He wasn’t like her former Go’En, a Go’Tec who thought his shite smelled of gardenias.

It did not, and she knew this because she oft found herself with the duty of cleaning his privy.

This if she did not suck his cock precisely to his liking. Or did not moan as he desired and share how virile and handsome he was (he was neither) while he pumped away at her.

Not terribly sadly, her former Go’En had come to an untimely demise. The other Go’En were still scratching their heads about it. A thirty-nine-year-old high priest simply slumping over his breakfast one morning, dead.

For Marian, it had taken months of poisoning his wine, small doses of concentrated taibac that she steadily increased so he’d get used to the flavor, and then finally, his heart stopped.

That had been a good day.

Not simply because he was gone, a fact that was good enough on its own, but because she, as with her fellow Go’Ella who served him, went to the cloisters for three months of solitude to “grieve.”

That had been the best three months of her life.

Serving Ry was not terrible.

It was just that her time was not her own. Her actions hers to decide. When she would sleep, eat, bathe, what she would read, having time to teach herself the things she needed to know instead of catching snatches to herself and away from her fellow Go’Ella to perform her rituals and test her instincts.

Idyllic.

So much so, she considered killing Ry as well.

However, she suspected questions would be asked as she was his only Go’Ella who’d also served the other one.

Regardless, G’Ry was seventy-two years old. Time would do that duty, and likely not take much of it.

There was also the fact she’d grown rather fond of him.

Though, none of that mattered any longer.

The quakes were occurring and Ry had been decidedly loquacious about those.

And as he was dedicated to the act of recording history, he had an active interest in the subject. So when Marian asked questions, no matter how many, he answered.

At length.

And when Marian asked to read the tomes about the Beast, he’d been surprised, but he’d readily, even giddily procured them for her.

Often, he’d have to wait, as others were poring over them to try to understand the tremors.

But as Ry shared he would be doing that too, they’d handed them over with little complaint, and she, and he, had pored over them as well, spending quite some time doing this and discussing what they thought about it.

So she knew.

She knew everything.

Which meant many months ago, her mother suddenly became most poorly, necessitating Marian request a leave of absence to go visit her in order to tend her.

These visits happened regularly.

After the quakes.