Page 11 of The Goddess is Awakened
So, I sat with her dad at lunch. It wasn’t just because I had questions. He was the only person I knew, and I’d always had difficulty making friends outside of my realm. A good bit of people assumed that since I was the God of Death, I was personally going around killing people like some primordial serial killer.
“Hey, Azren. How was your first day?” Gabriel asked.
“Interesting. What’s the deal with your kids and the headmaster’s daughter?”
Gabriel filled me in on everything Minerva missed after she died and ended up in my realm. That was just…wow. Any sane witch would have dropped that lawsuit when Lilith showed up, and left that person alone after that. The god that made you and your ancestors could easily unmake your entire line. Suing and bullying someone Lilith personally favored was bold. Supernaturals had been shunned for centuries for less.
I had a pretty good idea of what I was dealing with. It didn’t really bode well for a baby god exploding and killing a bunch of people, either.
“Why does she still wear the necklace? I get why it was needed at first, but we haven’t had any new gods created in a very long time. The old ones that cared about that kind of thing have retreated to their realms now that they aren’t popular anymore, and the ones who still reside on this planet have never been the rapey kind who were the problem back in the day. They were never irresponsible with creating children; they cared for them when they did. Reyson and Loki are the only ones with little gods right now.”
Gabriel just shrugged.
“She says it’s a safety blanket, but I think it’s a twin thing. She started calling herself George and asking for boys’ clothes when she was four. Reyson was going to get Loki to teach her to shapeshift into a boy if she wanted, but she’s never wanted to look different from Matilda. She’sproudof being a god and loves it, but right now, the entire world thinks she and her twin have different fathers but were generally created by Lilith.
“The twins are fine with the power dynamic, and we’ve never treated any of our kids differently, no matter what kind of supernatural they are. The world isn’t like that. George doesn’t have the same ego Reyson and Loki have. When she removes that necklace, people will start kissing her ass and treating her better than her twin. George doesn’t want that.”
Humbleness was araretrait in gods. Being adored was amazing. In ancient times, when it seemed like civilization was being born or dying somewhere in the world at any minute, I was a popular god. People feared death, but they also respected it and acknowledged it needed to happen. The death cults that were still popping up to this day were frankly weird and uncomfortable.
“It comes with the territory and can’t really be avoided,” I pointed out.
“She knows, and Reyson has prepared her. We aren’t pressing her to take it off. It’s a big step. George will do it in her own time. Please don’t pressure her in your private lessons.”
“I’d never. I had my own interaction with Kaylee Krauss in class. She was terrible about George’s name, and I’m pretty sure the only reason I didn’t get some kind of awful commentary about a transgender pixie was that I glued her mouth shut. The little nepotism baby isn’t going to stop and is eventually going to start using magic against her classmates. If George reacts with god magic, she could hurt a lot of people.”
Gabriel just chuckled.
“She won’t. Kaylee Krauss has been a menace for ages, and she used to have an entire clique of mean girls. Ripley has been teaching her how to mimic witch spells because George has always wanted to come to the Academy of the Profane, and we didn’t know when she’d take off her necklace. George has exceptional control. She’ll put a minor witch hex on the mean girls, but nothing like Reyson would do. George iswayless petty than her dad, and that’s all her mom.”
I nodded. We could mimic most forms of magic with ours. It was a good backup plan. There was just one small problem with it.
“The only person who will be able to remove it is George since it’s not really a witch’s spell,” I pointed out.
“That’s the beauty of it. My wife graduated from here, and I’ve been a professor for the last nineteen years. If the infirmary and professors can’t remove a spell and have to ask the student who cast it, it’s like instant respect for that student for having that kind of power. If Kaylee has recruited anyone to bully George and any other student, the little sycophants are going to drop her like a hot rock. It’s a win-win. You don’t have to worry about George or Matilda. They are both deadly if they lose control and have been dealing with different kinds of nasty shit since they were in elementary school. The twins have exceptional control.”
I hadn’t even considered the other twin. Lilith wanted her female Hellhounds to be able to defend themselves, not just from demons and male Hellhounds. There was an issue with angels for a bit. Her female Hellhounds were enormous and extra deadly. Also, I just realized that after all that shit with the angels trying to bully Lilith into destroying her creations, one witch managed to give birth to both an angelanda Hellhound. That was a giant cosmic fuck you to the god that created the angels and sent them to bully another god, and I loved it.
I’d been around enough parents of powerful children to know some parents were utterly blind when it came to their kids. I saw it all the time with the gods. They made excuses for them as they did terrible things.
Still, Reyson was an old friend, and I saw the twins in class when Kaylee came for George. George could have faked witch magic to hex Kaylee, and I don’t think a single professor here would have punished her for it. Lindsay Krauss might try to make an example of her, but she answered to the board. I would if Gabriel didn’t let them know she was singling out students.
I think I was more irritated with the little nepotism baby than the twins were. I’d know more once I started tutoring her, but maybe whatever I was sensing wasn’t them.
drake
I’d been itching to come to this realm forages.Azren had always been like a father to me and raised me in their realm. I had everything I needed there except answers. Azren tried to look, but I was pretty sure many of those answers were at the Academy of the Profane. Azren told me everything they knew, and it seemed like everything started here.
My mom had been a student here once. She was here on scholarship. They didn’t give those to just anyone, and it was probably pretty rare to give one to a basilisk. She didn’t graduate.No onewould throw away a scholarship to the Academy of the Profane if they didn’t have to. My mom was at the top of her class. I wasn’t born yet, and nineteen years ago, they didn’t kick you out of college if you got pregnant. She could have made it work if that was it.
Azren dug deep, and I didn’t have any other siblings out there that she may have given up for adoption. Azrenneverlied to me, but they would wait until I was old enough to hear something before they told me.
One of Azren’s reapers brought me to their realm when I was just a baby. It wasn’t protocol. They weren’t supposed to do that, but they’d come for my parents. Someone had brutally murdered them and done the rites so the Paranormal Investigation Bureau couldn’t ask their ghosts. My parents must have known they were coming because they hid me and their murderer never found me.
The reaper was named Ketura. She told me she asked my parents who did it before she reaped them, and they didn’t know. They didn’t see them. Their snake senses could tell something immensely powerful was coming that meant harm. They didn’t even knowwhattheir killers were.
Azren and Ketura weren’t a couple, but they raised me. They tried to find out who it was with no luck. Azren found out my mom was at the Academy of the Profane right around the time they sensed a lot of death, but it must have been over by the time they got there. The university had cleaned it up, and they couldn’t exactly root around in anyone’s brain without killing them. They thought my mom fleeing could be connected.
I always planned to come here, and I had Azren’s blessing. I wasn’t expecting them to come with me and teach history. They still wouldn’t tell me why, so I pounced after dinner.
