The Dark Goddess

Chapter 12

A loud bump startled Ami awake from her nap, she hadn’t even realized how tired she was till she fell asleep, just then she heard an announcement over the unseen speakers of their arrival at Haven.

She could then hear hustling and bustling of excited new intakes as they hurriedly got off the bus to get to their new home.

Home, yeah, that was what this place would be for her and these people for now, although as she had heard, some make it their permanent home, grow up, have kids and so on.

Now that she thought about it, Haven was as large and wide as a city, she hadn’t even seen the half of it according to what Darren had told her.

One more thing she wondered as she also started to get up in order to move out from the bus was where in America the location of Haven actually was, that is if it was even in America, then if not, where is it?.

It was too large to be totally hidden from human eyes as Miles and Darren had explained it to be, and although there were entrances scattered all over the world that magically takes you straight to Haven, right here where the bus brought them was its actual location and main entrance.

Ami scooped up Aegis who offered no resistance and made for the bus door, getting down, she saw her luggage had already been offloaded as well and had been hitched to a carriage.

The carriage was like any other medieval carriage except it was pulled by horses with wings, Pegasus, if memory serves her right, they looked well cared for in their shining coat and well brushed mane and were really a beauty to behold.

Then she noticed someone up ahead was making an announcement again and she was missing it, so she hurried to where the new intakes were all gathered.

“… for those of you that knows your placement already please form a line on the left side here and follow this young lady in charge of hall and dorm placements, and for those of you that are clueless as to who you are and descended from, please form a line on the right and follow me, I’ll take you to where your line will be determined” a young man was saying and Ami couldn’t help but see quite a resemblance between him and Miles.

As she lined with her category by the right she got her confirmation from some of the other students discussing, “I hope to be a child of Apollo like him, he is so cool” one of them said.

As they filed onwards Ami caught sight of Darren, he was with some kids and they seemed to be learning something from him, Ami couldn’t tell what it was and she decided not to call to him because he seemed to be focusing hard on the teaching at the moment.

They went on a little further then commotion erupted from behind them and as Ami looked back towards where Darren had been teaching, her mouth opened up in awe as she saw a huge plant stalk rising from the ground and growing upwards, the sight reminded her of Jack the giantslayer and his magical beans that grew a stalk from the earth to the heavens.

Then she saw a couple of people around Darren’s age rush to his side and help him up, they were also giving him something to take seemingly to calm him or restore strength to him, that must have been his doing then, she figured.

The line stopped in front of a house that looked really old, it was covered with runes and images and even hieroglyphs, here they were required to wait and enter inside one after the other.

Ami roughly counted fifteen kids in total herself included on the line, and as each entered and came back out, something had occurred to them, there was always something different about them.

Some came out looking entirely different from head to toe even including their clothing, for some it was just an image glowing above their heads and for some it was their actual appearance that changed.

There were those who did not have any significant change though but one thing was common to them all, they all had a card with them, it looked about the size of a tarot card and each was different in color, and there seemed to be a writing on it.

Ami glimpsed a word from one a particularly buff looking guy had, 'Thor', and although it wasn’t written in English she was able to read the word perfectly, there were some other words but she couldn’t make those out before the guy was out of sight.

Finally it became her turn to enter the house, she felt she should drop Aegis but since there was no one to drop him with she just went along with him.

Entering the house she was welcomed by a dome that shouldn’t be there judging from the outside appearance of the house, the dome was large and empty, stained glass of different godly depictions filled the ceiling.

Right at the center of the dome was a large table with many of the tarot cards on it, only that the cards were clear white in color.

Standing behind the table and facing her was Victor, the shaman she had earlier met when she came with Darren and Miles, he still had his overage and underage look thing going for him and he smiled when he saw Ami.

His smile was both like the goofy grin of a teenager and a kind smile of an elder, she should be freaked out by this, but she wasn’t, Ami was surprised she was just taking everything in so well without pause.

‘Well that’s what you get when you are suddenly thrown into a whole new world of gods and everything about them’ she thought to herself although she knew deep down that she was still going to have a breakdown once she has the chance to really settle.

“Welcome back little lady, I hope you are ready now to know who and what you really are?” he asked still smiling.

Ami nodded because she knows her voice would betray her, in truth, she wasn’t ready, in fact she would love it if all this had never happened to her and she could still live her normal life with her normal parents and normal best friend, but there was no turning back now, this was reality.

“Very well, step forward and be claimed, pick a card and be placed, you see here is the only place the gods have the most little of influence, when the light from those runed and spelled glasses touch you, then the blood in you that belongs to the godly side gets stirred and called upon, then claiming happens in whatever way that particular godly side does its claiming” Victor explained.

Ami wondered if that meant the Indian gods would make their descendants burst into dancing or if the Aztec or Polynesian gods would make their descendants act like their spirit animals.

So far she hasn’t seen anyone dancing or making animal sounds so she was rest assured something like that wouldn’t happen to her, probably.

She was about to take a step forward when Victor raised a hand in caution “Whatever happens little lady, make sure you keep moving till you get to this table” he warned.

Ami couldn’t help but have more profoundly funny thoughts at that warning, ‘I hope I don’t turn into a cow, moving forward would be difficult on legs I don’t know how to use’ she thought to herself and almost chuckled aloud.

Then she took a deep breath and stepped into the light, she expected an immediate response but at first nothing happened, so she kept moving forward.

Suddenly the glasses overhead seemed to shatter with the impact of an explosion, Ami looked up but the glasses were intact, but right above the glasses was a dark storm unlike any she had ever seen.

It flashed angrily and raged without remorse or control and it reminded her of the power with her, ‘this must be how it looks like inside me’ she thought but she kept moving till she reached the table.

“Just pick” Victor encouraged her and she did.

