Page 106 of A Tribute of Fire

I went about my new normal day. A private session and breakfast with Maia in the morning, then off to training, lunch, afternoon classes, chores, dinner, and bed.

In our acolyte classes, Maia was teaching us about the relationship between the earth goddess and the sun god.

“The sun god fell in love with the earth goddess, bathing her in the light and warmth of his devotion. They were joined and had twins—a boy and a girl. But the sun god began to suspect that the goddess had fallen in love with another, and his jealousy and bitterness consumed him. The goddess banished him back to the sky, where he circles around her day after day, burning with hatred and envy of all that he has lost.”

I supposed my teacher wouldn’t be interested to hear that the theory that the sun circled the earth was incorrect. It was better to keep my mouth shut.

“When the sun god comes too close, scorching the earth, the goddess will call forth storm clouds to block his view, and send rain to soothe the ground. The goddess’s silver daughter inherited her father’slight, glowing like the stars in the heavens, made of aether. The goddess’s bronze son took after his mother, having many of the same abilities, along with dominion over the metals of the earth. He rebelled against his mother, rejecting her and her ways. Even now he seeks to usurp her, to remove her from her throne. The goddess had to banish him and he took the earth dragons with him when he left, which is why they haven’t been seen in centuries. What did the son do that caused the goddess to send him away?”

Someone behind me raised her hand and Maia called on her. “He captured his sister and forced her into marriage with a god of war.”

“Yes! The goddess didn’t know what happened. The sun hid himself away for three days to hinder her search. With a torch in hand, she scoured the whole earth for her child. When she couldn’t find her, she went into a deep, dark cave to lament her loss. The moon goddess had witnessed the bargain and traveled to the cave to tell the earth goddess. The earth goddess went to the war god’s home, demanding her daughter’s return. A council of gods, including the earth goddess’s parents, determined that the war god had done nothing wrong, being unaware of the son’s treachery. They ruled that for four months of the year, the daughter was to remain with her husband but would spend the remaining eight with her mother. That is why wars are always fought after the harvest, when the war god has been separated from his wife for too long and riles up the hearts of men to go to war because of his own grief. When she returns to him, he is soothed and mortal men go back to their lives. But when the daughter rejoins her husband, the earth goddess laments her loss and doesn’t allow anything to grow while her beloved daughter is gone.”

I wished I could write this down. My grandmother’s book had not mentioned the goddess’s children at all and I didn’t understand why, as it seemed very important. Why had it been excluded?

Maia was still speaking. “It’s why we allow women the right to choose whether or not to marry. They cannot be forced or sold into it.The goddess will not permit what happened to her daughter to happen to any other daughters.”

We were released shortly after that to attend to our chores. Io explained that the chores would change on a weekly basis and this week we were responsible for tending to the flower garden and assisting with gathering the annual harvest of the honey from the temple’s private beehives.

I wasn’t worried about the bees until one of them stung Zalira. She cursed as she swatted at her arm.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“It really hurts,” she said with clenched teeth. She didn’t seem to be the sort of person who would complain about pain, so I knew it had to be bad.

“I saw a woman die from a beesting once,” Io said, sounding as worried as I was starting to feel. Bees could kill someone? “Her face and throat swelled up until she couldn’t breathe.”

It would just be the height of irony if I had survived everything that I had so far only to lose my life to a tiny yellow-and-black-striped menace.

“You just have to be calm and unafraid,” Ahyana said. “They can sense fear and view it as a threat.”

“That is the opposite of how I’m feeling right now,” I confessed, and we hung back as Ahyana did most of the work. The bees didn’t even seem to notice that she was there.

“What did you think of class today?” Io asked, her gaze also on Ahyana as she stood in the midst of bees, unharmed.

I couldn’t help but be honest about it. “I found it utterly fascinating. I’ve never heard any of those stories. I’m still trying to comprehend the fact that there are more deities than just the goddess.”

“Of course. There are so many. And she has parents and children, just as we do. Mortal lives are patterned after the gods’ lives.”

“Except for the children part,” I reminded her.

She shrugged. “Maybe with the sorrow and grief her own son has brought her, she’s trying to prevent her servants from suffering the same fate.”

That couldn’t be completely true. “I know there can be heartache from being part of a family, but there is also a great deal of joy.”

“Yes.” Io had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was remembering something. “I used to have that kind of happiness in my life. My youngest half brother was born when I was six years old. I adored him and we were so close, until my stepmother drove a wedge between us. He hates me now.”

I had a hard time imagining that anyone could hate her. And I privately wished for a painful accident for her stepmother, a woman so horrible that she would try to hurt someone as sweet as Io.

After Ahyana finished with the honey, we went to the dining hall. The prayer at dinner that night was disconcerting. The priestess offering it was long-winded and the entire thing was focused on Theano’s greatness. Again going against the structure Maia had taught me.

There was no way to tell what Theano thought of it with her face covered. It was almost like the priestess worshipped Theano instead of the goddess.

“What is happening?” I asked, but Zalira just shook her head, indicating that I should remain quiet.

Perhaps the high priestess was being given this kind of honor because she was the goddess’s mouthpiece.

“The goddess must hold her in high esteem,” Ahyana added in a whisper, as if she had heard my thoughts. “And so it seems that the other priestesses believe that we should also treat Theano with the same kind of respect.”

---