Author's Note: Hello there! I'm going to work on this now alongside Magna Clades (which it shares a continuity with) and Et Mundus Eos. I hope you guys are hyped up for this one, because I sure am! :D (One more thing to note: my birthday is next Friday.)

Welp, please enjoy.

-Voltalia

It was a dreary and foggy night at the Temple of the Venerable Goddess. Sitting on the very front step was a young rose-haired girl with a similarly-colored gem where her navel was. She appeared forlorn about something, but it was somewhat difficult to guess, judging from her expression alone. The sparkled iridescent fabric that wrapped around her skull was hanging down with her ringlets and catching the water vapors with sporadic ease. Her dazzled pink toga, which had a star-shaped hole to show off her gem, was slightly moist to the touch and was losing its starchy stiffness.

At that moment, a suave, slender light green-hued man walked up to the girl Rose Quartz and picked her up in a tight embrace, much to her delight.

This man was her surrogate father Nephrite. He had a narrow, oval face and an equally shaped jaw with a pointed chin and practically nonexistent cheekbones. His eyes were spaced not very far apart and tilted to resemble the eyes of the domestic feline. The nose was broad enough (at least through the bridge) to breathe through, but small enough to not stand out. The hair was styled rather meticulously with nothing in particular sticking out. He wasn't slender but he wasn't portly either. On his back, between his shoulder blades was a large, jagged gem that would summon a sword whenever he was provoked.

"Hello, my dear Rose." were his first words to the girl while he was hugging her. He noticed the melancholy expression on his foster daughter's face and set her down immediately. "What's the matter? Why are you up here by yourself?"

It took about a minute for Rose to work up the courage to speak. She choked out, "Priestess Ptilolite said that she and the others have picked a husband for me."

"Really?" Nephrite was slightly and oddly enthralled with this revelation. "Have they told you whom you've been arranged to marry?"

The prepubescent girl shook her head. "It scares me, Nephy." she answered, barely able to speak due to the fear of what was to come. "What if my husband's mean to me?"

"Oh, sweetheart." he said. "I'm certain the priestesses wouldn't have you be the bride of a Gem who'd hurt a child. You're lucky to have them as mothers; otherwise, only the Venerable Goddess knows what would be of you."

And he was right. Rose had no knowledge of her parents at all; her now-presumably dead real father had dropped her off at the Temple shortly after she had been born, and her actual mother had sacrificed her form just so she could have her. Nephrite had literally been there for her from the very beginning, beginning when he was asked by the priestesses themselves if he would establish a place in the young girl's life as her father. Naturally, being chancellor of the Chalcopyrite Queendom at the time, he couldn't dare to say no.

A lilac-hued priestess stepped out just as the young Gem was going to ask her father how he could be sure of what he had just said.

"Oh, there you are, Nephrite." this priestess Kunzite greeted warmly. "I'm glad you came back. What took you so long?"

"Oh, I just had to do some missionary work with the queendom of Spodumene, that's all." the light green Gem responded confidently. "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only wish, though, that Zoisite wasn't so much of a bother."

"Well, to be fair, he is the new chancellor of our queendom." Kunzite said. "Oh, sure, he may be arrogant most of the time, but I think it's because of his neophyte status. Just give him time, sir."

"If you insist... by the way, Rose says she's worried about what sort of husband you picked for her."

"I can't blame her. Sometimes, the girls who are married off at her age wind up in the hands of dirty old men and lose their innocence way too soon. With that said, we picked for her a man we know will protect her at all costs and make sure that she'll still have her childhood to enjoy."

"Also, I think she may be concerned about whether I'll still be a part of her life even after she's married."

"Oh, Nephrite. Rose has nothing to worry about. After all, we chose you to look after her and we've seen over the years that she trusts you with all her being. So yes, you'll be in her life still."

Nephrite took a moment to let it sink in before Kunzite led him and the girl back inside.