Chapter 1: Oaths and Gifts: Part One
I wasn’t at my best, but I knew that standing there in slack-jawed incredulity was probably not the best move to make.
The problem was that I wasn’t sure what I should do. I had two goddesses in front of me, and not just any goddesses either. These were Athena and Kali, names that had managed to retain their fame through to the modern world, even over the centuries when the gods had been barred from the world.
Athena was the one I was more familiar with, the Greek goddess of wisdom, warfare, and craft. She was one of the most highly regarded deities in Greek mythology, and certainly the most highly regarded of their goddesses. She was one of the three most beautiful among the goddesses, yet she was famed for far more than that.
She was the goddess that lent aid to heroes. She was the advisor to her father, Zeus, the king of the Olympians. She was the inventor of the plough, the yoke, the rake and the bridles. She invented the chariot, designed the first ships, baked the first earthenware, and carved the first flute. She had helped establish Athens, the city named in her honour.
She had endured into the modern era as a symbol of wisdom strength, and classical learnings. She had influenced the world so greatly that she was the inspiration behind the image of Britannia, the personification of my home country.
She’d fought wars, fought giants, even fought her fellow gods. She was patron to strategists and tacticians, to those who practised the art of war, rather than the brutality of mass violence.
Of course, divine though she was, she was far from perfect. She had been cruel in the past, inflicting suffering and curses for petty or vindictive reasons. Medusa had been cursed to become the Gorgon because she had been the victim of Poseidon’s lust in Athena’s temple, and the goddess had lacked the power to punish her uncle, so she had vented her fury on the victim instead. Arachne was another example, a mortal that had dared to surpass the goddess in a skill she was proud of and had paid for that talent by being driven to suicide, then restored to life as the mother of spiders.
Greek myths were the ones I was most familiar with, and what I’d learned told me to be both respectful and wary of the daughter of Metis.
And it wasn’t just the mythology that I was familiar with as far as she went. The gods that had returned had acted in many different ways. A few chose to live solitary lives in areas they claimed. Others chose to return to the way things had been in ages past, living in temples or grottos and letting mortals come to them. Mercifully few so far had chosen to establish control over the domains they claimed. The deities could be loud or quiet, subtle or overt, it all depended on their desires and natures.
And then there were the majority of the Greek gods, who had made quite the splash when they chose to integrate into modern society, at least in part.
The Olympians liked the modern world and the comforts and pleasures that it offered. They’d chosen to be a part of it, though they had also wanted to remain gods. Probably the most famous of them was Apollo, who’d become the unquestioned king of Hollywood and the most sought-after and acclaimed actor alive. Still, the other deities had made the news in their own ways, and among them had been Athena, along with her father and half-brothers, setting up Olympus Industries.
While Zeus’s face had become the face of the company Athena was almost as well known, given that she was in charge of both public relations and many of the marketing aspects of the business. She had appeared at dozens of press conferences, board meetings, negotiations, and public events, and was something of a media darling due to her air of absolute competence and confidence, and of course her beauty. There had been very few major demonstrations of her power, but her larger-than-life size and the occasional casual demonstration, such as moving a car that was inconveniently parked, as though it were an empty tissue box, left no illusions as to what she was.
And now she was right there and wanted to see me. Under such circumstances knowing more about her proved to be not so much useful as really daunting.
By contrast, I knew only a little about Kali, despite her fame, but that it wasn’t doing much to settle my nerves either.
In the modern world, Kali was famed as a goddess of darkness and destruction. She was the quintessential ‘multi-armed’ goddess, the one most people thought of when it came to Hindu gods. She appeared in many Western forms of entertainment, such as films and games. More often than not she was depicted as the villain, or rather as the deity villains worshipped. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a good example, with Kali being depicted as a malevolent deity seeking human sacrifices.
Still, from what little I knew of her that was more a Western reimaging of her than anything else. It was like they’d heard that she was a goddess of destruction and decided that automatically meant she had to be evil. I’d seen her depicted as the goddess of all kinds of things, the night, madness, murder, and evil, it was almost a joke, how much she could be misinterpreted.
