Page 7 of The Goddess is Angry
“Close. To fuck shit up with purpose. I’m a primordial. The universe couldn’t have been created without a spark of Chaos. The universe continues to exist because of it. Azren said they were covering ancient civilizations. What happened to those civilizations that they are no longer around?”
Dexter’s hand shot up again.
“Someone other than the pixie. We saw that video at the library. He has a handle on responsible chaos. That was perfection, by the way.”
Kaylee hadn’t come back to class yet, but her minions were sitting the next row over. They gasped and looked like they had been slapped that their professor not only saw the video, but he thought it was hilarious. Dad just ignored them, which was much better than turning them into mice.
I was surprised when Drake raised his hand because he never did that when Azren was teaching. Everyone kept telling me it wasn’t Drake who murdered that witch, but I had my doubts. Someone had mangled Fleur’s neck. Vampire venom was either agonizingly painful or erotic. It wouldn’t have disabled her while someone cut her heart out. Basilisk venom would, I wasn’t even all that sure if his venom wouldn’t fuck up her memories.
A lot of people I trusted said it wasn’t Drake, but no one told me why they thought that. Drake never even spoke in class, but Azren seemed sure. There were a lot of people at this academy who hated me, but they all didn’t like me because Kaylee and Headmaster Krauss couldn’t stand me.
No one seemed to hate me just for thinking I was a witch except for Drake. He was rude when I accidentally ran into him and he was constantly flashing snake eyes at me. Unless I was missing something and he just hated my face, there was a lot of bad history between Basilisks and witches that I shouldn’t be the only one who was looking at him as a suspect.
I was going to look into Drake later.
“They were taken over by other civilizations or wiped out by some kind of natural disaster.”
“That’s true, but you’re missing a key detail. They were wiped out by me. Their societies had become diseased. They were doing terrible things and claiming it was sanctioned by their gods. Their gods either couldn’t or had no interest in controlling them. Primordials don’t go around smiting entire villages because they misbehaved. It’s not done.
“I’d introduce Chaos, whether it be flood, famine, or trying to incite a rebellion. The people could overthrow their leaders or the chiefs or kings could learn to make nice with their neighbors to share resources. Basically, I sprinkled some shit that was survivable and told them may the odds be forever in your favor.
“They didn’t evolve. They kept doing exactly what they were doing and people died, left the settlement for greener pastures, or they weren’t strong enough to fight back when they got attacked by someone they pissed off.
“I’m supposed to be teaching you history and we’ll get to that, but you’re all college students, so here’s a life lesson. You’re all probably a bunch of little shits and you’re going to be that way until your brains finish developing. Chaos for the sake of destruction brings the attention of primordials and we will fuck you up. Chaos that brings growth and rebirth is like a phoenix rising from the ashes and if you absolutely need to be stupid, do that instead of the crap that permanently damages people. None of you are gods.”
Drake's hand shot up again and my dad nodded to him.
“People are awful all the time and there’s no godly retribution. There are ghosts everywhere that can’t move on because humans slaughtered so many supernaturals on these grounds. No one exactly did anything when witches were slaughtering people like me for spell ingredients.”
“That you can see. It’s not just the ley lines or ghosts that make supernaturals gravitate to certain cities. Humans can’t even see spirits. They were happy to plant crops over the mass grave they dug here. I made sure nothing grew here until they left and supernaturals reclaimed the land. Similar things happened in other supernatural cities. I was hanging out in the Aether at the time, but I still had a job.
“As for the witches and Basilisks, that was unfortunate. The Dark Arts didn’t use to be so frowned upon and nearly everyone was dabbling in it. They weren’t exactly checking people who went too far and were murdering people.
“Witches have gone by many different names in different cultures. Even when some humans were worshipping a god that told them witches were evil, they still lived side by side and were often healers for their village. The Dark Arts became taboo and frowned upon when humans caught dark witches doing something they really shouldn’t and the witch burnings started.
“What the witches did to Basilisks was terrible, but it wasn’t all witches. It was a select few with no respect for life and they ended up getting a lot of witches and a lot of innocent humans killed. Those witches also ended up getting a lot of knowledge lost.
“Not all the Dark Arts are evil. My wife is also handfasted to Professor Morningstar. His family grimoire has a lot of lost magic that can actually help people and no one has to die to make it. He’s here teaching it instead of exploring the malicious shit on those pages. What those witches did was sheer evil, but it wasn’t all witches. All witches ended up getting punished for it.”
I didn’t care if he caught me again and wanted to give me snake eyes. I knew about some of the dark shit in Gabriel’s grimoire. He never let me read it, but he taught me some of the stuff that didn’t kill anyone. My dad never really went over witches and Basilisks with me because there weren’t any in my high school. They were pretty rare.
I didn’t know everything he just told the class. I’m sure he blew a lot of witches’ minds. I wasn’t watching them. I was watching Drake. Did Drake have a vendetta against witches? He just sat back in his chair and caught me staring.
He flashed me snake eyes again.
oscar
George’s dad was all over the internet and I looked him up again when we started talking. Nothing prepared me for how massive he was. Like, Azren was tall, but willowy. Reyson was seven feet tall and could crush my skull with his bare hands even if he wasn’t a god.
And he seemed pretty cool. He invited us to the library for dinner. Yeah, he threatened divine justice against us if we hurt George. I couldn’t tell if he was joking about that or not. He basically just told us to go fuck shit up responsibly.
Belladonna raised her hand. She’d been a complete asshole to George, but she seemed to have a lot of respect for the gods. Some of that could be ass kissing, but she didn’t seem to want to kiss Headmaster Krass’s ass.
“Excuse me, professor, but the Banshees shrieked last night and we aren’t being told anything. They are telling us that it’s nothing, but they don’t scream unless someone died. Do you know what happened?”
He shot a look at his kids. From what they told me, they called home every night, and they didn’t last night with everything going on. Reyson didn’t know.
“I don’t, but there’s a faculty meeting at lunch. I’m sure I’ll find out then. Ask your other professors. They might know. But you’re right. If a Banshee screams, it’s not nothing. You’re dismissed. I need my kids up here before they leave.”
