The Tats

A Story by Matthew_h

Chapter 1

Marina Ked stared at her burning wrist, a tattoo had appeared. On her wrist was now a black feather. Today was her coming of age party, in this world when someone turns 17 tattoos start to appear on their bodies. The tattoos act as prophecies of important things that will happen at some point in that persons life.

The time was 12:01 am, October 4th. Marina's 17th birthday. "What does this mean?" she wondered aloud.

"Happy Birthday Marina!" Her mother yelled as she ran into Marina's room. "I can't believe you're already 17!" Her eyes going wide when she saw the fresh, red, tattoo on Marina's arm.

"The feather. It just appeared." Marina said in shock. " What does it mean Mom?"

"We have to go to the seer!" Marina's mom said quickly. "Harold! get your coat we have to go now!"

"Cindy, calm down!" Marina's dad replied. "What's going on?"

"A feather tattoo just appeared on our daughter, Harold!" Marina's mom yelled back "That's what's going on!" Eyes wide with shock Marina's dad nodded. They all ran out of the house to find the seer.

It was 1am when they arrived at the seers shack. "Mom, Dad where are we?" Marina asked shivering.

"We are at the seers shack." Her mom quickly replied. "People come here when an unreadable tattoo appears."

"Is this about the feather?" Marina asked "Is it really unreadable?"

"In all my years of studying tattoos I have only ever seen one like the tattoo on your arm. " Marina's dad said "It was in Thortran, on the arm of a 100 year old elder, he told me it just suddenly appeared at midnight on his 17th birthday."

"What did he say it meant?" Marina asked.

"He didn't say and I didn't ask." Her dad replied. "To be honest I didn't think much of it at the time." Just as her dad finished his story, Marina heard a the door creak.

"Are you going to continue to stand out in the cold?" Said a voice from inside the shack. "Or are you going to come inside?"

"Mistress Opetra I presume?" Marina's mom asked.

"Yes, yes its me now come inside!" Mistress Opetra answered. Marina and her parents walked into the shack and closed the door behind them. When they stepped into the light they saw a small living space and kitchen with two doors on the far wall, presumably leading to the bedroom and bathroom. The shack walls were covered in paintings of mystical beings and gods from all kinds of religions. There was even one from the old world, Marina had read about him for class. The people just called him God, he didn't even have a name, it was weird. She stopped and stared when she saw the painting of Cotus the raven god or trickery and intelligence, every one was afraid of him but Marina didn't really see why, she always viewed him as a friendly character. He was a smart bird and it was a cool concept but it was just a bird. "I see your admiring the God Cotus." Mistress Opetra said coming up behind Marina.

"Yeah he's really something." Marina said. Marina's parents didn't like it when she shared her views about Cotus with people, it was considered blasphemous. The only person she shared her views with was her bestfriend Fay. He liked her way of thinking and usually agreed with it.

"Well." Mistress Opetra said. "Why have you come?"

"It's our daughter you see." Marina's mom paused. "A feather tattoo has appeared on her." Mistress Opetra inspected Marina's arm. After looking at it for a while she pulled out a magnifying glass to take a closer look. Marina looked at the feather for the first time since it appeared. It was actually more of a wing than a singular feather, it was pretty cool but she would never tell her parents she thought that.

Mistress Opetra inspected the wing for a while before looking up. "He has chosen you." Mistress Opetra said calmly. "This is a great honor."

"What does that mean?" Marina asked confused.

"You have been chosen to bare the mark of Cotus." Mistress Opetra continued. "That means, the raven God has chosen you to be his ekletos." Marina sat there shocked, Cotus had chosen her to be his ekletos. An ekletos was the chosen one of a god. Almost every god had one, however Cotus was famous for not having an ekletos, saying he hadn't found a human worthy enough to be his ekletos.

"Why me?" Marina asked confused. "Why me out of all the other people in the world?"

"He must have taken a liking to you." Mistress Opetra replied. "Usually a god will spend a considerable amount of time with their ekletos before they choose them. The god will disguise themselves as people in the ekletos's life, teachers, neighbors and on rare occasions, childhood friends. But being a childhood friend requires the god to create a whole identity and pose as them from infantry to adulthood. It's a tremendous amount of work." This got Marina thinking: who in her life could be Cotus? It sent shivers up her spine thinking a god had been watching her her whole life without her even knowing it.

