Dark Goddess

I didn't think I would find myself here, it all felt like a fragile dream. As if at any moment someone would come out and say ‘got ya!’.

It was definitely an eye-opening moment. I remember hearing it, the whole thing, in one stunning word.

“Goddess.”

I was a goddess and I was going to Deitus Academy. The place that all deities go and are trained in their gifts to help the world.

I imagined a place filled with equal parts mythical creatures, fabulous teachers and enthusiastic students who together had big plans for stamping out evil and bringing about justice and peace to the humans of this world. A place where I could truly belong. Although anywhere was better than the group home I have been in for the last two years. This was a break I could have never expected and I was determined to make the most of it!

“Alright Hadie, welcome to Deitus Academy, your new home for the next four to six years.” Malachi told me as we drove through large iron gates.

The grounds of the academy were lush, greens of every shade mixed with vibrant flowers of every color littered the grounds as full bushes and trees baring fruits of every kind russled and swayed in the soft breeze.

“Wow. This is absolutely incredible.” I breathed taking in the sights. But nothing could compare to the sight of the academy itself.

The building was massive, built out of marble like the temples of Ancient Greece. I felt my eyes bulge as I took it all in and let the knowledge that I belonged here wash over me. My lips pulling up into a grin I couldn’t control.

Joy. I’ve never felt joy like this in all my life as I could remember.

It was a new sensation and I liked the feeling. I looked to Malachi as he smiled back at me. He and I had bonded a bit in the time it took to bring me here. A private plane and then the three hour drive, how could we not talk? I was eager to learn all there was to know about the school and as a teacher he was happy to answer my questions and enjoyed my cravings for knowledge.

“This is really it Malachi? It all still feels like a dream. Im terrified I’ll wake up any moment and be back in the group home. Will I learn who my parents are? Is that possible?” I didn’t wait for him to answer just continued on in a rush. “Will I get to do magic?”

Malachi chuckled, “First things first, you need to be tested to know what your gifts are, but yes, there will be magic, as the humans call it. We simply call it power. Once we know your gifts, we should be able to narrow down who your family line could be. Most family lines are share gifts, they’re hereditary.”

He pulled the car up to the front of the large building and put it in park. Before he opened the door and got out he gave me one last smile, a dimple peaked through his golden facial hair and his blue eyes sparkled like diamonds as he looked at me. “This is the end of our trip Hadie, are you ready?”

I returned his smile and nodded enthusiastically. “I feel like I was born ready.”

With that I got out of the car, hung my bag over my shoulder and followed Malachi up the stairs to the large oak doors. Sealing my fate, the beginning of my new life. No longer will I be Hadria Blake, orphan girl. Now I was Hadria Blake, Goddess. Of what? Well I was about to find out.

Groaning, I rolled out of my bed, squinting around the unfamiliar room. My alarm was blaring at me that is was time to start my day, start my new life. Yesterday I was thrilled, but after the disaster of a sorting ceremony last night, my excitement has waned.

Dragging my feet into my ensuite and turning on the shower to wash up, I hoped it would hype me up. I couldn’t let my lack of answers dampen my mood too much. There was still a chance of me making friends here. I never really had friends before in my entire seventeen years and given this was still a new beginning for me, I was certain I could make some in my classes.

I washed quickly, retrieved my uniform from my closet. A red plaid skirt and button up white dress shirt. My tie matching the skirt and knee high white dress socks, the only thing my uniform lacked was the pin that should be on my collar to show my base of gifts, for deities of fertility they were given leaf pins. Those with gifts based more in death and darkness were given skulls. War deities had shield and swords on their pins, those of love and beauty had roses. I had nothing. It wasn’t that nothing lit up for me when I stood in the ceremony. No, quite the opposite actually, as everything lit up.

I shivered as I thought back to the night before. The look of shock on the headmistress and Malachi’s faces. The look of confusion on the prefects as they looked between the headmistress and me, wondering who’s house I was to join as I stood there, not sure what was even happening. I had turned to Malachi hoping to find an answer from him, but his blue eyes which had shone so brightly when he brought me here had dimmed with concern and uncertainty. He tried to hide it as he realized I was looking to him, but it was too late.

