3. She trained

It had been 8 years since she first stepped foot into the Mansion of Learning. Levana Kaer had only learnt of the mansion's official title a year after her arrival. Her half-brother, Sulien Shakier, had told her so.

That's right, she had a half-brother. She had personally found it cool, her half-brother had thought so too. Their teacher, Hanok, however, had spent an hour contemplating what her appearance could mean to the Sumerian demigods.

According to him, Lord Utu normally only had one or two children per century. However, Levana found herself being the third of his children this century which rubbed Hanok the wrong way. Though he suspected that something might be amiss for the usually sleeping gods to become more active, he eventually waved it off.

Either way, Levana had spent these past 8 years learning geography, survival skills, and mythology. ( A/N: They weren't exactly myths since the gods exist in this universe.)

Those were the subjects that Hanok had made mandatory to learn. However, Hanok had also STRONGLY advised for Levana to learn how to fight formally. Though Levana had initially resisted Hanok's attempts to get her to train, a fellow demigod had eventually convinced her.

The currently only demigod child of Ninsun, Asher Lepid, was a talented swordsman whose swordsmanship quite literally looked beautiful. A fact that had pushed Levana to train with him. Through years of training with the man fated to slay a god and usurp his divinity, Levana had become quite the vicious fighter herself.

That's right, the man is fated to slay a god and become one himself as prophesied by his mother Lady Ninsun. The lady of wild cows, best known for being the mother of the hero Gilgamesh had personally delivered a prophecy of her son with a proud smile a few days after Levana's arrival. This was Levana's first encounter with a genuine goddess.

By her own choice, Levana had also learnt how to draw and learnt mathematics from the Teacher. Hanok, who had evaluated Levana as a lazy person had been genuinely surprised for the first time in a long time with Levana's decision to learn more than was mandatory. He was so pleasantly surprised that he had thrown a party to celebrate her arrival, inviting everyone in the Mansion of Learning to attend.

This was when Levana met the rest of her fellow demigods who lived here. There were surprisingly few demigods considering the number of gods there that supposedly existed. Only 35 demigods, 36 including Levana.

Surprisingly, despite the obvious differences between each demigod's personality, they all treated each other with respect. Levana had asked Hanok about this. How could 35 people live together under one roof peacefully?

Hanok had laughed at her question. He then asked her to find out on her own.

Apparently, they did not in fact leave together in peace. They regularly sorted out any differences by fighting each other in spars that Hanok normally didn't bother overseeing. This was exactly the reason why they all respected each other. So, for the first weeks... first months... first year...

For the first two years of life in the Mansion of Learning, Levana had to endure a life that was ruled by the law of might makes right.

Levana's first duel:

" Was that your jar of peanut butter? Yea, I opened it. Got a problem?"

~ Jeff, just Jeff. Son of Tiamat.

Results: Absolutely trashed by the older demigod who had handicapped himself to using only his legs.

Another duel:

" I really like those socks of yours. I challenge you to a duel for its ownership!"

~ Kelly Karton, Daughter of Ishtar.

Results: She lost a good pair of socks that day and gained a black eye.

Another:

" YOU BROKE MY LOOM! OUTSIDE! NOW!" ~ Tate Makar, Daughter of Uttu (A/N: Play on the name Tayet, Egyptian Goddess of Weaving.)

Results: Ended up with Levana on the ground nearly bleeding to death from nearly a hundred small cuts and losing a significant portion of her savings from the pocket money Hanok gives to each demigod.

After two years of losing and slow improvement, Levana managed to settle on a draw against Tate Makar. Levana had accidentally broken her mirror that time. Since it didn't really have anything to do with Tate's precious loom, Tate had taken it easy on Levana and had left it at a draw. Of course, an ecstatic Levana had accidentally broken yet another demigod's cup that same day and had lost the following duel.

That was all a long time ago to Levana. Now, Levana could be seen drawing a picture of her mother in a notebook with a 2B pencil. Or rather, a picture of what she remembered her mother to look like. She was no longer quite certain of how her mother looked, which was the exact reason why she was drawing her mother's face.

Levana erased the nose for the third time. She couldn't quite get it right. She was sure that it was big, however, any bigger than she had drawn would render cause her drawing of her mother to look comical. Suddenly, the door to her room slammed open causing the 19-year-old girl to jump in her chair.

" LEVANA! DID YOU TAKE MY TOOTHPASTE?!" A rude girl stomped over to Levana. Dola Ceana, Daughter of Ninurta, stared at the incredulous Levana.

" Why would I take your toothpaste, Dola?" Levana said while looking at Dola with a look of confusion. The genuine confusion on her face was enough to make the older girl hesitate.

" You didn't take it?"

" No?"

" Well, Jeff said..."

" I did take his toothpaste once, but that was because I forgot to ask Teacher to by me one after mine finished but that was years ago, Dola."

" Oh..."

" Yeah."

" Well, err... Sorry about breaking your doorknob." This statement caused Levana's eyes to widen as she quickly turned to look at her doorknob. True enough her doorknob was barely hanging from the wooden door.

" FUCK! THAT'S THE THIRD ONE THIS MONTH! YOU!"

" Yes?" Dola said after flinching.

" You are paying me for that. Twenty dollars." Levana said while stretching out her hand with her palm facing up. Hesitating, Dola contemplated whether to fight over 20 dollars before gritting her teeth.

" Fine." She then left to get the money.

Sighing, Levana put down her hand and stared out of her window at the forest that surrounded the mansion.

" Maybe it's time for me to get out of here..." She said softly while resting her head on a hand. She then took a look at the half-drawn picture of her mother.

" Mother... it seems that I will be seeing you soon..."