The Child of Many Worlds

Chapter 14: Things That Anger My Mother

Nut pulled out a chair that matched the table, forced me to sit down and then pushed me in. I wanted to protest that I was not a child and fully capable of sitting in a chair myself, but she was already running around grabbing pigments from the wall. It wasn't until she pulled out a bundle of silver needles that I realized what she was doing.

A tattoo. Another one. Really?

I still hadn't shown my mom the one on my leg from the Norns, but because I didn't get it by choice I hoped I still had a chance of living. But if I was getting one intentionally then I was dead.

Considering this I tried to stop the rapidly moving goddess, but she either didn't hear me or was blatantly ignoring me. No matter the reason, she kept collecting supplies until she sat in the chair opposite mine, confusing my mind with her sudden stillness. Without waiting for even an acknowledgement she grabbed my left arm and pulled up my sleeve, exposing my upper arm.

I desperately asked her to stop and she finally seemed to hear me. She looked up and stared directly into my eyes, black pools with unreachable depths asking questions unable to be put into words. With a voice more ancient and power-filled than she had spoken with she told me, "It is necessary"

I decided I didn't actually have a choice.

Then she pulled a silver bowl over and with a swift movement, cut her palm. She held her hand over the bowl and watched as her blood created a small pool. Instead of being red like a mortal or golden like a god, her blood was an ethereal silver. When she had enough she let her body's natural power take over and the wound closed quickly. She took the bundle of needles and set them in the blood filled bowl. She slowly withdrew one and dipped it into a small bottle, filled with pitch black pigment.

When she withdrew it, the now black tipped needle glowed slightly before she quickly poked it into my arm. "Tssss" I hissed, more from the surprise of it, rather than actual pain. And while yes it did hurt, it wasn't that bad. I'd had far worse pain from training and going on missions.

She pulled out the needle, dipped it back into the bottle, stuck it into my arm, and just kept repeating the process. Occasionally she would take out another needle and place it into a different color, before covering whatever design she'd made with the black pigment. She kept repeating the process until I had a band about two inches thick on my upper arm. It was a jumble of mixed up lines of varying thickness and much like the one on my leg it moved beneath my skin. Every once in a while the lines would move and expose one of the designs she had made. They looked like Egyptian Hieroglyphs, but somehow I was able to read each and every one of them, something I knew I had not been able to do before.

The picture at the top is kind of what the tattoos look like, except more intricate, jumbled, black and moving.

Nut must have notice my confusion and told me "I asked Thoth, the god of knowledge, to give you the ability to read, understand and speak any form of Egyptian."

Not entirely satisfied with her answer I moved to speak but she just pulled at my other arm, with her strange strength and started on a mirror image of the first tattoo. As with the other one it didn't really hurt, it was more annoying than anything.

When she finally finished I looked down at my arms, I had to admit, they looked pretty cool. They didn't look red or swollen like tattoos normally would, it was probably a magic thing. But I still knew my mom was going to kill me.

With that thought in mind I turned towards Nut and did my best not to yell at the powerful immortal being that could destroy me with barely a flick of her wrist. For the most part I succeeded, but a bit of venom managed to leech into my voice. I'm pretty sure Nut could hear it but was kind enough not to blast me for it. "Why exactly are the tattoos necessary?"