Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 185

Chapter 185: A Journey of Nine

Lysette arrived at the dining hall at dawn, eager for one last custard delight before she departed.  Despite the early hour, the hall was stuffed nearly to capacity.  Hundreds of students, if not close to a thousand, were frantically scarfing down food.  No immediate signs of the Royal Army drill instructors screaming at students to eat faster, but after the previous day, the frenetic pace of training was already ingrained within the student body.

Unlike the others, Lysette was content to eat a massive portion at a more measured pace.  And one by one, despite not planning to meet until after breakfast, the other eight members of her team arrived and joined her.  Mirae and Lilia first, followed by Serrena, Rayleigh, and Nicholas, then Gerald and Kiarra, and Amalia arriving last.  Each of them, with the exception of Kiarra, carried with them bags of various sizes, and about half also brought martial weapons with them.  Lilia and Rayleigh both carried wooden staves, Gerald brought a slightly-curved longsword, and Amalia had an Essence-infused stone club.

Amalia was still injured, even after a second session of Lysette’s healing overnight.  Although she walked and ate and gamboled with the others as though nothing were wrong, Lysette could still see the frail nature of her Spark and the way Essence failed to properly cling to it.  Lysette resolved to continue to heal it as she could, but Amalia probably needed time and rest more than anything.

“Love,” Lysette messaged Mirae.  “I’d like you to fly to Ciricu as soon as we get done with breakfast.  I don’t know how long it’ll take all of us to make it there, and I’d rather not leave the people of Ciricu without protection any longer than necessary.”

“Understood, love.  I’ll make haste and alert you if your presence is needed.”

“Hopefully it won’t.  Right now, I’m the glue that holds this team together.  If I leave for any appreciable period of time, I don’t know if this group won’t disband or turn on one another or what.  Having a team of different people from different backgrounds is good for considering various points of view and preventing me from blindly marching forward, but without time to build camaraderie and shared purpose, cohesion will be lacking.  Or at least, I expect Serrena to say something like that if I asked her.”

“It does sound like the sort of thing she’d say.  I’m done with breakfast, so I’ll hopefully see you there in a day or three.”

“Feel free to keep in touch.  Not like I can’t multitask a bit.”

Mirae giggled.

“Alright everyone,” they said.  “I’m going to go on ahead and scout the path and ensure that our destination hasn’t come under siege in the past day.”

“Wait,” Lilia said.  “Don’t you want someone to come with you?”

“Ideally, it would be nice, but I’m going to fly and fly fast.  I would rather not have anyone slow me down.”

“Oh.”  Lilia lowered her eyes.  “Well, I wish you all the best.”

“And I look forward to catching up with you in a couple days.”  

Mirae waved to the group as they got up and left.  As they did, the others slowly finished their meal and made their way toward the northern edge of campus.  From there, the group veered toward the east, arriving at a small station where a carriage was waiting to transport them down to the surface.

Lysette was surprised— this was the first time she’d known the flying carriages to exhibit anything even vaguely resembling customer service.  Station attendants seemed friendly and accommodating, and the interior seemed rather more spacious and had actual seats that looked rather comfortable.  Felt rather comfortable too, Lysette added as she sat down.

“Did you set this up, Kiarra?” Lysette asked.

“Well of course I did.”  She took a breath.  “I get it.  We started off on a bad note and, frankly, I deserved your hatred.  But we’re working past that, and the least I could do is try to help you out as well.”

Kiarra pulled out a charm much like the one she showed to Lysette last night and handed it to her.  “Also, I wanted to give you this.  There’s some food and medical supplies already stored inside.  All preserved, so it should last a couple of weeks at least.”

Lysette smiled.  “Thank you.”

“Hmph.  You don’t need to thank me for this.  This is just my way of contributing what I can to our mutual success.”

“And I will do all in my power to keep everyone alive, healthy, and unharmed by whatever we might find.”

“I weep for whatever is foolish enough to stop you.”

Lysette smiled as the carriage departed and made its way toward the surface.  It did so far faster than the public ones she was used to.  And that only solidified her conviction that they were intentionally stifling service to create unnecessary inconvenience for commoners traveling to the floating city.  In addition, rather than descending down near the interior of the annular cityscape below, the carriage made its way over the town, landing not far from the Hunter’s Guild headquarters along the northern edge of town.

Lysette was the first to exit the private carriage, and as the others gathered their belongings, she took a moment to take in the entirety of the city before her.  The bad, but also the good.  It was still a city plagued by a divide between wealthy and poor, between powerful Cultivators living in the sky and the non-Cultivator population base living on the surface.  A city where those with generational power and wealth lived in luxury while families like Mirae’s struggled to provide for themselves.  

