Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 169

Chapter 169: What Lurks in the Dark

Midnight approached, and Lysette stood on the rooftop of the small shack.  She and Mirae would be temporarily staying there until together they built a more permanent residence.  

The silvery half moon was nearing the horizon, an ever-present reminder of the tasks which still lay ahead.  But for now, there were more pressing concerns.  Listening for the Whispers, watching for any signs of someone being lured by them into the foothills.  And, if circumstances allowed, tracking down their source and dealing with it.  At least, it turned out to be something the two of them could safely deal with.

If not, Mirae had forced her to promise not to charge in as a martyr.  They had, with no small amount of accompanying affection, reminded her that she was far more useful alive than dead, even if the trial before her was not one she was yet ready to undertake.  And Mirae reminded her that they didn’t have to do it alone.  Serrena would assist if asked.  Maybe even Saffron could be convinced if the threat was too great that even the three of them were insufficient.  But Lysette was insistent on making that a last resort.

Lysette wasn’t exactly afraid of Saffron.  But Domar’s Godslayer did instill a sense of fear, of insecurity, of ineptitude within Lysette.  With the exceptions of her patron and Marquis Dozel, Saffron was the only person she’d personally met who completely eclipsed her in combat capabilities.  And she among them was the only person who had demonstrated firsthand her ability to do so, who had had Lysette firmly at her mercy.

No doubt there were plenty of people who felt that way about her.  Plenty of people who had, in fact, been at her mercy.  The people of Ciricu had been and still were, from a certain point of view.  And Lysette had not always shown the mercy that Saffron had shown her.  Plenty of people who had stood opposed to her had met their end by her hands.

Some death was unavoidable— Lacos could not and would not be allowed to survive her wrath under any circumstances.  And the former Academy Chancellor Loran Vanniere had made the deliberate choice to make his battle with her one to the death.  But those assassins who’d gone after her and Mirae back in Marol, and the soldiers in Kattor.  Perhaps there had been alternative paths which wouldn’t have led to so much loss of life by her hand.  Lysette took another deep breath as she sequestered those thoughts and concentrated on the task before her.  

It was eerie how quiet the night was.  The wind had all but stopped.  The hooting of owls ceased.  The quiet rustling of leaves and needles from scurrying nocturnal rodents and insects came to an abrupt halt.  Only the quiet flapping of Mirae’s wings from above broke the silence as local midnight arrived.

“Something is happening, love,” Lysette said.  “Can you feel it?”

“Do you see anything?”

Lysette tied her hair back with a few strands of solidified darkness before uncloaking her left eye.  She concentrated as she looked around, studying the flow of Essence.  The complete lack of flow of Essence, she quickly corrected.  The reddish-gold haze that permeated Aimarion usually had a bit of flow about it at all times.  Some floating down from the cosmos, some being actively absorbed by Cultivators, some trickling into all lifeforms, and the rest shifting around to ensure relative uniformity of the remainder.

But this was different.  Lysette’s passive Cultivation had been completely stifled, and when she attempted to actively draw Essence into herself, it complied only with extreme difficulty.  She tried once more to the same effect.  Her techniques were still working, as was her telepathy, both of which provided relief.  At least I can defend myself from whatever this is.

“I don’t see anything.  But I can hear nothing.  And the flow of Essence about us is completely still.  That worries me.”

“Do you think something is coming?”

“Unlikely.  Anything with the strength to still Essence over such a wide area wouldn’t need to lurk around and rely on Whispers to lure people out of Ciricu.  Unless they were unable to move of their own accord.”

“Something is sealed up in the mountains?”

“It seems that way.  I hypothesize that the fight against the Chancellor loosened some seal that was holding some demon bound to Aimarion, and that demon— Karchek, maybe— is trying to find a suitable minion to free itself.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t a demon.”

“I said it didn’t seem likely considering what we knew at the time.  But I can’t rule it out completely.  I think it’s best to assume that all these myths and stories contain at least an element of truth behind them.  That sort of rudimentary trial and error over millennia forms the basis for most of our modern herbalism, and from there, much of our basic medical knowledge.”

“Wow.  Sometimes I forget that you used to be an herbalist before all this god stuff.”

Lysette smiled.  Though, as a chill wind blew, her cheer quickly turned to fear.  The cold was an unnatural one, shaking even Mirae, who had both divine resistance to cold bolstered further by their specialization into the Ice element.  The rustling of the leaves came to an abrupt halt, followed by a pressure building within Lysette’s head.

It was as though a finger or perhaps a tentacle were probing around her skull, attempting to bury itself within and steal all of her secrets.  Lysette suppressed her true thoughts, allowing it only to perceive the most banal perceptions of her primary consciousness.  As it prodded against her ears, she heard what sounded like a seductive whisper.

“I can see into your heart, young girl.  Your heart longs for power.  For the power to smite your foes, whomever they may be.”

Lysette didn’t answer.  She didn’t respond to the whispers at all, and did her best to resist their pull with her rudimentary grasp of Mental Cultivation.  Still, they continued.

“You do not wish to trust me.  As you shouldn’t.  However, you cannot hope to fulfill your ambitions relying entirely on your own strength.  You need allies.  Powerful allies, those with the strength to propel yourself to new heights.”

