Pain in School

Fact: Nox gave birth to Oizys (Pain), so I guess that’s why I have to have it.

“Now wake up, Child. Blessed be of the accord of Nyx…Nyx…Nyx…Nyx…”
A few nights later, I’d noticed that every night I had a bad nightmare. We were in my dorm room, the door closed but unlocked. “Maybe it’s Nox’s fault?” I asked my assigned mentor, Eenuahs. “Maybe she’s giving me nightmares?”
“One, we call her Mother, and even if we called her Nox, we would not blame her for bad dreams that can be prophetic, warning us of something, or simply our own imagination!” snapped Eenuahs. Her name’s pronounced E-naws.
“I’m…sorry,” I tried weakly, but Eenuahs didn’t listen. She just went on scolding, lecturing me.
“Noxia Twilight, I’ve seen your rudeness to Nox here, and you definitely need some definitions on Nox, the Nocturnal Home, Cultanism, magick, and respect,” snapped Eenuahs, almost frighteningly.
“But - I was just asking. God…”
“Goddess, you mean,” retorted Eenuahs sarcastically. “I think you know far better than to blame our Great Mother Nox for your own mind’s eye. And if it is from her, then she is punishing you for wronging her or trying to warn you of something, which would be a favor to your part. Most likely, she is avenging, and with reason.”
“But, Eenuahs, I said I was sorry, and I wasn’t completely blaming Nox, I was just asking of the possibility,” I replied sadly.
“Cultanism is taught in eleven Grades - the eleventh being called ‘Summa’ - degrees by initiated, formally recognized clergy, or books written by a High Priestess or high priest, if you’re Solitary.”
She’s right, Nox communicated with me. But her scolding…she is using me wrongly. She has the Cultan wisdom, but not the Cultan heart, and she must stop while she’s ahead.
Nox. So matter-of-fact, but honest. And right. “You’re right. But your scolding…You have the Cultan wisdom, but not the Cultan heart, and you must stop while you’re ahead! You are using Nox wrongly!”
“What’d you know about Nox?! You just came here, to talk trash about Mother!”
“Cultanism is very specific, and if one worships a Goddess and insults her, their practice falls outside the definition of what Cultanism is,” snapped Eenuahs. “You are laboring under completely false and uneducated sources, and you do not have the right to claim that you’re a true Daughter, the true Daughter, of Nox. Period.”
“But I don’t want to be Nox’s Daughter. She said it, not me!”
 “You can call yourself a grilled cheese sandwich, you can pretend somebody else - including the Great Mother - called you a grilled cheese sandwich, but that doesn’t make you one! You are woefully uneducated about what Cultanism even is. You’re dumb.”
“STOP IT!”
“And guess what? All I said of her. If you’re a true believer, then believe. But in truth? Nox is only really worked with by people who learned of her through fiction books and Hesiod’s mythological poems!  If you think you worship Nox, you need to explain to yourself how you serve her, in a manner other than sleeping all day. Unless you respect and have magick, then you aren’t a daughter of Nox, so stop playing with it.”
“You don’t-!”
“Yeah, sweetie, I do have the authority to say that…young one. Stop playing at daughterhood and pretending that because you read some teen fiction novels and sneaked yourself into the Home you are now a Daughter of Nox. You are embarrassing yourself and ‘your’ Nox.”
“I heard every word.” The High Priestess stepped in. “‘Nox is only really worked with by people who learned of her through fiction books and Hesiod’s mythological poems’? ‘You do not have the right to claim that you’re a true Daughter, the true Daughter, of Nox’? Eenuahs, I am very disappointed in you and I might just have to bring a new mentor for poor Noxia.”
“Noxia Twilight’s the one that-!”
“Merely asked a question that was bound to be asked by somebody new to Nox, Cultanism, and the Nocturnal Home,” finished High Priestess. “Also, no, Nox would not send you nightmares out of hatred. She is trying to warn or show you something, or it is just your fears, as Eenuahs said, but you aren’t blamed for asking a question.”
“T-t-t-t-t-thanks,” I muttered. “I’m sorry if I disappointed Nox…but really, I just don’t want to be a daughter…”
“Well, you cannot back up from being who you are, Noxia,” said the High Priestess gently. “You may leave, now, Eenuahs.”
“But-”
“Goodbye.”
“Humpth!” With that, Eenuahs stomped off.
“Bye-bye, Blackie,” I snapped at her long, straight black hair and pale skin (with eyes to match the hair). Though look who’s talking? I’ve got brown shoulder-length and tan stuff going on for me - so if anything, I should be teased about my looks.
“See you at the Hymnies 2016, which I’ll win,” said Eenuahs. “I’d better go practice now, and leave your reeking room.”
 “What’s the Hymnies 2016, HPS?” I asked.
“Oh,” HPS replied. “The Hymnies 2016 is a little song competition for the Nocturnal Home, on October sixteenth through October eighteenth, by the way. Won’t you go and sing a song for us, darling?”
“I’d love to, but…if she’s going, I’m not,” I replied simply. “No, there’s no way I’m going. It’d end up terrible, seeing the way Eenuahs has been to me. And I don’t want the whole Nocturnal Home knowing of our little incident if you know what I mean.”
“I’ll keep her out of your business while you’re at the Hymnies, don’t you worry,” replied HPS warmly. “You can even invoke the help of Momus and the Moirai, the Three Fates. They’re both supposed children of Nox, by the way. Nox is also called."
“What?”
“Nyx.”
“Nyx?! The name in my dream!” I gasped. “Nox is also called Nyx? See, the dreams are from Nyx! Take that, Blackie of Botswana!” I knew it wasn’t too nice of me - almost racist, though I wasn’t a racist person and respected all races, including Africans; in fact, I saw Africans as wise and kind people - but I couldn’t help it, seeing the way Eenuahs called me ‘young one’ and ‘dumb.’ Both terms weren’t very nice, especially when she was exactly my age and nearly my height.
I sighed. This wasn’t going to be the “best day ever.” Goddess forbid if I ever saw Blackie Eenuahs ever again - Goddess forbid. (Suddenly, I felt a pang of disconnection to the God of Christianity. I felt like, I was Goddess’s. I was Nox’s, and if you were interested you could say, rather, Nyx’s.)

Author's Note

Take no offense in this chapter.