Hours had passed since Aisling’s report, but Jake had to keep his concerns out of his thoughts and clear his mind as he breathed the cosmic energies of the void. He had to remain Sati’s mirror, her anchor to the universe as she touched the divine.

  Having reached the fifth level in their bond, he could truly feel Sati’s suffering surrender if he so chose. The painful heat coursed through her, like a much more exhausting and blistering sting throughout her body than an intense workout. She held multiple difficult positions at once, her spiritual appendages and body splayed out in uncomfortable configurations. It was like she was planking, stretching, and lifting all at once, a pressure and heat that burned her, pressuring her from all sides, and even her spiritual body.

  And yet she did it with a smile. Because every hour, she offered him her efforts–the Shakti she had built from her suffering. It was not the same amount or the same makeup every time. Not only would it grow in the amount of effort she was withstanding to purify the Great Flame itself, but she would alternate mixing it with her Yang flames and her Yin flames, as if offering up a piece of herself along with it.

  Such a time was coming now. Jake sat away from her, floating inside the fiery lake that was the Great Flame as he kept his thoughts mostly clear. Her body was still massive, with numerous arms and legs coming off from her main body. Jake and Sati had actually sunk deeper into the dense flames of the moon, the flaming woman purifying more and more flames with every effort.

  As far as he could tell, they were making excellent time, and a week to complete their task was entirely possible. They had already reduced the overall corruption by a noticeable amount, around ten percent in this single day, and she was speeding up her efforts measurably.

  Sati’s more physical portion of her body twisted, like completing a dance step, as she moved away from her uncomfortable twisted and bent position and arrived in a kneeling position in front of him. She held out her red flame with flecks of orange sunlight, her Yang energy infused with Shakti. The flames of radiance.

  Her hand was massive, large enough for her to hold Jake, as big as he was, in the palm of her hand. And so was the giant flame she was handing him. It had gotten larger and denser with every attempt, and his eyebrows rose to the top of his head as she offered it to him. He could feel the flame’s weight press down on him, a brilliant sunlight mixed with the feminine energy, the light like a gentle caress across his body.

  Jake brought the large flame to his chest, where his hearth sucked it inside. Unable to instantly consume it all, the flame ran rampant through his body, but it didn’t harm him in the slightest despite its immense heat, the loving embrace of the flame feeling inviting. His void cells drank hungrily, and his intake of breath from his void lungs drew in more energy from the cosmos, mixing it all together.

  Within his hearth, the masculine energy, the Stillness or Purusha, mixed with the Shakti and her flame. He felt something within him stirring, the various chakras within his body automatically processing the flame and reacting to it.

  It was a peculiar feeling he watched take place with his Umbral Gaze, but he couldn’t make any sense of the energy flows within his spiritual body. It was certainly a Divine type of energy, as it touched on the astral plane and generated a haze that he could see.

  He felt a strange sense of clarity, his thoughts heading into a surprising direction. Jake thought about his hexagonal and pentagonal spherical shape that was his hearth and the runic combinations he was working on–the soccer ball-shaped Construct. Suddenly, he had all sorts of options he wished to try on the various faces, and he catalogued them to attempt later.

  This was not all that different from her previous deliveries. It was like every delivery of her flames of radiance included pieces of the truth. When they mixed with his Void-Divine Hearth, it brought these pieces of wisdom to the fore, particularly about flames and especially demonic runes–the language of the dao.

  It took a few minutes, but what remained of the flame when his hearth was done processing it was far less than what Sati started with. It was condensed, and it was as if the void itself had consumed its tithe, and he could feel that in his bones and cells. The dregs and impurities within it were taken into the infinite void that was within his cells and his void divine hearth, leaving only the divine and nothing else.

  Jake could keep all of it for himself. As far as he understood, the Divine worshiped in this way often did. Sati already gained, in a sense, as this Shakti energy she generated was in fact having her touch the divine, helping her become more, purifying the Qi within her. As a cultivator, she could easily progress just like this, changing her makeup gradually and bringing her closer to perfection and ascension–the ability to create her Nascent Soul.

  As the Divine saw it, the transmuted energy was theirs, containing a portion of their divinity itself within it, and they did not typically bestow it on their worshipers. Perhaps, but once in a lifetime to their most fervent and accomplished followers. But Jake did desire Sati to be his wife, to ultimately bond with her in the end. And he would never be greedy with his wives.

