Beat The Devils Tattoo

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: In The Beginning
Chapter Text
In the beginning, there was Mesopotamia. Sumeria, nestled as a little jewel between the Tigris and the Euphrates, was home to Gods and Goddesses. Those Gods and Goddesses changed with the people, Enki and Enlil losing their appeal, and in time, people brought the Gods to Greece. The Greek Pantheon came to be from the base of a religion older than organized time, and when Rome crawled its way out of the caves of wolves, the Gods went there too.

Vesta was the Goddess that a woman known as Sylva came to guard. She was a vestal virgin, one of the last, and tended to the sacred flames. The Emperor Theodosius, determined to take the new Christian religion as his own, demanded that the fire be put out. Even as it was put out, she spirited away a tiny piece of the branch. As the Vandals swarmed in to sack Rome, over 50 years later, Sylva's daughter, Antonia, was there to guard to the flame of the Goddess of the hearth. She took up a sword, and killed all those that came to her tiny house, with its hidden hearth. After that, Antonia packed up, and took the flame, lighting it to keep it going. She settled in what would become Paris, and married a man who remembered his grandparent's stories of the famous Vestal Virgins and their abilities. They had a daughter, and she tended the flames as well, while Paris grew around them.

Then, when the Christian God swept in, somehow Vesta's flame became devoted to the Goddess that must exist beside him. For, as was logical, if there was a God, there must be a Goddess to balance him. And like Vesta, and Hestia before her, she would be represented with the flames of life.

The history of the years following was mostly lost, but the flame was known to have been seen by Joan of Arc, and in time crossed to the American continents. It traveled for a while before ending up in the northern wilds of what would one day become New York State.

The flame and its history attracted people from across the countryside, namely women fleeing from the men who wronged them, and that was when it became a true religion again, a cult of sorts. The women who settled in the area began to build a compound to protect the flame. The compound was much like a fort, at first, then slowly became brick and concrete, and now, was concrete walled with steel reinforcements.

The queen of it all was High Priestess Naomi, a direct descendant of the woman who carried the flame from Rome, and the twins' aunt.

Hester Duval met Michael Novak about the same time that Mary Winchester was pregnant with what would be the first of three stillborn children. Their first meeting wasn't exactly romantic. It was at the opening of the Hang Dog Bar, and Michael spilled beer all over a brand new dress. She smacked him. He bought her a drink.

Hester was on the move, travelling the country in search of men likely to give her what she wanted. Somehow, her trip through California slowed enough for her to get to know the charming, handsome Colonel Novak, and decide to have children by him.

The deal was this. The line of descent went through women. Only women could be given to the flame as priestesses, and she'd already had two boys. She couldn't afford to bear more. Her sister, Naomi, was already in training to be the High Priestess. She, as the second daughter, was planning to bulk up the ranks with more women. She'd been travelling the country in an attempt to do just that. And yet, in Tennessee and Colorado, she'd had boys. It was frustrating knowledge, and she'd left them without a care. They were useless.

She and Michael married, and soon she was pregnant with twins, she was delighted to see. Michael was ecstatic, and only grew more excited when Mary had a small, fragile child that no one expected to live long. But her son, who they named Dean, survived and began to thrive. The twins were born three months later.

Boys.

She stayed just long enough to name them- Castiel, and James. And then she was gone again, disappointed with her failure.