4 A visit at the temple!
I am a year old by now. Sorry, but I wont go into the details here. That's mainly because nothing worthwhile happened.
When I started to speak, mother and father were overjoyed of course.
But I try to hide that I could probably govern the country by now. If they would let me give the orders of course.
I keep my conversations down single words and very short sentences.
My mother probably has an idea that I am not a normal baby by now .
That's because I made the words "Mom, Book!" my speciality. Mom still sticks to me like chewing gum.
So there is no way to hide that I am really reading those books. When I turn the pages in an orderly manner she has to get an idea of what's going on.
I have learned my fair amount of common knowledge by now. Mostly history, geography and other basic stuff.
Its not like this world could teach me much terms of math, physics and magic.
Well, "Father, stop!" is second on the list. It's my only form of self defence against roller-coaster dad!
Other children may like being thrown up into the air until they almost hit the ceiling.
I any case, I have a huge dislike to being suddenly moved in unexpected directions. And I have confirmed that my magic works. Though I am nowhere as powerful as I have been.
When you get granted divinity as a god it comes with huge boost to your mental resources and capabilities. You get access to a lot of free mana in other words. My power is down to that of an average mage?I guess.
I will have to do a lot of training again in that regard. The perk is that you can't train your mana without casting the spells for real.
And I have a permanent observer glued to me, so its not easy to play the normal baby. Well, not that I am really dependent on having a huge mana pool by myself.
I know a lot of ways to steal mana, or to use mana that's lingering around in the environment. Before I became a god I specialized in mind and soul magic.
That's a given if you try to understand the whole incarnation process. Mom would get a huge shock if I were to pull a magical baby stunt. Fly baby! Fly! Evade the roller-coaster dad and cast some candy creation magic.
Now that I imagine it, it freaks even me out?
I am inside Mothers office and she is managing her letters. First thing I do in this world will be to invent a computer! Stupid handwriting.
You should never underestimate the stupidity of most realities with access to magic!
They have the most easiest way to get everything you could want, to have a good life, but the most basic items don't get thought of.
Well at least there is something like cars here and less smelly horses. All in all it feels like a world at the beginning of the industrialisation process.
There are magic devices for many things, but most of the work is still done by manual labour.
"Its here! The letter from the temple came! Oh I am so excited little one." - Mother
She now waves a letter into my face. Hold still, who can read like that!? Hah, let's try another way.
"Tample?"
"Its temple little one! It's the place where we pray to the great goddess Seria who governs life and death." Mother smiles at me while I go stiff. That name....
"Haha. No need to be frightened. Everyone gets taken there when they are one year old. As soon as you have visited it, you get recognized as a proper member of society.
You will also be given a proper judgement of your potential by the gods in a ceremony!"
She pauses.
"And if you get lucky, the goddess herself will give you a prophecy of your future! When I was there I got told by the goddess herself, that my third child will have a great destiny.
Your father got the same prophecy, so I am almost sure that something good will happen!"
Mother gives me big hug and the gears in my head slowly begin to turn again. I tried my best to put up a smiling face to her.
But I think I have gotten a lot paler in the process of that explanation.
So that's what the whole "hero and saviour shit" was about at my birth.
"Come up! We will get father. The sooner we are at the temple the better." - Mother
I get picked up again and mother carries me to the throne room where father should be. Oi, give me some time here!
I have to think about this. This could have a huge impact on my life you know? Should I start speaking and complain?
AW! That could lead to more negative outcomes! I can't make up my mind here! This develops too fast.
"Darling! We got the invitation from the temple! Send the ministers away, you can have them do their work by themselves for a day.",
Mother grabs dad by the hand and pulls him out of the chair.
"Yes. Yes, Darling you don't have to pull. My dignity!", the king stumbles after her.
I learned that mother also has some freakish strength. She doesn't really have to hide behind the mad king. But she is much better at controlling it. I got born into a family of monsters.
Minutes later we are in a car and on our way to the temple. In front and behind us drive two cars which are stuffed with guards.
Not bad, its the first time I get a close up look at this world. Before, I had to be happy with a view out of a palace window.
The streets are clean and the buildings are well maintained.
Unless there is some kind of slum hidden somewhere, I would say this is a prosperous country.
Almost impossible to believe that there was a brutal war just over a year ago. The destructions must have never come close to the capital city.
Or the people got really good at construction during the war, that's far more likely. I read that both country's have some serious long range bombardment capabilities.
Man, what am I thinking about? There far more pressing matters than pondering the circumstances of this state!
I guess, I will go with the flow now. Keep your options open if you don't know the correct path.
After a few minutes the car stopped at a huge dome like building. The guards got off and cleared a safety zone to the temple.
