I am now back on my Earth form. My body is now back in my late twenties, the one I had before I died.
Mariana greets me with a warm, toothy smile. She is now in a white, flowy dress that made her look like a fairy out of a fantasy novel. "Ari! I miss you. You haven't contacted me since then, so I waited for this day to come so that I could talk to you once more —" She stops rambling when she notices how I look at her with annoyance. "Ehem." She clears her throat and fixes her stance. "Well, look. I dressed." She turns around to show me her dress. "Huh?" she asks happily, expecting me to praise her.
"I could see," I deadpan. She's beautiful, I admit it. But it's still frustrating thinking how she just whipped my soul and dragged it wherever she wanted. Urgh! Now that I'm thinking about it, she's not beautiful. Psh!
Her smile falters. "I did it since you didn't want me naked," she comments.
"This doesn't make me hate you less," I tell her.
"Oh, come on, please. I'm trying to change here. I'm doing what you want; I didn't contact you since I figured you'd hate it."
"Good intuition. I hope you used that before putting me here," I say sarcastically.
"Ari!" She stomps her foot down and pouts.
"Ari~~" I naughtily said, mocking her tone. "So, what now?" I say in my normal voice.
The smile goes back on her face as she starts rambling again. "Well, today is the day of your first evaluation wherein you will receive something called Divine Blessing. I, along with my five Immortal Children, will bless you and give you a Blessed Name. Whoever among my Children feels the most connection with you will give you their Divine Blessing," she explains. "But there is a problem…."
"Oh, I'm not surprised anymore, so spill it. Shoot."
"There's magic in this universe. There are people with inborn inheritances and people whose inheritances are acquired. Remember the curse? Your magic is kinda linked to that curse, so I can no longer do anything about it."
"And what kind of magic will I have?" I cross my arms and ask her as I start getting irritated again.
"There's not quite a name to it, you see…" she hesitates before continuing, "why don't we start from the start first?"
I wave my hand in dismissal. "Whatever. Do what you need to do."
She nods her head and smiles widely at me. She takes a few steps back and opens her arms wide. Six different colors — gold, black, red, green, blue, and brown — light up the place and surround me.
"Welcome, my child. I am Kismet, the Creator of All, the God of all gods. I welcome you to my home," a voice from the golden light says as it forms into a golden orb. I know that it's Mariana, but her voice is masked into something I could not recognize.
The green light turns into a big blob of water then compresses itself to form a big crystal-like teardrop. "Welcome, I am Limunsudan, the Great Bearer of Water, the Water Deity," it says in a melodious voice of a woman.
The blue light swirls and turns itself into a tornado the size of an average person. "I am Adarna, the Great Whisperer, Bringer of Wind and Air, the Wind Deity." Just like its name, it delivers its message with a gust of wind whispering in my ears.
"I am the Fire Deity, Mayon, the Bringer of Fire." The red light splits and moves around me twice before colliding and igniting into a ball of fire.
The brown light compresses and turns into a solid piece of earth. "I am Lupine, the Great Foundation and Bearer of Earth."
The black light compresses and pops, and a blinding white light envelops the surrounding area for a few seconds before it cools down and gets smaller until it turns into an eye with a black pupil. "Hello, nameless child. I am the Beginning and the End, the Deity of Light. You can call me Ningning."
The teardrop, the tornado, and the eyes start moving clockwise while the ball of fire and the earth start moving counterclockwise, enveloping me in colorful rays of light. However, the golden orb stays still in front of me.
"You —" Starts Mariana, "—who is of both bloods of Maoridom and Lazuli — I am bestowing you the name—"
I interrupted her by saying: "Iris."
"W-what?" she asks, taken aback by the sudden interruption. The movements of the colors also stopped.
"I want to be named Iris. Name me Iris," I say with determination. To at least tell those lovebirds, I'm thankful they didn't turn out to be trash parents.
"What? I-I mean, sure… Iris. Your name now is Iris," she says as the orb shakes a little.
"I am bestowing you the Royal Name of Iris." Mariana repeats and the movement of the lights starts once again. "Iris — the Eye, the Vision, the Hope."
It is customary for the gods to bestow their devotees a Blessed Name, but that rule has another clause. In the modern British Royal Family, the members of the Family pick the name of their children from historical figures like how Princess Charlotte and Princess Lilibet are named after the late Princess Diana. In this world, however, the senior members of the Royal Family do not name their children. It is the gods who give their children their names. So, the children are actually nameless for the few weeks of their lives. The Consort, however, accidentally named me during the attempted assassination, and the King went along with it.
"Your Blessed Name shall be… Cylian — the home of all immortals."
The five Immortal Children stopped spinning and went back to their positions. They, with Mariana, start chanting something I don't understand. The light they produce starts to hurt my eyes, making me squint and rub my eyes. Then droplets of water fall from above my left side and twirl around me as if I'm in the middle of an invisible slide. I also feel the wind swirl opposite where the water slides, and the ground below me rocks. My body starts to feel hot and my face blushes. Right above me is the white light serving as a spotlight, while the golden light seems to be observing only outside the circle.
"Welcome, our mortal sibling."
"Nice to meet you, my mortal sibling."
"You baffle me, mortal sibling."
"Why are you in a mature form, dear mortal sibling?"
Countless voices come from different directions as they speak at the same time.
I am starting to get overwhelmed when suddenly, the movements stop again, and they disperse, giving me enough space to breathe and not feel claustrophobic. Their lights grow bigger again until their edges merge. Then, in a split second, the lights engulfed me and transported me back to the mortal realm.
The High Oracle, who is now on his knee, stands up and lifts me up the stone table. He presents me once again to the now normal statue. He faces my parents and says: "Kismet has Blessed this child the name of Iris Cylian of blood Maoridom y Lazuli, daughter of Adrian Benedictus of blood Gracia y Lazuli and Luna Elicid of blood Alanis y Maoridom vhon Lazuli."
The Consort gasps when she hears that my official name includes the name she had secretly given me. She sobs silently in King Adrian's arms. He helps her stand up as she finds it hard to support herself while he does his best not to tear up.
"Iris… my little Iris…." The King says lovingly, smiling widely at me while caressing my cheek.
I grab his finger and smile back at him. During my stay here in this world, I witnessed how loving this man is towards my mother and me. He's not the usual cold, misunderstood father that I usually read in comics. He's real.
"Look, she caught the attention of Ningning."
The single-beaded string indicates the deity with which I have the strongest connection and would not break as I grow older and won't be removed until my last evaluation when I turned eight.
"Black orb encased in a bigger white pearl that signifies the power of Ningning. Without its light, everything would fall into darkness. When everything is dark, everything will cease to exist. When utilized properly, the Inheritor can control the life and death of every mortal." I hear Mariana's voice ring in my head.