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Rivera sat on her bed with her back against the wall, her eyes closed and a book in her lap. She was exhausted, cramming for the written exam in necromancy. What's the use? She wasn't going to try any necromancy, so why bother to study it? Bleh... freshmen always had to take all these useless classes... ORIENTATION, they called it. STUPIDITY, she called it.

Vesper was nowhere to be seen. She was up in the realm of the gods, parleying with the goddess for more time. Two days left for Kira... just two days... what now?

Rivera opened her eyes slightly. She rubbed her palm across her fore head, trying to get herself awake and going again. She wasn't feeling any more awake than before though... "Hey Kira... I think that Silk of Tartarus spell worked..." She laughed weakly. "The joke's on Her Divinity this time..." Rivera didn't bother getting off the bed, she wasn't going anywhere in this state. "I managed to link myself to you. With some luck, I'll have your emotions leak over, and Chloe will lose this game."

"No... Chloe is jealous, but not stupid. We have a win-win situation here, Kira." Rivera smiled at him. "I am Chloe's final follower... I am her last priestess. The moment I die, she will cease to exist. She will not let me die, and she will try her hardest to find the Silk of Tartarus that I spun. It is unfortunate that to obtain it, she will have to destroy me first. Meaning that she can't win without killing me, and if she kills me, she loses." There was a wicked smile on her face. "I will continue to remain faithful to my goddess... but if she tries to interfere with my mortal life, I am willing to defy her."

"Not quite. There's actually still a small chance we might lose. Chloe is very vengeful sometimes... she might actually let us win this game, then just kill you arbitrarily afterwards. I might not be strong enough to stop her. A goddess is only as strong as the combined potential of all her priestesses. I'm the only one... but I'm not up to standards with my full potential..." Rivera sighed. "Chances are that she'll confine me to immortality and lock me up somewhere as punishment. We'll have to wade through this and just try to win this game..."

Rivera lay down next to him, careful to not crush his feathers. She joined him in the blank stare at the ceilings, pondering what exactly love felt like. Maybe if she knew, she could just try to apply previous experience onto whatever trouble they're in at the moment and presto! Trouble-be-gone. If only life was as simple as copy-and-paste... or undo-button... if life was a computer, wouldn't it be great? Aside from having to sit on a desk all day, or being carried around in a bag, or sitting on someone's lap getting bread crumbs and coffee spilled all over the keys... it would be interesting... might...

"Kira... what have you always wanted to do? We've got two days left, we can do anything we want."

"That's just another defense we have against Chloe. You see... the moment I lose my virginity in this body, I am no longer a qualified priestess. That would mean Chloe would be a powerless spirit, and we would win. The draw back is whether or not I'll make it through alive. If you raise my chaos level high enough, you may kill me by accident." She smiled and leant her head against his shoulder, snapping her fingers to command a change in the ceiling, changing the bright blue sky impression to a starscape. "So go easy."

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Rivera lay close to Kira, snuggled into his warm feathers, her battlescarred body pressed close again him. The smell of blood still lingered in the air. She survived, at least. She had been on the precipiece, ready to tumble over and let chaos destroy her when Chloe lost her control over her. She had lucked out this time... but the experience completely exhausted her. The sheets curled neatly around them, loosely and comfortably. She clutched the covers close to her body. Laundry was in order later. There was blood on the bed. Maybe they had a little too much fun.