Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 222

Chapter 222: Intake

Kristil was summoned elsewhere soon after finishing her interrogation, leaving Ari to guide Lysette back outside and toward another structure along the back wall of the garrison.  By now, it was late afternoon, and an otherwise-refreshing breeze carried with it the unpleasant stench of thousands of soldiers winding down from the afternoon’s drills and heading toward their evening duties.  Still, Lysette enjoyed the warmth of the sun upon her forehead, if not the rancorous odor, as she and Ari headed inside.

A man of about forty, perfectly clean-shaven and clad in a lab coat stood to greet the two of them.  Judging by that and the variety of instruments lying about the small office, it appeared to be an infirmary of some sort.  After a few moments of pleasantries and explanations shared between the two officers, Lysette took a seat as requested as Ari took her leave shortly thereafter.

“Alright, Mr. Tronete, my name is Captain Joseph Ivies, but you can just call me Doc Ivies, or even just Doc if you prefer.  Now then, a lot of this is pretty boring, but we do need to get an accounting of your medical history, then provide you with a few inoculations as part of the intake procedure.  You’ll be staying here overnight while we monitor you for any signs of distress, and then, assuming the inoculations didn’t have any unpleasant side effects, you’ll complete an assessment of your combat abilities tomorrow at dawn.”

“Please proceed,” Lysette said.

“Well, as you will soon learn in the military, there’s a lot of paperwork and documentation for you to fill out when you arrive.  I would advise you to go ahead and get started while I prepare the injections.”

Lysette nodded at the entirely-too-large stack of papers foisted upon her and began sifting through them as quickly as she could, taking inventory of everything she was being asked.  Thankfully, plenty of the forms were to be partially completed by military administrators, cutting her workload by about half.  But it was still a task that would take the rest of the evening to complete.

The forms asked about age, height, and weight, and while the latter two were easily and objectively measurable, she had no idea how old Karchek was and figured an age of six hundred or however many years was going to draw too much suspicion.  She ended up going with the same birth date— fourth month, seventeenth day— but with an age of twenty-eight rather than her actual age of twenty-four.

More personal medical questions followed.  Questions about her family history of diseases.  She wasn’t sure, but answered that her family had no history of any of the listed conditions, assuming her Godslayer physiology made her immune to each of them.  The next page asked about her sexual history— she wasn’t sure why the military needed to know such intimate details, but yes, she had done so.  Only ever with one partner, and no, she was unlikely to be pregnant now or at any time in the immediate future.

Any allergies known?  No.  Other than a burning desire to inflict bloody Reciprocity upon Asteron and every other god who did wrong by the world and the people of Aimarion, of course.  But that didn’t seem in the spirit of the question.

Have you ever killed someone, intentionally or otherwise?  Yes, and far too easily.  Probably the exact opposite of what the question was asking about, though.  A lot of mundanities followed, mostly concerning exposure to certain locations, diseases, or contact with potentially infected animals or animal waste.  Lysette assumed otherwise, what with Karchek being sealed away for half a millennium, and his body not being around many other people since its subsequent repurposing.

By the time Lysette finished with that question, Doc Ivies had returned.  Among the items he carried were a glass beaker containing multiple syringes and something which reeked of extremely hard booze.  He motioned to Lysette’s arm and began to lift up her sleeve, wiping it down with an alcohol-soaked rag before setting that down and pulling out the first syringe.

“Alright, Mr. Tronte, this is going to sting just a bit, but I promise it’ll be over quicker than you know.”

He pulled out the first syringe and injected it into Lysette’s arm, but Lysette didn’t feel a thing as the needle pierced her skin and the fluid suffused her muscles.  Indeed, Doc Ivies was shocked when he withdrew the needle, only to find that the puncture mark had already been completely healed over with not even a drop of blood to show for it.

Lysette shrugged.  “I have a Cultivation technique that speeds my natural healing considerably.”

“You Cultivators are something else, you know that?  I can’t say I understand how you do all those things you do, but it’s truly remarkable what you are all capable of.  Almost like what I expect of gods or…”

“Or monsters?”

“Or demons.”  Doc Ivies stuck Lysette with the second syringe.

“Have you ever met one?” Lysette asked.

Doc Ivies laughed.  “Obviously not.  I have no idea why a god or a demon would visit me.  I’d hope I’ve not made such a name for myself that I’d have to deal with matters so far outside my area of expertise.  I’ll stick to caring for my soldiers, thank you very much.”

“I wonder if demons even exist,” Lysette lied.  “Sure, we hear all about the gods and their deeds, their histories.  We see their temples, pray to them, sometimes receive their blessings, however minor.  But we don’t really talk about demons very much.  What do you suppose they’re like?”

