Let me tell you what I did.

I took it, didn’t I? I took that damn stone and ran. Took the divine stone of the Kingslander kings straight out of the middle of their treasure vault and legged it.

Should have known something was up when I managed to get out of the castle without hitting up any guards, even though the alarm had been raised. There had been some hair-close calls, but never actually met any of the castle’s defenders, or servants, or anyone else for that matter, face-to-face.

The secret tunnel that got me under the walls and well into the Merchants’ Quarter helped of course, but I had to cross half the castle to get there.

Then coming out in the cellar of the wine shop. Well hey, my buddy was meant to be there, was worrying when he wasn’t, but then I heard him talking, saying I should be there in a little while and then they could jump me, that the treasure I was bringing out would set them up for life.

Fool never asked me what I was going in for. Or why. Just made assumptions. Just like I’d assumed I could trust him, given we’d grown up together and all.

So, I just spun the pouch to the back of my belt, slipped back into the deeper cellars, instead of making for the shopfront, and slipped out through the delivery doors in the back. Wonder how long he waited before I realised I’d been and come and gone. Or, more likely, thought I hadn’t made it out.

Plenty didn’t, you know. Make it out I mean. So many people went into that cursed castle, some willingly, some not. Many were never seen again, and I don’t think it was because the Kings in their fancy hall were spiriting them off to the exotic south for happy holidays in the sun.

I spun the pouch back again as I walked casually down the road to the home most people didn’t know about and wondered what in the Green Sages had possessed me to scarper with the one thing that made what those Kings did somehow acceptable.

I closed the door and frowned at the dark space around me.

~~

A dim glow rose as the embers of the fire were coaxed back to life. There they were, my clients, my reason, my fate.

The three aspects of the Tripartite Goddess were gathered around the fireplace, Retribution was focused on the fire, Justice and Compassion on me.

I pulled the pouch from my belt and handed it to them, unopened. I had no wish to rule, no interest in power, there was no temptation on earth that would have me touch that stone with a bare hand.

Compassion took the pouch with a soft kiss to my cheek, then opened it, and tipped the orb inside into her sister’s waiting hand.

It flamed to life, a powerful, but contained light that reached no further than our watching eyes, yet spoke of the heart of suns.

Justice looked me over. “A noble thief indeed.”

I gave her a self-mocking bow. “I know my strengths, Goddess, while I would be a better ruler than the twin tyrants currently in residence, there are many who will be far better still.”

Retribution asked, her face still turned to the fire. “And what are your strengths?”

I grinned. “Sneaking, coaxing, research, and running.”

I could see enough of her face to appreciate the dimple that appeared in her cheek. I’d made her smile. Maybe I should add ‘amusing terrifyingly powerful deities’ to my list.

Finally, she turned and stood, drawing her sisters up with her. They gathered around the orb in Justice’s hand, each laying their own palm on it. The light intensified further, and I was thrown back to my first time crossing Palace Square, dominated by a statue of three beautiful women in flowing robes, holding a golden orb aloft.

The statues could not hope to do justice to the beauty of these goddesses, for all they were in simple homespun in my hideaway. Even as I watched, their clothing transformed into graceful, flowing robes, although not as revealing as those on the statues. I was fairly sure the sculptor had been a man.

Justice smiled. “There she is.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Who?”

Retribution’s snarl spoke of pain for someone. “The new ruler of Kingslander.”

My own grin threatened to split my cheeks. “A woman? The new ruler over that brittle bunch of misogynists is a woman?”

I chuckled, then started as the three of them surrounded me. Compassion kissed my cheek again. “Come, you can be witness to her rise.”

The light winked out, and I found myself in the dimness of the fireglow. Where three goddesses had stood, were now an ordinary-looking woman with Compassion’s eyes, and two little girls, one with Justice’s stubborn chin and the other with an irrepressible dimple denting her cheek as she stared up at me.

There was a pounding at the door and I spun. Where could I hide them. Compassion kissed my cheek a third time, then nodded encouragingly at the juddering wood.

I lifted the latch, and found myself face to face with a scowling Kingsguard. The man turned a shoulder back to address someone behind him. “This your friend then?”

There was my former friend, the son of the wine-shop owner, bruised and bloodied, in the grip of two more guards. He peered at me, desperate apology in his eyes before he nodded.

The Captain nodded, then turned back to me. “We will be searching this place. Any resistance will be considered an admission of guilt.”

I fell back, all bewildered innocence and confusion. Justice twisted her fingers into my loose trousers, when had my clothes changed? She barely came up to my waist in this guise and she clutched a battered rag doll to her chest.

“Who are they Daddy? Are they Bad Men?”

Retribution appeared on my other side. “They’re very yelly.”

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream in terror. When Compassion moved forward, I swept the little girls up into my arms and herded all three of them near to the fire.

“They’re Kingsguards.” I said in answer to the question, avoiding the actual question in the process. Justice raised a brow at me. Thankfully not in sight of the guards.

Compassion leaned in to my side. “Why are they here?”

I shrugged. “They said they needed to search the place.”

