Divinitive are like humans, except their ancestors were gifted super-human powers by a demigoddess years ago. Humans have always been suspicious of divinitive, frightened that their powers make them dangerous. For centuries, the divide between humans and divinitive grew. Humans call divinitive freaks and half-bloods. Divinitive are forced to hide their powers, fearful of being treated as outcasts simply for how they were born.
Things seem to be getting worse. Divinitive start losing their powers, and thereâs little sympathy from the majority human government. In fact, humans see this as a good thing. When news breaks of a possible âdirectoryâ to inventory divinitive, this seems too great of a coincidence. Could humans have finally found a way to end divinitive?
While all of this is coming to a head, a small-town girl with the power of prophecy starts to have disturbing visions. Who would be powerful enough to send Sophia these visions? Could these visions be from a demigoddess?
As Sophia embarks on a journey to find the source of her visions, she bands together with other divinitive. Can they stop the future, or is it too late? Can they save divinitive from this grim future? Why were they chosen?
Divinitive are like humans, except their ancestors were gifted super-human powers by a demigoddess years ago. Humans have always been suspicious of divinitive, frightened that their powers make them dangerous. For centuries, the divide between humans and divinitive grew. Humans call divinitive freaks and half-bloods. Divinitive are forced to hide their powers, fearful of being treated as outcasts simply for how they were born.
Things seem to be getting worse. Divinitive start losing their powers, and thereâs little sympathy from the majority human government. In fact, humans see this as a good thing. When news breaks of a possible âdirectoryâ to inventory divinitive, this seems too great of a coincidence. Could humans have finally found a way to end divinitive?
While all of this is coming to a head, a small-town girl with the power of prophecy starts to have disturbing visions. Who would be powerful enough to send Sophia these visions? Could these visions be from a demigoddess?
As Sophia embarks on a journey to find the source of her visions, she bands together with other divinitive. Can they stop the future, or is it too late? Can they save divinitive from this grim future? Why were they chosen?
Morgana walked down the hall, her hand trailing the vines of ivy that ran along the walls. The earthy scents of the mountain wafted in through the large windows that lined the hall.
At first, the sheer height of the mountain shrine had terrified Morgana, and even the serene beauty of the walls around her couldnât calm her nerves. It didnât take long for Morgana to feel that there was no safer place to be. This was exactly where she belonged.
As she neared the end of the hall, she could see a woman walking towards her.
âGood morning, Sister Morgana,â the womanâs voice echoed through the vast openness of the hall between them.
âGood morning, Sister Anna,â Morgana said as they passed one another.
Morgana put her hands down to grasp her long white robe, lifting the bottom so she wouldnât trip as she walked up the stairs.
The door to the room was slightly ajar, so Morgana slid in without making a sound. The mountainâs scent was even stronger in this room as she walked to where the large bath was sunken into the floor.
Morgana paused to look out the open windows that surrounded the bath. The mountain was shroud in dense fog on this cool autumn morning. She could see the dew that had collected on the windowsills.
Beautiful, Morgana thought.
Kneeling on the wooden floor, Morgana turned the faucet to start the flow of water. It took a moment for the water to make its journey up the pipes to the tap, but after a few seconds, the first few drops fell. The steam rose as the water began to fill the depths of the white porcelain tub.
I would love to bathe in this tub, Morgana thought, for not the first time. The view alone was breathtaking, but the size of this bath was something so exquisite. The bathhouseâs tubs were nowhere near as large.
âMistress.â A voice dragged Morgana from her thoughts. She wasnât used to people speaking here.
Looking up she could see that Brother David had arrived. Unlike Morgana, who was primarily a maid, Brother David was someone of importance at the shrine.
Morgana could see the mistress sitting on her great wooden throne. The thick ivy wrapped around the wooden posts so thick it was hard to even see a seat beneath it.
Morgana was accustomed to the great presence of the mistress; it no longer bothered her. Never once when Morgana was in the room had she been acknowledged. At first, she had wondered if this was intentional, but after a few days, she had realized that she wasnât noticed. The mistress wasnât present with them in this room.
Brother David stood for a moment, his head bowed in waiting. Morgana watched tentatively, keeping an ever-focused eye on the water in the bath to make sure it didnât overflow.
It was a painfully long silence before Morgana could see the mistressâs eyes open.
âBrother David,â her soft voice said.
Morgana would love to be spoken to in such a direct way by such a majestic and powerful being. Merely being acknowledged would be so fulfilling.
Morgana had seen the mistress at parties before but never been spoken to. Morgana was in this room every day, and she was positive that the mistress had no idea who she was.
Brother David said, âI do apologize for interruptingâŚbut, I wanted to inform youâŚâ
âI know,â the mistress said, âmy sister is here again.â
Brother David quickly nodded.
Of course, she knows already, Morgana thought. The water was reaching the top of the bath, so she quickly twisted the tap to stop it. She knows everythingâŚher power is unimaginable to us mortals.
âYes, and I tried to stop her, butâŚâ
âShe disappeared into the shrine.â
âIâm afraid soâŚâ
Morgana made her way to the closet, drawing open the large wooden doors and reaching in for a long white robe. It wasnât a complicated process to chose an outfit since everyone wore the same thing here.
Brother David asked, âWould you like me to try and find herâŚâ
âNo, sheâll come to me.â
Brother David bowed his head and turned to exit the room. Morgana watched him go as she cleared the glasses from the night before off the side table. Sister Anna had already delivered this morningâs breakfast, but it was Morganaâs job to set it out on the table.
âWhat is it you wish to say to me, Seraphina?â the mistress asked.