“What does this mean?” I finally asked, looking to the professor and headmistress.

“It could mean two things.” Headmistress Nyctea said as she walked towards me, the lights fading from the circles around me. “Either your gifts haven’t fully formed and the ceremony isn’t sure where you fit yet, or you are the the first deity seen to belong to all the categories of deities. Only time will tell, for now you will take classes for all gifts and see what you show more promise with. I think housing you with the fertility goddesses will be the best place since it appeared to light up first when you took to the center.” She turned to the prefects and waved a beautiful young woman over to me, she appeared to be around twenty or so, though with goddesses you could never be certain. Even the headmistress appeared to be in her twenties, but the aura she put up was one of an ancient being.

“Chloe is the prefect for the fertility goddesses, she will show you to your dorm room and help you get settled. You will receive your schedule in the morning on your tablet. You will find it in your room along with uniforms. We give all our students an allowance to use for anything else they may need. You only get it once a month so do make it last.” She paused then turned back to me and smiled. Her smile didn’t make me feel better, it was a smile like a scientist studying a specimen that fascinated them. “Welcome to Deitus Academy Miss Hadria Blake, I look forward to seeing you grow into the goddess you were born to be.”

A knock on my door startled me out of my thoughts. I quickly grabbed my packed bag holding my tablet and some books and opened the door to find Chloe smiling.

“Good morning Hadria, I have some more books for you. Since your classes were officially assigned this morning and you are taking more than fertility classes they had to deliver the texts for the other classes you’ve been assigned.” She held out the stack of books in her arms with her smile still firmly intact. “I took the liberty of checking your schedule and that today you will be joining the fertility classes, so I can give you a full tour since we will be together all day. Are you ready to go to breakfast?”

“Oh, thank you, yea, I’m ready.” I said, putting the books she gave me on my desk next to the door before following her down the hall towards the staircase.

“So, as you know we are in the fertility goddess house, technically we are the fertility deity house, but we haven’t had a male fertility god come to the school as of yet so everyone says goddess house. Across from us is the Love and Beauty Deities house and next to them is the War Deities. They are often seen together. You know the saying, ‘All is fair in love and war’. Now fertility goddesses are often associated with harvest but we have many goddesses of marriage and home and hearth as well. I will forewarn you, the gods in this place tend to believe that just because we are fertility goddesses we put out. So since you are housed with us they will approach you in the same matter. Are you a virgin?”

I gaped at her, my mouth hanging open, taken by surprised. “Uh, what?”

“I’ll take that as a yes, that’s good and all but don’t advertise it. There are some gods here who will take that as a challenge. Or maybe you prefer girls? No judgement, we have a few in the fertility house who play on that team. I personally don’t but my best friends Tamera and Candy do. Not together though, at least I don’t think so. Tamera has a girlfriend in the love and beauty house.”

I felt my surprise slowly dissipate as I continued to listen to Chloe, she was so open and it was so refreshing compared to the girls back in the group home. They were always so closed off to me, either they were closed into themselves or they were just bitches to me and attempted to hurt me physically and mentally. I smiled wondering if maybe Chloe could be my first real friend. I really hoped I didn’t say or do something awkward to ruin this potential friendship.

“You don’t talk much do you Hadria.”

“Oh you can call me Hadie. I’m just enjoying getting the 411 of this place.” I tell her and give her two finger guns then cringe at myself. So much for not being awkward.

Chloe laughed, “The 411. Oh my deitus, that is hilarious, I like you.”

I laughed awkwardly, hiding my relief that she didn’t tell me to get lost. Finger guns? What was I thinking.

We continued on together, Chloe pointing out all the houses and telling me what to watch out for with the other deities and where to find each of our classes until we reached the cafeteria.

I gasped as we entered. It was nothing like the high school cafeteria that the group home sent me to. There were waiters taking orders at the tables and a long buffet that was filled with gourmet foods and fancy bottles of juices and water.