She clung closer to me, sending the guards a frightened, reproachful look that had every last one of them shuffling uncomfortably.

My betrayer blinked. “Since when have you had a family?”

I snorted. “Since when have you cared? You’ve met my girls any number of times but are either too selfish or too sotted to notice.”

He had too, just not in their current guises. I first encountered the three goddesses in his company, as he hung off my shoulder, alternating insults and crude invitations to passersby with vomiting into the gutter I was guiding him alongside.

They’d been three of their own priestesses that evening, and while Compassion had gently removed his arm from around me, and guided him to the ground, her two sisters had briskly produced the most vile drunkeness cure known to humanity and proceeded to tip it down his throat.

Two minutes later, they were gone, with a ghost of brushed lips on mine.

Daxon groaned on the cobblestones in front of me. “I’m dying. Those thrice-cursed bitches have poisoned me.”

I hauled him up again, and began dragging him home. “If they did, it would be nothing more than Justice and Retribution for your actions. More likely though, they’ve brought Compassion to your neighbours, and to you when you need to get up for work in the morning.”

Daxon snorted at that, even through the blinding headache the cure always brought on. “Don’t need to get up for work. That’s for people like you.”

It was a good thing we’d reached his father’s door by that stage. For all he was my oldest friend, and good company when sober, he’d been playing on my last nerve all night and I was near to being done with him forever.

While I was lost in memory, the soldiers were turning my home upside down. The gaze of my three girls seemed to discourage the worst of their usual destruction but there was still going to be one hell of a mess to clean up.

Although it seemed it would not be us doing the cleaning. The guards came up empty-handed. Of course.

The Captain scowled at me. “Where is it?”

I repeated my innocent bewildered look. “What?”

He snarled, then ordered. “Take him, take them both to the Palace.”

Compassion’s chin went up. “Girls, get your shawls. We’re going with these men.”

Justice pouted. “But they’re smelly.”

Compassion gave her a stern look. “Shawls, now.”

The Captain floundered. Truth be told, so did I. What were they thinking, to waltz straight into that marble and velvet cesspit?

That gave me pause. The Tripartite Goddess, all three aspects, intent on reaching their chosen one. Of course they had to accompany me. The one they were after was doubtless in the Palace.

I made some feeble remonstrance, that allowed Compassion to play her part to the full.

Eyes brimming, she said. “People go in there and never come out. I don’t know why they want you but I am not going to have you falsely accused of something because these men can’t do their jobs. I am going with you to make sure you come home again.”

When the Captain moved to remonstrate, he didn’t seem the type to beat women thankfully, he found his way blocked by two little girls, shawls about their shoulders and chins stubbornly set.

Justice took Compassion’s hand, while Retribution slipped her little hand into mine. I noticed Justice still had firm hold of her doll. A doll with a very round head. I didn’t let my gaze dwell on it, instead kneeling to scrub an imaginary smudge off her cheek.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Daddy.”

I’ll be glad to never hear her call me that again, it felt creepy.

I rose and put an arm around Compassion’s shoulders, she’d managed to find a shawl in the interim as well. I looked at the Captain. “Lead on.”

We walked the streets of the city, curtains twitching as we passed, whispers following us from shadows.

“Why are they being taken?”

“Something was stolen, they’re hauling in half the lower town.”

Retribution cocked her head, clearly listening to the whispers, then asked me, in a clear, loud voice. “Are they talking about the shiny ball the ghost man tried to give Mama?”

The guards all jerked. I gulped. “What ghost man, love?”

“The ghost man who appeared in the fireplace and tried to pull Mama in, and put a shiny, sparkly ball in her hand.”

Justice added. “She threw water on the fire and he went away and then we had to sweep out the whole hearth and find dry wood to start it up again.”

Retribution nodded. “We had to have a cold bath because we were so dirty from the fireplace but the fire wasn’t going enough to heat the water.”

The soldiers had turned pale, I heard murmurs of ‘mage’ and ‘temple magic’ among them. The Captain drowned them out.

“And why, Mistress, would a strange man wish to offer you a golden ball?”

Compassion looked thoughtful, then said. “The Goddess finds treasure in forgotten corners.”

She looked at me. “Although there are times the treasure has no interest in being found.”

I laughed. “You’ve always been my greatest treasure. All three of you.”

It was not a good idea to show preference for one goddess over the others, for all that most people tended to scurry towards Compassion.

In truth I had venerated all three of them since my arrival in Kingslander, and when I met them, I fell in love with every one of them.

Yes, I’m in love with three goddesses, for all the good it does me. A great deal of good it seems, now I’m on my way to the Palace to no doubt discuss my recent activities with our twin tyrant kings.

Sure enough, we were marched straight through the front entrance (Daxon was being hauled) and across acres of cold, grey marble into the cavernous throne room.

It was busy, despite the late hour, the two thrones where occupied and the crowd quaking before them was a strange mix of nobility and the dregs of society. Although I would suggest many of the nobles there were the dregs of society.

The Captain went straight to the front, the man had courage at least.

He put fist to heart and went down on one knee. “Majesties. I found a drunk in the streets who claimed he’d helped a man gain access to the palace wine cellars. He brought me to another man, and I have been entertained by a fairy-tale of a ghost in a fireplace by his two daughters.”

