Cassie tried her best not to skip as she made her way into the back quarters of the palace of Themyscira. The reason for her being there had become the worst-kept secret on the island over the past few days. She let one of the sages lead her into the forbidden rear chambers. Supposedly no amazon, not even Hippolyta or Antiope, not Diana or Nuba, was said to know the true and total layout of the palace. So inter-crossed and complicated by secret passways and offshooting chambers that it may as well have been an Escherian painting made manifest. The sage, however, at least knew where the chambers of ceremony were. The ones only used for one occasion. When a new champion of the Amazons was to be crowned. The first time when a plane had crashed on the shores, the second when the chosen had chosen to step into her mother's place on the throne when Hippolyta had abdicated, and now the third, as the second champion herself moved out of the role in favor of marriage.
It was a role that Cassie had been in training for since before she had even hit puberty, and now at eighteen she finally had the chance to step into it properly. At that moment, it was hard to think about the mountain of responsibilities, the stern face of Diana talking about always thinking before you acted. All that came to mind was having access to her powers without having to wear some kind of gauntlet or ring, some special outfit. Being able to slide into and out of your powers and actually having them was a world of difference, even if it all seemed the same to people without any. Plus there was the whole effective immortality thing that came with being made one of the Amazons, that was pretty nice too.
As they stepped back into the truly hidden portions of the palace, the polished marble and flagstone gave way to rougher rock, as if the palace had started as a series of tunnels dug into the very stone of the island and the deeper in you got the less had been done to improve or decorate it. In the week or so she had been on the island getting ready for the ceremony, it was the first time Cassie could really point to seeing anything that didn't look completely kempt, styled, or accentuated. Everybody who lived there had lived there for centuries now. Work was something you did voluntarily and infrequently, there was no excuse, no reason to live in anything other than your own personal form of opulence. Even the subset of Amazonians who eschewed personal possessions didn't suffer ignominy, they merely slept on ornate benches, lazed in public baths, plucked fruit from the flowering trees which decorated the streets.
That wasn't to say that it was easy living among them. The women who surrounded Cassie, on top of all looking and acting older and wiser, had been born into this life (or at least might have well been). They didn't know any world other than the one they had inhabited. Even leaving aside the raw culture shock they showed when she would dress in something that didn't leave the cool sea breeze licking up where the sun didn't shine, they simply didn't show any sympathy for her weaknesses. She had gotten used to losing to them right away, both in games of wits and physical talents, but what was more surprising is that they never seemed to soften. There were no pity wins, not even small ones. It wasn't just that they beat her in chess, they seemed to take it almost as an insult to lose a single piece to her.
It was hard not to feel like she was the least qualified person on the island to take over the role of champion of the amazons, she likely was. That didn't change the fact that she was going to, didn't change the fact that she was on her way to now. Even if it was an upward battle, she was in the process of becoming not just their equal, but the best among them. Though she questioned if it would improve her chess abilities any. No matter, Diana had been a terrible chess player from what she heard.
They finally entered the ceremonial chambers and the two initial queens of the Amazons were there. Hippolyta, once de-facto ruler of Themyscira who had abdicated when she felt her daughter was ready to take the throne and when her sister had also stepped aside, who was said now to live most of her time in worship of the gods aside from holy days, where her parties were said to now rival those upon Olympus in terms of both scale and decadence. Antiope, her sister and one time co-ruler who had been first to abdicate if only by a matter of weeks, who had stepped away from the throne to drill and train her chosen group of warriors, a sisterhood said to be so deadly and so close-knit that offending one was compared to offending a god. Themyscirans needed little in the ways of shows of force and even littler from policing, but Antiope had always remained the spear's edge on a shaft which Hippolyta never truly needed to lower.
With them was Diana, Hippolyta's sole daughter who had taken the mantle of Wonder Woman out of necessity and duty to the human world, but who had returned matured and with little left to accomplish, taking the throne for only a short time. And Nubia, who had taken the title of Wonder Woman in Diana's absence but who now looked to step out of it only a short time later for reasons which none truly knew but her. All of them stood about a platform in amazonian plainclothes with one breast bared and with a pair of holy women kneeling naked on the dais. Nudity had been another thing Cassie had been slow to adjust to, but the four most powerful in Themyscira's history now stood partially exposed and in the presence of women fully bare without any concern. She supposed it would simply be something which came with time.
Perhaps most importantly, however, on the dais between them sat the armor of Wonder Woman.
"Cassie-" Diana beamed at her, then caught the still-stern faces of Nubia and the others and straightened up, pushed the smile from her face.
"Diana," Cassie nodded, not wanting to catch the same glares, "Nubia, Hippolyta, Antiope."
"I presume we do not have to explain why you're here," Nubia spoke in a deep, musical voice that she kept constrained into a tight, almost monotone pattern. She sang beautifully and laughed easily, but she had also been a soldier long enough to achieve everything she could in war but its end.
"No," Cassie folded her hands in front of her waist, "I'm ready to accept this honor."
"You may be, but we must not forgo the ceremonies of the gods who give us these powers." Hippolyta didn't show it, but she sounded... wary, like she wanted to have it over with and be out faster than anybody else.
"If we're giving thanks to the entire pantheon, I'll need to be guided." Cassie admitted ashamedly, "I never was one of those kids who got really into Greek mythology."
"Not the entire pantheon," Antiope chuckled, "Some of them still see us as a mistake and we exist without their approval. If you pray to them, it will only ever be out of desperation."
""We give thanks to Demeter, who will give our champion power and strength as the Earth itself." Began one of the naked priestesses.
In actuality, there were six gods that made up the ceremony. Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, Hestia, and Hermes. Cassie had thought she had it figured out, that it was only the goddesses, until Hermes's name was mentioned. She gave a side-eyed look to Diana, who was realistically the only sympathetic ear that she was going to find, but Diana herself had her head bowed in a rare showing of complete and total obedience and reverence. For all of her heart, emotionality, and for all that "Man's World" had done to make her somebody Cassie could understand, there were occasional reminders of just how different Di still was. She only half-listened to the whole thing, making sure that if she was asked to respond she would be able to, but without really thinking about the words. It was like church service when she was young. She didn't feel too guilty about it. From what Diana had told her, most of her relationship with the gods was going to be very occasionally getting told what to do by one of them. What she did know about Greek mythos didn't paint them as people she really wanted to hang out with, anyway.
All she could think about was the outfit, the end of the ceremony, the power. She had thought with her time as Wonder Girl, the allure of a slight power-up wouldn't be so much to turn her into a greedyguts, but she found herself almost childishly tapping her foot, trying to find some way to keep her hands from fidgeting. By the time the chanting finished and they turned to look at her, she had forgotten to even half-listen.
"Um, sorry..." Cassie could feel her ears get hot. "Praise the gods?"
Diana laughed. Cassie was worried for a moment that she would be the only one, but a moment later the stern-faced Nubia and distant Hippolyta joined in. Only Antiope and the priestesses seemed to scowl.
"She said to put on the armor, child." Hippolyta smiled, "Are our gods so distant to you that you closed your ears even to that?"
"Sorry! I didn't mean to, I'm just not used to all this ceremony and all of these speeches."