“What do you think? The buffet looks nice but I tend to enjoy ordering off the menu myself.” Chloe picked up a menu off a podium by the door and skimmed through it before showing it to me.

I was back to gaping like a fish out of water looking around. “Are the meals here all like this? Are they included here? Or do I have to use my allowance to eat?”

“Oh, no its included. Take a look at the menu while we walk to the table. I see some of the girls from the house already here. I can introduce you.”

I took the menu, looking over the choices. I saw twelve different kinds of eggs Benedict, fancy waffles and pancakes. French toast, crepes and eggs eight ways. The huevos rancheros looked good from the picture, the description of homemade tortillas, fried into a bowl shape and topped with fresh made beans and a poached egg. I looked up as Chloe stopped at a table where four goddesses all with the leaf pins on their collars sat giggling together.

“Ladies, meet our new housemate Hadie Blake.” Chloe said as she sat down and pulled the seat out next to her and patted it for me to sit.

“Hi Hadie, I’m Candy.” A girl with green hair and master level artistic make up on. Her eyeliner was precise, eyeshadow blended to perfection bringing out the gold flecks in her hazel eyes.

“Hi Candy, I love your make up! I tried doing cool artistic eyeliner like that once but my hand was so shaky it just came out a smudged mess.”

Candy smiled, “Thanks girl! I love to rep my house, hence the vines for eyeliner. I can do your make up for you sometime. It's kind of my personal passion.” She put her hand to her chest and leaned back in her chair.

The girl next to her laughed and reached her hand across the table to me, “Hey I’m Tamera.” She had tight black curls that bounced with the movement of her head, deep brown eyes and dark skin that shined as the light caught her. “Where is your pin?” She asked, looking at my collar as I shook her hand.

Chloe clucked her tongue. “She doesn’t get a pin yet. I told you guys what happened last night remember.” I felt myself blush hearing that she had talked to them about me and the confusion of the ceremony.

“Oh, I didn’t know that meant she didn’t get a pin. Are they planning to move her?” Tamera asked with a frown. “That would be a bummer, I can already tell we will be great friends. Not that we wouldn’t be if you left, but it’s so fun having friends under the same roof.”

“No, I don’t think so. She totally has fertility gifts in her, I have a sixth sense for these kinds of things.” The third girl chimed in. She had dark brown hair and crystal blue eyes, her skin was sun-kissed. She looked like a true California girl to me as she flashed a perfect white smile and extended a hand across the table. “Hi, I’m Ally. It's so nice to meet you Hadie. I dreamt that you would be chosen for our house. Didn’t I, Lily.” She said to the final girl who sat quietly next to her.

“Yeah sure.” She responded, glaring at me as if I kicked her dog. She had bright orange hair and a septum piercing. Her own blue eyes standing out as her hair framed her face. “I’m done, I’m going to go to the garden before class. Catch you later Ally.” I watched as she gave me one last glare and left the table.

“Don’t worry about my sister.” Ally sighed. “She had a bad dream the other night and has been in a bad mood ever since.” Her eyes followed Lily as she disappeared through the doors.

“Do you know what you want to eat?” Chloe asked as the waiter approached smiling at the two of us while pulling out a pen and notepad.

“Oh, hmm, I was thinking the huevos rancheros looked good.” I replied pointing to the picture on the menu and looking up at the waiter as he nodded and wrote my order.

“And to drink?” He asked with a polite smile.

I turned the menu to the back and scanned over it. “Um breakfast tea with milk and three sugar please.” I answered looking back up at the waiter as he nodding again before looking towards Chloe. He took her order as well then left the table stating he would return with our drinks.

“So are you excited for your first day?” Tamera asked as she sipped on her coffee and cut into her stack of pancakes. “I personally was nervous as hell myself on my first day. I would never have made it without Chloe and Candy by my side.”

“I’m excited to learn and to meet others. I still can’t believe I’m here, I never thought I would escape the life I was living before.”

“So neither of your parents had any idea? One of them had to at least been a demi-deity.” Candy inquired, stacking her plate and silverware at the end of the table for the waiter to pick up when he returned.