In comparison with Western myths, I knew very little about Hindu mythology, but I did know where they’d gone wrong. Kali was a destroyer, but she was a destroyer of evil, having come into existence in order to slay some sort of immortal demon. The destruction she represented was the natural breakdown of things in the face of the endless march of time or something like that. It was a bit confusing because I knew she was closely related to Shiva, another Hindu god of destruction, and one of the most powerful gods in the pantheon. How they could both be gods of destruction was something I wasn’t too sure about, but I knew that Shiva was most often portrayed in a benevolent or even heroic light. So, I didn’t think she could be evil if they were so closely associated.
And that was just about all I knew of her. The only thing I was really certain about was that her reputation was fearsome, so taking her seriously was the only option.
I wanted to take a deep breath and centre myself. I wanted to close my eyes and take a few moments to get my thoughts in order. Unfortunately, neither option was really open to me, not if I wanted to make a decent impression and avoid showing disrespect.
. . . Disrespect, like me making two GODDESSES wait while I took a shower!
I could feel worry and dread starting to gnaw at my stomach. Had I already shot myself in the foot? Neither of them seemed to be too offended or angry. In fact, Kali seemed more amused than anything, and Athena had approved of my getting myself cleaned up.
I felt that roiling in my stomach start to die down as I realised, I might not be quite as screwed as I thought.
“I . . . I’m not gonna lie here,” I tried to keep my voice as level as I could, but a slight stutter still crept in. “I wasn’t expecting to meet gods so soon.”
“Yeah, I get ya,” Kali replied, her tone shockingly informal. “Best advice I can give you is that plans and gods never get along all that well.”
She stood up and offered me a grin, one that showed all her teeth. As she did so I couldn’t help but notice that her canines seemed to be just a bit too pointed. It wasn’t anything overtly inhuman, but it was enough that I felt my eyes widen slightly.
The taller goddess, Athena, shot a sidelong glance at her fellow deity, then turned to face me, her posture as dignified as if she were an ambassador meeting with a foreign dignitary.
“Your name is Adam, correct?” I nodded and she continued. “I have been sent to treat with you on behalf of the gods of Olympus.”
For a moment I just stood there, unsure of just how I was meant to take that. I was coming down from my earlier surge of adrenaline, and my tired mind was starting to lag.
“I’m sorry, but why?” Again, despite my efforts to stay calm some of my bewilderment seeped into my voice as I asked the question. “I . . . look, Joan and Hadriel told me that there’re things I need to do, important things, but I haven’t done anything yet! Why are either of you here now?”
“Yeah, I guess this does seem kinda crazy,” Kali admitted, waving at herself and her fellow goddess. “In my case, I’m here because there’re promises involved, stuff I swore to one of your progenitors. Don’t know what blondie over there wants though.”
Somehow, without changing her expression in the least, Athena managed to radiate a sense of irritation and disapproval. However, she simply turned to address me again.
“You are correct in that it is unusual for a demigod as new as yourself to warrant the attention you are receiving, but it is also unusual for a demigod’s Awakening to illuminate half the world.”
She had a point there. I knew what had happened, Joan and Hadriel had told me, after they received reports from angels that told them just how big my Awakening flare had been. The problem was that even though I had been told all that, it still didn’t seem real to me. How could it? The idea that I did something like that, lighting up an entire side of the planet, was just too big to get my head around!
As ridiculous as it might sound, I’d genuinely forgotten about it over the last few days. Training, worry, and then this mess with Etienne all combined to drive it to the back of my mind where it had ended up getting buried.
Being reminded only left me more aware of just how unready I was to handle this.
“However, as great as the display of your Awakening was, it is not the primary reason for my being here. Rather, it was what we sensed within the light of your Awakening.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“It was clear to myself and my family that at least a portion of the energies in your Awakening was of our own bloodline,” The Greek goddess explained. “Though we are as yet unaware of the origin of your divinity, we are certain that it is old, it is powerful, and it is tied to our own.”