  Placing his hand on his chest, he brought out about half of the condensed flame, the rest to be drawn into his hearth and body over time, refining his body and spirit with this special flame. In fact, he had only barely finished consuming the results from before, his void cells greedily drinking it down and tempering himself. This counted as a portion of his Soul Harmonization technique, though it was less intense as they weren’t yet hearthbonded.

  The resulting flame was golden red with flecks of white within, radiating like a brilliant sunbeam. Even though they were floating in a sea of flame, it brightened the area, and he could feel the immense weight that it had, the divinity pressuring their surrounding flames. He could also feel The Great Flame’s interest in this, but it made no motion to take it from them.

  He handed it to Sati, and she brought it into her chest lovingly.

  As it arrived, a shiver went up her spine, and Sati let out a shaky breath with her eyes closed, a small moan coming from her lips unbidden. Pulses rippled through her body, her meridians and channels being polished by the superior flame. Not only throughout her more physical body but her spiritual appendages as well; he could see the flame traveling through them. A portion of herself became more, her core making up more of the special flame within her.

  “Thank you, my Ishvara, for bestowing your love upon me.”

  Jake shifted a little uncomfortably and cleared his throat at her phrasing for this ritual. “You are welcome, my Sati. Let your hearth burn brighter, burning away the darkness and revealing the truth.”

  She smiled brilliantly at this and retreated to begin once more, with even more fervor. Feeling her dedication and devotion firsthand, Jake was moved. Sati had no expectations of reciprocation from the beginning, but of course, he knew she hoped.

  With every completion of the ritual, her happiness and joy only increased. And her desire to show her devotion rose in turn, to give him her suffering surrender of herself. She truly believed each time that she touched the divine and granted him her hard-earned flame, she was serving the dharma, empowering a hero who upheld the cosmic law.

  And she was. In the last twenty-four hours, Jake had gained a whole level as his spirit grew, putting him ahead of his wives, who were also gaining rather rapidly thanks to their Conquest efforts. Then, his attributes were increasing, just as they often did as a result of his Dual Cultivation–his Voidborne Soul Harmonization Technique.

  This time she would build up her Yin flame to hand it over. What was both interesting and concerning was that she was still only handing over the Shakti she was building up from this session.

  When he asked about her large buildup and when she was going to hand that over, she merely stated that she felt like it wasn’t time for her to do so. And even though she was producing a lot of it, and she drew in a lot of the Great Flame to be purified, it still couldn’t compare to her stockpile of energy.

  He continued his breathing, his void lungs filling with the energies of the cosmos. Each breath energized him, and he wasn’t the only one benefiting. Ira was curled up like a happy cat in front of the fireplace, its stomach full of a delicious meal. It continued to snack on the energies drawn in, plenty available for its enjoyment. Jake thought the creature grew bigger in his sight, but it was difficult for him to tell with how it snaked through multiple dimensions with its odd body.

  The time passed quickly as Sati continued her chanting and posing, drawing in more of the Great Flame into her as they floated downward slowly toward the core. Jake and Sati’s resistance or oneness with the flames only grew each cycle, tempering them as they were empowered. It was much like the beetle in truth, the only difference being that Jake and Sati were forming a healthy, symbiotic relationship with it.

  Every once in a while, Jake could see a sort of spiritual appendage forming in the Great Flame, and he wondered what was happening with it. Perhaps it was trying to become more like Sati or just learning more about its true spiritual body, but he didn’t know. Nor did he know how to help it, aside from what they were already doing.

  Sati revealed the flame in her hand, once again kneeling and providing her offering. It was even more massive than before, Jake looking at the blue flame questioningly. It was a cool, soothing, protective light. The flame carried her devoted love for him with it, her feminine energy more greatly displayed within the yin flames.

  He brought it to his chest, and his hearth sucked in the flame once more. It spread across his body like a loving embrace, his body filled with a brilliant moonlight. His breaths drew in even more void energy, his weight on reality increasing as the divine yin flame built inside him.

  It burned away all impurities within his body and his spirit. And once again, it came with a side effect that was difficult to put into words.

  Jake worked hard to better himself, but like everyone he ever knew, he was a flawed…almost human being. In his heart, he held countless doubts and worries. Was he prepared enough? Did he practice and train as best he could? Did he spend enough time with his children, give them enough love?

