Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 215:

Chapter 215: Solanna, Ascetic Demigoddess

Solanna and Serrena remained in their embrace for several minutes while Lysette looked around the outside of the cabin, giving the pair as much privacy as was possible in the sealed-off space.

The cabin itself was even smaller than the small cottage where she and Mirae were staying, perhaps a small cube barely more than ten feet in either direction, and with a slightly slanted roof.  It was made of logs which seemed both ancient and yet still mighty, impervious somehow to the effects of decay and age.

She considered extending her aura out to survey the insides of the cabin, but thought better of potentially earning Solanna’s ire by eavesdropping on her home.  And quickly shunted her thoughts elsewhere, knowing that if Saffron could peer into her thoughts, she could and indeed had already done so before.

Instead she waited and tried to get a little bit of Cultivation done, but found little success in the desolate forest before the centuries-old demigoddess called out to her.  Lysette hurried along back around the front of the cabin, where the two redheads were giving scowls that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the two were long-lost blood relations.  The two’s aura glowed bright red, and Lysette instinctively braced for an attack before the auras abruptly dissipated.

Serrena laughed first, and Solanna followed suit a moment later.  As the two’s laughter got ever more boisterous, Lysette stared with incredulity and watched until Solanna finally composed herself enough to speak.

“Oh, you were right, Serrena!  That was funnier than I thought possible!  Lysette, you should see the look on your face right now!”

Lysette returned to a neutral countenance and shook her head.  “I wouldn’t have expected the great Solanna Raesh, a demigoddess who has chosen to seal herself off from the outside world for over a century, to be quite so much of a trickster.”

Solanna’s expression turned serious so quickly it startled Lysette.  “That’s not far from why I sealed myself in my little forest a century ago.  Anyway, I suppose I have a lot to tell you both, and perhaps less time than I would prefer to spend just getting to know my great-granddaughter.”

“About that,” Serrena said.  “You said that you’ve not seen my face in many, many years.  That’s not the phrasing I’d expect if you’ve truly been sealed away here for a century.”

“Lysette said I sealed myself away.  I did not.  It’s true that I’ve isolated myself and refused to be involved in the affairs of the outside world— Aimarion and the Celestial realm alike.  But I have left every so often.  I’ve seen you a couple of times when you were very young.  I think the last time was when you were around four years old.”

“Wait…  Why don’t I remember having ever seen you before?”

“Because of a promise I made with your mother.  She wanted me to promise her that I wouldn’t be involved in your life.  She knew, as I do, that if I were to have been associated with you, I would have risked roping you into a conflict she very much wanted you not to be a part of.  And so, as a result, I only saw you a handful of times when you were a child, nearly always while you were sleeping.

“By the time you were old enough to remember things, I withdrew from your life completely.  I was–  I was growing attached to my only great-granddaughter, and I didn’t want that.  For my own sake.”

“For your own sake?”

“I am the Demigoddess of Passion, Serrena.  And love, whether romantic, familial, or otherwise, is very close to the core of my Domain.  As such I feel love much more strongly than most.”

Serrena chuckled.  “When I visited her earlier today, Mom said that I had the same Passion and Ambition that you did.  I guess you got the first of those and I got the second.”

“Such traits are certainly more prominent among our lineage.  I’ve heard stories that Sierra was a reveler like you’d never believe.  Were the situation different, I wish I could have been there to experience one of those revels for myself.  Would have made for an amazing time.”

“That’s why you were asking us about loss and mortality earlier, wasn’t it?” Lysette said.  “You knew from experience the pain of losing loved ones as centuries go by.  And that’s why you isolated yourself for so long.  You wanted to avoid forming new attachments, knowing they would eventually break over the course of long decades and centuries.”

“That’s certainly part of it,” Solanna said.  “But it’s not just love for any specific person.  It’s love for this world, and Passion for Aimarion and its future.  Sadly, I fear for the future of the world I love so much.”

“Because of the warring gods?” Lysette asked.

“Among other things.”  Solanna snapped her finger and conjured a seat of solid fog on which to sit.

“May I?” Lysette said.  “I can tell this entire forest is filled with your Essence, almost like it has become a gigantic artifact of your design and will.  I don’t think the plants here would answer to me without your permission.”

Solanna nodded.  The surrounding Essence seemed to become a bit more agreeable, and soon after, Lysette grew two chairs out of some branches from the surrounding trees.  She handed one to Serrena and sat in the other herself before the three continued.