“Oh? So, there’s a chance that Adam here is descended from Zeus by one of his kids?” Kali asked it with interest as if commenting on a development in a popular sitcom.
For her part, Athena turned to look at the Hindu goddess, her expression a study in calm control.
“No. Whomever his progenitor was they are older than my own father. It is most likely that Adam is descended from one of the titans, meaning that he is probably a cousin or even brother of Zeus.”
A titan? As soon as I heard that my thoughts turned to Etienne, remembering all too well what had been inflicted upon him by his own progenitor. A progenitor that had been the last of the titans. Was I going to face something like that?
“Yeah, it’s kinda that way with me too. Although, I do know who your old man is out of the bunch from my neck of the woods.”
The casual and carefree way that Kali spoke almost made me miss the actual meaning of the words themselves. I had to go over it again in my head before I realized what she meant.
“Wait! You know who one of my ancestors was . . . I mean, is?”
Athena’s affirmation of my bloodline being linked to one of the Greek gods had been almost expected. The Olympian pantheon had proven itself to be . . . prolific, to say the least. There wasn’t any sort of official census or anything like that, but anyone who paid attention would note that there were far more demigods with ties to the Greek myths than any of the other sources of divinity. By all accounts, the Olympians had been the most avid users of the gaps to the mortal plane during the years when the Legends had been exiled, and as such had left many, many Legacies and Children. Since I had so many bloodlines, I had sort of expected one of them to be tied to the Greek myths.
The thing was the goddess didn’t know who it was, so it still seemed uncertain, maybe even a bit unreal. There wasn’t a name, anything for me to grab hold of, not like there had been with Nüwa, so I couldn’t bring myself to be too eager.
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But Kali . . . she knew who I was descended from? Hope rose in me at the idea of learning more about my unknown . . . family? Ancestors? Progenitors? How the hell was I meant to think about them?
“Yep,” She replied, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word in a way that made me think of old American sitcoms rather than goddesses of immense power. “He was the guy that asked me to come here and give you a hand. He can’t get involved himself, not unless he wants to drag you into some of the really high-level stuff before you’re ready. But me . . . I’ve got a bit more freedom than that.”
He? It was a he? I wasn’t sure why, but my mind focused on that minor aspect before I could bring myself to think about the rest. Up until now the Legends that had been the source of my divinity, the ones I knew of anyway. Had both been female. Bath Kol was one of the few female seraphim while Nüwa was a goddess. In my mind, I had these vague images of them as something like absurdly powerful long-lost aunts. Intellectually I knew it was probably inaccurate, but on an emotional level that was the closest I could come to putting my confused feelings into words. The knowledge that I had a male relative should have been a small thing, but it felt important, as though something was rounding out where it was needed.
“Who . . . who is he?”
I didn’t want to stumble over the question, but my suddenly dry throat made me stutter the question.
“Shiva.”
She said it so casually that for a moment I didn’t even realize she’d answered my question. Shiva? For a moment I just mentally fumbled, memories of computer games and late-night subbed films running through my tired mind. Then I made the connection.
Shiva. As in Lord Shiva? As in one of the most powerful gods of the Hindu pantheon, if not the flat-out most powerful of all?
I had some idea of how enormous this was. Shiva was one of the trinity at the top of their pantheon, the trinity that represented creation, preservation, and destruction. He was the destroyer, arguably the most powerful of them all. He was the god that other gods prayed to, that demons worshipped. He was the god that destroyed the old universe so that the new one could flourish into place.
That was pretty much all I knew about him, but it was enough to leave me mentally reeling.
“Adam is descended from Lord Shiva?” I glanced over, seeing that Hadriel had stepped forward, her face intent.
“Yeah,” The dark-haired goddess confirmed, her posture still as casual as ever. “It surprised me too when I found out.”