  But at each delivery of the yin flame, it was like many of those doubts washed away and were replaced with clarity and resolve, both in himself and in his path. Jake and his family were prepared enough because they had done it together. If Jake were to fail or make a mistake, then his wives would take up the slack. He believed in them and himself, having faith in the path he walked. The illusions and doubts of his heart were purified, and he could feel his spiritual body strengthened in a more direct way.

  His dao of family strengthened, and he handed half the flame back to her once more. Once again Sati enjoyed the flame, the same occurring inside of her as just happened with him. He idly thought about how his wives may be able to benefit from such a ritual.

  Only Fhesiah, Ruby and Nessa were really cultivators, and likely the only ones who could activate their chakras in the same way. Luckily, they may be benefiting from this flame through their Hearthian bonds, or they may receive quite a bit of it when they do their dual cultivation later.

  Sati’s voice interrupted his thoughts, as she completed the ritual. “Thank you, my Ishvara, for bestowing your love upon me.”

  Jake turned to see the smile, the joy on her massive face, and smiled warmly at her in return. “You are welcome, my Sati. Let your hearth burn brighter, your love and compassion burning away all doubt and strengthening your spirit.”

  As she moved away to return to her worship, Jake suddenly felt a little odd. His breaths quickened, his chest convulsing as the energies of the void were drawn in. His stomach growled, and Jake felt an intense hunger, a desire for more of what he just received. He couldn’t help but look at Sati in longing, his body wishing for the flame he had just given her.

  Sati paused and turned, looking at him with concern. “What is the matter, my Ishvara? You wish for me to return that flame? You only need to wish it, and I will happily obey.”

  “No…wait. I’m…not so sure if that is what I need.”

  Jake’s anxiety built as he hungered. A vortex around him built as The Great Flame was drawn in, his hunger pangs only increasing as he drew it into his lungs.

  It was like the last time, when he first used the dual cultivation technique with Fhesiah for the very first time. This time, however, rather than being unable to breathe, Jake felt an intense hunger. Oddly, it was like he wished to consume more flames. To have more of what he just ate, that which his body desired.

  Thankfully, he was prepared for this eventuality. A dozen treasures flew out of his Storage Ring, each much like what he consumed when his bloodline had originally awakened, just stronger versions. An eclipse gemstone, a ghostfire torch, a twilight orchid, and even numerous special chimeral corpses.

  Blood and Fhesiah had long since kept their eyes on the market for him since the first time, gathering treasures for a moment such as this.

  They all had remembered this helplessness, and there was no way that they would allow it to repeat so easily. It was expensive, but Fhesiah had set aside various materials. Some might have made excellent fuel for their dual cultivation sessions when refined, but they held back for this very reason.

  The flame in his chest sucked them up like they were nothing, burning them away and crumbling them into dust as they were drawn into his various void cells. There was a small calm as the dozen void-adjacent treasures and chaotic corpses were consumed, but it wasn’t long before he felt the hunger pangs once more. He let out more and more treasures, including a few globules of the various yin and yang dual cultivation materials Fhesiah had prepared for…special moments, if they found time during their Conquest. The dragoness was ever-hopeful, as always.

  He hungered, his hole in his chest drawing in energies from the surrounding area and sucking those objects in once more. The Great Flame was pulled in at a surprisingly dangerous pace, Jake becoming a growing vortex of energy.

  During her worship, Sati too had become much of a vortex, processing the flame and removing the taint as she did. Some of it joined her, but most of it was spit out the other end of the filtering funnel that was her worship. However, Jake’s vortex was different–this hunger drew the flames in far more rapidly, and after it went into his hearth and his hungry void cells, it didn’t just come out the other sided, purified–it was gone.

  Ira looked at him with a bit of sadness, he felt. The creature wasn’t being sucked in at all, but Jake felt that the creature was sending him a bit of helplessness as an emotion. It could not help him with this issue, as badly as it wished to. It only offered him a warm hug, its body wrapping around him like a comforting…scarf-shaped blanket.

  Sati’s large body was starting to get sucked in, and Jake’s eyes widened in alarm. “Get–get out of here. I can’t…control this…hunger!”

  Jake couldn’t offer her more words, as he found it difficult to even speak in this situation, the flames being sucked into him so rapidly it was like a giant river or ocean rushing toward him. But his thoughts and concerns had reached her–he was worried that if the void consumed her, she may not live.

  Just where was this flame he was consuming even going? It was rushing inside him, an endless hunger that could not be satisfied.

