... You know, that's actually worth it.

Done.

Pleasure doing business with you.

That was weirdly easy. If she'd been trading with Asmodeus this would be the time to count her fingers, toes and relatives.

Abadar is actually honorable in his way, though. She doesn't expect she got ripped off.

... This doesn't leave her with enough intervention budget to really handle Urgathoa's Black Sinflower issue, but she thinks it's worth it anyway. 

For the moment it's out of her hands.

The Ruby Prince Khemet III puts the question to his deity, by means of a Commune.

Should birth control be legalized in Osirion?

Yes.

This was a possible outcome, but nonetheless is surprising. Generally Calistrian inventions are destabilizing and bad for people's Law. 

But Abadar sees farther than they do, so if he says that they should legalize it, they will.

And so the Ruby Prince decrees that every married man may legally possess personal amounts of alchemical birth control. Alchemists may also possess commercial quantities of it with a license.

It's hardly the sexual revolution that she wants in her heart, but it's a step in the right direction.

Women will be increasingly confronted with the fact that their intimate affairs are managed by men, down the path that this inevitably draws. There will be calls for further reforms. There will be protests, no doubt stirred up by Calistria. Milani might even get in on things a little. The simple availability of the formula in Osirion is a huge victory, when she thinks about it rationally.

It's slower than she would like, but she'll get there eventually. And it is a reform, which is supposed to be what she was aiming for.

Now she talks to Bastet and Hathor.

Hey Bastet, I've heard you were the patron of unmarried women back in the Osirian old days. Recently I've introduced birth control to Osirion, and I was wondering if you'd come back and play, now that conditions are better for your playstyle.

You introduced birth control to my old stomping grounds without even asking me?

Ugh, I can smell Adanye on you too! You're working together with her, aren't you? Trying to do better than me at the pleasure domain? That was originally mine before an upstart like you got into the game! 

Yeah, sure, I'll play. I'll play just to shove it in your face that I'm better at pleasure than you. 

Don't wait up.

... Well that could have gone better. 

On the plus side, Bastet is going to play. On the minus side, she's personally annoyed with Sunaira and Adanye. Apparently the two cat goddesses don't get along. She maybe should have asked Adanye about that. 

... Hathor?

Yes, hello. Bastet just ran off screaming about how some upstart pleasure goddess was introducing birth control to her old server without her. And working with her old rival Adanye to do it, even.

I assume that's you?

Yes, that's me.

Good on you. I might come back and play a little as well, blunt Bastet's worst impulses a little. She's always been wild, ever since we were kids. Not as bad as Sekhmet, but few are.

It's good of you to try and improve the lot of Osirian women. I'll put in a good word for you with the Osirians when I have the time. 

Good luck with Bastet. It's going to be an interesting relationship, that one.

Thank you, Hathor. I'll do my best.

Ember lies nude with her back pressed against Kumi's body. Kumi's hand lingers against the base of her ribcage, nestled in softly against her skin. 

She takes slow breaths, her eyes closed to focus on the feeling of being held. Kumi's tails wrap her thighs.

She feels vulnerable, but in a good way. 

It's hard to stay slow, to introduce Ember to things one at a time. It's clear Ember needs rest and intimacy, but the longer Kumi holds her the guiltier she feels. Like she's getting away with something. 

She doesn't want to ever let go. 

A while passes. Time has an ethereal, floaty quality when she's held like this. 

Eventually she gets up the courage to speak. 

"I... want to talk about my scars."

"I was wondering about that," Kumi says. "Please, go on."

She'll do anything she can to help this woman. 

"I miss them," Ember says. "Not all of them. But some. Some of them mean things. Meant things."

She lays her hand against the back of Kumi's and presses it into her skin. 

"Rose stopped me from scarring myself again. And now I am - confused. I do not know what is good and what is bad. I believe I should bear scars, but that is what the Kuthites want."

"It's even in your name," Kumi says. "Ember Scar."

"Yes," Ember says. "Scars are the only thing that is allowed to be beautiful in Nidal. They do not say it is beautiful, they use different words. But it is what they mean."

"And so the Kuthites name you and your whole family after the things they find beautiful."

She wraps her tails in a little harder.

"Are scars beautiful to you?"

"Yes," Ember says. "But it is because of the Kuthites. I find other things beautiful as well. Feathers. Flowers. Ships on the sea. You." 

... oh. 

Could it be that Ember cares about her too? 

"Really, you find me beautiful?"