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This bond was wretched in its own way.[break][break]

Some might say that Elisabeth's first patronage was a distant one: a mercenary bond between a woman seeking to slake her thirst for vengeance, and a jealous goddess intent on regaining what possessions had been thieved from her.[break][break]

This deity seemingly did not consume Elisabeth in the way that her second would. That one would prove to be a parasitic presence that bled into her every thought and emotion with a terrifying insidiousness, so overpowering in its sway that it effectively masked this quieter divinity that watched her at a distance.[break][break]

No, it appeared that Tapu Fini did not express care or concern for Elisabeth in the way one might expect of a benign supernatural power, ruling over her subjects. Instead hers might be compared to the detached oversight of some eldritch horror, unfazed and unflinching as she witnessed her new chosen become the center of a feud between her cousins.[break][break]

Though that in itself might be unsurprising. What did the outcome of such a power play matter, when either result blessed her chosen with additional power? What concern were the motives of other gods, when compared to her own vindictive will?[break][break]

As Elisabeth's bond with Wo-chien would prove, no god ever gave their gifts freely.[break][break]

What Tapu Fini might demand as her pound of flesh remained to be seen.

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