Pardon…?" Damien whispered back, trailing off.

I stuck my tongue out, "Not like that, you pervert. You'll probably die of embarrassment if I gave myself up to you now."

He said nothing, but his eyes said everything. I grabbed the necklace and placed it in his hands.

"We're losing moonlight," I told him. "Put this around my neck for me."

I got on the bed first, sitting up by the pillows and motioning for Damien to follow. This was going to be the first step to getting revenge on that wretched king. We're not going to sleep together just yet. We will make it look like we did though.

Damien crawled in next. I began to realize what he was wearing. He had a robe on but no shirt. His pants were silky smooth.

He's certainly dressed for the occasion, but his attitude isn't.

"I'm putting this on you now," he said. “Excuse me, my liege.”

I stayed still as he put the necklace around my neck again. No glow yet. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep if the glow was consistent throughout the night.

“Alright, now let’s go to bed,” I announced.

I shimmied under the covers and got comfortable. Damien was still sitting up.

“Get comfortable, your grace,” I complained.

“You should fall asleep first,” he said.

“No, couples fall asleep together. What’s the point if you’re acting like my knight?”

My eyes were getting droopy, but I didn’t want to fall asleep until Damien got under the covers. I think my mind was getting hazy as if the goddess was pulling me into dreamland, so before I could fully succumb to the limited void, I threw myself closer to Damien, laying my head on his chest and wrapping an arm around him.

I can’t wait until he gets used to all the touching and stops flinching.

“L-Lady Everdeen,” Damien stammered.

“This is good for now,” I whispered. “I’m sleepy. Don’t pull away from me…”

My eyes closed, and my body felt lighter and lighter.

—

I was floating. Drifting into the abyss. Is this place supposed to be a bridge between realms or something? This is my third time being here.

“Over here, my child…” the goddess called out.

A ray of light appeared in front of me, along with piano-key-like stairs. They looked like they could break if you so much as looked at them, but they were much sturdier than I thought. The only path to go was up, so I slowly made my way to the ray of light and crossed it.

The scenery changed. Clear blue skies and green landscape. A giant tree in the middle of it all. Flowers surround it.

Step after step, I drew closer to the tree and placed my hand on its trunk. Nothing was happening.

"Boo," a voice whispered in my ear.

"AH!" I yelp.

I fell onto the bed of flowers in surprise and turned around. A gorgeous woman in a plain white dress greeted me. Her skin tone was the same color as my own; her eyes were amethyst, and her hair was long and black. Unruly wasn't the word to describe it because its unruliness was a part of her charm.

The woman stifled her laughter as she looked at me, "Oh dear, that was just too easy."

I blinked, then pouted as I crossed my arms, "Geez, I never thought our goddess was a prankster."

The woman in front of me was, in fact, Goddess Diana. Her radiance was crushing but not stifling. It was bearable to be around.

Goddess Diana smiled, "Once you've been stuck here for thousands of years, then you'll understand my pain."

She knelt down to my pouting form and laid a hand on my leg, "My child, at last we meet. I've been waiting for ages to see your face."

I decide to stop pouting and uncross my arms, "I can't really say the same, but it's an honor to bask in your radiance, nonetheless."

"Aww, you wound me. How could you say that to your own mother?"

"Aren't you a mother to all?"

"Well, yes, but you're my actual flesh and blood."

My eyes widened. Flesh and blood? Me? My soul simply went into another body after I ended it all.

Goddess Diana could read my eyes and explained, "Yes, this body isn't yours, but your soul is much too radiant to not resemble mine."

I looked at her, "Wait, so my name is actually Diana…?"

She nodded, "I named you after myself so I could keep an eye on you, my lovely child. What a sad life you lived."

The goddess, my mother, took her hand off my leg and opened her arms for a hug. I still couldn't believe it. I actually had a mother? Not only that, but my mother was also the goddess herself.

I almost didn't want to run into her arms, but then a random fact came into my head that Damien said.

Goddess Diana can't touch the world if a Saintess is born…

Which means even if she wanted to intervene, she couldn't. She couldn't stop the abuse. The torture. The injustice. Everything wrong that had happened to me, she had no choice but to sit there and watch.

Tears slid down Diana's face, "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything. I had no choice. I'm a terrible mother, I know."

How painful must it have been for her to just sit there and watch her daughter go through injustice after injustice and not be able to do a damn thing about it? If I was in her shoes, I would've burned the whole world to the ground. Then, I would've burned the ashes.

I flung myself at my mother and gave her a huge bear hug, burying my face into her chest. I became a sniffling mess. She hugged me back, pulling me closer to her.

My sniffling turned to sobbing. My sobbing turned to wails. I really had a mother. I had someone who actually cared about me. Someone willing to open their arms and give me consolation.

My mother rubbed my back as I sobbed uncontrollably, letting out a stream of tears herself.

"Thank you for leading her to me, Fantasia," Mother announced.

"Hey, it's not every time I do a goddess a favor," Fantasia's voice rang.

My head shot up in the direction of her voice, slightly pushing my mother, "Fantasia…?"

"In the spirit!" Fantasia exclaimed. "But not for long."

Her spirit floated above us, giving me a small smile, "Thank you for not making my job harder. You fit in quite well with Donna. I'm jealous."

Her smile turned solemn as she landed in my mother's sight, "I hate to ruin this reunion, but I think it's time for me to go."