Emmett hadn't had any expectations once he decided to join Anala in this place simply because he could not have any. He didn't know what to expect, and that made it so much more remarkable. The sun shone on dark stone crafted into the construction of pure artwork he now looked upon. Wide steps sat beneath an immense camber carved with intricate lines and cryptograms. The bottom of the smooth arch curved inwards, supported by massive circular pillars. The walls stretched upwards, forming an open gateway high above the stairs below. The structure extended centrifugally, forming the outer walls. They were etched with beautiful scripts and carved into the stone were seemingly symbolic imageries. Two exquisite female statues posted on either side of the arch like sentinels. Each was at least twenty feet tall, holding stone spears in their massive hands. They were perfect. Each detail carved flawlessly to create angelic faces, eyes seemingly expressing purpose. Emmett watched as one shifted, turning its stone head and looking to where he approached with Anala and Kaessra.

Emmett gawked, feet stopping. "Are they alive? Did we just pop into fucking Disney world where statue's just move and look at you? How the hell—"

"Em, it's okay!" He tore his eyes away from the stone statue that was returning to its natural pose once again and looked down to Anala. She squeezed his hand. "I should have warned you about that, I'm so sorry. They guard the temple and no, they aren't alive. Protective spell work was fused to the stone while this temple was being constructed. The manifestation of such power animated the sculptures."

Emmett relaxed some and Anala glared at him indignantly. "And this isn't fucking Disney world."

"Sorry Angel, that really caught me off guard."

A tiny wrinkle formed between her brows and his eyes went to her mouth as she caught her lip between her teeth. "I can take you ba—"

Emmett touched her soft lips, stopping her. "Anala, no. It'll take some getting used to but I'm not going anywhere."

"I just want to make you happy."

"I'm already happy Anala." he lay his hand against her beating heart. "You're alive, and mine, and we're together. I'm happier than I've been in what's felt like eons. This is home to you, and I'm happy you want to share it with me. You don't have to be worried about something that is already happening." He nodded towards the temple. Emmett stepped towards her and tilted her face upwards. "At the end of the day, none of this matters. I'm not here for this, I'm here for you. Everything else is just an added bonus."

Anala stared up at him, emerald eyes gazing into his soul. "I love you."

Emmett smiled at her. "I love you too." He looked to her lips. "I'd kiss you but I'm not sure I'd stop just there."

Anala led him forward with a grin, Kaessra some ways ahead of them. Emmett was a big person. He took up a lot of space and towered over most people but as they neared the temple steps he felt weirdly small with the large statues looming above and the enormous pillars they passed. They walked forward, into the temple. The short, wide passageway opened to a vast hall. Bright sunlight flooded in from large openings along the top left of the ceilings supported by pillars, similar to the ones like Emmett saw upon entering and equally as large. The smooth polished floors were an array of colors, beautiful designs created a huge mosaic. Emmett made a mental note to get a real view of it before the end of his stay here. Torches were placed evenly on the walls, shaped in circular golden bowls but none were lit due to the daylight. A long brightly lit hall stretched beyond the room ahead of him. To the right was a pale statue of a woman. She was striking, hair falling around delicately formed ankles. Her eyes were shut, face lifted upwards. Her fingers were brushing against her chest, just along a familiar marking, the very same one that created a pale mark at the base of his Mate's skull.

"Anala, is that the Goddess?"

She stared at the statue for a long moment before looking up at him. "No, that's Aleis. She was the First."

"The first oracle?"

"Yes. She was a Mage, born once the first of the Layame began to birth the next generations, ones that would eventually become the seven clans and the Royal Family. The Mages quickly realized she had been touched by the Goddess, and was given to the race to help and guide them as it was to be. After several generations the next Oracle was born, bearing the mark. Aleis received vision of her, and several oracles to come, and this Temple was built as a haven to all who were chosen by the Goddess."

"Are there other Gods?"

"Yes, of course. There are other temples, dedicated to their proper deity but our people believe all life stems and flows through the Goddess herself. As Layame, we bear her Scripts. Each life is interconnected to each other and the land; the animals and plants and the forces that move the universe. Hence the reason we bond and connect so deeply to our kin and families and Mates."

"That's a really deep philosophy you're laying on me. It might take some time to wrap my head around all of this."

