"You have taught me beauty," Ember says. "How could I not?"

Tears rise to Kumi's eyes for a moment, and then she buries her muzzle in Ember's shoulder and blinks them back.

"... I think you're beautiful too," she says. "It took time to learn you, because of your scars. But you're strong, and brave, and the things you create are powerful. Watching you find your way out of the darkness and the hurt... inspires me. It makes me feel that maybe the world can be put right after all."

"If I had never been hurt, maybe I would never have met you. Maybe I would never have gotten to learn all this."

She shakes her head. "It is cold comfort. But I still..."

She squeezes Kumi's hand. "I am grateful for the pains you carry for me."

"... That's how they say 'I love you' in Nidal, isn't it?"

"It is."

To her it is a simple fact, one that Kumi has already demonstrated over and over again. They've had sex, twice. Kumi has healed her. Kumi has brought her art to those who it will help. Kumi has felt her knife and not flinched, and done it all to help her. Kumi has taken Ember's suffering and made it her own.

There's no greater expression of love in Nidal.

"... I love you too."

It's such a relief to say the words. 

"You were saying, about your scars."

"Yes, about them..."

Ember sighs and squeezes Kumi's hand. 

"I feel naked without them. I feel that I deserve them. But I do not want to give the Kuthites what they want. What should I do?"

Kumi closes her eyes. It's easier to focus on this than the larger problem of what her and Ember will do from now on.

"Why do you want them?"

"They... are my art. They mean things like "I will not break" or "I am strong". I think the ones on my face meant "I am beautiful." It is hard to go on without a... reminder. That I am of Nidal, that my heritage is to be scarred. Some of my old scars were given to me by my mother and father and were all I had left of them."

"I think there are ways to remember without scarring yourself again. It feels to me that... If you scar yourself again, you are proving the Kuthites' point that suffering is eternal."

She strokes her thumb along Ember's skin. "I think remembering is worthy, and I would not stop you if you chose to renew some of your old scars for that purpose, so long as they were merely cosmetic. But I think it is braver to sacrifice. To say - "I will leave this part of me in the past where it belongs." That is giving something up, but I believe it is what Sunaira would want. It... gives you room to grow past it."

Ember considers for a long moment. 

"I think you are right," she says. "Going unscarred is what Sunaira would want."

Kumi nods.

"Would you change your name, then? No longer be Ember Scar?"

"A good question. Perhaps I should change it to "Ember Shiromusume"? Since you are my family, now." 

Kumi giggles nervously. "I, um - I think that's going a little fast, don't you?"

"Ah, foreigners. It is alright. I did mean it as a joke."

She takes Kumi's hand and very gently bites it, just light enough to cause pain.

In Nidal, that is a kiss. 

She closes her eyes and smiles. 

"Alright. What will you call yourself, then?"

"If it is a sacrifice to Sunaira... Then my name will be Ember Blackberry." 

She smiles slightly. "It was the first true pleasure you gave me. And I think foreigners would look at me strangely if I named myself Ember pleasurable-sex."

Kumi blushes and grins into Ember's shoulder. 

"I think so," she says. "Blackberry is a fine devotary name."

"Then it is done. I will go unscarred from now on, and devote myself to Sunaira and to you; and we will see what becomes of me, in time."

She has been waiting for this moment for what feels like forever, stockpiling shards of budget just for Ember. 

Ember? Welcome to third circle. You're Kumi's equal, now.

May there be joy and love and pleasure and growth in your future. 

"- Sunaira just made me third circle." 

Kumi grins. 

"Congratulations."

And on the great gameboard of a thousand thousand worlds, white bishop takes black knight. Ember is but one of many that have fallen to her side; and in other worlds some of those pieces were decisive.

Zon-Kuthon has blundered a capture and is now down three points. Some worlds where they once contested are now Sunaira's wholly.

She is gaining strength, and Zon-Kuthon is waning. Golarion just hasn't caught up to it yet. 

The next few weeks pass in a blur. Kumi finalizes work orders and brings in new furniture for the service rooms and commissions a proper shrine and hires working girls with the right attitudes and spares a little time, late in the evenings, to linger and do more recreational things with Ember. 

Ember has moved into the back office of the new shrine with her. Rose still commutes in, but Kumi's able to send Firebrand escorts to shelter her. The temple's debts mount, but with the Church of Shelyn's help the former brothel becomes a genuinely beautiful shrine. They discuss catechism and what to teach at the morning prayer meetings. 

Absalom spins onward. There is work to do, as there always is. The new temple will open soon.

But right now, Kumi is happy.

Ember is still learning. She has the urge to cut herself sometimes when she is stressed. She sketches scarification patterns. But when the artists from the Temple of Shelyn come to paint their murals on the inner walls of the brothel, she watches intently. She eats spiced food, shucks her old rough-spun wool clothes. And late at night she learns pleasure ever more intimately. 

It's better than she ever dreamed life could be.