Page 17 of The Goddess is Awakened
“Shit, girl. No one said get handfasted to them, but don’t ignore your hormones either,” Mags said.
“Definitely,” Matilda said.
It was different for my sister. She made friends much easier than I did.
george
Ihad a full roster of witching classes the next day. My mom made sure all of her kids were prepared for life, even if they decided not to go to the Academy of the Profane later. I was pretty sure most of the parents at this school had done the same. We all had the theory behind most of this stuff in high school, and now we had to learn the baby steps behind putting it into practice.
My mother, my aunt, and Minerva Krauss were all accomplished potion makers and mentored me. Every single one of them told me being a god didn’t matter when it came to potion arts. The more alchemical arts like potion making and curse breaking weren’t about power. It was about respecting the ingredients. I could have a potion blow up in my face just as easily as anyone else.
Potions were easy on the first day. We essentially made pumpkin-spice tea. People liked to give women a hard time for pumpkin-spice everything in the fall, but supernaturals knew better. The ingredients in pumpkin spice were all amazing for various types of protection you shouldn’t leave the house without. Tea worked, but now that it had really caught on with the humans, Matilda and I adored our pumpkin-spice lattes when they were in season.
There were no major disasters in any of my classes. I had tarot, arcane arts, and basic spell work. Kaylee was in all of my classes but seemed more focused on her minions than me. West was there signing. Aside from a cheeky wink when he walked into potions, West was totally focused on Oscar, which was how it should be. Oscar raised his hand a few times in class, and he was pretty fucking brilliant.
My classes were over, so it was time for my private lesson with Azren. I was nervous and excited. No one could figure out what my main power was supposed to be except me. My dad said it was gut instinct. Lilith was the same. Loki was kind of a hot mess, so he just fucked shit up until he figured it out.
I had three gods helping me, and I still didn’t know. I didn’t have some feeling in the pit of my gut that I wassupposedto be doing anything, either. I had a handle on most of the things every god could do, even if there was still more to learn. I wasn’t really good at anything my dad, Loki, or Lilith tried to teach me. I could do it during the lesson, but when I went to practice on my own, it justwould notwork.
Figuring that out was a major thing for every god. It wouldn’t change my personality, but it would define how people saw me when I took my necklace off. My dad was a giant teddy bear who loved Oreos, baking, and spoiling his family. Any chaos he put into the universe was meant to balance it, but some people thought he was this monster who went around destroying cities for shits and giggles. Azren probably caught that same kind of shit.
So, yeah, I was a little nervous when I knocked on their office door. Azren had this velvety-smooth, deep voice and told me to come in. Their office was utterly perfect. It gave off total ‘ancient god scholar who was teaching history’ vibes. Everything was covered in old books, and those candles smelled amazing.
Azren was standing in the corner with their nose in a book. There were even books in the chair across from their desk, so I moved them to take a seat. I smiled when I took in Azren.
“Why are you wearing glasses? Gods don’t need them.”
“I’m really fond of those uniforms you get to wear. I think with a little tailoring, I could make a fashion statement with the skirt and cape, but it’sreallynot appropriate as a professor. Since I’m cosplaying as a history professor, I decided to wear some fashion glasses as part of my uniform.”
I knew enough gods not to find that strange at all.
“They look good on you.”
“Thank you. Now, today is just theory. Your dads say you haven’t figured out your main power yet. That’s normal.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“It’s really not with born gods. You have a lot more freedom with your magic.”
“I thought everyone used to have a problem with us.”
“To address that, I’d have to go way back. The primordials are all originals. There are no duplicates. We have gone by many different names in multiple different cultures. It’s not like that with other gods. Every time a new civilization was born, new gods were created with it. So, like, there are multiple gods of war and goddesses of love out there.
“It makes the other gods uncomfortable to talk about it, but we came from somewhere, and it’s not the Aether. The Aether isn’t sentient. It’s like an ecosystem that holds people’s essences until they are ready to be reborn. Somethingelsecreated an entire family of gods every time a budding civilization started.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the Fates. No one has ever met them, and we never saw them when we were created, but nearly every culture mentions three of them, even back when travel was severely limited, and those stories didn’t have a chance in fuck of spreading by word of mouth. New gods are theworstat unchecked egos, so they wouldn’t want their followers thinking any part of their life wasn’t controlled by a god.
“That’s whereyoucome in and why there used to be a problem. They don’t want to acknowledge the Fates, but theydoknow that born gods don’t play by the same set of rules they do. And plenty of born gods were well loved by their parents and heavily worshipped by their societies.”
“That makes it sound like figuring out my main power is going to be even harder. I don’t feel anything.”
“We’ll figure it out. We know alotabout genetics now, but I’m pretty sure when two supernaturals mix, the Fates decide what the child ends up with and not genes. Look at your brother. Lucifer’s line didn’t produce a single angel until thousands of years later. That’s fate. So is whatever magic you end up with.”
“That doesn’t make it seem any easier. My mom and aunt greatly respect the Fates, but they weren’t expecting any of it when it came crashing into their life.”
Azren just chuckled.
“The Fates fuck with all of us, even the gods. Back to the lessons. Most of the gods who were created for a civilization went back to their realm after their civilization died. Back in the day, it seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere on this planet and not experience a new or dying civilization. I’m pretty sure the Fates gave them all multiple gods to help them prosper, then tried monotheism, and it blew up in their faces when a lot of humans and supernaturals got slaughtered. The influx of new gods stopped after that unless they were born. Many of them are either too selfish to have kids or have already raised theirs and don’t want more. The ones with consent issues aren’t in this realm anymore. You and your cousin are the first born in a very long time.”