"Well you can ask any questions, I learned all of that here after all. But it's less of an explanatory concept and more of a feeling, deep in your being." Anala was staring at the figure of Aleis. Her eyes moved to his face. "You have to understand that you can't base this on the physical alone, on the things you see and perceive. This plane exists alongside the metaphysical plane, the spirit world. Open yourself to it. You'll feel it. Humanity connects to the energy around them differently than we do. They can't usually feel it on a normal scale simply because they can't. They rely on the physical, the tangible. There are few who can peek behind the veil, let alone place a foot on the other side, but they aren't built to do such things, which is why it's harder to keep from destroying themselves given the chance to do so."

Emmett thought back to when he first asked Rowan about his attraction to Anala. To the ties that bonded him so completely, and made him so unfalteringly loyal. He understood they were connected, but he had been curious as to what he wanted. He had known what he did for Anala and he never seemed to require or feel the need to ask of anything in return, but Emmett never comprehended his response. ''Living where I have, where Anala and Nolan have always called home, it has an effect on people like us, who lived here in the human world. It's like waking up.'' His words reflected what Anala had just said. Physically he could feel the differences, the sensations in the air he could detect since they arrived by the lake. Emmett had seen how Anala's body seemed to instantly relax and he never saw her look so natural in an environment. There was a serenity here that gave him insight to what exactly Rowan had been talking about.

Something sweet-smelling was blending with the fresh air that filtered from above, like some sort of incense. He picked up on heartbeats throughout the rest of the temple he had yet to see. Just as they reached the threshold to the connecting hall when two figures emerged from an opening, running forward. Anala stepped towards them and was swept into a tangle of arms. She was teary-eyed as the two women spoke with her softly. They were facing away from him so all Emmett saw of them was a woman with pale blonde hair falling around her elbows and another with brilliant red hair that cascaded down her thighs.

A familiar scent reached him and Emmett looked to see Iliana approaching them. Her shifting gaze didn't leave his face as she neared, her hair swaying around her body, wrapped in a pale yellow dress that was made of a thin, light material. Her long graceful frame was shrouded, only giving hints to the beauty it covered as the sunlight shone through the material. "Good, you're here." She stepped to Kaessra, taking the basket on her arm. Wine red eyes met his as she stepped towards him. "I see it didn't take long for her sisters to find her."

Emmett looked over to see Kaessra enter the fold. The tree women huddled around Anala, all of their fingers interlaced and heads bowed together, touching. Their melodic voices and soft laughs and tearful sniffles reached his ears. Iliana turned. "Come with me."

Emmett wavered and Iliana looked back at him. She paused, blue eyes softening some. "She will be fine."

He looked back in time to see Anala lift her eyes, giving him a reassuring smile. He turned and followed the woman down the hall and through an archway. Iliana began to speak and he took the time to look around, his mind automatically cataloging and memorizing every detail and turn. A young woman stepped from an entryway and walked down the hall. Iliana handed her the basket, giving instructions he couldn't understand. The woman nodded, giving Emmett a curious yet friendly smile that he returned. Iliana gestured for him to follow her. "You chose to come here so, I might as well make you useful."

The hall turned, opening along a courtyard and beyond it was a stone threshold that seemingly led into a garden. Emmett spotted two men walking along the grass. "I thought men weren't allowed here?"

He received a sly look. "Men of the outside are restricted from entering but that does not mean there are none serving within the temple. Now, you are free to go where you please but you are not allowed on the uppermost level. You seem like a capable man and seem no stranger to manual work."

"I'm not." He had been a farmer's son after all. Blue eyes melted to marigold as they looked him over.

"Good, that is what you will be doing. You are here with my permission and Anala is no longer my apprentice. I cannot have the two of you doing nothing."

He still wasn't getting much of anything other than cool indifference and he smiled at the woman. It was alright however, Emmett was very determined when he put his mind to it.

