The night sky is dark above me as I lay down on the outskirts of the village. It was getting chillier after the sun went down with each passing day, autumn was quickly approaching. The wind that swished through the trees and over me was felt as cold to me, though it didn't seem to effect me in any meaningful way. At this point I assume its some kind of temperature resistance I have because of being a goddess. The stars though, they were beautiful, filling the sky will brilliantly sparkling lights like the most expansive light show one could imagine.
In my hands I had the overnight project that I had planned on doing. During the last bit of light it had been easy enough to gather the materials needed for it and I had started right after the darkness took over. All the villagers had gone to bed except for the night watch, and due to goddesses not needing to sleep if they had enough mana I was left awake throughout the night. The only company for me was the sound of the wind and project.
It was an abacus. The most ancient of mathematical tools known to exist. Having one around would be extremely useful since as my duties grew having a way to more easily do math will be important. By taking lots of small logs, vines grown using magic, and rounded stones the device could easily be put together. Of course as a goddess I had cheated a bit and used magic to drill holes in all the stones and rounded them into the shape of beads, but that wasn't something that worried me or anything.
Once completed it would be a large square frame with ten straight bars going across it. Along each of these bars would sit ten stone beads, which could easily be slid back and forth along the bar. The idea of the device was to assign each row of beads a number designation: row one is ones, row two is fives, row three is tens, and so on. Thus one could do counting and mathematical problems quickly by simply swapping beads around on the abacus. Two in row three and three in row one would be twenty-three. Then if you wanted to add fifteen you just slide across one bead in row two and one in row three and count up the new number. Thirty-eight of course!
One of the night watch had wandered over and was watching me work. At this point the abacus was about two-thirds done and I was testing the beads by flicking them back and forth. In his perspective I must look so engrossed by my work that he hadn't been noticed, but of course due to the perception abilities of mine he didn't even need to be looked at to be seen be me.
"Need something?" I asked going back to my work on the bars.
He looked surprised and jumped. "Oh goddess! I'm sorry for interrupting your work. I wasn't trying to-"
I cut him off. "You're not bothering me. Did you need something?"
The look of fear came over him as I turned my face around to look down. My eyes must have been glowing again as that usually got this reaction out of people. Being a goddess gave me perfect night vision which is why I didn't have difficulty seeing. To him however it must be pretty terrifying to see me laying there in the dark and suddenly finding huge glowing eyes staring at you. To ease his fear I summoned a small yellow light near my shoulder which illuminated the immediate area.
He calmed down a bit in the warm glow and held his hand to his chest, letting out a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry goddess you just startled me. I- I wanted to ask what you were building. What is it?"
"This?" I said holding it up in front of me. "Its an abacus. You use it to do mathematics. Here look. These are ones and these are fives. Just move them like this and seven. Then you add another five and its twelve. See?"
He watched in awe as I deftly flicked around the stone beads in my demonstration. I then showed him a few bigger math problems with the row of hundreds. To me they were tiny beads, but to a human even these were boulders of decent size. The demonstration was confusing him, that was easy enough to tell by how he was looking at me and the tool. Most everyone knew how to do simple addition and subtraction, but most people used their fingers for calculations. Its not to say they were stupid or anything, just that the math in their lives was simple.
"Not used to using numbers that big are you?" I asked him rather bluntly.
He shook his head and looked down in embarrassment. "I'm sorry goddess."
"Its nothing to be sorry about. If I get my way I'll have these things, or something similar, mass produced so that everyone can learn complicated mathematics. Multiplication and division too! And um... fractions..."
I had trailed off in that last part. Math like calculus and higher types were things my memories weren't that clear on and I hoped I would remember them better in the future. Mathematics was so critically important after all.
"Anyway. You can stand there and watch if you want, but I want to get this finished before sunrise."
The man nodded and took a step back. "Understood great goddess. I should get back to my post anyway." He bowed. "Have a good night goddess."
After he had walked away I dismissed the light and turned my attention back to the project at hand. The time was going by quickly which it always does when you're focused in on something. At this rate I would be able to stay up all night without feeling bored.
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After several more hours the light of dawn had begun to creep over the horizon. Completing the abacus had thankfully not taken all night so I had passed the rest of the time doing all kinds of math problems. Using a spare stick I had written down equations in the dirt in front of me and used the tool to complete them to the best of my knowledge. It was all to make sure my math skills were up to snuff, or as good as they were going to get with limited access to my memories.
The villagers had began waking up at this point and moving around their daily lives. It wouldn't take long for them to come to me with their decision on what kind of goddess I was. They had said they would decide in the last hours of light yesterday as I had been off gathering the materials. While waiting for whoever was going to come my time was spent sitting up and sort of just watching everyone. My mind was also kept busy by thinking about this visit to the other village. What would they think of me? Would they accept me or fear me?