And as she did the storm overhead raged some more and the clear white card turned black as night with one letter written on it; “G”.

“Now that is different” Victor said with a serious expression before catching himself and changing it to his usual smile once again.

Ami wanted to ask what was different but seeing how he had quickly swapped expressions, she decided not to press him.

“You may take your leave now, see one of the hall prefects and they’ll direct you to where you’ll be staying, welcome to Haven once again little lady” the shaman said to her.

Ami complied although she still had so much she wanted to ask, but since the storm show had stopped, she knew they were done with her here and what was necessary has been done, besides there were still some kids waiting outside for their turn to be claimed and placed as well.

Getting out Ami couldn’t help but feel disappointed, initially when she heard that the gods had little influence in the dome, she had expected to at least see her godly parents so she could have words with them, serious harsh words, but that would have to wait.

Little did she know that in fact a part of her birth mother and father had been pulled to that dome, it was just that they couldn’t enter, and all that was really needed was recognition by the shaman and the cards.

Ami was still looking for a hall prefect when both Miles and Darren caught up to her, “hey hey hey, peaches” Darren started totally forgetting their deal not to call her that anymore, “I can see you’ve been claimed and placed, so tell us, which is it, Norse, Egyptian, something even more deep?” he blubbered.

“Uhm” Ami started then she showed her card which now had a little scribble of writing she hadn’t seen initially at the house “it just says Yoruba, Nigerian and this capital ‘G’ is all” she answered.

Both Miles and Darren opened their mouth wide at that and glanced wide eyed at the card in her hand.

“Whoa, a capital G, now that is something rare, isn’t it Miles” Darren said still ogling the card in her hands.

“Well yeah, I mean I pretty much expected it I guess when you said it was both her parents that were gods, but its still shocking to actually see it happen” Miles responded.

“Guys, what does this mean? I don’t understand why its so rare or unexpected” Ami said to them both.

“Well I’ll explain” Miles said “you see, there are a number of letters that means different placements here, there is the lower 'l' for minor legacies and upper 'L' for major legacies (Legacies are descendants of demigods with their godly side still really predominant” he clarified.

“Then we also have the lower 'd' for minor demigods and upper 'D' for major demigods, demigods as you know are the offspring of a god and a mortal hence direct descendants of the gods” he continued.

“we also have the lower 'm' for minor magicians and upper 'M' for major magicians, magicians are those with a special and powerful blood content that allows them to walk the path of the gods of their line, they can do what those gods themselves can do up to a point, so I’d watch out for them if I were you” he ended that on a note of warning.

“Then we have the lower 'g' for godlings who are like magicians but are possessed by a god or goddess or at least a significant part of that god or goddess, they are rare as well, but not as rare as the upper 'G' for god or goddess, these are offspring of direct gods so they are gods as well not descendants, and that is what you are” Miles finished his explanation.

Ami could now see why they were behaving awed and surprised at her placement, she is now in one of the oddest placement yet, an actual god, things hasn’t stopped getting drastic and dramatic for her it seems.

She heaved a deep breath and scratched Aegis’ head behind the ear, he was so content sleeping in her arms, sometimes she wondered if he wasn’t actually a cat, considering how much he sleeps.

“I still need to get a hall prefect to show me where I’d be staying” she said in a tired voice, now was not the time to process and ponder all these information, now was the time to settle.

Darren could only look at her sympathetically, he seemed to understand how she must be feeling by now, its all really overwhelming and he praised her inwardly for being so strong.

“You’re in luck my fair lady” he said in a cheerful tone hoping to help her in getting things off her mind for the time being, “this here sir Miles is a hall prefect, how did you think I got the pass to leave the grounds as I wish” he finished and added his awkward courtesy.

“Ha ha ha, very funny, no more off the grounds pass for you though, the last one I gave you nearly spoilt everything, but we were successful so there’s that” Miles replied to Darren’s jibe, then he faced Ami “Unfortunately he is right, I am a hall prefect, so let me take you to where you’d be staying, I’d say you hall but since you’d be getting a whole building to yourself no need” he finished.

Ami had the energy to react this time “A whole building? All to myself? But why? Goddess treatment?” she asked.

“Erm no, nothing of the sort, there is not special treatment per say for the differences in placement, you are getting a new different building all to yourself because from your godly line, you are the only one we have here at Haven” Miles replied.

Ami mulled it over and found sense in that, she actually didn’t really know how she would have felt to being treated differently or specially from the rest just because of what she is.

As Miles had said, a whole building was in fact where she was brought to, and from all indications, the building was new, probably just minutes old.

It had representations and depictions of a cultural heritage that looked like something that came out from a tribal movie, it was so beautiful and intense.

“wow so beautiful” Darren said “and to think that all this is still gonna upgrade”.

Ami looked quizzical so Miles jumped in to explain “well, once more knowledge is gained about your heritage and godly line it will be ingrained in the building, that is the upgrade Darr is talking about”

“Well thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate your support and kindness, if it hadn’t been for you both I’d most likely be dead, so thanks a lot” Ami said.

She was so tired that by the time the boys bid her goodbye, she felt like she might just collapse somewhere, so before that could happen she dragged herself off inside the building.

It was just as beautiful inside as it was outside and Ami couldn’t just help but have a nostalgic feeling, not for her home this time but for Nigeria, a place she had never been or seen and only heard of maybe once or twice in passing.

She couldn’t admire the beauty as much as she wanted to though because of her fatigue, so she placed Aegis down and he immediately started looking for another comfy place to sleep in, Ami couldn’t help but smile at that.

She yawned hard and headed off into one of the bedrooms, finding one, she crashed on the soft mattress and as all the information she had skipped its processing started coming back to her, she cried herself to sleep.