“Why are you here?” Serrena asked.  “That’s the part that really bewilders me.  I get that you don’t want to form attachments or be involved in the affairs of the outside world.  I don’t understand wanting to do the same myself, but I can wrap my head around the idea.  But why here?  So close to your family, so near to your ancestral homelands?

“You’re a deity just the same as we are.  We don’t need to sleep, eat, or any of those things that others need to do to sustain themselves.  If you really wanted to isolate yourself from the outside world, you could fly off to some remote island in the middle of the global ocean, set up a small home there, and live out the rest of eternity.  Doing so here, not even a half an hour from where your extant family lives?  Your justification seems too half-assed to be the whole truth.  And something about that seems contrary to the self-proclaimed Demigoddess of Passion.”

“Oh?”  Solanna cocked an eyebrow.  “Do tell me what you think the whole truth is.”

“I think you’re here training and Cultivating in isolation.  On the one hand, you’ve made some powerful enemies at some point during the last two hundred or so years.  An enemy that even you couldn’t face.  So, considering your current strength, we’re talking about one of a few hundred demigods.  Or perhaps a couple dozen mortal Cultivators that have managed to defy mortal limitations and rival demigods in strength despite a limited lifespan and no ability either to accrue Divine Essence or to tap into the power of a Domain.

“Unfortunately, you’ve chosen nearly the worst way to go about doing so, sealing yourself in a single place like this.  You’re living a life in opposition to your stated Domain, choosing a life of detachment and asceticism like this.  Shit, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re almost regretting awakening your divinity and are trying to seal it back away.  I don’t know why you’d do such a thing, though— I’m sure if you really wanted to die, you could ask Saffron to end you or something.”

Solanna’s eye twitched at hearing the other demigoddess’s name.

“I disagree,” Lysette said.  “Solanna has no interest in dying.  Maybe some regrets for the family she’s lost.  No, definitely a lot of regrets, a lot of mourning for her once love, for her daughter, for friends she’s known and lost over the centuries.  But she still retains a deep, deep love for her family.  And that’s why she’s here.  She truly loves you and Sara very, very deeply.  Not sure how she feels about Tom, though.”

All three of them chuckled at that.

“She is here because she wants to protect her family.  The entire village of Rinno, I feel.  She sees this as her home, and her Passion for her homeland empowers her to keep an eternal vigil, even as she sequesters herself here.  Both to stay out of broader worldly affairs and avoid getting too attached to the world and any individual person.”

“Why would she stay out of–”  Serrena shook her head.  “Of course.”

Solanna smiled.  “It’s as Lysette says.  Well, both of you are half-right.  It’s true that I am Cultivating and training, readying myself for the role I will have to play.  I have been doing so for nearly a century, infusing my Essence into this Forest of Feelings.  And it’s true that the reason I’ve done so is that I want to protect my family, my homeland, and the people who are near and dear to my heart.

“When you feel love, you feel an equally strong Passion to protect the ones you love.  One that can warp into hatred toward those who threaten or harm those individuals.  Lysette, I can tell you know this almost as well as I do.”

“I do.  I’ve already lost one homeland.  One family.  War threatens the new ones I’ve built since my rebirth as a Godslayer.”

Solanna looked at Lysette up and down.  “This is odd.”

“What’s odd?” Lysette asked.  She stepped back half a step as Solanna continued to peer around her avatar’s body.

“It’s hard to tell because this isn’t your primary body, but you’re a demon, aren’t you?”

“I am, though I didn’t know I was for a time.  My… progenitor didn’t see fit to tell me, so I had to figure it out on my own through experience.”

“I see,” Solanna said.  “Sounds about right for the gods to tell you all of piss and shit when it comes to how to actually do anything with the power they give you.  Let alone all the mental and physical changes that accompany awakening your divinity.”

“One question, if I may,” Serrena said.  “I was curious about something my mother said.  She said that she and Grandma deliberately chose not to awaken their divinity.  Is it possible to return a seed of divinity back to dormancy after it has awakened?”

“It is… technically possible, although I don’t think Sandra or Sara would have been able to do so without a lot of outside assistance.  But to answer that question in proper detail, I would first need to explain the nature of divinity, of Divine Essence, and of Aimarion’s creation.”

“Please, Solanna,” Serrena said.  “Whatever you can tell us will be most appreciated.”

Chapter 214: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112440677

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

Chapter 216: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112940067