Blessed by Night

\'How do you think, my dear? We want to bless you.\'

Aubrey expertly picked out the voice in her head from the crowd of gods in the stands. Once she made eye contact with Nyx, the goddess flashed her a small wink to put her mind at ease. For some strange reason, everyone here was staring at Aubrey like they already knew her. Even though she wasn\'t famous by any sort of metric, they were looking at her like she was some kind of religious figure. "Sister to the fabled son. Tell us the limits of your ambition." The one who finally addressed Aubrey was a horned and hairy beast that sat high among the Chinese pantheon. Pangu seemed to be staring at the young girl rather intently just like all of the others, though she wasn\'t sure if it was because he wanted to eat her or not. "My... ambition...?"

Aubrey had heard from both her girlfriend and brother about this part of the ritual, but she still was not ever expecting to ever be asked this question herself. She honestly wasn\'t sure if she had any ambition. The way that her life was set up now, her brother and girlfriend gave her everything she could ever want. Malachi even gave her a few million once he signed with Luna, so she was already pretty wealthy despite never even finishing high school. It was hard to answer what your ambition was when everything was done for you by your loved ones. Aubrey wasn\'t ungrateful or spoiled, but things had been this way for so long that she had never stopped to question it. But in thinking about these things for the first time, she realized what the answer to the question that Pangu had asked her a few moments ago. "My ambition is... I want to be someone who can stand on their own two feet again." She said with great difficulty. "My brother and girlfriend... They tend to coddle me a lot because of my...past. I\'m grateful that they love me so much, but I think... I want to do things for myself again. I want to protect myself so that they don\'t have to feel obligated to do it for me.

I want to be able to walk on the street again, even if they aren\'t holding my hand. I want to be someone who can stand beside those two amazing people proudly. My ambition is that I want to be strong, and independent."

With every word that she spoke, Aubrey\'s words flowed easier and easier. It made her realize how deeply buried this wish was, and just how long she had been suppressing this desire inside. "Such powerful words, my daughter. Your brother would be proud, as am I." Nyx said warmly. Even though Aubrey and the goddess had yet to build a proper bond of any kind, it would be a lie if she said that she did not feel anything when this woman referred to her as her child. It was a very warm and pleasant feeling... so much so that it gave her flashbacks to her birth mother and father. She missed them... so very terribly. But just like her brother, she had to keep living with their memories and lessons ingrained into her being everyday. "Now then... who will bless my child?" Nyx asked. The casual way that Nyx referred to Aubrey set off a chain reaction inside the minds of the highers. Previously, everyone was looking at Aubrey like they could not wait to offer her their blessing. With her brother\'s immense potential, surely she would not be very far behind him, right?

They may have missed their opportunity with him, but this was their chance to correct that with his sibling!

But...Nyx\'s interference was a not so veiled way of saying that any intentions had to be pure, or they would be punished. Immediately, that dissuaded most of the demons and powerful monsters from trying to bless her. Their power tended to corrupt, and 98% of the humans blessed by them were now sitting in the underwater prison Tartarus or dead. But as for those who did not have any impure motives, Aubrey was fair game. And they lobbied for her like she was prime real estate. "Daughter of man, accept my blessing!"

"No, mine! The fuck do you need a wine god\'s blessing for?"

"Kill yourself, Apollo!"

"Watch your mouth or I\'ll fuck your wife, Dionysus!" n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Aubrey was being solicited by so many highers that her head was beginning to hurt. She didn\'t know how she was ever going to come to a decision with all of these highers yelling at her like this. \'This is more annoying than they mentioned...\' Aubrey thought exhaustedly. \'Fufufu~ Don\'t worry, dear. Help is on the way.\'

As soon as Nyx transmitted the thought, a figure appeared in front of Aubrey. It was a man, but strangely enough he didn\'t make her feel uncomfortable. He had dark grey skin pared with silver hair that flowed down his back. His black robes seemed to be constantly swirling and shifting, almost like they had a life of their own. Despite his eyes being entirely black and empty, he was not unappealing to look at and was actually rather handsome. When the higher saw who had chosen to appear in front of Aubrey, the entire colosseum came to a dead stop. Among the crowd, two figures stood up, clearly displeased with this turn of events. One was known as the pale rider, a horsemen of the apocalypse who is fabled to bring his namesake to the world when he rides; Death. The other was an archangel with feathers that were a muddled grey instead of the usual white. He was known to the masses as the angel of death, Azrael.