  Whether the Framework could or would protect her soul or not was rather up in the air, as she was his permanent summon, and…eating her may be considered some kind of purposeful sacrifice.

  The woman in question was unbothered, offering him a calm smile, even as she had to fight against the torrent trying to drag her in. “If your hunger requires me to be satisfied, then I shall offer myself to you. But the truth is that you hunger for the same thing that you have hungered for since the very beginning, since the day that you were born. And you already have that which you hunger for, more than you could possibly ever require. Your body just doesn’t understand that, and it needs to learn.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Her body shrunk down rapidly, and in a burst of flame, she ignited from the hearth in her chest. She was quickly covered with a brilliant white light infused with gold, her pure heart flame encompassing her as she arrived at her original size.

  He felt her pure love of devotion burn brightly, and an incredible weight pressed down on him as she floated in front of him, just a few yards away. Sati’s extra arms and legs fanned out behind her, striking several poses as she chanted a sutra, and an unbelievable amount of flame from the moon was drawn to her like a solar flare, straight from the dense core.

  While Jake’s hunger tried to draw it in, it arrived at her and was purified in an instant, brightening her body further. It condensed into her rapidly, hours of her previous efforts completed in just a few breaths of time.

  She held out her finger in front of her, and on the end of it, a tiny flame. He instantly recognized it–it was his own flame, the one granted to her at the start of her journey that he had witnessed.

  “It is time. When this was passed on to me, it became the center of my world–the center of me. A sacrifice of the self to become one with the Stillness, a reflection of your love for your family. Your love for Fhesiah, Ophelia, Blood and Berri, Tanda, Avalara, and your future wives and children. A love so pure, so boundless, that it protected me in my darkest hours, granting me hope, purpose, love, and enlightenment.”

  The flame at the end of her hand shifted, infused with an astounding amount of energy. Jake hungered for it, and tendrils of the void rushed out from his chest, all seeking to grab it. However, she held steady, the flame not budging at all.

  Sati’s voice was calm and resolute, her voice carrying the intensity of her feelings. “A seed of your love, grown and nurtured with my pure devotion and made whole. On this day, I return it to you with my love. Awaken and ignite, and become infinite. As you were meant to be.”

  The suction from his chest increased, and despite his hunger drawing in endless flames around them, the powerful flame at the edge of her finger did not even flicker as she moved forward. She ignored the tendrils that wished to draw her in, and pressed the tiny flame into his navel.

  Jake was embraced by the flame, a spiritual pressure covering his entire body like a bolt of lightning, his tendrils of void instantly covered in the flame and drawing it into him. His body had done just as she had said–ignited. He was encompassed in the white and gold, gentle embrace, a warmth that became his entire everything. It rippled through his body and soul, his everything vibrating, pleasure and joy coursing through him.

  There was only one word Jake could give to what he felt.

  Love.

  His bonds trembled, his wives all adding onto the feeling with their loving, spiritual embrace. Each of his wives added their soul hugs from afar, and their flames rushed from the hearth and down into his navel, mixing into this special flame, along with tendrils of the void. It seemed these were the tendrils of void that connected to their hearths on the other end.

  Bree, Ruby, Yona, and even his permanent summons and familiars Jasmina, Zephyr, and Ira’s love for their master were included, and the weight of Jake’s bonds pressed down on everything mixed together, compressing it all much like Jake’s Scorching Ray. He was encompassed in the love of his bonds, just as his void often wrapped around their souls lovingly, covetingly.

  Through the tremendous weight, reality compressed, the planes of existence pressured against one another as the endless void bore down on everything, Jake scarcely having the presence of mind to watch this through his Umbral Gaze.

  The planes of reality, the stained glass panes he was used to seeing in his Umbral Gaze, vibrated until they cracked and shattered from the immense pressure, and the void rushed into the flames and ignited them together as one.

  A flame of the infinite void was born. A pitch-black and silver flame that devoured nothing and everything, a candlelight that carried and existed across all dimensions. The planes of existence around him quickly rebuilt and rushed in, the stained glass replacing the void and pushing it out. But the flame was like a bridge across them; a connection to the void had been established. Jake’s void flame continued to exist in spite of losing its direct connection to the void; an anamoly.

  Something within him snapped, and a tiny tendril of that flame rushed to join the hearth in his chest, forming a complete system. The void lungs drew in the energies of the void and fed them into his void cells throughout his body. His chakras altered and refined this energy, sending it to the manipura chakra located in his navel–the furnace.