Lysette again refused the voice’s clarion call.  She did have allies.  She had Serrena and Mirae and the people of Ciricu and plenty more friends and followers back in Domark.  However, that this voice was speaking to her with such temptation spoke to its power and ability to glean more out of her mind than she wanted to let on.  She redoubled her focus on keeping the voice’s influence sequestered as it continued to search through her.

“You don’t trust me, do you, child?  As is only fair.  I don’t think I would trust a voice that started speaking in my head.  But I assure you I only seek to grant you the ability to make your desires a reality.”

Lysette held back her scoff.  As the Demigoddess of Reciprocity, she knew that such offers always came with an appropriate price— be that money, servitude, or in her case, sharing that power with others.  It was the nature of the world, the nature of power itself, never to be freely given or taken.  And certainly the nature of gods and demons alike not to make such charitable offers without the demand of equal exchange.  Again, she said nothing.

“So you would let them die?  Let their deaths go unavenged?  If that is what you want.”

Lysette’s fingers twitched and her heart raced.  She worried that her mental defenses were being breached.  It wasn’t impossible— Saffron admitted she could.  Though, any creature that could do so was certainly beyond her combat capabilities.  If, at least, it wasn’t sealed away as she suspected.

She clutched the Periapt of Stability around her neck to bolster her resistance to outside compulsion as she questioned what to do.  If she ventured forth to confront this creature, there was a chance she could get severely or even fatally injured.  But the Whispers and their temptations would not stop until she did.  

And though it seemed likely that the people of Ciricu wouldn’t be under direct threat in the immediate future, it was also the case that they wouldn’t be fully safe either.  Worse still, there was the possibility that the seal would continue to weaken on its own, allowing the monster to escape when she was weakened, incapacitated, or otherwise indisposed.  And finally, failing to take care of the situation quickly would erode the villagers’ faith in her and the world she wanted to build for them.  With these factors in mind, Lysette decided it was best to investigate further and make further plans after an initial reconnaissance.

“I look forward to meeting with you, child.”  The voice chuckled as it faded away.

The wind returned to normal, with the scurrying of nocturnal critters following a few moments later.  Essence again flowed freely, all the while the stars above continued to twinkle, none the worse for the situation.  Mirae floated down beside her, and Lysette fell into their arms.

“Is something the matter, love?”

“I felt the Whispers in my mind just now.  And whatever is behind them is definitely a powerful being, capable of bending my mental defenses, if not bypassing them completely.”

“Bypassing?”

“I don’t know for sure.  The voice knew quite a bit about me.  It’s certainly possible that it bypassed my mental defenses just now.  And equally possible that it has been keeping an eye on me all this time.  I did reveal a fair bit in conversations both to you and with the people of Ciricu over the past weeks.”

“You’re going to go investigate, aren’t you, love?”

“How did you–?”

“Love, it’s written all over your eyes.  It’s that resolute look in your eyes, reflecting the bit of my Devotion that rests within you.  And not just that.  Serrena’s Ambition compels you just as it compels me.  To grow stronger, to seek ever more perilous obstacles to test your limits as a Cultivator, and then push past them.”  

Mirae rubbed Lysette’s arm.  “I can sense your worries, your fears, love.  But know that my Devotion to you is complete.  If you believe this is the best course of action, I will follow you.  All the way.”

“I know.  I’m worried that we’re walking into a trap.”

“Should I contact Saffron?”

“Part of me doesn’t want to.  But I think it’s for the best.  Even if she won’t be coming to directly intervene in these matters, it’s best if we get all the intelligence we can.”

“I agree.  Foolhardiness is the quickest path to the grave.”  

Mirae sprouted their wings and carried Lysette higher into the sky, slowly drifting to the south.  Once the two were over the mountains and had a clear line of sight into Domaria, Mirae began twisting space and threading Essence around them, forming a wiry spool that strung into the distance before passing below the horizon.  The technique took a little while to form, and as Mirae concentrated on their technique, Lysette sprouted her own wings and formed a telepathic bond with her love.

“Mirae?  Is that you and Lyse?”

“It is,” Lysette said.  “Apologies for interrupting you.  We’ve done some investigation, including asking some of the locals.  Apparently, there’s some local legends about a demon named Karchek who once roamed the peaks as his keep.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that Karchek has broken free after five hundred years and he’s the one causing these issues?  Damn it all!”

“We can’t be certain, but it’s definitely something sentient.  And whatever it is, is powerful enough to either bypass my mental defenses or spy on villagers down in the valley on the Terean side of the Spire Mountains.  And it hasn’t taken any direct action except to try to lure villagers up into the foothills.  Right now, Mirae and I think it’s some powerful being trapped up there after a seal got loosened, and it needs someone to finish undoing the seal.”

Saffron groaned.  “Unfortunately, I fear you’re correct.  And if it is Karchek, then I am not confident in the two of you being able to stop him alone.”

“Do you know something about Karchek that we don’t?” Mirae asked.

“I do.  First and foremost, I’m the one who sealed him in the Spire Mountains five hundred years ago.”

Chapter 168: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109460501

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

Chapter 170: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109460507