Brin scowled and slouched further back in his throne. He liked to think of himself as the intellectual twin, I’d slunk past him in the library earlier that evening, directing a re-enactment of a particularly salacious scene from a recent novel in the company of two scantily-clad women and a naked young man.

He was pale and pudgy and gestured for his wine to be refilled with nervous, jerky motions.

Bran lent forward. He was the fighter, and spent most days beating up people smaller and weaker than him in the training yards. It had lent him a leaner physique, but I was fairly sure I could still take him if necessary.

He had one hand threaded through the hair of a woman kneeling at his feet and eyed Compassion with cruel heat.

I became aware of a low-voiced conversation across my stomach.

“Is it her?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

Justice rolled her eyes. Retribution shrugged. I stepped into my father persona and said. “Quiet girls, remember your manners.”

Justice pouted, then pointed at Bran. “Why do I have to remember my manners when he’s not? Everyone knows it’s bad manners to pull someone’s hair.”

The verbal attack was so unexpected, Bran let go. Unfortunately, his attention was now riveted on the little girl I was trying to remember was a goddess and probably well able to take care of herself.

He narrowed his eyes, then tried to smile. “Are you one of the little girls who told my captain a fairy tale?”

She scowled. “It wasn’t a fairy tale. The ghost man had long, skinny arms and was the colour of smoke and he made Mama scared.”

Bran said. “Why don’t you come up here and tell me more.”

I jerked forward, Compassion, laid a calming hand on my arm while also managing to look concerned.

Justice give him her most direct look. “Do you promise to be on your best behaviour? I don’t like having my hair pulled.”

Brin snorted as Bran clenched his teeth. “I promise not to pull your hair.”

Retribution squeezed my hand and I looked down to see her dimple appear as Justice, still clutching her doll, skipped up the stairs.

She stopped to consider the kneeling woman. “You’re pretty, I like your hair. Was he pulling it because he was jealous of it?”

The woman gave a pained smile. “You might be better asking him, little one.”

Justice smiled. “I’m not little. My doll’s little, see?”

She held up the doll. “Would you like to hold her? I always feel better when I hug her.”

When the woman would have demurred, Justice plonked the doll, head first into her hand.

The light this time was far less restrained and both tyrants screamed.

When it died down, all three goddesses were in their true forms and the Palace had been transformed. The grey marble was now fresh patterns of black, white and soft green and the tyrant kings were sitting on their arses in the middle of an empty dais.

The woman was still kneeling, and every bit as bewildered as the rest of us.

Retribution and Compassion joined Justice at the top of the stairs. Beside me, the Captain whimpered, I patted his shoulder.

I’m sure you can imagine the fuss and bother that followed.

The twins were taken to the temple for the attention of the goddesses at a time convenient to them. They both tried to appeal to Compassion as they were dragged out by the temple’s guards, conveniently at the door as soon as they were needed.

The woman, now Queen Xandra, had been a ransom captive from a vassal kingdom and stepped into her new role with humility, grace, and a great deal of intelligence.

I slipped away as the celebrations kicked off in earnest. My role in this was complete, my time with the goddesses was done. I needed to get away and find somewhere quiet to let my heart bleed.

I collected the contents of several stashes I had scattered through the city and bought supplies and a couple of good horses, then rode out, heading…away.

They found me two weeks later, camping on the edge of a mountain lake.

It was around midday and I was sitting on a convenient log, debating whether to keep going, or set up something a little more permanent here. It was a good place for a cabin.

First I knew of them, there was a wail from the treeline, a flash of light streaking towards me, then my arms were full of sobbing woman.

Only one woman, one goddess but I couldn’t tell which one, and I knew each of them by heart. She looked up at me and I froze. She’d combined. The Tripartite Goddess had merged into her singular form, something prophesied since the beginning of time.

Only the most dire of circumstances would provoke the merge, said the legend, I searched her face, desperate, yet terrified, to hear the cause.

“What happened? What caused you to merge?”

She was still crying. “You left.”

“My job for you was done, you didn’t need me any more.”

She growled at me. “I will always need you. Why did you go? I thought you liked us? Why did you hurt us so much?”

I framed her face with my hands, raising her gaze to mine again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know I could. You had the stone, and your new ruler. What use would you have for a Drakes-born scrapper?”

“You idiot. I have every use for you.”

With that, she pulled my head down to hers and kissed me. I’ll admit, I’ve kissed a few women in my time. They were nothing and never in comparison to the touch of the lips of my goddess. I drowned in her, and the world stopped.

Eventually, we parted, but she stayed pressed against me, forehead to mine, arms around my neck. I breathed her in and cried some myself.

She kissed my tears away, stroking my cheek and nuzzling into my face, then my neck.

I held her, the most precious being in the universe and she was in my arms, one curious finger tracing my chest through the lacing of my shirt.

A stupid thought occurred and I breathed out a laugh. “I don’t even know what to call you now.”

The hand at my chest stroked down as her mouth came back to mine. “Call me ‘Love’.”