Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 191

Chapter 191: Interrogation

Lysette shivered with delight as the first lights of the false dawn began rising over the town of Ciricu.  The lingering sensations from Mirae’s extensive touch throughout the evening continued to echo upon her skin, a wonderful reminder of the first night spent with her love in too many days.

She roused from an early morning of light Cultivation just as the first glints of sunlight streamed in through their bedroom window.  But unlike before, Mirae did nothing to stop her, instead sitting up and greeting her with a peck on the cheek.

“I would ask ‘How did you sleep last night?’, except I know neither of us sleep anymore.”

“Well, even if I did still need to sleep, you did a pretty good job of making sure I wouldn’t last night.”

“Well, you’re welcome, love.”  Mirae stuck out their tongue.  “Anyway, what are we doing first today?”

“I’d like to get the interrogations out of the way before Serrena decides to turn her explosive temper toward me.  Do you know where Nicholas is staying?”

Mirae nodded and led her to the house a street down where Nicholas and Gerald were rooming, and, after a bit of waiting around, made their way to the makeshift jail near the northern edge of town.

Serrena was there, but instead of the scowl Lysette was expecting, she seemed rather contented, eyes closed, in a Cultivation trance while the four captives were each in a separate room along the back hallway.  As Lysette entered, Serrena opened her eyes.  She stood up and made an exaggerated gesture toward the back hallway.

“Well, I see the prodigal leader has finally decided to grace us with her presence.”

“It wasn’t–” Lysette tried to get out.

“It’s fine.  I got to have my fun earlier, and now I have to share with you.  That’s how the whole Reciprocity thing works, right?  ‘Sharing is caring’ and all those trite sayings you get told when you’re six years old?”

Lysette smiled.  “Thank you for looking after the prisoners while I was… preoccupied.  Mirae was very insistent that I take the evening to rest.”

“And I think I don’t want to know anything more about what you two were up to last night.  So I’m going to go train with Rayleigh before one of you sends me to the infirmary.  Also, the leader of the soldiers is in the back right room.  So maybe start there?  Anyway, I’ll be seeing you around.”

“Thanks, Serrena,” Lysette said.  

“I’m going to go and help out with Theo’s Cultivation,” Mirae said.  “I’ll leave a mental link with you open if you need me.”

“Thank you, love.”  Lysette turned to Nicholas.  “I presume you have some sort of ability that will let you detect falsehoods?”

“I do.  I cannot either compel the truth nor read the minds of another.  Such techniques are not taught at the Academy due to the potential for abuse by wielders of the same.  And they are generally illegal except in very specific situations”

Lysette took a breath.  That did seem like a reasonable sort of law, and an easy sort of slippery slope for her to go down in the heat of the moment.  Directly reading the mind of another wasn’t a technique she currently possessed, but it was one she could have soon, and might very well need.  She resolved to seek guidance from the elders to come up with appropriate boundaries on the use of such abilities by the time she acquired them.

“If I resort to intimidation tactics, will you object?” Lysette asked Nicholas.

“Intimidation in what sense?”

“Using my divine aura to cow the leader of this group that attacked us.  I’d like to avoid torture if I can help it, and I’m not conviced it’s a great use of time to keep someone locked in here for months at a time, hoping to win him over bit by bit.”

“No physical injury.” Nicholas said.  “And nothing permanent.  I know this is war, but there are rules and standards we need to uphold to maintain legitimacy and proper standing within Domarian military policy governing the treatment of prisoners of war.”

Lysette nodded.  The part about forming an independent buffer state seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle.  But, this was still an official assignment handed down by Saffron Ateni, Shadow Queen of Domaria, and Nicholas still saw himself as a loyal subject of the Domarian crown.  And, in the absence of prevailing local law and custom, following Domarian standards on the matter was wise.

With the agreement made, Lysette entered the small cell first.  No creature comforts to speak of.  The room was tiny, perhaps nine feet square.  In addition to the captive, there was but a simple straw bed, small pot for relieving oneself, and a basin with water that looked reasonably clean.  The only light was a small window near the back of the room, positioned up near the ceiling, along with a very dim lighting crystal shining overhead.

The prisoner himself wore a simple red tunic.  He had a bushy mustache and a full head of thick, dark-brown hair.  He was well-built overall, and showed the scars of many battles on his arms, face, and especially hands.

He wasn’t bound, something which initially surprised Lysette, although that made sense in retrospect.  He was a respectable Cultivator— on par with Rayleigh even after forging her pact— and could have easily broken out of any mundane bindings.  Only the threat of retaliation by Serrena, or perhaps some personal motivation, kept him docile in his cell.

He looked up at Lysette with indignation in his eyes.  “Are you the one?”  He scowled and spit on the floor.

“The one?”

“I was told I would be stuck in here until the so-called ‘leader’ showed up.  Is that you?”

Lysette nodded.  “I would prefer to be thought of as a guardian or a protector, but if it’s easier for you to think of me as the leader, you may.  My name is Lyse.  Do you have a name you’d prefer me to call you by?”

The man spat again.  “I’m not sure what you need a name for.  You’ve come to execute me, haven’t you?”

“If death is what you seek, I have plenty of ways to ensure that you don’t get it.  With that said, I would prefer to work out a deal that would be beneficial to both of us.  I want information, and I’m sure you want freedom.”

