One hand on Lace's head and the other stretched toward the Star, Elana begins drawing out power.

It hurts like fuck, in a way that builds as Elana continues, as the Star glows brighter and brighter. Lace doesn't try to hold her gasps and then screams in, does try to stay still for Elana, doesn't try to keep track of thoughts or time - trying to hold onto herself seems likely to break her - her thoughts fly apart, until her whole existence becomes her pain and the single hand on her head - she loses track of time, bathed in a bloody light.

- It takes a long, long while to fill the Star to the point where its light is all encompassing, as brilliant as it needs to be, and Lace's capacity to scream (not her voice; her healing's keeping up rather nicely) collapses before that, the parts of her mind responsible for her vocal chords overtaken by a sensation rather more intense than being ripped apart and set on fire at the same time. The world warps around them, feeling - limited, almost, to their circle, and the red glow of Lace's blood, and the pressure pouring off the Star.

It's weirdly intuitive, what Elana needs to do when the Star fills to the brim. How to seize the power within it, pulling it into herself as it destabilizes - her perception expands, and Elana can see even the spark of eternal life in Lace's core - could drain even that, if the supernova of power in the Star before her won't satisfy.

All the power the Star offers, yes. And it would be easy, yes, to take what Lace has left but-

Her world would be darker for it. So she will not.

The power surges into her.

And - 

Her body belongs to her. Utterly. Completely. Every cell, every scrap of magicka bound into her core, is hers, and no other may command it. It is shaped the way it once was, she senses, mostly due to habit; it is not the nature of things within Mundus to change without intent. Her body is no longer properly her seat of consciousness; it is her, the way her arm is her, but she is greater than it. The world around her body makes sense in a way it never did before - a glance, and she can perceive the glowing words that spoke the world into being, and that bind its fate.

And it isn't just her original body that belongs to her. She has no great plane she has spread herself out in - though she knows the basics of how, it's rather clearly imprinted in the echoing speech of creation - but the body curled at her original body's feet is equally hers, the mind tethered to it (currently rather dazed and drifting) unfurling at the slightest curiosity. Elana could control Lace's body as trivially as she controls her original, if she wished, and while she can't control Lace's thoughts (at least, not with the same ease she controls her own), she can see them, and glance rather easily through her girlfriend's memories.

Elana smooths out some of the imperfections of her original body almost absently while going over Lace's recent memories.

Well, pain to the point she probably won't actually form long term memories of it, most recently. Before that - adoration, devotion, a sincere desire to give Elana everything - the irrational traumatized part of her brain had been wiggling in the back of her head, making her tense, flip-flopping between fear Elana wouldn't need her anymore if she became a god and fear Elana might take enough to kill her, and it usually takes a while of repetition for the therapy techniques Lace's picked up to really work through stuff like that (rationally she'd known both of those were extremely unlikely, and anyways she'd survive the first and probably she'd arguably survive the second given powerful alt with resurrection, but trauma brain isn't very persuadable with logic and usually only properly shuts up if the scary thing happens without being actually bad).

- She has a very deep hatred for both of Elana's birth parents, and she's extremely satisfied she got to kill them for her girlfriend. Nobody should hurt her Elana like that. Nobody will get away with hurting her Elana like that.

- She has very fond memories of every time Elana's hurt her, a warm hazy love curling through them - of course she enjoys pain in general, with strangers too, but she really enjoys suffering for her girlfriend - 

- Falling in love with Elana had been easy, incredibly delightfully so. Lace hadn't been trying to stop it, for one, but her memories echo with every trait she adores about Elana, which as she slid into the early stages of new love had become 'all of them' (she also would like to crawl inside Elana's head and is mostly fond of the reticence because it's an Elana trait, but she recognizes that most people don't find science fictional mind melding the height of romance and also probably her brain expressing love by going 'I want to live inside her skin' is a little bit creepy serial killer-ish; not going to stop her from constantly wanting to be telepathic, though.)

- Lace has numerous complaints about Skyrim but any world containing Elana, any path she can walk beside her girlfriend, is one she's happy to be in - 

(Her mind's starting to recover from the constant waves of pain. She's hazy, still, and confused, feeling actually now under-stimulated, like she can't figure out any sensations at all because they're all so incredibly faint.)

Her girlfriend should stand up now so Elana can hug her properly.

She does, smoothly, leaning into Elana. (Her thoughts are very confused, now, with her body moving under someone else's control, but Elana's here and warm, and Lace loves her, and Lace certainly doesn't object to hugs.)

"Hello, pretty girl." Kiss. "You've done very well."

Happiness blooms through her mind, and she kisses back, wiggling a bit. (Elana has a distinct sense that she can stop or permit Lace's independently chosen actions as she wishes). Lace realizes the ritual worked, and the odd feeling she's having - the loss of control as well - is probably Elana's powers - can Elana hear what she's thinking, too, that's excellent, she's going to focus on filling her mind with how much she adores her girlfriend -

"I can read your mind, pretty girl. I love you too." She strokes Lace, willing hair-fine cuts to bloom into existence following her touch.

Heeee!!!

She shivers and kisses Elana more. (Her brain's not up to anything much more complicated than experiencing sensations and emotions, right now. It's a fun sort of fuzzy, though.)

Then they can do simple things until Lace eases back into coherency.

She does so quickly enough, mind glowing warmly.

"Welcome back." Kiss.

Mmmm. Kiss. "I'm glad to be back, darling," she says, nuzzling Elana. (She's having some rather wicked ideas of what Elana could do to her, with such absolute control over her body...)

She laughs. "Time enough to explore all that. Perhaps first we can find somewhere more... scenic."

"Well, my apartment is rather nice..." she says. (And Elana could take them there, rather easily - she just needs a firm enough idea of her destination.)

Elana pulls the idea of Lace's apartment from her mind and sends the both of them there.

The idea is beautiful in her mind - a loft apartment above a cafe on Cinnabar Mall, spring when she left, the two-story windows of the street-facing studio room overlooking the spill of multicolored flowers from baskets hanging from street lamps, from window boxes and rooftop greenhouses - Galaxy Park on the inward side, black branches with gleaming silver flowers and wrought silver lamps - two streets in from the spill of museums along Autumn Boulevard - the rooftops here are a dusty red, the paving stones warm brick, but the architects responsible for the walking mall's buildings let their imaginations shine, forming concrete into flowing waves limed with gold -

Her apartment's large, meant for an artist on a good salary, each room full of as many interesting things as she can find, sun catchers in the window scattering rainbows across her walls, curling up cozily in front of her computer, she has the softest biggest bed just for herself, piled high with a rainbow of pillows and surrounded with drapes, and an entirely separate bedroom for flings with all the artisanal toys she can store, her own private library though she often spends time at the public one down the street anyways -

It's never too noisy, but there's a constant hum of life, sitting in the cafe with a warm drink and watching the window shoppers go by -

They land in Lace's bedroom, surrounded by golden walls with a dark ceiling with star stickers, soft carpet under their feet, Lace's bed (which she's never let her past relationships actually see, it's hers) right beside them. The ceiling light's off, but warm sunlight streams in through the windows, and Lace kisses her girlfriend again, laughing.

"Welcome home, darling."

"I feel like I should be saying that to you. This place is beautiful."

Warm glowing shiver. "More beautiful, now that you're in it."

Pleased hum. She causes Lace to trip over into the bed and lands on top of her.

She laughs, happy, and surrenders herself to her girlfriend.

Not that she precisely has a choice about it.

Though Elana will take her suggestions into consideration.