Chapter 22: Chapter Twenty-Two – Meeting a God

As night fell I couldn’t help but start feeling nervous. Even if I thought of Fred as something of a troll, they were still a god. A god who was directly related to vast unimaginable changes to my life. If I made them mad, would I end up spending the next ten thousand years as a cockroach? I felt sick just imagining it.

“Are you ready to go, Lady Bernice?”

“Yeah,” I just need to get dressed.

I selected a dress from my bag and though I didn’t need help dressing, Eurycelia helped anyways. Together the two of us made our way to the manor’s first floor.

As we descended the staircase Adelita stuck her head out of her bedroom and waved. After Kyra had run out of time spending the day with us, I’d made sure Adelita knew she didn’t have to go with us. She seemed almost hesitant for a moment to leave my side, but in the end her desire to stay home won out.

“I really wish you would’ve agreed to allow a royal historian to join us. This moment will be historic. Our priests and priestesses will talk of it for centuries. The first physical descent of a new god, before an otherworldly oracle.”

“I’d rather not have a written history of this.” I sighed. All evening Eurycelia had begged me for permission to invite a royal historian so an official record of the encounter between Fred and me could be made. Knowing Fred’s proclivity for making life-altering decisions based on random thoughts I had, the idea was terrifying. Not only could I possibly end up as a cockroach, there would be an official written record of it happening.

Yeah, no thanks.

Amazingly Fred was a total unknown. Once I’d told Eurycelia the name of my patron deity she’d spent a great deal of effort to find some record of them in the library. Fred it seemed, wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Which she said meant either they were a new god, or an existing god had taken an alias when talking with me.

I’d figured ‘Fred the Trickster God’ would be quite famous given how quick they were to make changes to my life. But that just wasn’t the case. Actually most of the gods Eurycelia did know had crazy esoteric names that were easily four and five syllables long.

“Do the clergy not live within the temple?” I asked as we stepped through the gate that separated the manor’s grounds from the rest of the district.

“They do within some temples. Since your god didn’t define a location I expect any building with a surplus of spirit energy will work. So we will go to the temple here in the old aristocratic district. It’s one of the most beautiful temples within the entire kingdom, but nobody visits it anymore.”

“Why is that?”

“Supposedly it’s haunted. That won’t matter to us though, no spirit could outrank a god.”

“Don’t you think if this spirit was easy to deal with the gods would’ve already handled it? Why would they let one of their temples stay haunted?”

“The gods are busy with other things Lady Bernice.” Eurycelia chuckled as if what she was saying was the most basic of all common sense. “They do not have time to perform exorcisms on one of thousands of temples. That is what priests and oracles are for.”

“Does this mean I have to start performing exorcisms?” I asked worried.

“If your god tells you to maybe. Oracles are not given orders by the state. Your job is to listen to the heavens and act accordingly.”

The temple Eurycelia led me to was absolutely massive. It was grander than almost any other building I’d seen so far, and easily the equal of the Council Halls. The building rose at least five stories, stretching even taller thanks to a bell tower and several smaller ornamental towers.

Very similar to old cathedrals from Earth the windows of the temple were made of stained glass, with many depicting scenes I assumed were core to the local religion. I understood none of it.

“[Lock Break].” Eurycelia chanted while pointing her finger at the cathedral doors. As her spell completed the keyhole in the doors began to glow. Then both doors blew open as if someone had kicked them from inside.

“I guess that is one way to open a door.” I laughed. Waiting for Eurycelia to take the lead. I certainly didn’t want to be the first to walk into a haunted temple, even if Fred was there.

I’m not sure they’d even protect me. What if Fred just laughs and watches me get murdered.

Eurycelia walked ahead of me down a large heavily decorated vestibule. Unlike Otrea’s manor, this place was completely covered in dust. Enough so that our footprints were clearly visible in the floor behind us as we walked.

Pushing open a pair of interior doors, we stepped into a massive cathedral room. Much like Christian churches on Earth, there were dozens of pews all facing towards a raised stage at the front of the room. However that was where the comparisons ended.

In this room there were nearly twelve statues standing all crafted to look as though they were watching anyone who may be sitting within the pews. Only the twelfth statue was missing, a simple base of stone left where it would be as if to prove the designers had not forgotten them.

“Are there only twelve gods?” I asked gazing at the statues as we made our way to the front of the room.

“The gods are endless,“ Eurycelia replied. “The Primordial Eleven are depicted in the statues you see. They are responsible for the creation of this world. We hold them higher than all others as thanks for the gift of life. The twelfth god is the world itself. A dead world cannot exist, and a simple spirit cannot sustain a world. Thus the God Arealcearu is said to have given their soul for the world’s creation. Which is why we call our world ‘Arealus’, the world itself is the still-living spirit of the god of sacrifice. The statue is left blank because all that you can see is the god. Therefore no depiction is needed.”

“Do the primordial eleven have oracles as well?”

“No. No oracle has ever been chosen by one of them. All the oracles that history speaks of have served lesser deities. Gods who serve the eleven greater gods.”

“Are there no evil gods? Or Devils?”

“The gods can be evil same as we can. They are beings who reign above us, but they are not unknowable. We’ve learned from our oracles over all of recorded history that the gods are as varied as we are. They can love and hate. Some enjoy teasing and embarrassing their oracles. There is even a legend that speaks of a god who surrendered her divinity to be with an oracle she fell in love with.”

“I think my god might fall in the ‘enjoys teasing their oracle’ category.”

“Now now Baby Bernie, I would say I spoil you more than I tease you.”

That voice.