But also a city where change was in the air.  One in which a well-intentioned Shadow Queen was working toward glacial yet meaningful social reforms.  One in which Lysette’s own friends and comrades were planning to continue on the legacy that she had started.  One where Lysette hoped that, upon her return, would be a more equitable kingdom, more rooted in Reciprocity and mutualism than competition for power and resources.

It wouldn’t be an easy path.  It wouldn’t be one devoid of backsliding, of opposition, of pushing back against people who had, over centuries and millennia, grown quite fond of society remaining exactly as it was.  People who had and who would continue to, whether through words, through fists, or through underhanded means, attempt to fight any attempts at reform.  But far more people would carry the torch now that Lysette had blown the winds of change into motion.

She turned around and, carrying Amalia’s belongings on her own shoulders, began on the long road ahead to Ciricu.  Unlike every previous trip to the town under her deific protection, the journey was overland, and slow.  Not just because of the extra supplies they were bringing, but because it was a trek alongside six humans.  Humans who all needed time to eat and drink, to sleep, to rest weary muscles, to relieve themselves, and all the trappings of mortality and being a wholly physical existence.

Amalia in particular slowed the group down considerably, as she could only use her Cultivation abilities for a few minutes at a time, and only under Lysette’s close supervision.  It seemed to be helping— with every stint, Amalia’s endurance grew and the bond between her damaged Spark and the offshoot of Mirae’s Spark tightened.  Her confidence was growing alongside, and by the end of the first night when the group broke for camp, she was able to keep her enhanced speed going for nearly fifteen minutes.

Around midnight, while the rest of the party was asleep, Lysette and Serrena floated a few hundred feet above, keeping watch and reminiscing through the partly-cloudy night.  The waning moon was now a slender crescent, and with the new moon rapidly approaching, it was yet another reminder that Zarielle had yet to make any sort of contact since the previous blood moon.  

“How’s Amalia doing?” Serrena asked.

“Better.  Though, in fairness, I should warn you that we might end up with a fourth member of our divine trio before too long.”

“What did you two do, and whatever happened to treating me as an equal in all this divinity stuff?”  Serrena clenched her fist and nearly swung at Lysette before she stopped herself and sighed.  “Fine, I’ll at least hear you out before I decide what I intend to do next.”

“Her Spark was damaged by her near-death experience during the last attack.  Even with my godly ability to instill strength and vitality to my followers, I wasn’t sure if she was ever going to be a Cultivator again.  So, I made a drastic decision.  With their permission, I took a piece of graft of Mirae’s Spark and interwove it into Amalia’s.  It had to be theirs— mine wasn’t as compatible, and I didn’t want to take from you or from another follower without their permission.

“The bonding was successful, and Amalia’s Spark is recovering.  But I don’t know what the long-term repercussions will be.  She might gain some of Mirae’s techniques.  She might gain some of their divinity.  She might not survive.  Only time, faith, and her will to push forward and heal herself can influence the outcome.”

“She knows all that?”

“I told her that the risks were unknowable.  She said, if I had no better option for healing her, that she wanted to take that risk for the chance to regain her powers as a Cultivator.  Please, respect her Ambition just as you would your own.”

“You’ve got guts, Lyse, name-dropping my Domain like that.”  Serrena lowered her fist.  “But you’re right, I can’t blame you for taking that path.  Nor can I fault Amalia for wanting to get back up after being brought to the brink of death.  If she can endure all that, and still wants to fight again?  If she is willing to undertake even more potential risks to regain the power she once held, and then grow stronger still, she does so with my blessing as well.”

“Thank you, Serrena.  And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.  We’ve both been busy these past two days and I’ve been more concerned with making sure Amalia’s Spark remains stable than being as communicative as I probably should’ve been.”

“You had a good reason for what you did, and you let me know in a reasonable time frame.”

“So, how are you feeling about recent developments?”

“In what sense, Lyse?”

“I thought a part of you would be itching to get on the battlefield, fighting on the front lines, eager to win glory and accolades and promotions for your heroic efforts and divine strength fighting for Domaria.  Not spending it building up a small town a thousand miles away from the front.”

“I did want that, back when I was still human.  I thought about climbing the ranks of the Domarian military, becoming a member of the peerage, and growing the Raesh family name into legend.  But just like you, ascending has changed me.  Things like glory or accolades from human kingdoms ring rather hollow knowing that the gods are out there, and that, from personal experience, they can be made to bleed.

“Knowing that, why would I choose a path that leads to less power?  I don’t have your demonic ability to steal life from those you kill.  I either have to Cultivate or gain more followers to do that.  So yes, this journey serves my ends quite well, and I look forward to us arriving back in Ciricu and beginning the next stage of our plans.”

“Thank you, Serrena.”

Chapter 184: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110762789

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

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