The water was comfortably hot against her skin. Steam rose from the water softly and her arm was raised, a cloth running over her flesh. The air smelled lovely, filled with the smell of flowers and honey. Anala looked over to Celeste. Her dark green eyes blinked rapidly as she pushed her wet, red hair from her fair face, wringing the cloth and running it over Anala's shoulder. Emotions still ran high. It had been a few hours and Anala could still feel the rush of sentiment at seeing these women again. She had grown up with them, chosen them herself as a young girl. These were her Mages, these were her sisters, and Anala had forgotten about them. It hadn't been intentional, Anala knew, but she felt remorseful. They had told her how they had felt her death. She couldn't imagine the pain and confusion that must have brought to them. The thought of losing one of them alone was enough to make her throat tighten. Iris reached out and gently brushed a stray tear from Celeste's cheek, giving her a smile. Her dirty blonde hair was darkened from the water and her brown eyes reflected the soft firelight from the torches along the stone walls of the hot springs beneath the temple. Kaessra's head rested against Anala's shoulder and it was quiet between them all for a long moment.

"What was it like?"

Anala watched the flames of a nearby torch. "It was . . . painful. Carus was a monster, but it was the only life Nolan and I knew. There were days that seemed to be nothing but blood and endless running." She smiled. "But it wasn't all terrible. I have a lot of happy memories."

Celeste grinned, touching the mark between her breasts, lips right next to her ear. "And apparently a Mate."

They giggled and Anala smiled.

Kaessra sat up. "A powerful mate at that. His energy is very raw."

Iris nudged her. "He could be a God."

It was funny, Anala had always considered the vampire to be her own personal Deity and hearing it from another's lips made it seem almost ridiculous. "he's too mischievous and stubborn to hold that title." She shook her head. "And I know Nolan would have a hard time playing nice with a god like him. But we can always dream."

Celeste's pouty lips turned up into an attractive, albeit impious smile. "How is that beautiful brother of yours?"

Anala turned around so she could look at the red-haired mage and gave her an amused look. "Mated to Emmett's brother."

"But is he Claimed?"

Anala thought of the bite mark on Nolan's throat. She wasn't sure of the specifics of it, not ever having the experience, but she knew enough to understand the meaning behind such a scar. "He is. I'm sorry celeste, you might have to let him go."

Her dark green eyes twinkled. "Never! He's mine, too. He'll accept it one day."

Anala laughed. Celeste had been like this even in childhood. The minute she lay eyes on her brother that fateful day at the Arceon, she had taken his hand and declared he was hers, so he had to do as she said. Nolan, being the ever-defiant seven year-old he was, decided that he wasn't hers and that she had to do what he said as he pulled his hand away and shoved her into a bush for refusing. Celeste had thrown a rock at him, and that had more or less been the dynamic of their relationship ever since. The memory made her smile.

The three women pushed closer to her, touching her. Anala felt her eyes water. "Are you angry with me?" she whispered in dread. "You are my sisters, and I abandoned you."

They cooed reassuringly, hands gentle and soothing. Despite their pleading, Anala had gone to the battlefield, set on doing what she could. Her home was burning and the passages scenes of blood and death. Anala had known her fate, or at least she had thought she did, and in the end relinquished all of her control over to another part of herself, to the very thing she struggled against deep within. She and Nolan sacrificed everything. Anala had never given a second thought to the aftermath and to what it would do to the women she had been with since she was a seven year old girl. Kaessra pressed against her back and Anala took her hand. Celeste wrapped her arms around her and Iris tilted her face to kiss her deeply, her lips warm and soft on her own. She pulled back and smiled. "You did not abandon us. You are our Oraclu. We serve you Anala, love you. How could you think otherwise?"

Anala hadn't said anything of the sort but they knew her. They were bound, all of them, in heart and in spirit. She shook her head. "Didn't I? I left because I thought I could save them, stop the war and in the end . . ." she trailed off, not wanting to feel the pain of those memories.

"The Goddess showed you the outcome." Celeste's voice was a soft murmur. "You could not have stopped it."

"Serious talk for such a happy occasion."

They looked up, turning. Iliana and Emmett stood at the entrance, near the staircase. Anala smiled at the sight of the man. Iliana's brow rose and her black eyes gleamed in the firelight. "Have you Hens been doing nothing all this time?"

"Of course Teacher," Iris smiled sweetly. Iliana rolled her maroon eyes but the fondness was easy to see.

"Useless, the lot of you." Anala laughed along with her sisters and Iliana gestured to Emmett. "Have him cleansed." She turned and disappeared up the stairs, Emmett watching her exit. Anala stood, the water stopped just under her belly button. She walked forward until she reached the carved stone steps, treading out of the hot spring and onto the stone floor. The air was warm and the water dripped off her, the sound of it hitting the floor echoing the cavernous space. She stepped to Emmett, meeting his gaze.

