DIVINE WRATH

Crimson Ice

I was never properly taught how to handle my divine powers. I was not born into the goddess bit. I was made into. There was no tuition for me. There was just stumbling in the dark. The Emperor would give me some tips, from time to time, but most of the time I was to afraid to even try them. I was afraid of them, of him, of me losing control.

They had known me as the Empress.

I was a shadow. Always quiet, always behind the Emperor. In the throne room I used to sit at its left, on a smaller replica of his throne. I had no intervention. I made no declaration.

The gods would enter the throne room with their pleas, and I would sit through it all and listen. I would try to grasp at their strange language, and their weird terminology. I had a hard time understanding how the laws worked for the divines.

Nature did not exist in the Sky Citadel by itself. It was a monstrous entity borne from all the divine powers combined. Every being endowed with divinity would leak some of it. Those parts would either trickle down on the HR (human realm) or gather into the Citadel's atmosphere.

I would sit next to the Emperor. He at my right watching down the stairs of marble. He used to wear simple clothing. Usually black, so those that entered would not be distracted by the power, by wealth, by his imposing statue.

Rarely did they glance in my direction. Especially in the beginning. They resented me. I was a no one. And I had refused to keep being a no one. They would come with their power trailing at their feet. Wisps and swifts of divinity. The court would bow before them. Sprites that took rigorous training in divinity did not dare to raise their chins in their wake.

But, I dared to watch them, perked on my throne, at the top of the dales. They would scowl, they would mumble. Some would even straight out challenge me to explain myself "Why does a dude sit on the throne?"

I had not shown my powers for more than two centuries since I had received them. They were like a bulbous bud inside my chest waiting for release. I had been too scared to free them. There had been just too much inside me. It had crushed me, day by that it chipped more and more from me. But I had to bear it. It was more than I could muster to control. I could not afford to be blamed for a disaster.

"You have no say in the divine world."

"Your powers are not visible, yet."

"You have no weight in this matter."

"You are there just to warm his bed."

"You are Empress just in name."

"You are young."

"You are naïve."

"You are disillusioned."

They sewed the words at me. They would shout them at the balls or whisper them when I was walking down the streets.

They had been relentless. I had been a play toy for immortal creatures too bored to fade from existence. At some point they grew tired with me. I would take in their blasphemous words; I would swallow their spit. I would bow my head and keep nudging my way out. When they realized that I was not playing a good enough show, anymore they went for my family.

They were mortals grooming an orchard. They had no faults. None of my faults were theirs. Yet, the divines went after them. Father had grinded his way through some serious curses. He never told me about them. He refused.

When I had returned home, on an early spring day I had not announced my arrival beforehand, like I usually did. I caught the god in the act. He did not even bother to hide anymore.

Mother had scrapes over her arms. There were rivulets of blood leaking out of her ears. Father was bound to an apple three. His leg was in chains. He had to run laps around the tree while a sprite would throw apples at him.

Sister was crying.

At first, I had thought that I had had a blackout. All that I saw was pitch black before my eyes. I did not faint. That hadn't been a blackout.

It trickled down of me. I had no gates anymore to keep at bay the wave of power. I broke down.

After two centuries of being quaint, of not trying to be disruptive, of careful inhibition. I let it sweep the orchard.

The winter of that year did not end. Nor the next year. Winter kept coming. It was known as the Ice Age in the human realm. But, in fact, it was just the beginning of my reign.

I had taken my family away. I had taken them with me, back to the Citadel. I had wanted to have my eyes on them continuously.

There were no resistances. That day, when I had returned with my family in tow, they did not dare to watch me in the eyes. They watched me from afar. They did not interfere. On that day they kept their mouths shut.

But, even back then, I knew. I knew that that silence was not out of respect. Their fear did not come out of reverence. It came out of deep distrust. Not only did I keep my powers from them for such a long time.

But, the powers that I had...

They changed the course of history.

//17.09.2020//13.35//