Eventually a small group walked up to me. It was Miya, her father, and Jackson. They walked up to in front of my crossed legs and stopped to look up at me tower into the sky above them. After bowing down to me and standing up again Miya was the one to speak up first.
"Great goddess Jenna. We've come to tell you the results of the vote last night."
None of them seemed to question the thing I had in my hands, though they did seem distracted looking at it. This prompted me to quickly place the abacus down on the ground behind me before placing my hands in my lap.
"Well, please tell me."
All three of them seemed nervous and to be honest I was a bit as well. The old man Jackson stepped forwards next and cleared his throat.
"Goddess Jenna. After much discussion the village was split between two collective decisions of two separate things you could be." He hung his head apologetically. "I apologize that a consensus could not be made which of those two things were goddess over."
This was disappointing but not unexpected. I tried to stay as stoic as possible. "So what were these two things?"
Jackson stood back up again but kept his head bowed. "The villagers couldn't decide if you were a goddess of light, or a goddess of knowledge."
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Light and knowledge huh? I wonder why they would pick those of all things.
I readjust my sitting position. "I'm not upset or anything. Mind telling me why you picked those two things?"
Miya spoke up again. "Well goddess knowledge was chosen by a lot of people because of how you seem to know so much. You're like a studied guru who knows so much about so many different things. Some things that no one has ever even heard of before! Like mysteries of life!"
Well no question there I suppose. Just what I can remember now about my previous life is enough to make me seem like some mystic figure of bottomless wisdom. I'm remembering some quote about advanced technology being the same as magic to the untrained eye or something.
Her father Duncan was next to speak. "The reason so many others chose light is because of the frequency that you use light magic. Not to mention the fact that your eyes and hair glow themselves. In addition to these things, many people have said your presence in our village has brought light back into their lives. Truer words have never been spoken goddess."
Not much to question about that assessment. I sit there and think about what they've said as they watch me in anticipation. Honestly there's no reason a god or goddess can't be known as more than one thing. At the moment I can think of many gods that were half a dozen or more things in their portfolios. It shouldn't be a problem at all for me to just take both knowledge and light. I wonder if something will change by picking them? Or maybe nothing at all will. Only one way to find out.
"Very well" I said finally. "I've decided."
With that I stand up in front of them and brush myself off. Then I put my hands on my hips and laugh out loud a bit as I think about what I'm about to announce.
"This I proclaim as a goddess of the world, sent by my father who is above us all. I am the goddess Jenna! The goddess of light and knowledge!"
There was a round of applause from those at my feet, and as my voice carried out over the village the people that heard it turned to me and celebrated. After a few moments to allow them to cheer I leaned down and lowered my hand for Miya to climb onto.
"Now my high priestess. Come with me to visit my worshipers in the next door village."
Miya climbs onto my hand and I lift it up close to my chest to keep her as secure as possible.
"Thank you for taking me goddess."
I just smile down at her and wave to the village. "Of course Miya."
With my priestess in tow I then turn to the direction of the other village, the village called Yuvoghen if memory serves correctly. Walking there shouldn't take more then an hour or so by my calculations. My footsteps boom into the mountains as the morning sun finishes climbing up over the horizon, casting its light onto a new day. My heart was filled with excitement and thought not much felt different I could tell with a portfolio established it would be a further step in my evolution as a goddess.
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Getting to the village of Yuvoghen took only a half an hour, perhaps due to the pep in my step the excitement I was feeling provided. We had to cross the big river and travel north-east through the lower forest, the pines of the mountains kept at our left. Miya had been mostly quiet in my hand, her attention taken up with the scenery as she had never traveled far from her own village.
The rolling landscape of the more deciduous Teforh Forest certainly was beautiful, the fall colors just starting to appear in patches all around us. Due to how tall I was the tallest of these trees barely reached my knees with most of them well below that mark. There were a lot more animals around as well, with plenty of bird flocks taking to the sky as my booming steps were avoiding those running below. It was like walking through tall grass really, just the grass was all thick trees.
In no time at all the village came into view, my thundering walking certainly felt by them and bringing them to high alert, if not panic. I stopped walking and lifted the hand with Miya in it higher to my face and looked down at her. She was clearly nervous and hiding it much less effectively than I was.
"Are you ready high priestess?" I asked her smiling.
Miya gulped and looked up into my huge eyes almost shaking in fear. "What if I say the wrong thing goddess? I've never done this kind of thing before. They're all strangers and... I don't want to fail you as your priestess."
