CHAPTER 8 - BACK IN THE DEADLY GARDEN

Waking up I found myself in both a familiar but foreign garden filled with colourful but deadly flowers. It was an extremely disorienting feeling. It was like multiple people were shouting instructions inside my head, one told me that I shouldn’t move, another told me to explore this strange place and the memories of two lives with a total of thirty-seven years being jammed into me all at once. All I could do was squat down and curl into a ball hoping that this feeling would go away.

Finally, after a while, the feeling dulled to a minor annoyance. It was then that I noticed someone was stroking my hair. It was extremely comforting. Looking at her, I recognised her as both the patron goddess of Kar but also my mother.

Throwing my arms around her and nuzzling into her chest I completely let out all my emotions. I started to cry hysterically, calling her a liar repeatedly. I told her how much I missed her. All those years of growing up without knowing the love of a mother. She said she would be there for me but that didn’t happen. I felt abandoned and unwanted. As if reading my mind, she stopped me from continuing with those negative thoughts.

“I do love you and I didn’t wish to abandon you. I did everything I could to try to be by your side.”

“But you weren’t there I didn’t even know you were my mother growing up over there. You said I would remember.”

“That was the plan, but plans don’t always go as we wanted. My husband Aion chief of the gods found out about you and interfered. While I am the goddess of life what I was doing was essentially part of the domain of the dead. One thing led to another, and you were reborn into this world with both of our power. However, even as gods, we are not perfect, and your memories of earth were mostly sealed away to protect your fragile soul. I’m sorry for not being there for you in the past years.”

Having lived for over twenty-five years in my first life and another twelve years in this life I found that I had completely regressed in my mental age in that while I hated the idea of having this father I never had met, I was also thankful to know I had a father figure in my life. I had thought that I had gotten over that period in my life where I would innocently ask ‘why I didn’t have a daddy’, maybe I haven't.

“I forgive you mum you were just trying to keep me alive, but not him, not a father that I have never even met.”

Removing myself from my mum I realised that I only reached her chest, compared to the last time I was here I was now in my twelve-year-old body. I wonder if this was the reason for my uncontrolled emotions because I was in a child’s body my mind automatically adapted itself to its host.

Speaking of host will I be able to keep my memories when I go back? What was the world I currently lived in? what made it different from my past world? There are so many questions I want to ask. So, I did, only fools do ask what they want to know, communication is the key in any relationship.

Starting from the beginning mum explained how Aion found out about my soul immediately after she started the process for my reincarnation. She also explained that we were both biologically and spiritually virtually identical save for my appearance because of the nature of my birth.

This similarity also included my divinity and domain. While it didn’t matter back on planet earth it matters here on Arcadia the world where I now live. Due to my mother being a high-ranking goddess the fact that I would be sharing aspects of her authority and were also linked with her immortality was dangerous. In other words, I was leeching off her lifeforce if she wasn’t the powerful goddess of life, she would not have been able to support both of us. It was also the reason why she could even consider doing this.

“But mum why would I be taking your divinity didn’t you say I inherited it and formed my own last time.”

“Well, you see that time I gave birth to you, I did through normal birth in a human body as you were without a formed soul without memories. This time around because you had memories of a past life it required me to be in my goddess form making your body that of a god’s. With divinity needed to support your divine body, I linked it with mine or you would have simply died again without the connection. Aion didn't like that so we then thought of a different way where we would recreate your body together and merged our domains and divinity together to for a new one that wasn’t within the domain of any other gods and place your soul in it. The rest is history.”

While what she was telling me sort of made sense to me, I could tell that it was probably just one part of the story. There were definitely many things she did not tell me. However, the part that attracted my attention the most was the part on having a divine body created by two gods working together.

“When you said working together to create my body, did you mean you guys had sex? If so, you really should have said so why do you have to make it seem so complicated. I may look twelve but not actually twelve.”

With a slightly embarrassed expression, mum cleared her throat and tried to think of an excuse or something to say but ended up just nodding her head.

“So, in fact, I’m more of a normal person in this life than in my past life where I was born through parthenogenesis.”

“That is true in a sense, but I think you’re missing the point.”

“What I was created through gods having some fun times creating god babbies. Wait does that also make me a god?”

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“Took you long enough to realise. You are now a genuine god. One that is still young and still unknown to the world but a god nonetheless.”

So that was why I could use silver runes, remember how this all started. Ingrid said that a Dryad had punished some adventurers through the usages of runes I wonder if divine runes can be used like normal runes for magic and spells.

“Mum, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, go ahead, unlike the last time you were here you can stay for as long as you like.”

“There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while now who were the king and queen of Kar if you and Aion are my real parents?”

“You shouldn’t call your father Aion by name. He is still your father even though you’ve never met him, but that’s a simple question to answer they are your foster parents. I left them to look after you as things have been a bit messy here in the divine realm shortly after I gave birth to you. Some creatures known as god hunters have been showing up in the divine realms and I didn’t want you to be here in case they targeted us.”

“So, you didn’t just abandon me because you didn’t want me anymore.”

