Her sobbing breath was the loudest thing in the soundless room, the moon shining through the filtered windows, casting shadows that seemed fierce and sharp-edged on the floor, as Lilavati gasped, trying to calm her racing heart.

She had shot up in her bed, terror making her frame quiver as she struggled to support herself upwards with her hands.

The images of her most recent nightmare were quickly fading away, but the abject terror that had woken her seemed to refuse to leave her, clinging to her bones. Lilavati swallowed, and pushed down the waves of self-loathing and guilt that usually followed on her awakening.

Deep breaths, Lila. In, and out. In and out. Just like that.

Iltani's words came back to her, in her soothing cadence as though she were standing before Lilavati just that moment. The heedy scent of incense that she associated with Iltani came floating back to her, and her breaths evened out quicker than it normally would.

Just as she found herself calmer, she noticed a dark figure standing at the edge of her bed.

Lilavati froze.

In the moonlight, she could barely make out the gentle features of her dearest friend, the silvery rays cool upon her bronze skin.

"Iltani?" her voice was only a notch above a whisper, a tangle of emotions rising up to choke her.

Her dearest friend said nothing, only cupped her face with both her hands and the warmth that radiated off her made tears form in Lilavati's eyes. Her own hands came to grasp Iltani's, looking up at the priestess with blurred eyes.

"Am I dreaming?" her voice broke.

There was the rustling of clothes as Iltani sat on the bed beside her, never letting go of her hands. Dark amber eyes met her own, and Lilavati could see that tears glimmered in her own eyes as well.

"You are not dreaming, kianga."

Iltani's lilting voice was hoarse as well, and Lilavati blinked at the endearment. Kianga was a word in Sumerian as she well knew, that meant 'my love', but the Sumerians rarely differentiated between romantic and non-romantic love.

Tears rolled down her face, and Iltani wiped them away with a gentle touch.

"Why?" she whispered. "Have my sins become so heavy that you—you had to leave me too?"

Iltani had known her for nearly half their lives, she had known everything about Lilavati yet chose to remain friends with her despite everything she had done.

"Why did that have to be the tipping point, Iltani? What—what happened back there?"

It seemed that Iltani could not hear these words and she shut her eyes, turning her face away from Lilavati's tear-tracked one. She never let go of her, however.

There was silence in the room for a while.

Iltani's hands gripped Lilavati's, the warmth in the former's hands seeping through to the latter's and they looked at each other again.

Iltani bent slightly to her height, tucking one hand under her chin, and placed a soft kiss on Lilavati's closed eyes. This was a gesture common amongst the people Iltani had grown up with, as she had learnt, and it meant many things at once: open your eyes to my apologies and I am utterly devoted to you and different things in other contexts.

Lilavati opened her eyes.

She caught her free hand with her own, and lowered it to their laps, interlacing their fingers.

Then, Iltani spoke.

"It—it had to be done, Lila. I had no other choice—nay, I did have a choice, but to sit back and watch you fall to your utter ruin was not something I could have borne silently. I love you too much to let you go that way."

There was pain in her dearest friend's voice, pain mingled with the ache of a decision she had seemingly made to save her.

"My lady Ishtar appeared to me in dark dreams a month past, and she took me by the hand, saying, 'There is something I must needs show thee.' I followed, my eyes bound to her spectral form. She led me down a path littered with bones and bodies, the gravel stained with blood, and once we reached the end, I saw you. You were different. The love that you have always borne for your Hari had transformed into something vicious, and you were no longer the Lilavati I had known. Beside you was a..."

Iltani trailed off, shaking her head.

"I awoke then, and I knew I had to do something to prevent you from walking that path. I couldn't let you go there, it was only going to end in your death and no chance of redemption..."

She trailed off and wiped the tears that had rolled down her face, as Lilavati tried to grasp the information she had just been told.

"Ilu—" she was cut off in the middle, as Iltani held out a hand, asking her to wait.

"Let me finish, Lila."

Lilavati nodded shakily.

"I sank into a meditative trance as soon as I was refreshed, and I sought out my lady. She was elusive at first, but a goddess cannot ignore the prayers of her devotee for long, can she? She appeared before me in gorgeous red, as the world itself bent towards her. I pleaded with her to show me another path that I could take to prevent you from your future. She was reluctant for reasons I cannot name, and after withdrawing for an instant, she finally acquiesced and images danced before me.

"If I were to find a way to get you to Dvaraka, into the arms of your lord, then he too, had agreed to find a way to help you by any means necessary. And he listened to my prayers too. My lady warned me that going down this path would only stay my heartbreak for a little while longer perhaps, and that the balance of your deeds must be righted one day. I do not know what she means, but I suppose it shall be clear in time."

As Iltani spoke, Lilavati could see the love her dearest friend had for her flow through her words. Tears gathered in her eyes and continued to spill down her face, but the ache that had settled in the pit of her stomach was slowly beginning to unravel and dissipate.

Lilavati found no words to express the tangle of emotions that was currently within her, so she only stayed silent and tightened her grasp on Iltani's hands and made no effort to silence the cries in her throat.

And suddenly she was saying through her sobs, "Do not leave me again, please. I will do anything but do not leave me like that ever again, Ilu."

Iltani's arms were around her in a flash and she heard her shaky reply, "Never again, kianga, never again. I promise you."

They held onto each other like that for a long while, swaying slightly in each others' arms, until both of their tears had subsided.

"We make a right pair, you and I." Lilavati chuckled.

Iltani withdrew and her lips quirked up, despite the redness of her eyes.

"A murderess and a priestess, but both bound by love to their deity."

She nodded.

"Does your lord treat you well?"

Lilavati's head tilted to one side, considering the question and answered in a hum, "As well as he can right now, without being by my side. The last time I saw him was my wedding night, when he..."

Iltani's short laughing intake of breath told Lilavati that she understood why she had trailed off.

"Not even back for a minute and you go right back to teasing me!" Lilavati exclaimed which set the priestess off into peals of laughter.

"I didn't even say anything, Lila!"

"Your expression is enough, Ilu!"

Lilavati sighed, content. The last two weeks had—despite her staying in the place where her husband reigned—taken a huge toll on her, hardly a few positive emotions floating about in her mindscape. The isolation had gotten to her as well.

"Do you think Swami knows that you are here, Ilu?"

Iltani only smiled, and answered, "Nothing ever happens—especially here—without his knowledge, Lila. Your lord is a divine being, on par with my lady's power, such I have gathered from my travel here. He definitely knows I am here."

Lilavati inclined her head then.

Suddenly, there was motion by the door. Lilavati instantly stiffened, and knew this was an intruder, because the figure was man-shaped and did not match any of the people she had met throughout her short stay.

Iltani leaned forward to breathe into her ear, "He bears malicious intents, Lila, especially towards your husband." A dagger slipped into her hand at the same moment.

Iltani's words were enough.

Lilavati waited for three counts of her heartbeat before the man moved just enough for her to angle her dagger enough to wound the man when flung.

In a flash, she threw the dagger, and a wordless pained grunt greeted her in reply as the dagger plunged into the intruder's chest.