"Now calm down Miya" I said trying to comfort her. "I'm the goddess here and I've decided on you as my high priestess. You're acting as my mouth to these people. If your goddess has decided on you as the person most qualified to speak for her what should you be worried about? Don't forget you'll be literally standing in my hand while speaking to them. Do you really think they'll be able to make fun of you even if they wanted to?"
This seemed to calm Miya down and she took several deep breaths. "I know goddess. But why can't you just talk to them yourself? Wouldn't that be better?"
"Well its very important that you do it Miya. Having another human talk to them about me, at least to introduce me, will help make them much less afraid of me. Imagine if when after you met me I had just walked up to your village an announced myself. Wouldn't that have caused mass panic? Instead you had gone to speak to the village about me and thus they were much less afraid of me when I finally did show up at the village."
"I see goddess... Yes that does make sense. Thank you for choosing me for this once again."
A calm then came over Miya and I knew she had come to grips with the situation and understood what I was asking of her. It was asking a lot of a village girl, but she had shown great leadership potential and I knew she could be trusted with this.
"Thank you high priestess Miya." I said with a giggle. "So are you ready?"
She stood up in the middle of my palm and stood at attention. "Yes goddess!"
"Good. Here we go." I smiled down at her.
It was only a couple dozen more steps to the village of Yuvoghen. There were the expected sounds of course like dogs barking and horses neighing. The screaming thankfully was uncommon, with only a woman here and there doing it when she likely stepped out of her house and noticed me. By using my goddess vision I could tell that a large portion of these people were already worshipers of mine. There was a crowd gathering as if to greet me, or accept their perceived fate.
The village itself was setup much differently then Doovlin. For starters there was proper road coming into the village from the east, one that trailed off through the forest towards a town or city somewhere in the distance. There was also a lot more cleared area for farmland as they weren't as close to the river. Lumber was also clearly as major export of theirs as a lumbermill could be seen on the far west of the village. The though of dealing with another Jenson made me grimace internally. Hopefully these people were more pleasant.
Three, two, one steps and I came to the area of clearing between the forest and the village itself. I stopped and held my right hand out, presenting Miya to the people gathering below. Some of them had weapons and tools, others had already fallen down in worship of me, but most of them turned their heads upwards to look at the young woman in my hand as I lowered it down to my legs. Miya then outstretched her arms and began to speak.
"People of Yuvoghen" Miya said as loudly as she could.
It wasn't that loud so I boosted the volume with magic using the wind. A combination of stilling the winds around us and sending them pushing forward towards the crowd helped carry her words along and make her seem louder.
"My name is Miya, high priestess of the great goddess Jenna! Goddess of knowledge and light! The goddess has brought me along to help you feel more at ease from her visit. For she has come to grant blessings to those that worship her. Do not fear, for the great goddess is merciful and kind!"
The people below all stood there in awe and terror of me, my imposing form towering so high above their homes and the trees of the forest. They watched the girl in my hand speaking and her words filled them with even more confusion. I know the thoughts that were going through their heads, they were the same thoughts that the villagers of Doovlin had when they first met me.
"I'll take it from here Miya" I said gently, lifting my hand back up to my chest and allowing her to sit down comfortably.
The people of the village collectively shrunk back, mothers gripping their children and husbands, and those that had weapons gripping them tightly. There were even a few actual guards of sorts in the crowd.
"As you heard my high priestess explain. I'm the goddess of light and knowledge Jenna. I've come to visit your village because many of you are already worshipers of me and you've seen and heard me in the mountains. Perhaps you thought I wouldn't answer the prayers you've been praying to me, for I have heard them. Here I am now. If collectively you wish me to leave I shall turn around and walk away, but to anyone curious I'm here to answer your questions. The leadership of the town and those common villagers as well, as many of you as I can answer today. All I ask is that you provide food and drink for my high priestess here."
I left a pause for all this information to settle in. Miya smiled up at me happy I remembered her needs.
"I'm just going to sit down here at the edge of the forest. You don't have to worry about me stomping into your village or anything alright? I know this is a lot to take in, and I'm nothing like the goddesses you've heard of before."
After saying this I felt there wasn't much more for me to say. With a quick check on the ground around me to make sure I wouldn't sit on anything I lowered myself down and with a thundering boom sat down on the grass and dirt. It would probably hurt to sit cross-legged or on my knees for the whole time so I opted for just having my legs in front of me and my feet together.
For now I'd just have to let them approach me on their own. Miya was carefully deposited on the ground next to my side so she was out of the way of my legs in case I moved them. She stayed close to my body but made herself available to be approached. It was likely the villagers would come up to her first anyway. This is why she was here, talking to another human would be easier for them as long as I didn't seem too active. So I prayed this whole thing would go easily.