Lailah was alarmed when her mother suddenly fell onto the ground in front of her and started sobbing.
Her mother that was always a regal and authoritative figure in her life was now wailing and speaking in incomprehensible words.
Luckily, one of the superpowers that came with being a mother was the ability to understand crying gibberish.
Lailah was an expert at this field after the numerous amounts of times that she had to console Mira after she stubbed her toe or when Abaddon had to be away from home.
Sei: * Unintelligible whimpering*
Lailah: “No, I am not upset with you for taking my husband’s blood….”
Sei: *Choked crying and forced speech*
Lailah: ” I do not think you were trying to disregard my wishes…. My love must have seen something when you ingested his blood, so if your intentions were truly impure then you would no longer still be sitting here.”
Sei: *Blubbering and snotty nosed rambling*
Lailah: “You’ve already told me that you’re sorry, so why are you still so insistent upon behaving this way and earning my forgiveness?”
Lailah got down on one knee and started to wipe her momther’s face with a handkerchief she’d pulled from her back pocket.
However, this gentle touch from her daughter only made Sei feel worse, and she bit her bottom lip to stop herself from sobbing even louder than before.
Lailah said nothing as she cleaned her mother’s face deftly without saying a word.
The two of them sat there in silence for a while, repeating this cycle of tender care and volatile emotion. 𝒩𝓞𝑣xt.𝐂𝐌
Lailah would have undoubtedly kept going for much longer but her mother eventually grabbed onto her wrist and stopped her from continuing.
“I… I should have done things like this for you… not the other way around.” She said weakly.
Lailah offered her mother no words of consolidation, and instead stared at her with a sort of distant, tired look.
“Then why didn’t you? Why did you despise me so?” She asked.
Beating around the bush was never going to do them any good.
By now, enough apologies had been said and Lailah just wanted to know the real reason why her mother had treated her so cruelly all her life.
Sei sucked in a sharp gust of air as she felt her hands beginning to tremble from shame.
She wanted to run away from this conversation, but then if she did she would lose this chance to put the pieces of her life back together.
“I… never talked to you about your father, did I?”
“No. You weren’t exactly one for bedtime stories.”
“Ah, I suppose you’re right… Your father… he was the most wonderful man I could have ever known.” She said sadly.
Thousands of years before Sei would take the throne, she was still no more than a young girl at the age of sixteen.
Upon walking the streets of Barbello one day, she had a chance encounter with a young man with dark skin and golden eyes like that of desert sands.
She was a young princess and he was only a simple commoner, yet she became infatuated with him for his crass personality and subtle yet impactful sense of humor.
They had many secret meetings and rendezvous, and Sei learned that her new friend had quite a talent for magic.
Not in the practical sense of course, as he was never formally instructed, but when Sei would grumble about her difficulties with her studies, he would provide a new angle or way of thinking to assist her.
Soon, the two of them started to learn magic together, and they became quite adept at their craft.
So much so that together their magical talent even surpassed Helios’ at the time.
When Sei was finally crowned queen, she immediately made the decision to make Lailah’s father her king.
It was heavily contested, as he had no prominent background or social standing of any sort.
But when faced with Sei’s adamant decision and his magical talent, there was very little room for argument.
Together, they ushered in the golden age of Barbello, and made their home more prosperous while creating many new and fantastical magical devices.
They even reached the sixth stage of evolution after 1000 years, the quickest Dola had ever seen.
But it wasn’t enough for Lailah’s father.
His dreams were grander, and he wanted not only he but his wife to climb the ladder to the heavens and attain true godhood.
Sei was uninterested, and put off by the abysmal chances of success that came with the process.
But one night without her knowledge, Lailah’s father made the ascension.
She had not thought it possible, but when she awoke the next morning, she found the love of her life gone and none around her holding any memory of him.
‘The queen has gone mad. ‘
‘She has always been the sole ruler, why was she suddenly asking about a king?’
‘Has her loneliness finally reached the point of insanity?’
To make matters worse, Sei sensed an abnormality growing within her body.
The night before her husband had left, the two of them lay together for the final time.
Sei had previously thought herself infertile, as the two of them had been together for well over 1,000 years and she had never had a single case of morning sickness.
Once she learned she was pregnant, it could be said that she was more than a little happy.
Sei decided to take it upon herself to raise the child, in the memory of the man who had ascended to the heavens expecting them to follow behind.
“I was.. so overjoyed when you were first born. You were such a cute baby, and the two of us were practically inseparable. I took you everywhere with me, even into official matters where a child had no place.”
Sei laughed dryly as she remembered the numerous times that baby Lailah tried to eat an important document off her desk.
“What changed…?” Lailah asked.
Sei suddenly looked like she was more than a little bit uncomfortable as she once again began to fiddle with her fingers and bit her lips out of discomfort.
“You… started to look more like him the older you became… and the resentment that I thought I had none of… it boiled over onto you.”
How could he leave her?
Leave them??
For more power?
For godhood?
Why was what they had not enough??