  There, the endless love from his bonds helped ignite the void, becoming his inner heart fire. That flame then traveled across his hearth and into his bonds, granting them a fraction of this infinite flame.

  Up until now, Jake’s Hearth flames had carried some amount of the void within them, but in truth, it was Hestia’s flame of divinity that allowed for the void’s coexistence. The flames of Clan Hart were ensconced in the void, but it was not a flame so much as it was a property that Hestia’s flames somehow allowed–much like Blood and Berri’s odd light and dark flaming hearth, even before Echidna had added her spark.

  This flame of the void was now wholly Jake’s, his inner flame within the furnace. As Jake breathed, he felt even more energized and complete than ever before. It was as if he was at home in the stars, and every breath drew from the cosmos and the void, at a greater quantity.

  The flame within his navel was just tiny, a small flickering candle. Ira licked its lips as it looked at it, hungry for the delicious meal. But still, it sent Jake a feeling of patience. There was not yet a meal to spare, only a tiny morsel. It was an infinite flame in terms of quality, but it was not much in terms of quantity.

  He noticed that he received a prompt from the Framework.

  [Bloodline Rating Improved: C-> B]

  [New Bloodline Trait: Inner Flame of Void]

  [The Manipura Chakra has been subsumed, transformed into an infinite void flame furnace. In harmony with the Void Lungs, chakras, and Void Cells, this creates a closed circuit of respiration, transmutation, and refinement.]

  It felt a little odd to see his inner flame, a part of his originally human body, as part of his bloodline menu, but he understood. While Jake was a descendant of a void emissary, he was not one. He only carried the bloodline of one, granting his human traits influenced by them. And Jake was no longer even a human–he was a Hearthian, a being whose cores were flames. So now, having a void flame that replaced his chakra made quite a bit of sense in his mind.

  The void lungs and cells had an updated mention that their effectiveness had been improved as the system was complete, the ability to draw in and store more energy unbound.

  “There it is. What a beautiful, wondrous flame.”

  Jake looked up from his inward inspection at the sound of her voice, finding Sati smiling back at him. She had gone back to mostly normal now, sitting in her usual lotus pose within the sea of flames. And he could feel her satisfaction that she had helped him with this awakening. Most of all, he could feel her love for him, not only over their bond but also within him.

  It was as if her devoted love had become a very part of him, the flame inside him. With his wives’ help, she had filled the emptiness and hunger within him with her pure and unbroken love and made him whole.

  Jake was sitting similarly now, his legs folded in front of him as he floated in the sea of flames. “Sati.”

  Sati’s eyes widened, feeling his emotions over their bond. “Yes, my Ishvara?”

  He willed her into his arms as he flew over to her, the two meeting halfway in an embrace. Placing his forehead against hers, he tried to convey the feelings he had for her.

  “From the very beginning that you felt and saw my flame, you understood and loved me.”

  She smiled at this, and she had a thought–that it was also at first taste, but rather than correct him, Sati replied, “Yes. My hearth burns for you.”

  He pulled away from their foreheads touching to meet her eyes and cupped her cheek. “I didn’t understand you at first, your devotion and love for me felt rather one-sided. But now I do. You are compassion, devotion, fire, love, and womanly strength made flesh. You are Sati, my Shakti, my agni. And I love you and everything that you are.”

  Her heart leapt for joy as their lips met, her body brightening with a loving heat. Despite being made of flame, her body felt just like a soft, warm woman in his arms. He could feel even the wetness of her tongue and the caress of her silken hair on his skin as they touched and kissed.

  It scarcely made sense how a being of flame could feel just as a human woman did in his arms and to his touch, but he understood it was related to this Shakti energy that she built. She was a living flame, but infused with the essence of everything that a woman was.

  Jake’s desire for her built. A want, a need to make her his flame forever, came to the forefront of his mind, and suddenly, it was like his body and spirit responded. An umbral tentacle wrapped around her soul, at the center of her being.

  The Framework updated its prompt, stating that they had reached Level 5: Love with their bond.

  His eyes widened in shock, his Umbral Gaze catching the whole thing this time. He had always missed it since it previously only occurred while they were being intimate for the first time. But this time, he had managed to spot the moment that it happened. Perhaps it was a deeper connection to his bloodline that he noticed this happening or was merely able to will it into occurring.

