Chapter One - Blessings

Before I allowed this to be added to my library, I went back and edited it a bit. Not to remove sensitive content, but rather to make it readable. I was rather embarrassed when I first examined these after a few centuries had passed, but I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from the journal of a 6 year old.

My name is Nicholas Freeney. Now, I know that you’re going to ask; “Why are you named after the most famous person in the universe?”

My answer is, I have no fucking clue! Of course, Nicholas has always been a very popular first-name among the denizens of Idonia, but I had asked at the ceremony yesterday and apparently I am the second person in written history to be named Nicholas Freeney…

The strange thing is that my parents’ last names are Elenwood and Smith, so where the hell did Freeney come from? Well, the answer is kind of the reason behind why I am writing in this journal this morning, and am apparently forced to do so for the rest of my life!

Yesterday was my 6th birthday, and the ceremony of choosing. Ever since I was born, I was extremely excited about this day. On Idonius, everyone is required to visit a greater temple on their sixth birthday to receive the blessings of the Gods as well as their Status! I was lucky enough to be born in Agni, the Capital of one of the eight great kingdoms of this world, so going to visit a greater temple doesn’t involve months of travel. I asked my parents over and over again, but they always just smiled at me whimsically and said, “When you turn six you’ll learn about it.” Even worse, my older brother Jack keeps teasing me, hinting at some sort of task I have to complete!

Of course, the instant I turned six and I rushed into my parent’s room jumping on their bed yelling, “Tell me! tell me!” My dad clotted my right ear hard! He’s a blacksmith, and his body seems to have been forged by an even hotter fire than his smelter. I swear I went deaf; thankfully Mom knew healing magic and healed me while cradling my head in her lap. Of course, the moment I stopped crying she slapped me across the cheek leaving a mark while she spoke, “I thought we taught you some manners, now get ready to go to the temple!”

Which is how I found myself with a giant red mark across my face, sitting in a room inside the Academy of Divine Fire with nearly a hundred other kids, bored out of my mind. My parents and brother were in the corridor outside, while a few strict looking pages of the church stood enforcing a strict quiet. Finally, the door opened and a harassed looking man stepped into the classroom as it erupted in noise. Every kid in it, including me, was yelling out questions, “When do we get to meet the gods?” Seemed to be the most popular one, although mine was, “Do I really have to kill a troll to get a blessing?”

“Quiet! Return to your seats!”

The voice of the harassed looking man was so loud that my ears started to ring, but as my ears finally recovered the man had managed to reach the blackboard in the front of the classroom. “You have all just turned 6 today, congratulations you are now eligible to receive blessings from the Gods as well as to view your status! Before you receive your blessings, I am to teach you a little of history lesson as well as explain a few rules.”

“1,962 years ago, the survivors of the apocalypse were finally released from the alternate dimension known as the Demon’s Library. They had been stuck inside that dimension, unable to open the doors for nearly a thousand years. While there was an abundance of food, drink, and even a few private rooms for sleeping, the feeling of being trapped all of your life inside a library drove our ancestors to the brink of insanity. We know now that they were trapped in there while the gods moved our world to its new location, and that only the warning they gave to the Saint, Pope Julius XV saved any of our people.”

“When the door finally opened, an overwhelming rush of essence rushed into the room. Stepping out, they found themselves in an enormous antechamber of what has since become the School of Creation. The people rejoiced in their freedom, the taste of fresh air, and the overabundant essence with which to train. As the nearly 50,000 humans rushed into the opening, a commotion erupted from the front as they found 12 statues awaiting them. What was most amazing was that seven of these statues were created from pure elemental essence. While four of them seemed to be created by a force even stronger than elemental essence. These eleven statues were arrayed in a semi-circle directly across from the door’s to the library, while a twelfth statue towered above them in the background. On the ground in massive letters were famous words, “Approach and kneel to the Creator and his Council if you dare! The deserving shall be blessed! The undeserving cursed!””

“Of course, no one believed that there was an actual statue of the Creator outside of the library. But the current Pope, Alexander IV, was a man of immense power who had actually reached the verge of immortality, remembered meeting Pope Julius XV just before he was locked into the library. During this meeting, Pope Julius XV gave Alexander IV his journal as well as warning him of a being of unimaginable power whom he had met with the Divine Goddess of Ice and Fire. So, while everyone scoffed at the massive statues, he stared at the statue on the farthest right. A dwarf stood there with mischievous eyes that seemed to laugh, while a feeling of immense power emanated from him. Pope Alexander IV then spoke softly, “So, Julius didn’t go crazy.” shocking every survivor of humanity as he kneeled in supplication to the Creator and his Council.”