All of the ugly anger and bitterness that Sei had not processed before then began to overflow, and she started to lash out at her daughter instead of embracing her.
Suddenly she couldn’t be bothered to see her, and even when she did it was never for longer than five minutes.
The older that Lailah got and the more she started to resemble her father, she started to hate her more and more.
Even going so far as to adopt two orphans off the street, proclaiming them her ‘true’ daughters.
Hearing her own actions out of her mouth, she became even more ashamed and lowered her head in defeat.
“I… hated him so much that I let it tear down my sense of reason and I even went as far as to mistreat and harm you…and secretly… I labeled you as talentless and inferior because I did not want to one day see you leave my side as well..!”
Lailah felt like her entire world had just been flipped upside down.
Her father was a deity living in the lands above, and he had left not only her but her mother so that he could pursue grander heights.
Her surprise aside, it did make her wonder about one thing.
“Why did you not follow behind him?” Lailah asked.
Sei almost looked like she was not expecting to be asked such an obvious question and she stammered out a weak answer.
“I…am not as free spirited as your father. I could not just act and leave things behind as I wished, as I was afraid that everything that he and I built together would fall to ruin as I had no one to replace me… Besides, I was afraid that I would fail to survive the ascension.” She said honestly.
Lailah sat down onto the ground beside her mother, and crossed her legs as she looked up at the swirling black and purple sky.
“What was his name?” She asked.
Sei smiled bitterly, as she was forced to recall the man who consistently set her heart aflutter.
“I often would make fun of him for his name, but now it feels like the most majestic one that I have ever heard.”
Taking her daughter’s hands, she offered her a smile that Lailah had never seen before.
“His name is Geb. It’s quite silly, no?”
–
Beneath Sheol, Gabbrielle and her mothers were sitting neatly in a row, sitting crosslegged on the earthen ground with their eyes closed.
“Can you hear it?” She asked them.
“Yes..”
“What… exactly is this?”
“These are the hopes of our people. Because they all see you as a higher power, they worship you and wish for you to bring them guidance, prosperity, and good fortune.
Right now, we have no temples for you and the bulk of our people do not know that you have reached godhood, so what you are hearing and receiving are no more than the power of fleeting wishes with our family in mind. It is not true prayer.” She explained.
“It’s not?” asked Seras.
“Not at all. The power of true prayer can be considered the lifeblood of most gods. When focused, fervent, and genuine, the small river of power you feel entering into you now will turn into a roaring waterfall. It is why gods take attacks on their believers so seriously.”
“What can we do to gain that kind of power, sweetie?” Seras asked.
Gabbrielle brought her hand to her chin and thought about it for just a moment.
Since Valerie was still utterly exhausted from creating homes for everyone, building temples and things of that nature was going to have to take a backseat for now.
But, there was one thing that she could do that would provide her mothers with immediate benefits as well as drastically increase the potential of their already dangerously powerful people.
“You can bless our race, mothers.”
“Hm?”
“Did they sneeze?”
“NO.” Gabbrielle said exhaustedly.”To bless an individual is to bestow upon them a part of what makes you divine. And since you are supreme grade goddesses, your blessings will hold much more power.”
“”Pardon?””
“Divinities are divided into three grades, mothers. There is divinity, greater divinity, and supreme divinity. Normal divinity is held by angels and the like. Demigods, Valkyries, and even the simple river gods are in possession of this.
Greater Divinity is what belongs to a true deity who controls an aspect of reality around us. Most gods possess this and as such this is the most common.
Finally there is supreme divinity, which only a few are allowed to hold. As the name implies, it bestows supreme authority over something.
These are traditionally held by the primordials, pantheon rulers, and the first four archangels. However, the gap in power between these groups is the largest by far. If you want to become a primordial as I once was, then you’ll need to-“
Gabbrielle suddenly felt two very strong gazes burning into the side of her face and she looked back to find both of her mothers giving her big smiles.
Seras: “You’re so cute when you’re explaining things!”
Audrina: “My daughter is so smart, I couldn’t be more proud!”
Gabbrielle fought the urge to blush as she looked away from her mothers and remained focused on the task at hand.
“Thank you…. now I need to know, which of your divinities are supreme grade?” She asked.
Gabbrielle could only feel that her mothers were on the level of supreme goddesses, but she had no idea to tell which was which.
“Close your eyes and concentrate, then you should be able to tell easily.” She said.
Seras and Audrina obeyed their daughters command after blowing her two small kisses, and they began to focus on the new powers within their bodies.
Upon examining their soul, they could find six orbs of all different colors floating around in a circle, shining with different levels of intensity.
“The one that shines the brightest is your supreme divinity.” Gabbrielle explained. “Now, which one is it?”
“Blood… war…and joy…” muttered Seras.
“Darkness…hiding… and transformation.” added Audrina.
Gabbrielle nodded and prepared to continue her lesson, the absurdity of what she’d just heard not yet catching up with her.
“Wonderful, now let’s… Wait…the hell did you just say!?”