To Be Chosen By A God

Chapter 16

                “You have made her terrified of us, Micah.”  Theodora responded with amusement.  “Take her to the necessity and let me speak with her.  Sometimes it is easier when another explains.”  He nodded and quickly lifted her into his arms and Theodora walked with him to the indicated room.  He left her on a long padded bench before a vanity and Theodora sat on a similar bench that was against the opposite wall to wait for the young girl to wake up, which she did when Micah closed the door behind him.

                Chelsea woke up with a start and looked around.  She found herself on a cushioned backless bench with slightly raised and heavily padded ends.  She sat up and looked around with fear and trepidation.  She couldn’t feel Micah’s presence nearby, but could feel a strange one nearby.  She finally saw the goddess Theodora and folded her arms in her lap, waiting for what punishment would come.  She had yet to notice the vanity behind her or the small room off to the side with the door open to reveal the necessity.

                “Are you ok, child?  You did not become injured when you fainted?”  She asked kindly.

                “I did not injure myself, goddess.”  She wasn’t sure how to address another god.

                “It is ok to address me by name.  I’ve had it for a very long time, you know.”  She smiled, trying to put her at ease.

                “Yes, Theodora.”  She responded politely.

                “I wish to speak with you as you would a friend.  I wish you to forget you are at the Summit and the rules for now.  Do you think you can do this for me?”

                “I will try, Theodora.”  She still sat with her head slightly bowed and her hands folded in her lap.

                “I am not here to punish you, Chelsea.  I’m here to explain as I think that Micah was so worried you would make a mistake that you didn’t know about, that he has caused you to fear it here.  Apologizing for the interruption of the sneeze and then asking to be excused for it is part of good manners.  It tells me that you were raised in a good way.  Good manners are never something that we would punish you for here.”  Chelsea remained silent as despite what she had been told by this goddess, she still had not been asked a direct question and did not want to cause embarrassment to herself or Micah as a result.  Theodora continued to look at her, and Chelsea hugged herself.  “You are worried I may be trying to trick you?  Please speak with me.”

                “Everyone was staring at me afterwards.  I was certain you were waiting to see how Micah would punish me.”

                “Actually, we wanted to see how you would respond.  All of us make this mistake and after the first several times, it became something of a running joke among us.  We knew that no matter how much we tried to explain what was ok and what wasn’t, we missed things.  Something like this will happen every time there is a new companion and we always wonder what was forgotten.  When your face became red and filled with horror, we knew that this was what Micah had forgotten.  He didn’t mean it, so please don’t think poorly of him for it.”

                “Ok.”

                “Luther’s concubines on the other hand, you won’t see them make a peep.  Poor girls, but what can we do?  They are his followers, not ours.  Now, you may want to throw some water on your face or freshen up, or even use the necessary.  When you are ready, come back out, take your place with Micah and pretend nothing happened.”  She stood up and just before exiting the room, Chelsea thanked her.  She nodded and closed the door behind her.

                Chelsea turned around and looked at herself in the vanity mirror.  She fixed her hair and the ruby drop over her forehead.  She straightened her clothing, took a deep breath and walked back to her place with Micah and sat down.  He gave her a peck to the temple and a squeeze to the leg, but that was all.  The meeting had continued as if all she had done was gotten up to use the necessary.

                As the gods and goddesses spoke, she could feel the fluctuations in their presence.  It had been heavy when they all came in and she could even feel Micah’s presence again with all of them together.  She found that if she concentrated on Micah’s presence, the others lessened to a manageable amount.

                After talking about demons, the subject moved on to dragons.  Fewer dragons had been spotted this cycle, but Micah reminded them that they would be in their mating cycle at this time and would be naturally scarcer for some time, but to be extra vigilant in the coming years.

                They checked each other as various issues or emotions were running high or low in their areas as a result of the ruling god’s influence running uncontrolled for too long.  These were fairly minor as they either were just starting or had already been resolved before this meeting by the god in question.  Territories were disputed as influence waxed and waned.  Luther and Griffin were both displeased with Micah as their adjoining territories shrunk along the border with Micah’s territories which were expanding along those lines.

                “I promise that I am not actively taking over territories from either of you.”  He replied in response to this questioning.  Griffin seemed satisfied with this declaration, but Luther still looked displeased to Chelsea.

                It was getting late and she was becoming hungry when a pause was called for the moral companions to have dinner in their rooms and to come back when they were finished.