“You would just let me go?  Certainly you don’t take me for that much of a fool?”

“That depends on the quality of the information you provide and what sort of assurances you can give me that letting you go will serve the broader ends of keeping the people under my protection safe from current or future harm.  Should you cooperate well enough that I judge the people here would be safer by releasing you than leaving you captive or executing you, I would have no problem with doing so.”

“Then perhaps you are the fool.”

“Maybe I am.”  Lysette sat down on a chair of shadow she conjured up.  “However, I am a fool who holds your life in my hands.  I would advise playing along.”

“Nicholas, please remain outside the door and inform me over the mental link if he tells any lies.”

“Of course.  Ready when you are.”

“Very well.  I am Captain Winfield Potani, Battalion commander serving His Eminence, Lord Vincent Golgu, Archduke and Supreme Leader of Terea.”

Lyse nodded.  “Can you please detail the mission you and your soldiers were sent on?”

“We were sent as part of a mission to investigate allegations of a cult spreading among Ciricu and the surrounding areas.”

“Why are the religious practices of the people of Ciricu of any concern to the capital?”

Captain Potani furrowed his brows.  “I don’t understand the question.”

“Why does Archduke Golgu care if the people of Ciricu want to follow a different religion?  A ‘cult’ as you call it?  Is it not their right to worship as they see fit?”

“You would deny the serenity and grace of Her Divinity, Lady Thosse?”

Things were starting to make more sense.  Unlike the religiously pluralistic society of Domaria, Terea was not just closely tied to the Church of Thosse, Goddess of the Sea.  It was centered around it as an official state religion.

In that regard, Terea was not dissimilar to Elithria, centered around the Church of Asterion, God of the Moon.  Though it did seem, as Maxwell had said, that theocratic elements of the government were most concentrated among the elites of society, and most strongly enforced nearer to the capital.  Lysette had seen no evidence of fervent worship to the Sea Goddess among the people of Ciricu.

More troublingly, it implied that Thosse’s Godslayer was involved in the highest echelons of the Terean government.  If indeed said Godslayer and Archduke Golgu weren’t one and the same, a possibility Lysette couldn’t discount.

Lysette wondered what alliances existed between various gods in the Celestial realm.  There wasn’t a strong reason to believe that Asterion and Thosse were allies, but that didn’t mean that wouldn’t and couldn’t change.  The two could even decide to join forces in response to her own involvement in Ciricu, an absolute worst-case scenario.  Loath though she was to speak to her own patron after recent actions, a communing with Zarielle did seem necessary to remain abreast of the situation in the Celestial realm.

“I do not mean to deny the divinity of Thosse.  I know all too well the sway the gods hold over our world.  However, by restricting the religious practices of the people of Ciricu, do you not wax ire with the other deities, who hold no less sway over this world we call Aimarion?”

“I beg your pardon, Lyse!  Her Divinity Thosse graces Terea with Her Divine Protection, granting us the bounty of the sea.  It is thanks to our faith in Her that we have food to eat, that we are protected from the raging storms that would otherwise bombard our coastline.  It is thanks to Her serene grace that we are protected from invasion by sea.”

Lysette knew that much of that was false.  Thosse was affected by the Aestori Ban just the same as every other deity in the Celestial realm.  But the information about Captain Potani’s story lent more credence to the notion of a theocratic state run, either in whole or in part, by Thosse’s Godslayer.  One who likely did have some level of artifice that could do such a thing.  Cultivation artifice was sufficient to keep Domark suspended above the clouds, so wiping away a few fleets of ships seemed pedestrian by compare.

“Were there any other operations going on in the area beyond you and your investigation into the town of Ciricu?”

“No–  Nothing of the sort.”

“He’s lying, Lyse.”

“I figured by his hesitation.  Thanks for the confirmation, Nicholas.”

“Lying will not endear me to your cause.”

“I swear, I–”

Lysette drew out a shadow tendril and whipped it on the floor, leaving a number of cracks and a sizable indentation in the ceramic flooring.  “I’ve made some promises with some people that I would avoid torture, but I can assure you, I am quite capable of forcing your compliance on the matter.”

“You would violate my will?”

“I don’t have any intention of violating taboos against mental probing.  However…”

Lysette focused her aura to only encompass the inside of the cell.  Once she was certain Nicholas was outside her aura’s range, she activated her Aura of Intimidation, starting with a relatively low intensity.

“I’ve been told I can be quite intimidating when I need to be.  Now then, would you like to talk?  Would you be willing to help me protect these people?”

“I–”

Captain Potani looked like he was on the verge of breaking, but at the last second, his resolve hardened, pushing him to resist Lysette’s aura, even at half-power.  Lysette briefly considered increasing the intensity further, but she relented out of respect for Nicholas’s request.  In any event, she’d learned that his attack wasn’t the only operation going on in the area, solidifying her belief that the avalanche was triggered by a hostile force.

“I cannot.  I cannot abandon my duty to my country, king, and Goddess.”

“I see.  Take a couple more days to think about my offer.  I hope you will be more amenable to considering it then. ”  Lysette lowered her head and walked out of the room.

Chapter 190: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111216636

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

Chapter 192: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111216638