"Here we go!", this time its dad who carries me.
There is a huge doorway into the temple.
Everything is interlayed with precious materials. Very nice craftsmanship, I have to admit it. Not even the palace has this kind of art.
An old man in long white robes awaits us.
"My King! My Queen! Everything is taken care of. Please feel free to proceed to the great hall. I take it that you know the procedure already."
The guy bows to us and leads us into the temple.
We enter the dome and there is a big statue of Seria in the centre of it. Some priestesses are singing a nice song which gets amplified by the dome.
This has a very nice holy atmosphere I must say. Seria has a strong cult going. Before the statue is an altar out of stone with a very important looking priestess behind it.
There is a row of parents with children of my age. They are lining up to the priestess. My parents join the line, seems like there is no different treatment for royalty here.
In front of us the children are made to touch a metal plate after some words by the priestess. Haah, seems to be some sort of divination magic device which judges you based on your aura.
Not much I can do about that in my current form. Damn! Fiddling with its settings should take me too long.
It's now the turn of the pair before us.
"Duke Garber Rosenquarz and Dutchess Hertia Rosenquarz. We bestow upon you the blessings of the goddess Seria. May your child be judged by the gods, so we can choose the best path for it's future. May your future be happy and prosperous." The priestess holds out a metal plate and the child is made to touch it.
A light flashes across it, tracing some runes and text into the plate. I can't read it from my position, but the pair seems happy and makes place for us.
"King Nicol of Tirna and Queen Ireth of Tirna. We bestow upon you the blessings of the goddess Seria. May your child be judged by the gods, so we can choose the best path for it's future. May your future be happy and prosperous." Again the priestess holds out a metal plate and mother takes my hand to make me touch the thing. Uuuum, looks like I wont get around this.
Again a light traces words into the plate. Great! There we have it.
Name:
Angrod of Tirna
Titles bestowed by the gods:
First Prince of Tirna, Fallen God, Little One, Saviour, Doomsbringer, Great Soul, Blessed by Seria
Potentials:
-Divine rank Archmage
-Saviour of the world
-Destroyer of the world
-God
My parents and the priestess are staring at the plate in grave silence. Great! The thrice damned thing blurted out practically everything.
In worst case I will be treated as some kind of monster now.
And if there is enough time to think, they will surely piece something together out of that. Worse! It could be close enough to the truth too!
Sorry mom, dad you are nice people from what I could see. Seria surely made a bad job here! This will hurt you too for sure.
I don't know how it could get any worse.
*RRRUUMMBLEE!!!! CRACK!*
Oh, blinding light above us! What the FUUCK is going on! I blink and try to look up. I feel a heavy presence on me, someone very powerful is here. I look up.
"hiiii" I can't help but cry out at whom I see!
Shining and sparkling Goddess Seria is hovering above us with angel wings..... GOOD ENTRANCE! But...but....put some clothes on!
Everyone stares at the Goddess agape. Most of the priests throw themselves to the floor. Wow, that goes too far, I never expected that from her followers, have at least some self respect!
You could all become gods if you would work hard at it.
Seria smiles a most charming smile. Wrong Snake! You are perfectly fine with kicking dying people who lie on the ground. Don't smile like that!
She lets go of a sheet of paper, which slowly flutters towards us while she fades away.
Now THAT can't be good! I have to get rid of that! Fireball! Huh? Nothing happened? Fireball! Damn! Zap! Hocus Pocus! AARGH! My mana is gone! Did she suck all the mana out of the environment and the surrounding people for that entrance?
It flutters towards us! I will grab it and eat it if necessary! Almost! Almost! Come closer!
*SNATCH*
Wa! Mother picked it out of the air just before I could get my hands on it. I want to cry! She holds the paper out, so dad can read it too.
Hi, your most beloved and worshipped goddess here!
I have watched this world for some time now. And I am not happy with its current state!
So I have blessed your child with a great soul. Don't dare not to be grateful!
But I don't think it's good to intervene too much by my holy self.
So I give you this prophecy for the two paths this child can take:
-Leave the stupid guy to himself and he will conquer the world, most likely destroying it in the process.
-Get him to marry the first princess of Stricc and the both of them will lead the world to a better future.
I am sure you both parents will be able to educate him properly.
Sincerely yours,
Goddess of life and death
"But there is no first princess of Stricc" The priestess breaks the silence.
I break out a cold sweat while mother, father and the priestess stare at me. There is still a heavy silence inside the whole dome.
I guess someone has to break the silence.
"I choose option one then!"
*Smack!*
Eh?! Mother hit me?! That was the first time! I am seriously mentally injured here.
"Well, I guess I can count this as the worst day in my life so far." I state my opinion to them.