  Sati was ecstatic, her heart leaping with joy as they reached a deeper connection. But there was one more connection left: the hearth bond.

  “I am more than satisfied with what I have already. I have already become a part of you forevermore, just as I have wished.” She looked meaningfully to his solar plexus, where his void flame burned. Certainly, her love was a part of everything that went into igniting his inner flame.

  “Truly, you have become my Shakti, my agni that burns brightly within me. Is it just me who wants more?”

  Sati’s cheeks brightened. “If it is my Ishvara that hungers for me, then I will only offer myself to him with great joy. I only hope and wish; I do not expect.”

  He placed his forehead against hers and held her hands in his. He could feel her desire for him, and he kissed her lips tenderly. Her lips were hungry for his, her hearth reaching out to his. It was clear she wanted this connection just as much as he did. And he sensed what she wanted–as one devoted to her Ishvara, she wished for him to claim her.

  Jake pulled her into his lap, changing his floating position in the sea of flame. Holding her hands and gazing into her golden eyes, he spoke with sincerity.

  “You are my flame, my Shakti, my heart. I claim you as my Patni, my companion in Dharma and in all lives to come.”

  Sati smiled, her body brightening. “As you are my Ishvara, so I am your Shakti. My flame is yours, my heart is yours, and my soul is yours. I will be your Patni, your dharmic wife, in this life and in all lives to come.”

  With another kiss, he made the hearth bond, their pieces of their souls traded across their bond. Her inner flame, the Pure Heart Flame, joined the many flames of the Clan Hart family, the white and gold flame of brilliance. Two flames had joined their hearths in a short period, and the family had become stronger for it.

  As the Hart family flames arrived in her hearth, however, streams of flames coursed through her body and channels, persisting up her spiritual appendages. He could see Berri’s holy light, Ophelia’s vajrafire, Nessa’s frostfire, and so on, their colors forming a near rainbow of colors throughout her body. She was the flame, the hearth, though she also had one, her Pure Heart Flame.

  Mostly ignoring this, their kiss deepened, and she molded her body into his–wrapping her legs around his back, and he hugged her to him tightly. His desire for her rose, and he wished to go much further–but he noticed something a little odd in his Umbral Gaze. The giant haze that was her Shakti had certainly decreased, but probably by less than half.

  Sati blushed as she heard his thoughts. “I…wanted to give the rest to you, but it felt like my body would explode drawing too much of it at once. Trying more felt…wrong, so I left it up to fate. I believed what I gave would have to be enough.” She smiled, her heart swelling with pride. “It was truly a lot for me to be unable to deliver it all at once. I am glad.”

  She spread her arms wide, her spiritual appendages behind her nearly mirroring her action. “We should be able to purify what is left of the moon.”

  Jake grimaced as he looked around them. The moon had shrunk from his intense hunger, and likely by a noticeable amount from those observing it planetside.

  Sati chuckled. “You do not have to look so pained. Your awakening harmed and consumed much of The Great Flame, true. But you have helped rescue it and should see that you have taken your hero’s due instead. You did not intentionally harm it, after all. And look, much of the corruption disappeared. It seems your hunger consumed much of it.”

  Looking around with his Umbral Gaze, he realized that she was right. For whatever reason, his vortex of hunger had disproportionately consumed more of the corruption. There was still some left, but it was like half of what was left, or more, was devoured in one go.

  It was difficult to estimate just how much smaller the moon was, especially from where he was sitting, but if Jake was told it was twenty percent or more was gone, he would believe it. And all of that…was inside him, and he couldn’t help but feel discomforted by this.

  Sati’s warm hand brushed his cheek. “Worry not. I am sure that this will be a boon instead, because without the Great Well to balance the Great Flame, its unfettered growth will eventually send the planet askew. The difficulty with the Breath of the World is largely due to this. But never mind this, my Ishvara. For because you made me your Patni, with our union, we may purify this moon quickly.”

  Jake’s eyes widened as he remembered the tome from back when she learned and mastered the Yoga and more to form her Pure Heart Flame. There was an entire tome including a more tantric ritual.

  Still, he couldn’t help but frown at this. “Why didn’t you mention this? You mean to tell me now that we could have rescued this moon, this world, faster?”