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t know, I don’t know my parents. I was in a group home, but the house mother was sure surprised when Malachi showed up to get me.”

“Oh you lucky!” Ally squealed. “Professor hottie picked you up! How far from the school did you get to travel with him?”

“About two days, we had to stop and rest at a truck stop an hour out because it was so late.” I told them as I accepted my tea from the waiter with a smile and a quick thanks.

“So lucky!” Ally repeated excitedly. “Even the two house lesbians have to admit he is the hottest professor in this place.” She pointed her thumb to Candy and Tamera.

Candy scowled while Tamera laughed and confirmed. “She’s not wrong! If I liked the D I would want his.”

I blushed. “I won’t lie, I wasn’t blind to how attractive he is, but we mostly just talked about the school and what I should expect. I was so excited to hear about the classes and what I would be taught here.”

“Ohhhh girl!” Ally groaned leaning forward so we could talk over the table. “So do you not have any family then?”

“None that I’m aware of. I had hopes that being here would shed some light on who my parents could be, I was literally a baby in the middle of nowhere with only a name.”

They looked at me, mouths dropped open like I had been when seeing the cafeteria. “Seriously? Tamera asked.

I shrugged sipping my tea, “Yeah.”

“Well, we’re your family now. Period.” Tamera declared with a smile as she reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “You can count on us. Even Lily, she’ll come around and be so protective of you you might end up locked in a tower like Repunzel.”

“Foods here!” Chloe announced excitedly breaking the serious atmosphere of the conversation. “Eat up, classes start in like forty minutes.”

Tamera let go of my hand and I smiled gratefully at her before digging into my food. We all chatted lightheartedly as Chloe and I ate. They filled me in on what to expect from classes and we talked about how it felt for their gifts to surface so that I could be prepared since I had yet to experience my powers just yet.

When Chloe and I finished eating the five of us all got up and headed to the exit and towards our first class. Horticulture.

“Good morning class. Today we will be working on encouraging the growth of the seeds we replanted the other day. As fertility goddesses you will be able to flow life into the seeds to help them grow into seedlings. Feel the power of life inside you and give it over to the seed.” The professor instructed as the class began.

Chloe raised her hand and wiggling her fingers in the air to catch the professors attention. “Professor Zohra, do we have an extra seed for Hadie? It's her first day so she wasn’t here when we planted the seeds last week.”

Professor Zohra turned to me and smiled, “Oh yes, I have heard we had a new fertility goddess, yes I have a few extra seeds. Would you like a fruit, a vegetable or a flower?”

“Um, fruit I guess.” I replied, accepting the pot of dirt handed to me.

“Now, as I instructed, reach inside yourself and feel the power of life inside you and lend just a small fraction of it to the seed to encourage it to grow. Not too much or you could end up over exerting yourself and be knocked out for a few days.” She warned with a smile.

I sat and stared at the dirt in my pot for a moment before sneaking a peak over at Chloe and Candy to my left and then Tamera and Ally to my right. Their eyes were closed in concentration and I could see little seedlings beginning to poke up through the dirt in their own pots. A soft green glow around their hands where they held the pots. I glanced around to the rest of the class, seeing the same soft green glow coming from each of them.

Across the room, Lily had a nearly fully grown flower slowly forming a red bud at the end of its stem. Her glow a little stronger than the others as she concentrated.

“Very good Lily, but be sure not to over exert yourself. Remember we just want a small bit of life going into the plants to grow them to seedlings.”

“This is a very small amount for me. It is hard to concentrate on giving anything smaller.” Lily bragged with a shrug.

I looked back to my own pot and closed my eyes to concentrate. I searched inside myself for my own life force, feeling a strong warmth form in my core. Slowly I pulled the smallest amount of it away and into my hands to the pot I held. I felt the warmth leave my body and move into the dirt, feeling the seed begin to push out roots first then a stem. I continued feeding life into the plant until the pot began to feel heavy in my hands and I nearly dropped it.

Opening my eyes I gasped as I saw the baby in my hands. At the sound of my gasp Professor Zohra turned and let out a gasp of her own that drew the class to break their concentration and look.