“I have never heard of Lord Shiva making use of the cracks into the mortal plane during the Exile,” Hadriel stated, her eyes narrowing slightly. “I am aware that some angels attempted to monitor which deities chose to descend to the world of mortals, even if it meant forsaking their power. The method used was imperfect, but they were able to sense when the strongest deities chose to abandon their power. They would surely have noticed had a god of Lord Shiva’s stature done so.”
“Ah,” Kali grinned as she waved a finger in admonition. “But when did you guys start doing that? Shiva only did it once, and it was right at the start, back when us gods were learning the trick by watching you angels take the plunge. Back then no one knew all the ins and outs of it, so when he tried it, he ended up doing it just like an angel, losing all his memories and being reborn as just another mortal.”
She paused for a moment, grinning.
“He had a decent life, an average one, a normal one, but he also created a bloodline with a Legacy in it. And that Legacy has now culminated in Adam here.”
“So why are you here? Does your lord seek the protection of his descendant?”
It was Athena who asked the question, her face one of neutral curiosity that didn’t indicate her own feelings on the matter.
“After that show with lighting up the sky we had to do something,” Kali’s face grew serious as she looked at the other goddess, then turned to face me. “He’s got a lot of power, and he’s got ties to the High Heavens. These guys from Olympus are interested in him, and once word gets out a bit more there’ll be a lot of eyes on him. Shiva thought he could use some backup, so here I am.”
“Je vois, you are here to aid him?”
It was Joan who asked this time, her face intent.
“Yeah, that’s the plan. Think of me as a bodyguard slash assistant, here to keep you safe and help you succeed.” The black-haired goddess paused for a moment, then looked me straight in the eyes. “Don’t think I’ll be fighting your battles for you though. I’m here to help, not let you coast through on my back, you understand?”
At that moment all her amused informality fell away, and I was acutely aware that I was facing a very powerful and very dangerous being.
“What guarantees do we have on your allegiance?” Hadriel asked, her form tense. “You are formidable, goddess Kali, but your bloodlust is as famed as your prowess. Will you turn on us in the heat of battle, should your battle frenzy grow too great?”
The Hindu goddess didn’t move, she didn’t change her posture, she didn’t even change her expression, but she didn’t need to. The atmosphere in the room, previously slightly tense but not hostile, became almost unbearably oppressive. I could feel a cold shiver run down my spine, and the butterflies in my stomach died as a void seemed to take their place. I tried to move, to step between them, to try and calm down the situation, but to my growing panic, I realized that I couldn’t move! I wanted to, I could feel my muscles tensing and trying to obey me, but nothing was happening, the sudden atmosphere seeming to hold me in place as though I were entombed in concrete.
“You’re a brave little angel, aren’t you?” Kali asked, her voice light, even as her eyes fixed upon the crimson-winged angel. “It’s not often that anyone questions me as an ally. Normally they’re just glad I’m not an enemy. Is that what you want? Would you prefer me as an enemy?”
The feeling of ants made from ice marching up and down my spine redoubled as I watched the angel and the goddess stare at each other. For her part, Hadriel seemed utterly undaunted, with no hint of fear in her expression. Her body was tense though, bare skin making it easy to see the muscles moving beneath, readying themselves for action. Tension built in the room, the Hindu goddess remaining lounging on her seat while the angel . . . I didn’t even know what she wanted to do. Fight? Flee? Protect me?
I think it was that last thought that finally let me do something, the thought that they might end up fighting over me in some disagreement about trust.
“H-Hey . . . HEY!”
The first word was halting, barely more than a croak, but I managed to repeat it with enough volume to get the attention of the two of them. The pressure in the room dropped off as their gazes focused on me, rather than each other, and I found I could move once more.
“Huh, looks like you’ve got some decent guts in you,” Kali commented as she leaned back, deliberately taking a more relaxed posture.
“Adam . . . ?” I was pretty sure that that was the first time I’d ever heard Hadriel speak with anything less than absolute confidence in her voice. She sounded just slightly uncertain, as though unsure of how to react to me stepping in like this.