"What have you been up to?"

Emmett snorted. "Iliana doesn't waste time. I've been doing a few odd jobs around the temple, which is beautiful, by the way. This guy talked at me the entire time but I don't know what the hell he was saying." He seemed to be deliberately keeping his eyes on her face and Anala knelt, unlacing his leather boots and pulling them off when he lifted his feet. "You can look, Em. They aren't going to bite."

"You're all . . . really naked. Am I a pervert for finding this hot and telling you while you're right in front of me?"

"yes." she raised her eyes to his, smiling.

"Why am I here?"

She stood once his feet were bare and unbuttoned his jeans. "You must be cleansed, just as I was." She pushed up his shirt and he pulled it off as she lowered his jeans. Anala swallowed at the sight of the shifting cords of packed muscle. "The darkness has to be washed away and purify you."

He stepped out of his jeans. "What?"

"It's more symbolic than anything else. You just have to hang out in a hot spring."

"Can do."

She took his hand, taking a step back, towards the spring. The warm water lapped at his waist, just above the dark hair at his pelvis. They moved to the middle of the pool and the women stepped closer. Anala released Emmett's hand and made her way to where a tray sat at the edge of the pool.

"Hello you beautiful God of carnal desires." Anala looked over to see Iris standing in front of Emmett, bracing her hands on his wide shoulders. Emmett was looking at her, head tilting slightly.

"That sounded really nice but I have no idea what you're saying."

"That's alright, you'll learn."

Anala grinned, shaking her head. She picked up a cloth, dunking it into the water and wringing out the excess. She picked up a glass bottle, tipping it onto the cloth and letting the yellow liquid spill onto it.

"Where did you find him?"

Anala set down the bottle and turned. "I didn't, he found me." Or maybe they found each other. She moved to where her sisters stood with Emmett, observing and touching him as if he was a mysterious species.

"He's Turned." Celeste looked at her in surprise. Bitten vampires were much more common in human societies. Anala nodded as she moved back towards them. Iris stepped to the side as she neared him and Emmett reached out, resting a hot hand on her hip. Anala touched the cloth to his pale skin, running it down his neck and collar. His lips parted slightly as his muscles relaxed.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Feels nice, doesn't it?"

"Very." His thumb rubbed gentle circles on her hip.

"It's extract from a flower that grows here. The smell and feel is naturally soothing."

"You think I could bottle it and become a millionaire?"

"I don't know, are you a good gardener?"

"no." he smiled. "But you are. Forty percent."

Anala snorted. "Sixty-five or I walk McCarty."

"What's he saying?" celeste asked impatiently. She was running a pale comb through Anala's hair. Kaessra had stepped to Emmett's side, taking his hand and running a cloth down his arm. "Hello again, Emmett."

"Hello Kaessra." He replied smoothly.

"He speaks!"

"Still can't understand you sweetheart."

The blonde woman rested a hand on her hip. "My name is Iris."

His eyes widened and Anala laughed. "You speak English?!" his golden eyes looked down at her. "She speaks English."

"I know, love." She ran the cloth over his pectorals as she tried to conceal her grin.

"It's not funny."

"I think it is funny," came Iris's voice, the heavily accented English rolling off her lips. "Not all mages live here you know. The Mage community I came from was located in the human world."

"Really? Where?"

"That was a long time ago, humanity has long since built civilizations over It." she slipped back into Elrar flawlessly. "Now tell me, how did you get our sister to be your Mate? Did the Ahrahn ever threaten to kill you at all?"

"He doesn't understand you iris," Kaessratold her, shaking her head.

"And my brother didn't threaten him." Anala paused. "At least I don't think he has."

"That was cold, Miss Iris. We were having nice conversation." Emmett's eyes looked to Celeste. "Who is she?"

"This is Celeste."

"How do I tell her it's nice to meet her?"

Anala did so and Emmett repeated it to Celeste, making the other woman smile. "I like him."

"Me too," Kaessra nodded.

"Angel, are they picking on me?" Emmett's lips were on the verge of a kissable pout.

She laughed. "No Em, just the opposite."