Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 187

Chapter 187: The Deep Ravines

The following morning arrived after an uneventful night.  Despite the rough day prior, morale among the group remained high, although Kiarra expressed some minor grumbles about the lack of creature comforts on their travels.  Among the conversations during breakfast and just after camp for the day, two threads of conversation recurred.  First, a sense of apprehension about what the third and most perilous day of their journey would bring.  And secondly, a continued confidence that, with Lysette and Serrena leading them, there was very little to fear.

The morning was filled with sunshine, although the mountainous air was growing chilled as they traversed past the foothills and up to the highest peaks.  At such heights, even the gusty foehns occasionally barreling down toward Domaria failed to ease the frigidity, instead only exacerbating the discomfort in the high-altitude clime.

Lysette and Serrena were both unfazed by such temperatures and, despite Lysette’s insistence that Amalia not push herself, the young priestess insisted that she was no worse off than her goddess.  That she inherited a portion of Mirae’s Ice abilities and cold resistance was the only explanation for that.  But it didn’t seem that she had absorbed their divinity along with it; Amalia still slept and ate and exhibited other traits of being a purely physical being.

Rayleigh’s newfound pact with Serrena had afforded her a degree of cold resistance as well, though not to the same extent as Amalia’s.  The others were all making do with a combination of heavy clothes and warm fur blankets that Kiarra had stitched together during the previous evening.

Kiarra herself had extended down her hair, shrouding her body in a blonde coat that draped down from her scalp.  Lysette looked at her and smiled, eliciting a scowl in return.

“What?” Kiarra asked, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

“Thank you, Kiarra.  For helping me out.  For helping everyone else out.”

“Just when I’m starting to get comfortable working alongside you, under you.  You have to say things like that, Lyse.”

“Would you rather I not thank you for doing something to help everyone out?  I might not be a decorated military commander or a future head of a noble house, but these people are working on my behalf.  Even if I weren’t a goddess, it would still be my responsibility as a commander.  As one, I feel an even stronger urge to protect them.”

“You seem so different from my father, and his father, and of course the lord of my house.  For them, their orders were absolute, to be executed without question.  And rarely were the people under them seen as more than pawns to be used or discarded as they saw fit.”

“Kinda like how you used to treat the other students.  As dirt beneath your feet, as tools to be used to benefit your own comfort or uplift you in your pursuit of power.  Rather than as people with their own aspirations, desires, hopes and fears.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Though, there’s one thing I don’t understand.  The one time I met your great-great grandfather at the auction house, he seemed surprisingly… magnanimous.  As though he were really wanting me to back down, feigning something resembling respect, or at least tolerance.  That doesn’t reconcile with how you’ve described him just now.”

“For a goddess, you certainly don’t think like one.”

“Thanks.”

“Thanks?”

“I don’t want to be a goddess who lives and rules from on high.  I don’t ever want to forget that people are just that— people.  Each with hopes and dreams and Ambitions of their own.”

“That reminds me, Lyse.  Serrena mentioned that she was the Demigoddess of Ambition.  Do you have a similar title?”

Lysette hesitated for a moment.  “Reciprocity.  I am the Demigoddess of Reciprocity.”

“Huh.  Yeah, I guess that tracks.”

“Speaking of, I answered your question.  Will you answer mine?”

Kiarra let out an exasperated chuckle as she shook her head.  “Again, that tracks.  Anyway, do you go out of your way to stamp out every bug who crosses your path?”

“Is that how he sees us?  As mere bugs to be stepped on?”

“Not bugs to be stepped on.  Bugs that are insignificant, to be ignored because squishing them is beneath you.  He wasn’t telling you that he respected you.  He was warning you, telling you that you weren’t worth the effort to squish right then and there.  And hoping that you would recognize that fact and repent before you did something that would change that dynamic.”

“How horrible, being so far removed from where he started two hundred years ago that he’s forgotten what that was like.  If he ever knew in the first place.”

“I doubt it.  The Dozel family goes back hundreds of years.  I’m sure when he was my age, he was just as stuck up and insulated from the world as I was when we first met.”

“So what do you want to do, Kiarra?  And please, I’m asking you to be honest and forthright with me, not to tell me what you think I want to hear.”

“I–  I don’t know, Lyse.  I said that I wanted to be better before.  But, while part of me was sincere, part of me was just playing along.  Hoping that if I made nice with you and your friends, that you’d show me how to break through with my Cultivation and secure my place as Marchioness Dozel one day.  Not truly showing the contrition that everyone back there truly deserved.”

Kiarra lowered her head and took a deep breath.  “That was what I thought at the time.  But after hearing about how you spearheaded the defense of the Academy not just once, but twice, all while demanding nothing in return?  When I asked you for help with my Cultivation, and rather than demean me or demand something ridiculous, you asked me only to apologize and seek amends.  Not to you, but to everyone else.  That shook me more than anything else.”

“And you’ve continued After how you and Serrena defended us from that landwyrm without a second thought?  And after seeing the warmth and sincere gratitude from the others when I handed out these blankets?  Something about all that speaks to me, Lyse.  I’d like to continue walking down this path.  But I don’t know if I’m worthy to do so.”

“I think everyone has those darker sides,” Lysette said.  “Sides of themselves that they don’t want to admit, least of all to ourselves.  I know I do, and I wouldn’t hold it against you or anyone else who wants to walk the path of Reciprocity alongside me.”

“You, Miss Too-Good-For-Your-Own-Good?”