“I . . . look, Kali,” I kept going, trying to keep my momentum, afraid that if I did stop then the reality of the situation, that I was talking to a goddess, would paralyse me. “Can . . . can you give us a reason to trust you? I don’t mean any . . . any insult, or anything like that, but we’ve got to be careful, okay?”
It came out more hurriedly than I wanted it to, but at least it was coherent, and the way I was feeling, that counted as a win.
Kali had stood up, and though the air wasn’t as tense as it had been there was a definite return of tension as she tilted her head to the side slightly. Athena hadn’t retreated, hadn’t stepped back, but she had turned in place, making it clear that she wasn’t about to step into this as she looked between us.
“Ballsy,” the Hindu goddess grinned as she said the world, her smile that of a lioness that had come across an entire herd of unconscious prey. “You sure you want to keep pushing on this?”
I swallowed, then moistened my dry lips as I did my best to keep from fidgeting under her gaze.
“I don’t mean any disrespect,” I said, trying to be polite without being deferential. “But Joan and Hadriel have got my trust. I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. So, I’ve got to ask for something.”
For a moment only silence reigned in the refitted room, Kali pinning me in place with a look so inscrutable it was almost disturbing. Then her smile came back, less predatory, more . . . pleased, as though she liked my response.
“Good, keep that backbone, you’re going to need it.”
The smile dropped from her face and she took a step forward, her posture and expression suddenly formal.
“I have sworn an oath before and to Lord Shiva. I have sworn this oath upon my loyalty to him, upon my own name, upon my own power, upon my own honour. I shall be your ally. I shall aid you, teach you, guard you. I shall never raise my hand against you, nor your family, nor your allies. So long as you hold faith with me and your divine ancestor I, Kali the Black One, shall serve you as your companion in your tasks to come.”
She didn’t kneel, she didn’t bow, she just stood there, her eyes meeting mine with a clear and unblinking gaze. Despite her lack of ceremony, I could feel that what she’d just said weren’t simple words. There was weight behind them, power, something that I couldn’t really put into words. What I did know, on a bone-deep level, was that if she broke this promise there would be consequences. Just what they’d be I had no idea, but that they would be something severe was a given.
I wasn’t the only one to feel it either, because to the side I saw Hadriel relax slightly. She was still ready, still prepared to act if she needed to, but the edge of tension seemed to have been released.
“Tres bien, it shall be an honour to fight by your side, great goddess,” Joan said, stepping forward, and offering a polite bow to Kali. “Your prowess in battle is famed the world over, I am certain that your aid shall be of great value.”
The dark-haired goddess gave a slightly bemused smile as she seemed to notice the resurrected soul for the first time.
“Oh? You look like a fun one. Once we’ve got the meet-and-greet out of the way d’you want to go out back for a spar? It’d be interesting to see what a mortal returned from the High Heavens can do.”
Her tone was almost . . . flirty? Enough that my thoughts went in a rather dirty direction for a moment. That only lasted until I saw the look on the Hindu goddess’s face though. The eagerness in her features, the look in her eyes, I didn’t know how I recognized it, but I knew it wasn’t lust. That was bloodlust, the look of someone anticipating a fight the way an alcoholic anticipated a fine bottle of wine, not the cheap stuff to tide them over, but the good stuff.
“Perhaps at some later point,” Joan replied, her tone devoid of anything but earnest sincerity. “However, tonight there remain introductions to be made, and afterwards it would seem that Adam shall require a long night of rest. Any battle between us that grows too hearty would no doubt make his sleep impossible, so it would be best to wait until a more opportune time.”
Kali just stared at her for a moment, then glanced at me, then back to Joan, then back to me.
“So . . . you’ve got the backbone and you lucked out with this one. She is for real, right?” At my silent nod, she continued. “Okay, I think this is going to be interesting.”
