They spent the day wandering Gold Arches, taking frequent breaks at shops that offered small drinks and treats as well as for their meals. Eventually, though, it started to grow late enough that everyone decided to head back to Redwood Stars. They would meet up again after the sun had set and enjoy a nice dinner together.
Ash settled on the couch, her head resting in Luna's lap and her expression drawn in pain. The priestess refused to leave her side, though, eventually prompting Ash to speak up.
"Luri. You need to eat in Terra. You need to spend time with your family. I'll be fine alone for this," she said quietly.
Luna shook her head, a hand moving to run soothingly along Ashterra's white hair, "I'm quite fine, Asha. I'm using the same spells you do so eating isn't really a necessity right now though if I'm anything like you, I'll be ravenous when I wake."
Worry entered Ash's beautiful pink eyes, prompting the priestess to poke her nose ever so slightly to break her concentration. She'd agreed to the spells in part because it kept the temple from interfering since they could only be broken after at least a week without backlash. It kept her at Ash's side when she was needed and kept outside people from interfering. She'd almost told them to put her under through the festival, to use the greater version of the spell that was used on Asha.
She respected Lord Sidus too much for that, worshiped him too heavily to be able to actually turn her back on her duties to the festival even for the marvelous unicorn bound to her very soul. That Ashterra would be devastated as well was more than a small part of her decision. She was grateful, at least, that Ash understood she couldn't be awake for the festival in Terra and was not to act as a centerpiece for it in Fantastoria.
With the god the festival honored still being able to reach the world of Fantastoria, Ashterra would get to enjoy the true festival for the first time in a while. Luna explained all of that, her voice gentle as she coaxed Ash into accepting it. After the pain finally passed, Ash sat up and they started discussing her list of spells once more.
"I'm thinking of creating a few spells using the one Lucrum gave me as a base," Ash pointed at the list of spells under the neat heading of Illusion Magic. A few of them looked like they would produce quite frightening results for the person they were pointed at.
"Looking to get into the intimidation business, Asha?" Luna said with a small smile.
Ashterra frowned, her thoughts back on the paladins from that morning that had threatened her. Given that they were acting under divine orders to protect the city it was likely the protections that should have kept them from harming her wouldn't have held if they had tried to hurt her. She was certain one of the gods would have intervened but left unsure of how that intervention would play out. At the least, it would reveal her publicly to be important to at least one of the gods and she didn't like the feeling that left her with.
Equally important, though, she didn't like the feeling of actually harming someone even in defense of herself. While escape was always an option, moving back to her grove when away from a Starseeing Pond that would willingly give her magic to help was taxing on her. Intimidation, though, would give her time to talk even if it wouldn't make her any friends. If things went too far south, she could always change the way she looked entirely even if she wasn't fond of that idea.
Reluctantly, she spoke, "I don't want to hurt people if I don't have to but I don't want people thinking they can hurt me either."
Luna nodded her understanding and then pointed to Ashterra's shield spell ideas as well, "Why not work a bit on those too. You can create shields for specific things instead of just the concept of damage and maybe it will be more effective since it'll be single purpose instead of utilitarian."
They spent a while longer discussing ideas, eventually narrowing the new spells Ashterra would craft that evening down to another five. Three of them were illusion spells, two were shielding spells and the last was a spell combining Sidus' and Umbra's magic to experiment.
Their plans laid out, the two made their way back into the garden and spent a little bit walking around and enjoying it. Ash wondered briefly if she'd be able to get seeds for the goldclover from the temple. While she and Lucrum hadn't quite settled what kind of relationship was between them, she wanted all of the divine plants in her clearing. It put her at peace to see them all thriving together as they were meant to.
The way the temple in Terra treated her garden, as if it was an affront to Sidus, left her feeling bitter. They acted as if each god stood alone instead of all of them working together to create and maintain the beautiful worlds they touched.
Even in Gold Arches, she'd heard whispers from the few that had taken note of Umbra's presence, that another god was invading Sidus' temple. They left out that the god in question was his wife, his companion and love, and instead only spoke of another god being in a temple that was not their own as if some sort of sacrilege had been committed.
She looked again to the pond and its empty waters, wanting to see Sidus' and Umbra's plants just a little more than the others. Unlike the other gods, whose plants were entirely different from each other the two gods that came first had different varieties of the same plant. The starlit water lily was the plant connected to Sidus while the umbral water lily was connected to Lady Umbra. The two were a beautiful sight among the stars of the pond, bringing her peace any time she saw them.