“Do you think Reciprocity is all about kindness?  Part of that is divine retribution, Kiarra.  You say that I’ve defended the Academy and my friends, and I have.  But I’ve killed people, people whose lives I might have been able to spare had I been wiser and more aware of different possibilities.  And more than that, I’ve liked it, relished it, far more than I should.

“I’m not telling you this to be all ‘divine wisdom from on high.’  I’m telling you this because— in my experience, at least— growing as a Cultivator comes hand-in-hand with understanding and accepting yourself as a person.  Including those darker parts that we don’t always want to look at.”

“That’s…”  Kiarra paused.  “That’s a lot to think about, Lyse.”

“Would you like some time to think some more?”

“I think that would do me some good.”

By midmorning, the group had arrived at the highest part of the mountain pass.  The sun was now occluded by the high peaks of the Spire Mountains as the party descended into a narrow mountain pass snaking across the border from Domaria into Ciricu.  Even through the relatively lower ravine, the altitude was still high— approaching 10,000 feet— and the air was thin enough that Amalia and Lilia were struggling a bit to continue.  But with Rayleigh’s ability to keep a localized bubble of higher air density now bolstered by the strength of her new pact, the party continued little worse for the challenge.

Gerald was blazing forward with fierce determination, using his ability to manipulate ore and metal to punch through the rocky terrain.  Serrena took over for him on occasion to give him a chance to recuperate from the stress, performing the same task with less precision but even more destructive potential.  And throughout it all, Lysette was watching from the skies, coordinating with Nicholas to keep the path ahead and behind thoroughly surveilled.

The time the sun crept up above the eastern peaks, shining warming rays upon the darkened valley.  And soon after, with high noon fast approaching, the group reached the apex of the pass and began a long and no less perilous descent down the northern slopes.  With the end of their journey approaching, Gerald and Rayleigh wanted to blaze on further.  But Lysette made the decision to break for a quick lunch, seeing Nicholas and Amalia both struggling and needing a chance to rest for a short while.

“Love?” Mirae’s voice echoed in Lysette’s mind.  “How are things on your end?”

“Pretty well.  We’re stopping for a lunch break near the top of the mountain pass.  Hopefully no more than a day’s travel left.  How about you?”

“Still nothing.  I’ve been keeping watch all night and haven’t seen any signs of the Tereans yet.  Though, I think Lyon is so eager to begin on your little waterway project that he’ll burst if I tell him that he’s going to have to wait one more day.  He’s been pretty much nonstop these past two days, going on and on about designs and sharing his excitement with the townsfolk.  If not for the ‘I’m a demigod; I don’t sleep anymore’ thing, I’d probably have been exhausted just from coming into contact with the excitement.”

“And everyone else?”

“The kids want to go flying again, of course.  And though they are remaining calm on the surface, I think the elders are getting a little worried that neither you nor Serrena is here alongside me.”

A bellowing cry interrupted the couple’s telepathic communication, followed by a second shrieking roar.  Lysette took to the air and began scanning the area for its source.  She summoned more shadows to her sides and conjured her Ice Blade for good measure, waiting for whatever was behind the soon-to-be attack.

But a far more urgent task absorbed her attention.  The entire mountain range seemed to shake and vibrate.  And the vibrations intensified further until chunks of debris began toppling down from the peaks, sending snow and ice cascading down in an avalanche.

Lysette cursed in her head as she rushed down to the surface.  “Serrena, take Amalia for me.  You and anyone else who can fly, get out of here on the double!  The rest of us will rendezvous with you all when we get to Ciricu.  No time to discuss, avalanche incoming!”

Serrena grabbed Amalia and took her into her arms, rocketing up into the air above the impending snow slamming down below.  Rayleigh followed a few seconds later, and at Lysette’s behest, the others gathered around her as she formed a hemispherical cocoon of shadows around her and the others.  Lilia coated the inside of the dark wall with a small dome of water for further protection as Gerald moved masses of stone for even greater protection.

The rumble of snow intensified, and even Lysette was taken aback by the force with which the hundreds of tons of snow and ice and rock slammed down upon her.  She modified the shape of her barrier slightly to partially deflect the snowfall away from her and the others, but only to partial success.

As suddenly as the avalanche began, the surroundings went silent.  Gerald and Lilia dropped their barriers, and bit by bit, Lysette lowered her own, making sure that the surrounding snowpack would not collapse on the five of them trapped within their icy tomb.

“Alright, Lyse,” Kiarra said in an irritable whisper.  “What in the Infernal realm do we do about this?  You better have a plan for getting us out of here.  I am not planning on dying or waiting for Serrena or someone else to come bail us out, however long that might take.”

Lysette rubbed her left thigh.  “I do have a way to get us out of here.  But I’ll need some time to Cultivate the necessary Essence.  And as many prayers as I can get will help.”

“Your big plan is to pray for help?” Kiarra asked.  “Are you daft?”

“Not pray for help.  I need you to pray to me.  Gods are fueled by the faith of mortals.  That extends to demigoddesses as well.”

“You want us to what?”  Kiarra sat down cross-legged on the snowy ground.  “Fine, I’ll do it.”

Kiarra covered the cold ground with a bed of hair as the other three joined her in a circle around Lysette.  Power swelled within Lysette, and even before turning her attention to her Cultivation realm, she could feel the trickles of Divine Essence flowing into her.  She sat down as well and prepared for what she imagined to be one of the greatest challenges she’d faced as a Godslayer to this point.

“I hear you loud and clear, love.” Mirae messaged.  “I’ll rally the villagers to pray as well.  You do what only you can, and I look forward to seeing you and everyone else when you arrive.”

Chapter 186: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110762794

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/table-of-101896170

Chapter 188: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110762800