“Who can say?”  Doc Ivies jammed the third syringe into her.  “I suppose if the gods are the ones who look after the world, the demons are beings who exist to oppose them.  As for why demons want to oppose our creators, I could only speculate.” 

Lysette laughed.  “It’s not like everyone is completely fine with how the world is.  Some Cultivators see themselves as better than other people, looking down upon them and treating them with scorn and contempt.  Plenty of innocents are going to die on both sides of the war.  Families are going to be torn apart, mothers and daughters, sons and fathers all left behind.

“If this is the world the gods left for us, is it any wonder why there might be people opposed to the structures which govern our world?  Who might, in their anger, oppose their creators?  And maybe even be right?”

Doc Ivies gave Lysette her third vaccination.  “I can’t say you don’t have a point.  But I prefer to focus on the things I know, and for me, that’s medicine and healing.  Anyway, I’m just going to look over these records real quick before the last injection.  Everything I see on these files looks good.

“I am required to ask a couple more questions as part of the intake proceeding before we move on.  First, as a Cultivator, the military does need some basic information about your techniques and combat style.  You are not required to explain the intricacies or limitations of your abilities, but the military does need an accounting of this information for squad formation and effective soldier allocation.”

Lysette pulled an apple seed out of her pocket.  With a series of mental commands, she willed it to germinate, then had it grow until it was about three feet tall.  After another complicated combination of impulses, taking care to manipulate the various fruiting processes just right, a fist sized semi-sweet pink orb grew along the miniature tree’s largest branch.  Lysette plucked it and took a bite before handing it to the doctor.

“As you can see, I manipulate plants.  I can grow food and herbs, as well as more pernicious species.  Rockvine, Suicide Nettle…  I don’t have any Man Eater seeds on me— probably a good thing I don’t, too.”

“Impressive indeed.  I’ve met a couple others who have similar abilities but none who are nearly as adept with them as you are.  Changing the subject, I do have one last inoculation to give you.  Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, Doc,” Lysette said.

Another quick pinprick followed, after which Ari returned, carrying with her a tray of rather unappetizing food.  She frowned a bit at walking in on Lysette being injected, but quickly brushed it off and returned to a neutral countenance.

“Recruit Tronete, I’ve brought your evening rations.  I won’t promise they look, taste, or smell good, but they are nutritionally balanced and they’ll keep your energy up during your time in the service.  I expect you to eat up, Soldier.  Today might not have been a long day, but tomorrow will be a crash course in basic training, and you will need your energy.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Lysette said.  She stared at the food and took a bite of what appeared to be some sort of meatloaf dish.  It wasn’t as bad as Ari had insinuated, but it wasn’t great either.  Mostly bland and lacking in any sort of flavor or texture altogether.  The peach, pitted and quartered, wasn’t particularly sweet or juicy, but it tasted fresh enough and had as good of a flavor as could be expected.  The roll was–  It was edible.  No flavor, but thankfully not stale.

Most pressingly, however, the dessert brownie was an utter travesty and affront to all that was well and good with the world.  No sweetness, no fluff, no decadent aroma of mouthwatering goodness that invites a person to devour it with reckless abandon.  She hadn’t expected anything to rival one of her Reciprocity-blessed lemon custards from the Academy, blessings upon the chef.  But this… whatever it was, did not deserve to be called a brownie, let alone a dessert.  She still ate it, per her orders, but she grumbled under her breath the entire time and cleansed her palette with the remainder of the tasteless roll from before.

“Damn,” Ari said.  “I did not expect you to eat it all that quickly.”

“I just wanted to be done with it as soon as possible,” Lysette said.  “You were right; it wasn’t very good.”

Ari chuckled.  “Well, you’ll remain here under medical supervision overnight.  I don’t expect any issues, especially given that you’re a Cultivator, but it’s one of those military protocols you’ll get used to.”

“Understood,” Lysette said.  “Is there anything I need to do between now and tomorrow morning?  Besides working with Doctor Ivies to finish getting this paperwork taken care of?”

Ari’s stare was incredulous.  “It’s called sleep, Soldier.  I know that we often need less sleep once we reach a certain level in our Cultivation, but your fellow soldiers are going to be depending on you to be at maximum strength.  And that means being well-rested here in the garrison while you have the luxury of being so.  Because when you’re out on assignment or in the midst of a battle, you’re not going to have that opportunity!”

“I understand.”  Lysette stood up and saluted Ari.  “Thank you, Lieutenant, Ma’am.  I will not let you down.”

Ari smiled and returned the gesture.  “At ease, Soldier.  I look forward to seeing how you handle tomorrow’s challenges.”

Chapter 221: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112940080

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

Chapter 223: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113256858