“As the first person to ask for blessing, Pope Alexander IV received the blessing of the Creator himself, a gift which has been given only four times since. Along with the blessing of the Creator, he also received the blessings of Leviathon and Gabriel, as well as being the first ever to receive a status card! It was from the instructions given to him by the Creator that day that he announced the course of humanity! Those instructions were thus; everybody must visit a greater temple on their 6th birthday. After that, you may visit once each year afterwards; and depending on your actions the gods may choose to increase or decrease your blessing. There are 8 cities in which no beast can possibly exist, and these cities are ruled over by the Creator and the 7 Overlords of each element. As long as you possess at least a minor blessing from an Overlord than you may live in their city, and anyone with at least one minor blessing may live in the City of Creation!”

“Thus is the story of our world to this point; outside of these cities empires rise and fall, treasures of unimaginable value are located in mysterious ruins, and mythical creatures rampage, but to this day the system of blessings has remained unchanged.”

An eerie quiet fell upon the room as the man finished; even the obvious nobles who sat at the front of the classroom who had obviously been told the story before, were affected by the mood of the room.

The silence was finally broken by the instructor after nearly two minutes. “Now, you are ready to receive your first blessings.” The instructor then walked slowly through the room, until he reached a door that had so far been unopened and beckoned us to follow him. Excitedly, we all jumped up and followed while talking to eachother.

As we exited the doorway, we entered a wide hallway with people in page uniforms running. Through the occasional open door a glimpse of priests going over documents, studying, and praying could be seen

From the front of the group, I heard a couple of nobles talking to each other, “Such riff-raff, I doubt anyone will receive anything other than a minor blessing.” Spoke a boy wearing the crest of a roaring dragon on his back.

*Snort* “I bet some of them will be forced to move out of the city.” Spoke his companion, a kid with fiery red hair who seemed to heat the very air around him. Turning to the girl standing next to them he asked, “What do you think, Syndra?”

She turned to look back at everyone else; for some reason our eyes meeting before she turned back and laughed saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you only received a lesser blessing Carson; showing off in her temple by wearing a jacket with fire-crystals embedded into it. I doubt she’ll be impressed.”

Carson blushed, looking embarrassed as he shut his mouth. Thankfully, I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation as a boy next to me started talking, “Hi, I’m Kalvin.”

Turning, I nearly jumped as I realized that he was a dwarf! “Wow! I’ve never met a dwarf before! I didn’t know they received blessings too.”

“Why wouldn’t we be able too? One of the gods is a dwarf too!”

“Cool! I hope you do well, my Dad always talks about how awesome Dwarven Smiths are!”

“HeeHee, thanks! I hope you do good too.”

The hallway started widening at this point, and an enormous atrium could be seen in front. Looking around, I saw my parents waving to me while my brother had disappeared somewhere.

“Go stand with your parents, it should be a few minutes before you are called forward.” Spoke up the man that we’d been following, and I ran over to them in excitement hugging my mom.

“Was the story everything you wished for it to be?” Asked my mom quietly, hugging me tightly.

“Yea!” I said excitedly, “I can’t wait to see the statues!”

“I bet!” she said, then letting me go. That was when I looked at dad; he was talking to someone dressed in clothes expensive enough to buy our house! and that noble girl from before was standing next to him, looking at me. Looking back, I saw that she had purple hair with streaks of black running through it. I’d never seen anything like it; at the same time alluring and foreboding.

“So, your son was born on the same day as our daughter, Nathan?” said the man.

“Seems so, perhaps it is time for our houses to join after all, HAHAHA.”

“Perhaps old friend, perhaps! Although, I’m not planning on forcing Syndra to marry anyone she doesn’t want too.”

‘Huh? Dad’s just a smith, why would a noble joke about me marrying his daughter?’ I looked at mom questioningly, but she just smiled mysteriously again… ‘Shit, they’re not telling me something again.’

“Neither will Nick!” Said my dad, but then he looked at Syndra, “She looks just like her mother, I’m sure she’ll be quite the beauty!”

Syndra seemed to be kind of shy, or maybe scared as she hid from my dad’s gaze behind her dad’s legs. “She surely will be. I see your son takes more after his mother, thank the heavens! We don’t need another muscle-brained idiot running around this city.”

“Muscle-brained idiot is it?” He growled out, and I thought that he would start slugging it out with the man right there in front of everyone. I sighed in relief when he was interrupted by the voice of the instructor from earlier.

“Alright, when I call your name come forward and receive the blessing of the gods. Remember, even if you only receive a lesser blessing as long as you work hard and impress the gods you can even reach for immortality.”