Professor Zohra rushed to me and began to look me over as if I was about to fall over. “How do you feel? Are you faint? Do you need to sit down?”

I shook my head, “I feel fine, but this pot is heavy.”

She let out a sigh of relief after inspecting my face and seeming to decide I looked fine before she turned to the tree in my hands. “Well it would seem we need to plant this into the ground before the roots get too cramped in the pot. How much life force did you put into this?”

“Not that much, I thought.” I said shaking my head. “This is my first time using any powers though so maybe I used more than I thought.”

Professor Zohra nodded taking my tree from me and inspecting it. “Well, we will watch more closely. Maybe we should have someone give you some tutoring in control.”

I heard a giggle from my right and turned to see Ally grinning at me from the other side of Tamera. “I told Troy she was a fertility goddess. I’m never wrong.” She gave me a wink and Tamera chuckled herself, smiling at me.

“Looks like we should go ahead and insist you get the leaf pin from the Headmistress.” Chloe chimed in as she threw her arm over my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “You can’t deny that power.”

Professor Zohra called me over to the doorway into a garden and instructed me to plant the tree where I felt the call to do so. Once I had found the spot she gave me a shovel to begin to dig up the soil and helped me pull the tree from the pot and placing it into the ground gently.

She told me that everyday I should come to the tree and feed it a little more life to encourage it grow and that at the end of the quarter she would grade me on the amount of fruit it yields for harvest.

I looked at my little fruit tree and realized I didn’t even know what kind of fruit it would bare. But before I could ask our class was dismissed to go to our next class. World History.

Chloe lead the way while Tamera and Candy explained how classes like history and English were still in the curriculum and were the only classes that mixed all the houses together. The fertility house took World Deity History with the War deities and Creation Gods.

“What are Creation Gods?” I asked, “Wouldn’t they be like fertility gods?”

“No, not exactly. They tend to be more like leaders. Like Zeus for example. We do also take creation classes with them, because we tend to have the power of creation but they are not the same as fertility deities. The only thing about sex and child birth they tend to be involved with is putting the baby inside the girl.” Tamera stated, “The very vast majority of them are play boys, even lesbians aren’t safe from their advances. They believe that their dicks have the ability to heal us of our taste for puss.”

Candy let out a loud laugh, bending over clutching her stomach as we walked. “They really do! Oh my deitus, Oswald Jackman is the worse of them all! He tried that shit on me just last semester.”

“Eww, really?” Ally asked from behind Candy, I turned to look at her and found Lily walking beside her glaring daggers at me. “What did you do? He tried to kiss me a year ago when I was visiting campus and I’m ashamed to admit I almost gave in but Lily walked in and chased him out of the room. So grateful for my over protective big sister.” She hugged Lily nuzzling their cheeks together.

“I feel so stupid, I know you mentioned you were sisters before but I’m just now realizing it.” I said, looking between them, they didn’t quite look alike.

“Half sisters. We share the same mom, different dads. Lily is a death and fertility goddess. I’m a creation and fertility goddess. Her dad is a Death God, my dad is a Creation God, then dear ole mama is a fertility goddess. We took more after her. I have a half brother from my dad here too. He is one of the Creation Gods. His mom is human though so he’s a demi-deity.”

Lily continued to glare at me as Ally gave me their family history then looked at her sister and huffed out an annoyed breathe. “I don’t need you telling her everything about me Ally.”

Ally simply smiled, unfazed by her sister’s attitude. “Oh don’t be like that Lils, she’s one of us, you saw her in class, she grew a tree in a matter of seconds!”

Lily huffed again and broke away from the group marching into the classroom where our history class was scheduled to take place. Chloe let out a sigh watching Lily leave then looked over at Ally with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you sure it was just a bad dream that put her in this mood? I know she’s moody but this is a bit extreme even for her.”

Ally shrugged. “All she really told me was that she had a bad dream the night before Hadie came to the school. She didn’t really go into details but she’s been like this ever since.”

