The throne room was nothing less than grandeur. Almost everything was gold aside from some white and silver accents spread evenly throughout the room. Thirteen thrones surrounded us, each with their own god or goddess, dressed in armor similar to the man holding the lightning bolt.
"Good evening, my lords and ladies," I said with a small curtsy, "what is this about a war," I asked politely as Aili followed suit.
The man nodded, accepting our politeness towards them, "There is a war amongst us," he said as I just noticed the crown, which sat loosely on his head. "I am Samuel. I am the King of the gods and all men; I am also the god of the sky and thunder. I apologize for interrupting your meeting with president milady. Still, we need to address this as soon as possible to prepare you two to lead our army," he explained with a sense of urgency. "But first, let each of my brethren introduce themselves. I understand that you have already met Mic and Rachel, but they will still introduce themselves, including their full titles. May we start with the men first, then my wife will start with the women."
The man to Samuel's right simply nodded, as the King looked like he was sitting on a throne of clouds and lightning; this man looked like he was sitting on the seabed with shells and seaweed included. "Good evening," he began, his eyes sparkling with blue, "My name is Flinn. I am the god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses; it is a pleasure to meet you. My dears Mic and Samantha have said a lot about you."
As Aili and I both nodded with smiles on our faces, I glanced at the next god and felt a pit of fear open in my stomach. This man's throne looked like the epitome of horror with skulls, darkness, and some red stuff that looked like blood. "I suppose it is my turn," the man upon this horrific throne muttered once Flinn had finished. "My name is Waverley, I am the god of the Underworld and death itself,"
Once Waverley was finished with his depressing introduction, I looked to the next throne; this one looked a little more playful but mischievous. "Hi," the god sitting on it began. "My name is Neal. I am the god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, and travel. It is a pleasure to meet you both," he finished.
Neal's long introduction made me curious to look at the next throne. This throne looked like it came from Game of Thrones, but instead of it only being a throne of swords and daggers, this one was a throne of every weapon imaginable. "Hello," the buff man began. He seemed to be the most built out of all of them. That is aside from the one sitting right next to him. "My name is Hartwell. I am the god of war, no matter your decisions with this war, I will follow everything."
The man next to him rolled his eyes as his throne squeaked and beeped as gears just kept on moving, "Sorry about him, he is too fascinated with the concept of war that it seems that he gets high on the thought of it—the name's Moore. I am the god of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forgers, and the art of sculpture. It is a pleasure to meet you two. This one right here won't stop babbling about you," he finished jerking his thumb towards Mic.
"Why, maybe because they're the first soulmates underneath this project," he protested. He was sitting on a cloud of pinks with hearts coming out of it, "Hey guys, you may already know me, but I am Mic, the god of love and beauty," he said with a wave as we chuckled. Little did we know that the wave brought the magic. The next thing we knew, our outfits were replaced with armor. Mine was a dulled-down gold while Aili's wore a shining silver, "That armor will meld in with your clothing," Mic began explaining. "Just press the rune on the breastplate, and it'll be part of any clothes you put on," he finished just as we nodded our thanks. "I also may have changed your clothes into the more proper attire for meeting the gods in."
As he said this, I pressed the rune on my breastplate that was of a crown with lightning going through it. Once the armor disappeared, I saw myself in a toga with gold lining around the edges and designs throughout. I felt a necklace underneath and figured that was the rune to summon the armor. I looked towards Aili. My breath hitched, she was wearing a toga similar to mine, but the gold was replaced with silver. Her hair was up in a braided bun, and she had natural makeup on her face, "Thank you, Mic," I said with a nod. "I apologize if our outfits offended you, we were not ready to be in front of you all."
The woman to the left of Samuel nodded, "There is no offense. We did not expect you to be ready for an unplanned meeting," she said, matching my politeness. Her throne looked like she took an outdoor marriage and decided to sit on the whole event without the guests. "My name is Mariam. I am the Queen of the gods as I am married to Samuel. I am the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth," she said with a small bow of her head.
The next goddess looked like she was sitting on a field of crops. "Hi," she said cheerfully. "My name is Wendie. I am the goddess of agriculture, fertility, sacred law, and the harvest. It is a pleasure to finally meet the two of you," she said. We nodded as we looked towards Rachel's throne.
Rachel's throne was almost blinding as it shone with all of the light in the world, but if you looked at it enough, you could faintly hear some music playing. "Hey guys," she began, "as you may know, my name is Rachel. I am the goddess of healing, archery, music, dance, truth, prophecy, diseases, all light, and poetry."
We smiled and nodded as she finished introducing herself. I looked towards the next goddess's throne. When looking at it, I felt like I could do anything. The throne looked like it was woven from the strongest thread in the world. Scrolls were sticking out of it in some places. "Good evening," the woman sitting in it began, "my name is Liliane. I am the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law, justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. I will be helping you with your knowledge about our religion and the best strategies for this war."
Aili nodded as she finished. Unlike Neal's long and boring introduction, I felt drawn to whatever she was saying, sort of as if I should soak up everything she says. When I looked towards the next throne, my heart skipped a beat; around the throne were two lions, a male, and a female. These lions were pacing back and forth as if protecting the forest that this goddess was sitting upon, "Hello," she began. "My name is Mareah. I am the goddess of wild animals, hunting, vegetation, chastity, and childbirth."
Once I looked at the throne of the last goddess, I started getting dizzy and felt like I was about to pass out. "Winnifred, stop it, even I didn't trick them when I introduced myself," the voice of Neal yelled.
"Now is not the time to get these two drunk, Win; I just healed both of them; I don't want to heal them both again," Rachel added.
"Now is not the time for trickery," Liliane began, "Release your power and introduce yourself or I shall force you to."
A sigh came in reply, "I wasn't going to hurt them," a voice said with hints of sadness. "I was only going to make them fall over," the unknown goddess added.
"Release them. Liliane is right. You can see how they react with alcohol after this," Mariam yelled, and soon I could see clearly. "Good, now introduce yourself," she ordered as I regained my breath on my knees and felt Aili's hand on my shoulder.
The goddess in front of me stiffened just as Sam did, in her throne of grapevines with multiple theater props. "I am Winnifred, goddess of wine, winemaking, grape cultivation, fertility, ritual, madness, theater, and religious ecstasy," she said, then relaxed. "I hate it when you do that," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
"You weren't letting them go, so she had to," Mic shot at her
"I was going to let them go, you, idiot. You only worry about your star soulmates anyways," Winnifred shot back
"Enough," Samuel's voice boomed, "we do not have time for this bickering. We need to give them information about the enemy."
As he was saying this, my stomach calmed down, and Aili helped me up, "Are you okay," she asked.
"Yeah," I began, "I just haven't been drunk before," I added with a small smile.
"I have a feeling that's going to change," she said with a smirk as I chuckled before turning my attention back to the gods and goddesses before us.
"It is a pleasure to meet you all, but if I may ask," I paused to think of the proper way to ask this sort of question. "What is it that is declaring war upon this religion to where you need our aide," I asked as I turned to the King
Samuel sighed, "It's a long story, but for short right now," he began, "The parents who gave birth to us are the ones to declare war."