                Micah leaned over to Chelsea and kissed her.  He whispered in her ear as he gave her a quick hug, “Bring what you wrote down when you come back.  That issue will likely be brought up soon and they will want to speak with you.”  She nodded as she pulled away and walked back to the room at the end of his hall.  She ate alone and took her time.  She only drank sparingly as she wanted a clear head should she have to address the other gods and goddesses.  As a result, she was the last to arrive back in the Summit room.  After a few more hours of the talks between the gods and goddesses, Alexander made an announcement.

                “I ask that all of the mortal companions please leave the chamber.  You may use the chamber at the end of Walter’s hallway to wait for us to call you back.  Confused, Chelsea exited the room with the rest of the mortals and Draven’s wives quickly caught up to her and walked with her to the chamber.  They chatted amicably with her and revealed that nothing like this had happened before so were wondering what had happened.  Chelsea suspected the reason, but stayed silent on the subject.  She had left her written accounting with Micah.  She noticed that while many of the companions spoke with each other and many came by to speak with her briefly, the three concubines didn’t interact with anyone and barely spoke with each other.  She also noticed that the others all avoided even looking at them.

                “It’s better to ignore them.”  Edwina confided.  “It’s not an attempt to be mean or anything, but he will grill them each to find out everything said to them while they are out of his sight in an attempt to say we are interfering.”  She didn’t need to say who ‘he’ was.

                “He scares me a little.”  Chelsea confided to Draven’s wives.  They also did not need her to say who ‘he’ was. 

                “I think we’re all a little scared of him too.  But it would be best if we find something else to talk about.”  Nalia said with a nervous look over at the trio.

                “So how is it with Micah?  Has he proposed yet?”  Edwina asked eagerly.

                “It’s different than back home, of course.  I’m not old enough to marry or become engaged yet.”  She was met with confused looks.  “Where I’m from, you can’t become engaged or marry anyone until you turn eighteen.”

                “But he’s a god.  That shouldn’t matter.”  Nalia replied.

                “My mom would kill us both if we got engaged before I was eighteen.”

                Edwina giggled and when Chelsea looked at her she just gestured around them all.  “How?”  She finally got out.  Chelsea blushed.

                “He’s probably just respecting my village’s rules.”  She conceded.  They continued to chat for the next couple hours.  Eventually Walter opened the door and everyone immediately stopped speaking. 

                “Chelsea, your presence is required.  Please come with me.”  She waved to Draven’s wives and followed Walter back to the meeting room.   She studied the god of death and found him to look much like one would expect such a god to look like.  His hair was cropped short and was black as night.  He was not powerfully built like the rest of the gods.  He was rather slim but like all of the rest of the gods, was incredibly handsome. 

                Back in the meeting room, Luther, Varia, and Micah were all absent.  “Go ahead and take Micah’s seat.”  He gestured to the seat in question.  Chelsea nervously sat down while Gregor looked over some loose papers that Chelsea recognized as her accounting of what happened that day several months ago.

                “Tell us what happened the day you became ill, Chelsea.”  Griffin demanded.

                “I was bringing Micah his lunch.  I had set everything on his side table and was just about to head back down to the kitchen to work on dinner.  He received a call of some kind.  He greeted the man as Luther and…… I had never seen another god besides Micah before, so I was curious about what he looked like so I peeked around Micah’s shoulder.  My curiosity sated, I continued to the stairs and…. I don’t know.  I started to feel weak and like I had a fever.  I remember falling and then feeling movement.  He brought me back to our room and he was trying to heal me and asked to kiss me as he needed to in order to attempt the level of healing needed.  But I remember nothing else besides the dreams I had while unconscious.”  She fell silent and she could hear the paper rustle as they were passed on for another god or goddess to read through.

                After some time of silence, Draven spoke up.  “Do you know how many diseases you had in you?”

                “No.  Micah never mentioned it.  I think he was worried more about keeping me sane while dreaming and then getting back to normal was his focus.  After that I was too busy catching up on everything and I had no reason to worry about it.”

                “Did Micah ever tell you anything about any of us before this event?”  Dierdra asked.

                “Nothing individually.  He can have a sweet tooth and I had made him….I can’t remember what I made him but it was something sweet.  He told me that I was going to make him fat and I asked him if gods can really get fat.  He explained how it works.  But, that was all we spoke about gods until after I was unconscious.”

                “You may return to the chamber with the rest of our companions.”  Alexander said.  Suddenly, they all put a hand to their heads in the same way that Micah did when the evening prayers started.  “On second thought, why don’t you go back to the bedroom set aside for you in Micah’s hallway.”  She nodded, stood up and headed back to that room.  She entered the room and found Micah sitting on the bed with his head in his hands as he listened to the evening prayers.  She sat next to him and put an arm around him as she waited for the prayers to end.  He wrapped his arm around her and they stayed like that for about a half hour while the prayers poured in.