Gods.

She gets out some of the food she made this morning and puts some things on a plate for him. She puts some on a plate for herself. She gets him silverware and a glass of water. She sits down across from him.

“My work was pleasant and fulfilling,” he says.

"As was mine.

"How were the horses?"

“Horses are cared for according to the will of Landru.”

"That's good."

This is all the stupid artifact's fault, if it hadn't pulled them here this wouldn't have happened.

     I didn't pull you here. I don't know what did. And even if I had, do you think it would have been wrong of me, to try to save the people in my care? His condition is the same as that of a billion others across this world. If you fail then all of them will remain like this for years, maybe thousands of them, and all of them will die with barely a taste of freedom.

She eats her dinner.

He eats his dinner. He waits for her to clear the plates. 

He goes to their bedroom.

....aaaa.

She does not want to sleep around him like this.

She definitely doesn't want to do anything else with him like this.

Maybe he was right when he posited that people here only have sex when the calendar tells them to, or whatever. Maybe they don't have it at all when it isn't festival time.

She does the dishes and heads for the bedroom.

He is not dressed. He smiles blandly at her.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck -

"I'm not feeling well," she says. "It would be better for my work if I went to sleep right away."

“We should be very quick,” he agrees, smiling vaguely.

She is not going to do this. Not even mostly for herself, if she gets Hagan back and he remembers it, or worse, if she gets pregnant from it, he'll - she's not going to let that happen.

"We should probably skip it tonight," she says. "Landru wills that the Body be healthy."

“Landru wills that the body be healthy,” he agrees, and gets into bed.

She gets into bed, and closes her eyes, and lies very still, and does not let herself fall asleep for a long while.

     You can't claim to be sick forever.

She knows. She'll - figure out what to do tomorrow.

In the morning he gets dressed and wishes her well and leaves for work.

She goes to work. 

She thinks. 

She could run. It would probably get her caught. It risks getting both of them stuck here forever. Possibly together.

She could have sex with Hagan. It would be awful, and more importantly it would be horrible for him, and he'd either blame her or blame himself and either way probably want nothing to do with her after, but she could do it, and it would probably be less risky than running.

She could ignore the high chance of failure and claim to be sick over and over and over. It'll probably get her caught, but it's possible that because of the extreme weirdness of everyone here he will not actually successfully come up with the theory that she's lying. It might cause her to lose her job and end up in the hospital.

She - really can't think of any other options.

At the end of the day she goes home.

Bland smile. “I had a lovely day. How was your day?”

Bland smile. "I worked to provide for the Body's needs."

"Have you recovered from the illness that troubled you?"

"Not entirely. I think I should go to bed early again."

"We can retire at once after dinner."

"Yes," she says blandly, and puts together dinner.

She eats. After dinner she clears the table and goes to bed.

He doesn't bother her. 

She lies in bed and tries to commune with the artifact without giving any outward sign that she's doing this.

Clerics don't really do charm spells unless they have the charm domain, and while this is one of Shelyn's domains, it's not one of the ones that the pendant selected for her. She can't gain access to Suggestion.

Clerics can, however, make people very, very sick. It's evil, of course, and if she makes a habit of it it could cost her her alignment and remove her powers (though it probably wouldn't remove the pendant), but she doesn't have a lot of better ideas. 

In the morning she reaches over and casts Contagion on him, infecting him with blinding sickness.

He tosses and turns and makes miserable whimpering noises and eventually hoarsely asks her to convey to his work that he is too ill to work today.

(Aaaa she's a terrible person.)

"Of course. Do you need anything?"