We all followed Lily into the classroom together and took seats in the center row. It was a fairly large classroom with a number of wooden desks and numerous old chairs that were lined up neatly beside them. It reminded me of a lecture hall in large universities, or at least from what I’d seen on tv dramas.

I noticed Lily sitting next to a muscular looking guy in the back row, he threw his arm around her shoulders but didn’t look at her as he and his friends continued their conversation. Lily avoided looking our way as she pulled out her tablet and history book, readying herself for the class.

I followed her lead and began to gather my own tablet and book out for the class when I heard the door behind the professors desk open and close and a familiar scent over took the room. It was a scent that I had smelt the two days it took to come to Deitus Academy. Sandalwood and vervain. I looked up to find Malachi leaning against his desk and smirking at the class as everyone continued talking.

All except Lily. Whose body stiffened as she registered his presence, whose breathing slowed, and whose face brightened.

“By all means, keep talking. I’ll just be sure to assign enough after class work to make up for my wasted time.” Malachi announced bringing an abrupt halt to all conversations in the room. “That’s better, now then today we will be doing a quick review on what we have discussed so far on the Ancient Greek deities. Who can tell me who Kore is?”

“She was the goddess of the plants. Also known as ‘the fertile one’ from her mother Demeter.” Lily answered with a smile that looked out of place after only seeing her glare so far.

“Good, yes and what is her other name……Hadria.” I stiffened at the sound of my name and looked up finding Malachi smiling encouragingly at me. He and I had talked about this on the plane when I had asked what some of the things I would learn here would be.

“Persephone, goddess of Death, Harvest, Winter and the Underworld.” I answered, “Wife of Hades. Her name means Bringer of death.”

“Not exactly. Her name just means, ‘the resurger’. As a fertility and death goddess she represented the circle of life.” A boy behind me piped up.

“You both are correct. Now then let’s move on to the other kings and queens of the ancient gods. Who can tell me the name of Poseidon’s wife?”

“Amphitrite.” A girl with red pigtails towards the front answered.

“Good, and who was the third king and queen of the ancient gods?”

“Zeus and Hera. They were also brother and sister, so gross.” Another girl next to the red head replied.

“Yeah right Angie, we all know you watch that incest porn!” The guy with his arm around Lily called out.

“It’s not porn Jackass! It’s called Game of Thrones and it’s a great show!” Angie yelled back, standing and turning to face the guy.

“Alright that’s enough, sit down Angela. Alaric, I’ve seen your browser history. Glass houses my friend.” Malachi smirked to the guy as he sputtered and turned bright red.

“Yo! Professor Malachi what the hell man! Don’t spread lies about me.”

The class erupted into laughter at Alaric’s expense, I even saw Lily cover her mouth in and attempt not to laugh at who I assumed was her boyfriend.

“Moving on. Everyone, open your tablets to the history icon and begin the review assignment posted. We may or may not have a test next class, I haven’t decided yet.” Malachi called out, settling the class back down.

I went to open the app on my tablet when the scent of sandalwood and vervain drew closer and a shadow appeared on my desk. I look up to find Malachi giving me a concerned look.

“How are you settling in? I’m sorry for the confusion with your ceremony yesterday. Nyctea and I were discussing doing the ceremony over again for you in a couple weeks to see if your gifts settle in to get a better read.” He said with a gentle smile.

“She’s definitely one of us Professor.” Ally cut in, “She grew a tree today in horticulture. So no worries on if she went to the right house.”

Malachi looked at me with widened eyes, “Is that true?”

I nodded sheepishly, “The professor is worried about my control though since I did it while being so new to my gifts, so she wants me to be tutored to make sure I’m not doing too much and hurting myself.”

Malachi nodded, his smile returning to his face, “That’s great Hadie! I’m glad to hear. Maybe we can get the ceremony done again sooner and get you an official fertility pin. It’s not unheard of to be gifted with more than one divine aspect, but we definitely want you housed with your strongest gift.”

He patted my shoulder then moved on, checking in with other students as he went. I watched him for a moment before turning back to my tablet and pulling my smart pen out to begin the review assignment, grateful that he had gone over a lot of this with me in the plane ride here