Without another word, Kali slumped back down onto her seat and made a ‘your turn’ gesture to Athena. The Greek goddess had seemed slightly put out that she had to go along with such a casual direction, but she’d been moving to speak to me even before Kali made the gesture, so it had been what she was doing anyway.
“Though we do not know whom you are descended from the power of the gods of Greece is strong within you. As such it was decided that the Olympians would extend an offer of alliance and friendship to you.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, trying to be polite, but not showing weakness.
“In the first, I shall act as a teacher,” She explained. “It shall be my duty to educate you upon the history and culture of your Olympian descent, as well as what duties might be expected of you. I shall also serve as your first point of contact with the gods of Greece, with the hope that in time you may be introduced to more of your kin, and grow to be a part of the family.”
That sounded pretty good to me. Maybe she wasn’t saying she’d help guard me like Kali, but the value of an offer to learn more from one of the wisest deities in the Greek mythos wasn’t something to underestimate.
“And what of battle, honoured Athena?” Joan asked, drawing the room’s attention to herself again. “To offer your wisdom is a boon that only the foolish would turn away, but what of when your student is in danger? What of when he enters battle?”
There was a pause as the tall goddess stared at the French Saint, her eyes judging, evaluating. Then she offered a small nod.
“A teacher does not fight their student’s battles for them, but at the same time, a teacher will act to protect their student. If this privilege is not abused, then I shall stand at the side of Adam when it is called for.”
“Even in the halls of Heaven the wisdom of Athena is well known,” Hadriel commented as she stepped forward. “It would be a boon to have upon our side in the trials to come.”
“But . . . what about your responsibilities?” I asked. “I mean, aren’t you a major player in Olympus Industries? I . . . look, is being here worth it? Can the company afford to lose you?”
It wasn’t an idle question; the goddess of wisdom was unquestionably a large part of why the divinely led corporation was doing so well. Yes, they had a near-total monopoly on the creation and distribution of divinely empowered items. Yes, Zeus himself had enough charisma to bring in recruits by the hundreds and investors by the busload. Yes, Hephaestus was creating new products and production methods by what seemed to be the day. However, it was Athena who was always credited with being the brilliant negotiator, the deal maker, and the bastion against those trying to use legal means to get their claws into the fledgling powerhouse.
By being here her company had to be losing money due to her absence, huge amounts of money!
“There will be some disruption from my absence,” Athena allowed. “However, I feel that it will be minor. I have recruited competent mortals, and Hermes is a skilled negotiator in his own right. I may need to contact my family on occasion, but with the technology available in this new age my departure is not the crippling blow it might have been.”
She paused for a moment, her look evaluating as she stared at me.
“Also, you are family. It may not yet be clear how close you are, but it would be ill-done of me and my kin to ignore you. Mortal coin is not so valuable that it would outweigh you, our blood.”
“. . . Thank you?”
How was I meant to answer her? What she’d just said gave me some idea of the kind of value she placed on me, but a simple thanks seemed insufficient.
A smile crossed the goddess’s face. It was beautiful, which was hardly a surprise, but what did strike me was the way the smile was tinged with . . . pride? Self-satisfaction? It wasn’t an ugly emotion, but it was not one I had been expecting to see there, even if only briefly. Then it was gone, and I was unsure if I had seen it at all. I would have thought about it more, but I was distracted as Athena reached into her robes and pulled out a folded square of golden cloth.
“Your words do me honour,” She smiled as she began to unfold the cloth. “However, it is not merely wisdom and learning that I bring. Upon gaining so new and unexpected an addition to the family, my father felt it only fit that gifts should be offered to welcome you to the life of the divine.”
The cloth finished unfolding, revealing itself to be a large sack. To be sure, it was elaborately embroidered, and the golden cloth looked like it should have been used to make an emperor’s best robes, but in the end, it was a sack. More than that, it seemed to be completely empty, yet Athena was laying it out on the small table and opening it as though she intended to take something out. With her being so tall the sight of her kneeling down to use the coffee table should have been awkward, but somehow she managed to make it look stately and dignified.