"Thanatos... what is the meaning of this?" Death asked pointedly. "You know we aren\'t allowed to bless mortals with our powers, so what is the meaning of this?" added Azrael.

The being identified as Thanatos stared calmly at his two counterparts. They had indeed made a pact not to take part in the blessing of mortals for one very simple reason. The three of them are divided aspects of the initial concept of death itself. They are not gods of the dead like Hades, Hel, and Yama. They are beings of actual death. Therein lies a world of difference. While those blessed by the rulers of the underworlds can summon and manipulate armies of dead, it is theorized that those blessed by a being of death would be able to bring it. Or even stave it off. Needless to say, their powers were deemed to be too much for mortals to hold onto. There was also a possibility that a mortal body could not handle such dark abilities. The potential for things to go wrong was so much greater than it was with other blessings. Thanatos would never have done this had his mother not asked him so sincerely. And since his twin brother had also gotten to bless someone earlier in the night, he may have been feeling a tiny bit left out. Though he would never admit that out loud. "Our pact... I have decided that it no longer interests me." He said plainly. "You\'re joking."

"Am I?"

Thanatos stared directly into Aubrey\'s big brown eyes and finally introduced himself properly. "As they say, I am Thanatos, and I am a god of death. Even though this is our first meeting, I am also your brother."

"Oh... I guess that I have a lot of brothers and sisters now, huh...?"

"You may say that, but you need not think of us as your kin unless you deem us worthy of the title. The time for that can come later."

Aubrey had to admit, she was feeling a lot less nervous around Thanatos now, and her opinion the god had already been raised just a small bit. She thought if it was this man at least... she could eventually come to look at him like another sibling. "I, Thanatos, god of death wish to bestow Aubrey Saint with my blessing. Will you accept?"

"Ah, y-yes!"

As soon as Aubrey accepted, she felt a strange force invade her mind and soul. It was cold and dark, but it wasn\'t unpleasant. It was just... there. "How is she still standing...?"

"She absorbed death... true death..."

"This..."

Aubrey noticed that she was receiving quite a few strange looks from the highers in the room, but she didn\'t really understand why. Had she done something fantastical like her brother?

If she had, she would have liked to have done it intentionally, but all she did was mutter a few words. "Oh, right!" She realized. She gestured for Thanatos to lean down so that she could whisper something in his ear, and he looked at her strangely before obliging. "I don\'t feel that fullness thing that my brother and girlfriend talked about so does that mean I have to pick again?"

Today, Aubrey learned that in a room filled with higher beings, it should not have come as a surprise that they all had super hearing. This time, the common was even louder than the first. "She\'s fine!!"

"She is like her brother! She can handle more!!"

"Young girl, please allow me to give you my blessing!"

"Eep!"

Aubrey had specifically chosen to whisper in the hopes of avoiding this exact situation, but it appeared to have been useless in the end. In the blink of an eye, two more gods appeared in front of the young Saint girl. One was a large, green skinned oni with white and red hair and the face of a hungry ogre. The other was a beautiful woman with richly tanned skin and dark black hair. Her golden eyes were warm and gentle, like pools of warm honey. "Mortal, I am Fujin, the god of wind! Together we can outshine both of our brothers and-"

"Young lady, I am Isis, goddess of magic and healing. I believe that if you accept my blessing then-"

"I\'ll take both, I\'ll take both!! I just want to go home now!" Aubrey cried.

The two gods blinked their eyes several times before smiling at each other widely and undergoing the ritual. In the thrones above, Nyx was sitting on her throne wearing her usual warm and motherly smile as she watched Aubrey do just as her brother had, accept blessings from different pantheons. It was like she was watching her child win some kind of award in school or bring home a straight-A report card. She honestly couldn\'t remember the last time she felt this proud. \'Honestly...my children are so special.\'

Bro, I was riding around with my girl and her best friend all day and I just checked my bank account. 

I been laying on the floor for the past twenty minutes, trying to pray that money back into my pocket by the time I wake up

AnathaShesha