POV: Ren
She waited for me in the garden behind the house.
Always did.
The one girl who had never asked for power, worship, or destiny. Just a place beside me. A name whispered kindly. A hand held without masks.
Elira.
She wore the same soft blue dress she always chose when she knew I was coming. Her long hair was tied back simply. No jewelry. No makeup. Just her — honest and human and quietly mine.
She looked up from the flowerbed when she felt me arrive.
"You're late," she said gently, brushing soil from her fingers.
"I know." I stepped closer. "I'm sorry."
She tilted her head. "This isn't just a visit, is it?"
"No," I replied. "This time... I came to bring you home."
The Forgotten Bride
Her lips parted, but no words came.
Not yet.
She searched my eyes as if trying to see if I meant it — truly meant it. And then she smiled, a small, shaking thing full of too much hope.
"You mean it."
I nodded. "You were my wife before I let myself call the others that. You saw the empire once, long ago. On our wedding day."
She remembered. I saw it in her eyes — the awe, the fear, the wonder.
"I remember Kaelira and Luneth smiling at me," she said. "Nyxara looked through me. Virelya hugged me like she'd always known me. And Selphira just... nodded."
"They've been waiting to welcome you properly," I said. "As one of them. As one of us."
She swallowed hard.
"Will they accept me now?"
I took her hands in mine.
"They already do."
Crossing the Threshold
The moment we stepped into the empire's dimension, she gasped.
Even though she had been here before, the scale had changed — evolved.
Where there had once been empty halls and sleeping relics, now entire cities pulsed with life. Trillions of women moved through endless rings of suspended bridges, hanging gardens, celestial towers, floating markets.
Elira clung to my side as we descended the spiral path into the heart.
"It's grown so much," she whispered.
"So have you."
We passed through the rose-lit halls toward the sanctum where the goddesses waited.
The Six Wives Await
Kaelira was the first to greet her, arms crossed — eyes sharp.
But her smirk softened. "Still soft-spoken, I see."
Elira bowed slightly. "You haven't changed either."
Kaelira barked a laugh. "You're braver than you look."
Virelya ran and wrapped her in a hug.
"I hoped you'd come back," she whispered. "We never stopped calling you one of us."
Selphira offered a graceful nod, and Nyxara tilted her head with a curious smile — more open now, more accepting.
Luneth took her hand and simply said, "Welcome back."
Even Astraea, standing slightly behind, gave Elira a quiet look that carried no rivalry — only acknowledgment.
Seven now.
Not five. Not six.
Seven wives.
And for the first time, the circle truly felt complete.
POV: Elira
She had dreamed of this place too many times.
And every time, it felt distant. Like a memory of a life she didn't quite belong to — too grand, too impossible, too far from the quiet girl who lived under his house, waiting for him to return.
But now, she was here.
Not as a guest.
Not as the hidden bride in shadows.
But as one of them.
Her First Morning Back
The chamber they gave her was unlike the one she had once seen years ago. This one had been crafted with her in mind.
Simple.
Peaceful.
The walls opened into a garden of soft silver trees that never stopped blooming. The scent of tea leaves and white lilac filled the air. Sunlight filtered in from a golden skylight that mimicked the warm afternoons of the world they once called Earth.
On the table was a note, sealed with Ren's crest.
"This space is yours. Not because you are like them — but because you are unlike anyone else."
Elira pressed the paper to her chest, her throat tightening.
"I don't deserve this," she whispered.
But she had been brought here anyway.
And the others were already waiting.
The Quiet Integration
She walked into the inner sanctum in soft, bare steps, unsure what to expect.
But they greeted her not with scrutiny — but with calm.
Virelya sat beside her at breakfast, offering a spoon of honeyed fruit with a smile. "You slept?"
"I did," Elira said.
"Good. You'll need it. The palace never sleeps."
Selphira asked her questions about her routines in the world above. Kaelira scoffed at them all being too gentle. "Let her breathe," she said, but even her teasing held no edge.
Even Nyxara offered her one of her illusion rings — a shimmering petal of soft light — and said, "This one suits you."
It felt unreal.
But more than that — it felt kind.
With Ren
That night, Ren found her sitting on the edge of the reflecting pool that curved behind the main tower.
He said nothing at first — just sat beside her, letting the silence settle.
She finally broke it. "I feel like I'm pretending."
"You're not."
"They're divine, Ren. They glow when they speak. They've watched stars die and been reborn. I can barely braid my own hair without messing it up."
He turned to her, his eyes soft.
"You're not here because of power," he said. "You're here because I chose you. Because you stayed, even when you didn't understand what I was. Because you loved me when I didn't love myself."
She blinked rapidly. "But they—"
"They all know. And they accepted you the moment I did."
She leaned into him, and he held her as the stars drifted overhead.
Among the Wives
By the end of the week, Elira no longer stood awkwardly on the edge of their gatherings.
She began offering small observations the others listened to. She helped Kaelira choose colors for a new hall. She assisted Luneth in sorting old star maps. She shared laughter with Virelya. Astraea, at first distant, began to eat beside her without discomfort.
It wasn't sudden.
But it was real.
And when Selphira — once the most distant of them all — placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "You've brought a kind of quiet we didn't know we were missing," Elira finally believed she had found her place.