Priscilla Sum

Part 11--Family Matters

I was still sitting on the couch, the torn letter in my hand, when Zella walked in to begin dinner preparations.

"Oh!" she murmured when she saw me. "I did not realize you were home yet."

I couldn't move, couldn't respond to explain that I hadn't even gone back to school after that shell-shock at lunch.

Zella came around the side of the couch and sat opposite me. She picked up the letter and laid it out on the coffee table between us.

I opened my mouth to say something, and ended up bursting into tears instead. Why was I crying? It wasn't as if they were dead--they couldn't die if they were gods, could they?

Oh sweet mercy, they were gods! My parents were actual gods! I looked over at the dark-haired housekeeper, who didn't seem fazed in the least by the information imparted by the letter, almost like she'd known exactly what to expect.

"Is it true?" I managed. "People can't just... I mean, it's not like you can know someone for most of your life and they're perfectly normal and then one day they're just, like, By the way, I'm a god--that's gotta be some kind of farce!" I rubbed the tears from my face. "There had to be some kind of sign! How could they have passed for mortals all this time? Why was this never brought up till now?"

Zella waited through my outburst and took my hand. "Time runs differently when you're an immortal, Priscilla--and when you're a deity, the everyday humdrum of the whole world doesn't happen the same way as it happens for the people who live their entire lives without knowing of any other plane of existence."

I sniffed and rubbed my nose. "Is that why Mom decorates with art and sculptures instead of pictures?" I'd been to a few friends' houses, and without fail, the home decor always involved a hallway full of unflatteringly outdated portraits in oddly-shaped frames, or some sideboard or living room wall full of pictures from bygone generations. I'd always thought it was part of Mom's affinity for artifacts and her job as a museum curator that led her to decorate our house like one of her exhibit halls.

Zella grinned. "They have no family photographs from their past because they have no past--at least, not one that could be photographed. Patrick wanted to at least have a few photos they'd taken with you, as you grew with them, but Aurelia felt that it was too risky, that seeing only photos of yourself would lead you to ask questions they didn't want to answer before the right time came."

My eyes remained glued to the words "we are gods, Priscilla", and I blurted out my next question, "Did you know what they were, when you came to work for them?"

Zella's eyes lit up and she actually laughed at this. "Of course! It's because I belonged to a congregation that worshipped the Microtheon, as we referred to these 'second-tier' gods, that they hired me in the first place. In fact, my grandparents could trace their ancestry all the way back to the group of worshippers who built the temple dedicated to your parents, in ancient Macedonia."

I felt a small shiver across my back, and I rubbed my hands across my forearms. "So wait; are they gods, or are they not fully gods? What do you mean by 'second tier'?"

Zella folded her hands in her lap patiently. "There is the Greek Pantheon, which is populated by the major gods--Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, and all the rest. They are the most widely-known, but they are by no means the only gods in existence! The major gods, their power ranges from manipulating the elements to shape-shifting and altering reality any way they please. The minor gods are no less divine, but their power is limited to one particular thing, and therefore, many of them have collectively formed the Microtheon: a consortium of gods who answer to the Pantheon, but also see fit to direct and shape the world and its people via their respective specialties."

I picked the letter up and read the part where Mom explained all that. "So, my mom controls the wind, and my dad is the god of... waves? And that's all they can do?"

The housekeeper nodded. "Now you're getting it. They answered, of course, to Poseidon, him being god of the sea."

My head began spinning again, and I covered my eyes with my hands. Just imagining my parents actually physically speaking to an actual god was something out of a fantasy novel!

"Holy cow..." I sighed. "This is a lot to take in."

Zella gave a small chuckle. "You should check out your mother's office while I get dinner ready. That might help settle things once and for all."

I dropped my hands, ready to give the housekeeper a look--but she was already up and making her way to the kitchen.

I sighed and pushed myself off the couch. I'd been in Mom's office before--at least, the part in front of the door, just across the threshold. Never any deeper, since I never had a reason to. When she was in the office, she wouldn't let me come in any further, choosing instead to come out and sit with me on the back patio when we needed to talk; when she wasn't, there was this feeling I would get whenever I ventured near the door--a feeling like I was going to get "caught" at any moment. What exactly I was afraid of, I never knew--but this time, armed with Zella's invitation and the knowledge that I wouldn't be discovered accidentally by a mother who was afraid I might see something before she deemed me "ready", I marched through the double french doors and straight inside.

It looked like a normal office: her desk, a chair next to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf full of leather-bound and hardback books. On the interior wall of the office was an old-looking map, with a couple framed diplomas alongside it. I sat in her desk chair, spinning freely on the swivel as I brushed my hands under the shelves and desk surfaces, in case of a hidden switch or something.

My cell phone went off in my back pocket, making me flinch so hard I nearly hit the edge of the desk with my face. I pulled it out to see a new message from Tony.

Tony: Where r u?

"Oh right," I muttered to myself, formulating a reply. "I've just had the shock of my life and I'm supposed to be in class right now."

Pris: @ home. Big family stuff happening RN. Needed the day to handle it.