“Of course not, you’re my favourite child out of my three children.”

“For the goddess of motherhood, you sure don’t have a lot of children.”

“As you said I’m the goddess of motherhood, not childbirth, do understand the difference? Any other questions you want to ask me while you’re here.”

“I do, I’ve been wondering if it would be possible for me to learn divine runes and use them in spells?”

“Certainly, as a goddess you can use divine runes, they should be second nature to you but because previously your memories were sealed it most likely was sealed as well. With your memories now unsealed you should be able to use them easily.”

“So, when I go back later, I’ll have my memories? Will I be able to see you, or will I not be able to see you again?”

“It would be unlikely that we will be able to meet often, but if you want to just talk, I will always be available through dream channelling. I’ll teach you how to do it before you go back.”

“Why won’t we be able to meet often is it because of the god hunters? What are they and how can someone kill a god aren’t you supposed to be immortal as long as you have divinity?”

“Ayra we are far from immortal; many beings and things can kill us. For starters anyone or thing with divinity can harm and kill us, spiritual being can harm and kill out, but the most dangerous thing to beings that possess divinity is pure single-minded intent, this is what god hunters are, biological beings without a free will with only their task of hunting down beings with divinity including gods, spirits of nature and even greater demons aren’t speared. You will do well to remember my words Ayra for you are also a goddess that possesses divinity. While you are currently still mortal as you have not been recognised as a true goddess you are most vulnerable to all attacks from god hunters and other beings that wish to harm you. I do not want to see you die again.”

“Then how do I become recognised as a true goddess? If you are so worried about me, why do you still send me away? Would it not be better for me to stay with you mum?”

“The divine realm is constantly being attacked I cannot risk having you here. The world below on Arcadia is a much safer place as there are little to no deities down there save for a few spirits of nature like Dryads.”

We continued to talk for a long time, days in fact as time in the garden is separate from the rest of the divine realm and Arcadia. This allowed us to discuss about many things particularly about how I could become a true goddess. I also learnt a lot about deities. I learnt that gods, natural spirits, and greater demons are all categorised as deities as they all have divinity.

A deity’s divinity comes from the belief that all beings have of them which was essentially their domain. Which makes deities extremely susceptible to focused and single-minded intent. It was also one of the things that I was missing to become a true goddess.

This was the main thing I was missing was that I had not chosen my domain yet. Apparently, to make it so that I wasn’t weakening my godly parents by leeching off them constantly, they charged me up with a temporary domain filled with divinity acting as a battery that would be used up when I turned twenty. It was the reason why the chest that started all did was left for me to open during my coming-of-age ceremony. Now that I had pre-emptively opened it, I would have an extra four years before my coming-of-age ceremony even comes around.

This issue of choosing my domain won’t be a simple thing as there are many things to consider, but apparently I only really need to choose one for now and I would take on more later one as long as mortals know about it.

Firstly, I cannot choose a domain that another Arcadian deity has.

Secondly, I don’t want to have a highly embarrassing domain. Like being the goddess of bathrooms or something like that.

Thirdly, I could also pick multiple domains as my mother did, but it usually has to be linked. Nature, life, war, and wealth is a possible combination as they are all aspects that drive and define human life. Or Aion’s which involves, the sky, heaven, leadership, and time. So essentially, he was the god of politics and progress. Together they basically form human civilisation.

Fourthly, I also wanted to have my domains semi-related to my parents as a way to pay my respects to them for giving birth to me and remembering my origin.

Truthfully, I had sort of already decided what I wanted to be. I had found out from mum what domains my siblings had taken. Theias the eldest was the goddess of minerals, precious objects, wisdom, fire, and craft. Hyperious who was born next and the youngest until I showed up was the god of the sun, culture, and effort. All their domains were related to human life, while that may be the patron gods of other species like how mother was the patron of all wolves and Aion was to all winged creatures and Theias was to dwarves. However, in the end, they were all human gods.

The domain I would that on as my main domain that would make the most sense was the moon. It was both a heavenly body that told the time as well as being related to aspects of nature and wolves. I could also take on the domains like rest, youth, and possibly immortality.

While the domains of the moon, rest, and youth can all be under time and nature, immortality was a bit different. It wasn’t an aspect of an aspect that all the gods had but they were not invulnerable to death. In other words, the gods only have eternal life and won’t age but will still die if someone killed them. My wish was to become a backup of sorts for all the gods in the divine realm, but particularly it was for my mother. I didn’t want her to ever die. With how chaotic the divine was with the god hunters attacking the gods I wanted to become an assurance that would keep the gods safe.

Once I thought out what I wanted to achieve with my domains I informed mum of my decision. She hugged me tightly and gave me a big motherly smile as if to say ‘this silly child’ when I told her my wish and thoughts to protect her and the other gods. While I had never met any of the other gods here, I felt my connection to them grew stronger each time mum told me something about them.

Releasing me from the hug mum dropped an unexpected sentence while soft, seem to echo out in all directions.

“By my name Karla, as high goddess of the Parthenon I hereby call an assembly of the gods.”