The room went quiet as everyone began to move further into the atrium, and I finally got a look at the statues. I thought before that the instructor had been exaggerating about how the statues were formed, but he wasn’t. Eleven humanoid forms stood shoulder to shoulder, with four of them made of some weird silver substance that seemed to flow and yet emitted a kind of power that scared me. But, what truly fascinated me where the seven statues made out of pure elements. Especially, the woman made out of fire standing next to the man made out of lightning. As I looked at them, something in me called out to them, and for some reason my heart felt heavy. My eyes even began to tear up, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the statues were looking back at me even as the first of our group went up to receive his blessing.

It takes a surprising amount of time for a person to receive a blessing; first he must kneel down in the proper spot and lower his head before praying. For a six-year old, the act of sitting still for that long is exceedingly difficult, and it seemed like many of the commoner’s children needed to try multiple times before they got it right. But, he got it right eventually, and the first time I saw the light descending onto someone my breath caught.

The first boy to go on stage didn’t have much talent it seemed, he only received two lesser blessings. Yet, even then it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. A fiery red light flew from the fire-womans eyes, and a round blob seemed to be transmitted straight into his chest. At the same time, the man of darkness to her left seemed to move; wings appearing that I hadn’t seen earlier. A black beam shot from them, and I somehow saw a tiny bat fly into his chest. The lights erupting around the room spread; and for an instant I could see the form of a giant bird of flame behind the woman while thousands of bats seemed to spread across the room battling the flames. The interplay of light; it was the most breathtaking event I’d ever seen.

Then, the lights died down and the statues returned to normal. Except, the hand of the dwarf on the far right was extended with a slip of what looked like paper but seemed to be made of the same silver material as he was. A priest took the slip, reading it before handing it to the kid and announcing, “Alvin Armach, Lesser Blessing of the Dark, Lesser Blessing of Fire.”

A spattering of applause greeted the announcement, seeming almost rote. As more and more people went through the process it seemed that gaining even a lesser blessing was rare. Everyone gained a blessing of fire, as if the Goddess was giving her people her blessing, but it was rare for anyone to gain a second blessing as the first had.

The instructor called the next name, “Syndra Lightsbane.” A hush deeper than any other time so far came across the crowd as everyone watched her expectantly. Apparently, the Lightsbane clan is extremely famous, but I haven’t managed to get my Dad to tell me why yet. The girl slowly walked forward, kneeling gracefully in front of the statues of the gods.

After a minute, a fireball shot out of the woman of flames flying into the girl. For most other people, that would’ve been it. But, she continued to remain still and none of the priests moved to remove her. I watched puzzled as minutes passed by slowly, without any reaction. The longer we waited, the bigger the smile grew on the face of her father standing next to us. I heard my dad whisper to him after nearly twenty minutes, “Congratulations, your daughter inherited your talent.” The man’s grin just grew wider.

That was when I noticed the aura’s of two of the statues growing, a crackling thunder heard and yet not heard; the room went darker and darker until all that could be seen is was the faint purple light and the darkness. After thirty minutes had passed, an earth-shattering cry broke free as a bird of thunder ripped through the air; breaking apart the darkness and yet simultaneously melding with it, growing into a dragon before disappearing into the girl’s chest. The aura’s of the statues quickly dissipating, the sunlight returning, and the hushed atmosphere shattered as a thunderous round of applause rippled through the atrium even before the priest could read off her status. A man dressed in the robes of a Cardinal of the faith had appeared from seemingly nowhere to congratulate her, and the entire room went silent again as the priest retrieved a bigger sheet of silvery paper from the statue of the dwarf.

Coughing, the young priest seemed amazed as he read, “Syndra Lightsbane, Dragoness of Nyx, Friend of the Dark, Disciple of the Raiju. Greater Blessing of Darkness, Greater Blessing of Lightning, Lesser Blessing of Fire. There is a message from the God of Darkness, “May your journey through this life be as enjoyable and entertaining as your last; do not fear the dark, for we shall forever be friends.” Signed, Camatotz, Overlord of the Dark.”

The silence was deafening as even the cardinal’s eyes bugged out. I had no clue what was going on, but none of the others, even that one who received a greater blessing of fire, had taken so long or involved such a message from the gods; not to mention all of the titles before hand. Dragoness of Nyx? What does that mean?

The silence was finally broken as the stunned girl was picked up in a humongous bear-hug by her dad. The priest carefully handing the slip of paper to the Cardinal who examined it with disbelieving eyes and the rest of the crowd went wild; clapping and hollering, congratulating the father-daughter pair celebrating in the middle of the room.

It took a long time for the room to quiet down again; and when it did the instructor called out again. “Nicholas Smith-Elenwood”

I felt all of the eyes on me as I walked towards the altar, the entire time cursing that girl Syndra. She seemed nice enough, but why did she have to go and do that right before I went?!?!?! How in the hell am I supposed to overtop that performance?