'Maybe it was Mrs. Fishbuckle.' Marina thought. Mrs. Fishbuckle always said Marina would grow up to be special. Or maybe it was Mr. Cherry, he was always coming over for dinner. Mr. Cherry was Marina's elderly neighbor. 'Who could it be?' Marina wondered. She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't hear Mistress Opetra talking to her.

"Marina!" Her Mother said exclaimed. "Did you hear what Mistress Opetra said?"

"No, sorry." Marina responded breaking her trance. "Could you repeat that?"

"I said." Mistress Opetra said, clearly annoyed. "That there is a way to find out who Cotus is."

"How?" Marina asked intrigued.

"There is a spell that I can cast that will, for 24 hours, make you see auras." Mistress Opetra said.

"How will I know how to identify a gods aura?" Marina asked.

"A humans aura is quiet boring its plain yellow and quite dull, a ekletos' aura is purple and bright, a gods aura is vibrant pink, it's very hard to miss." Mistress Opetra explained.

"Okay, then do the spell!" Marina exclaimed. "I really want to find out who Cotus is." Mistress Opetra nodded before walking over to a workbench covered in bottles, each was filled with a colourful liquid, animal parts or herbs. After a few minutes had passed Mistress Opetra started quietly chanting.

"Ah there we are." The seer said as she walked toward Marina. "Now lean your head back, oh and this may sting a little." Marina leaned her head back as instructed and Mistress Opetra dropped a liquid into her eyes. Everything went black. Marina was scared, she couldn't see anything and her eyes were burning. The pain was so intense she almost couldn't stand it. Then, the pain subsided. Marina opened her eyes and looked up at Mistress Opetra, there was a green glow around her.

"What does green mean?" Marina asked.

"Green." Mistress Opetra responded. "Is the colour of a seers aura. And you being able to see my aura means the spell worked." Marina cautiously looked over at her parents. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw they were surrounded by a dull yellow light.

"Can we go now?" Marina asked. "I want to see who Cotus is." Marina's parents nodded. The family said their goodbyes to Mistress Opetra and started the long walk home. When Marina got home she collapsed in her bed, she needed to sleep.

Marina awoke at 6:00 am disoriented, 'Was it a dream?' she thought. she then looked at her arm and saw, to her disappointment, a fresh black raven wing tattoo etched into her arm. "Oh." Marina thought out loud.

"Morning birthday girl." She heard someone say through her door. "Can I come in?" It was Fay. She was glad he was here, she needed a friendly face right now.

"Yeah come in." She said. She was still dressed from her trip to the seers shack. Fay opened the door and walked in a present in hand. Marina was relieved to see his smiling face, but something was different about him. Her heart sunk when she saw that there was a vibrant pink light outlining his body. "Cotus?" She asked hesitantly.

"What about him?" Fay laughed.

"You're Cotus." Marina replied. Fay's face went white.

"What are you talking about?" He said with a nervous laugh. "How could I be Cotus. He's a God?"

"The seer gave me the ability to see auras." Marina responded. "I can see your aura Fay, its pink." Fay's face went completely white. He was trying to think of an answer.

"Well you were bound to find out sooner or later." He said. "You caught me. I'm a God." He bowed "Cotus, the Raven God, at your service." Marina was speechless. She had known Fay her whole life, he was Cotus. How could she have not known?

"Why?" She asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I love being human." He responded. "And I love being your friend. I just wanted to live out the rest of this life as a human and not have to think about being a God. But then a mission arose and I was forced to pick an ekletos. I knew you would figure it out sooner or later. But I wanted to be the one to tell you." He looked at the floor ashamed. "I can leave if you want."

"No stay." Marina responded. "I want you to tell me what it means to be your ekletos."

"Well." Fay said with a smirk. "It means we will be spending a lot of time together."

Chapter 2

Marina starred at Fay (Cotus) waiting. "Well." She said. "Are you going to explain or not?"

"Explain what?" Fay asked.

"What it means to be your ekletos." Marina responded slightly annoyed.

"It means you are my partner." Fay explained. "You help me with quests and you get some of my power to keep for yourself. that is unless I die then the power disappears after my essence fades, which for a god is a year after their death." Marina nodded. She didn't know what to think, multiple emotions were all rushing through her like a flood.