Morgana was confused because she didnât see anyone besides herself in this room. She scanned the room again, and as her eyes passed by the mistressâs chair, she noticed the small finch. It hadnât seemed misplaced at first, because it was quite common for birds to make their way into the shrine through all the open windows. It was uncommon, however, to find a finch so far up on the mountain.
The bird flew from where it had perched itself on the ivy around the throne. It seemed to fall from the sky, and where it had once been was now a woman. Morgana gasped.
This woman was tall, broad-shouldered, and tanned. Morgana could see a resemblance, although it was slight. This woman was quite rough looking, whereas the mistress was soft and radiant.
âYou didnât think Iâd come back?â Seraphina asked.
âI knew you would.â
Morgana took the tray from the night before, with all the now empty glasses, and she carried it into the hall. She placed the tray onto the dumbweighter, and she rang the bell for the kitchen to lower the tray down. She quickly turned back towards the room. She didnât want to stay outside the room long; she had never heard the mistress speak so much before, and she didnât want to miss any of it.
âIs there nothing I can do to convince you to leave?â Seraphina asked.
Leave? Morgana thought. Why would she want to leave the shrine?
Morgana watched Seraphina walking around the room. She was dressed more like a man than a woman, wearing a pair of tan pants and an ill-fitting gray top. She had several weapons on her person, a large quiver of bow and arrows strapped across her back, and several knives at her hip and thighs.
Why does she need all those weapons? Morgana thought, a bit uneasy.
âTheyâre close nowâŚI canât leave,â the mistress said
âThen what? What will your excuse be once theyâve come and gone? These people are going to keep coming. Do you have no regard for your life?â
âThis is the lives of all of us.â
Seraphina didnât seem impressed, rolling her eyes. âIf I could drag our sister up here, I would have her persuade you.â
âSheâs in Yorktown if you truly care to try.â
Morgana slowly pulled the blankets on the bed up, making sure there were absolutely no wrinkles. Did she need to be so precise? No, but she wanted to delay herself. She was too curious to leave.
âIf I canât convince you to leave, then I will stay here,â Seraphina said.
There was a moment of silence where the two sisters stared at one another.
âI need you to help them,â the mistress said.
âHelp them?â Seraphina repeated.
Morgana fluffed the last pillow, quickly trying to think of something else to do to keep herself present. The flowersâŚshe needed to water the flowers.
âHelp them to get here safely,â the mistress said.
Seraphina sighed. âHow far away are they?â
âAbout a week,â the mistress said.
âYou always give me difficult tasks. When did our sister last help you with anything?â
The mistress grinned, standing from the ivy-covered chair. Morgana could see her petite frame, even smaller in comparison to her sister. The mistress had the most beautiful chestnut brown hair, it unfolded in long waves behind her back falling almost to her knees. Seraphina had the same color hair, although it was braided loosely over her shoulder.
The mistress slowly lifted a hand, and Morgana watched the wine glass on the table that she had just finished setting rattle before lifting from the table and floating ever so gracefully across the room to rest in the mistressâs palm. âA toast to your success.â
âToast for yourself,â Seraphina said, with a grin. She walked across the room to the open windows. âIâll see you soon, Iridessa.â
Without another word, Seraphina jumped out the thousands of stories high window. Morganaâs breathe caught in her throat a second before she saw a large eagle soaring away from the shrine towards the foggy mountainside. She sighed.
The mistress took a sip from her wine glass and walked across the room to the large windows. She stood as if to watch the eagle flying away, although surely the bird was long gone by now.
Morgana returned the watering can to the cabinet where she had retrieved it. There was nothing left for her at this point. She would now have to attend her studies. Morganaâs power was that of memory retrieval, the ability to find a specific memory in a personâs mind, but she was still learning how to focus her mind.
She made her way quickly to exit the room. Almost as a whisper, she could hear a voice in her mind say, âThank you, Sister Morgana.â
She turned quickly, but the mistress had not moved from staring out the large windows.
Morgana turned back around and had to stop herself from running from the room. Oh, my godsâŚshe spoke to meâŚshe knows my name!
The day could not possibly get any better than this. Morgana couldnât wait to tell her friends. She stopped at the end of the hall and paused to overlook the courtyard beneath them. The giddiness of a moment ago dissipated as she found her mind coming back to what sheâd just overheard.
This is the lives of all of usâŚwhat did that mean?
The concept for this book is great. There are interwoven stories and a number of complex subplots that make this an epic fantasy. However, for a book in this genre, the pacing was slow, especially at the beginning. It felt like a number of scenes of characters doing mundane things could have been cut to expedite the plot. Since there are multiple points of view in this book, it also contributed to a slower plot, as each time a new point of view is introduced, the tension is slowed down with backstory.
With such a complex storyline, there is bound to be a large cast. But I didnât expect such a large number of points of view. By a quarter of the way through the book, there are five different characters who tell part of the story. This made it difficult to feel connected to any one character, especially because early on I wasnât sure which character would be the protagonist that I need to focus on. I would have liked to see the story just told from the point of view of Sophia, who feels the most like the protagonist, and Lucas, an opposing character that shows another view of the plot.
The world in this book is so intriguing and the author does a great job introducing it. I loved learning about the different gods of this world and the concept of the Divinitive, a special race with god-like powers. Through the story, we get to see a lot of Divinitive and different roles they play in the world., as well as a number of different settings. I was thinking about the Divinitive and the setting long after Iâd finished reading.
Divinitive: Book One is the first book in S.C. Boyd's Divinitive series. The author lays a great foundation for the rest of her series with this book, but Iâd like to see some adjustments to the series going forward. The large number of points of view affected the pacing and connection to the story, but I recommend this book to fans of the gods and goddess genre. The world offers a new take on the genre.