  Despite his accusation, Sati was calm, and her voice was resolute. “Because, my love. Even if it is to save this moon and this world, to extort your love goes against everything that I believe. To undermine and to coerce your boundless love is the same as taking away your will, to sully and steal it away. I had absolute faith in your fate and trust in you. That your actions served the Dharma; that your choices and our destiny would result in the just outcome. Whether it was through me or not, I believed that you would have come up with something that solved our problem in the nick of time, triumphing against this evil. And if they did not…then I was willing to pay the ultimate price.”

  Jake let out a breath, nodding in understanding. For once, he was thankful for having limited information, and in truth, he had guessed that this could be the case. How could he not? After forming a hearth bond with his wives, they were certainly stronger.

  From that alone, he could have shaved hours off their one week’s time to purify the moon. But of course, he didn’t like that or want to make that choice for that reason, and even if he wanted to, could he? Love was not a switch to be turned on.

  For her to tell him he could save the world if only he loved or slept with her would have tainted their union in the same way, making it a choice between loving her and the death of the world. It would have truly limited his choices or railroaded him further, rather than granted him new ones.

  Instead, she displayed her profound trust in him while protecting the sanctity of their vows and their love, keeping it pure and natural, and leaving it to fate. He could feel that never once was she tempted, even with how badly she wished to become one with him. She wanted him to want her from the bottom of his heart and not because he was manipulated or coerced to do some right thing. She would have even taken it to her grave if necessary to protect his love.

  “Thank you. For preserving my will, my choice. And believing in me.”

  “My trust in your love is unbroken, and it will remain that way. Into eternity.”

  Jake smiled at her and kissed her once more. Her body heated up in his arms, and her warmth still managed to envelop him despite them already floating in a sea of flames. His desire rose with hers, the love from her heat drawing him in.

  Sati caressed his cheek, gazing at him lovingly. “Now, I feel that you hunger for me. When we enjoy each other in pleasure, a special energy will be generated from our chakras, called kundalini energy, and it will flow through them as it is altered.”

  Sati smiled faintly, her eyes smoldering even as her voice took on a strangely lecturing tone. “When our hearths unite through tantric communion, the flow of Shakti and Stillness will complete the circuit of our chakras. The merging of my cultivated pure heart flame with your awakened void will generate a spiral of refined energy. This spiral purifies corruption, dissolves karmic weight, and strengthens the bond of our hearths with our endless love, polishing both spirit and body toward the divine.”

  Jake nodded. So that’s what it would do. The flames of radiance granted enlightenment, and the flames of mercy and compassion purified and eliminated doubt, strengthening their spirits and their resolve. Then the pure heart flame represented unity, improving their bond and more.

  Her voice dipped, husky, as though she were whispering a lover’s secret instead of giving a dissertation, “Through this exchange, the dross of my Shakti is consumed in your void, and the essence is returned to me transformed. Brighter, sharper, closer to divinity. In turn, your furnace is stoked to ever-greater heights. Together, we transcend the bounds of flesh and spirit.”

  Jake arched his brow at her and chuckled. “You’re acting a little odd. Why are you talking like that, and why are you telling me this? I already knew most of that, from your vision, remember? You fast-forwarded through a lot, but you did spend a bit of time on this as you read a bunch of those diagrams and more, as if you wanted me to understand something about it…” He narrowed his eyes on her. “That was a bit cheeky, now that I think of it.”

  Sati blushed and looked away. “What? I know that you know, and I did want you to know the…possibilities. But Faye also said you would like this. That it would get you excited–the technical details. She said the dryer it would be, the more that you would like it, and the more it would… excite you. Why’s it not working? Did I do it wrong?”

  Jake laughed at the absurdity, and he heard Faye laughing in his mind. Once again, the woman had managed to play a joke. “Seems she was just messing with the both of us. But don’t worry. A sexy wife of mine in my arms and in my lap is more than enough to make me excited and ready.”

  She smiled radiantly at that and then leaned in to kiss him once more, their lips meeting.

  It was going to be a little strange doing this with a sort of audience that was the Great Flame, the moon’s intelligence and ego rather slight.

  He reasoned it was really no different from doing it with a chill pet in the room, but perhaps even less than that; the moon was more like an ancient will, than a true creature’s intelligence. Some people were super against this, he knew, while others couldn’t care less if their pet didn’t behave strangely or distractingly.

  In this case the chill pet was the room, so they didn’t really have much choice.

  It was easy for Jake to put that out of his mind as Sati’s hands roamed his body, and her clothes disappeared in a burst of flame.