I turned to gaze at the woman who’d just spoken. Sitting in a pew at the front of the room, with vibrant red hair that matched my own, and sparkling misty blue eyes. Wearing a well-worn pantsuit she’d always bragged she’d never grown out of, was none other than my Aunt Laura.

I felt faint. Stumbling backward I dropped into a nearby pew and simply stared at Aunt Laura who remained sitting, smirking at me.

“Are you the god, ‘Fred’?” Eurycelia asked with a deep bow.

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“Yes I am.” Aunt Laura replied finally standing. “Though Baby Bernie knows me best as Aunt Laura I believe.”

“You… can’t be.” My voice was quivering. Fred was a troll, I knew they had to simply be wearing my Aunt’s likeness. There was no conceivable way that my Aunt was somehow a god.

“Can’t I be?” Aunt Laura purred, closing the distance between us. “Before your parents died you didn’t even know who I was. Perhaps you were too young to be suspicious, but did your mother ever speak about a sister?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Of course, you cannot remember something that didn’t happen.”

“Aunt Laura wouldn’t have bullied me like you do!” I shouted, suddenly feeling so very small.

“Of course she would! Working late in the cafe, never paying you for your work, abandoning you to go do as she fancied. You have danced to your aunt’s whims nearly your entire life. How can you not believe that she and I are one and the same?”

“She also took care of me when I was sick, and would close the cafe every year on my birthday just so she could spend the whole day with me. She was not heartless like you.”

“You consider making you absolutely adorable and giving you the lifespan to do as you please at your own pace, heartless? I even put you in place to become the lover of the most powerful attractive woman on the planet. You’ve been given gift after gift Baby Bernie. And now I’m here to give you another.”

My cheeks grew wet with tears. Suddenly my entire life felt like a lie. If Fred and Aunt Laura were the same, then the only family I’d ever known was responsible for everything that’d happened to me. She could’ve put me anywhere, and given me anything. Why had I been abandoned in a forest somewhere? Why did she consider that a gift?

“Why am I here?” I asked my voice barely a whisper.

“Because there was nowhere else you could go.” Aunt Laura replied with a grimace. “I couldn’t keep you alive on Earth any longer.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your soul was damaged the day your parents died. Removing you from the wheel of reincarnation. If you were to have died then, you would have simply ceased to exist. I had to live in close proximity to you, as a means to repair your soul. But I am not one of Earth’s gods. After your soul became whole again it was colored with the world I came from, this world. Earth began to reject you, you didn’t belong there. So I had to send you here.”

“You realize you dropped me into the web of a sadist right?”

“You’ve never been in any real danger. I’ve seen enough of Otrea’s life to trust she is more smoke than fire. Plus if she had attempted to bring real harm to you I would’ve stepped in. Even if I had to burn up my divinity to do so, I would protect you. We are family after all.”

“If you really see me as family, why’d you make a bunny after I said I hated them?”

“I’ve seen your manga collection Bernie,” Aunt Laura deadpanned, leaning forward to flick my forehead. “Even the ones you hid inside the tank of the dehumidifier you were adamant I never touch. I even know exactly which one you were looking at when you discovered the pleasure grinding your pillow could bring.”

“Pervert!” I tried to slap Aunt Laura only to have her grab my wrist. Planting a kiss on the palm of my hand. “Pedo! What kind of aunt watches their underage niece masturbate?!”

“I’m a god!” Aunt Laura retorted with a laugh. “And you are a girl I sacrificed a piece of my power to save. Everything you do I see. Every breath you take is relayed to my mind even if I wished it wasn’t. I couldn’t give you privacy even if I wanted to. You have to at least be thankful I was kind enough to not mention it until now.”

“You really are… Aunt Laura, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t believe that Fred and Aunt Laura were the same person. Even now it was hard to believe it. Fred could’ve easily just stolen Aunt Laura’s likeness and memories, all to fool me. But I had no means of confirming such a theory. The person in front of me acted like Aunt Laura. So the possibility was not zero that she was who she said she was.

“I really am.” Aunt Laura smiled and pulled me forward to wrap me in a hug. “Now how about I give you your next gift. You could consider it a late birthday present, since we didn’t get to spend this one together.”

“What is it?”

“I’m planning to remove the lock I placed on the seed of divinity within you. Before you get too excited though… being part-god doesn’t exactly guarantee power.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Of course it doesn’t!” Aunt Laura chuckled. “You have but an unnurtured seed of my power, a flower which has not yet bloomed. You may be able to tap into a small amount of that power, but it is only the raw and most direct manifestation of my dominion. It will take an excessive amount of nurturing and time before it grows into something you can use for more creative applications.”

“Your dominion?”

“The magic I’m known for, the things you would pray to me for my favor in. Seriously I know you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons, you shouldn’t be having trouble with this part.”

Aunt Laura struck a smug pose with a hand on her chest. “You happen to be looking at the Goddess of Alcohol, Parties, Trickery and Bad Luck.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Why would a goddess of alcohol open a cafe specializing in coffee?”

“Because there is no god of coffee, and coffee is alcohol’s perfect companion. One slows you down, one speeds you up. People even say that downing coffee can help one sober up quickly if they need to. Of course, that may have only been actually true about the coffee we supplied.”

“Are you hinting that you put magic in the coffee?”

“Why do you think we got so popular? All the locals who kept saying ‘nothing else is quite the same’! How funny it would be if they knew what they were saying was more truth than idle chatter. Our coffee was blessed by the Goddess Laurmonja herself!”

As soon as Aunt Laura finished speaking Eurycelia collapsed, all the color draining from her face.

“What’s wrong?” I asked making my way to the trembling councilwoman.

“Laurmonja… is one of the Primordial eleven!”