True to what the woman had said, it was early evening and a day later than when Lysette had entered the secluded room. She walked down the stairs, then, after confirming again that she wasn’t being somehow watched, dissolved herself into shadow and sneaked her way down the front hallway and into the open expanse of the campus courtyard.
“Nightshade, can you hear me?” Lysette asked.
Nightshade dove down, landing on a small light fixture not far from where Lysette’s shadow currently sat.
“I can. I trust that whatever has occupied you the last day and a half has yielded fruit?”
“It has. I have a new cloak that I’m currently wearing which should render me nearly invisible to any eyes not specifically looking for me. It also complements my shadow dissolution nicely.”
“You’ve chosen quite the impressive item for your first foray into the art of Creation. I am sure Lady Zarielle will be most pleased to hear your continued progress. Are you well otherwise?”
“As much as I can be, given my apparent inability to manage the passage of time.”
“Lady Lysette, that is something that will only worsen as your mind and body adjust to divinity. One time, Lady Zarielle had gone into meditation for, and I quote, ‘a short while.’ She didn’t return until half a century later.”
Lysette would have blushed with secondhand embarrassment had she been corporeal at the time. As it stood, she could only convey that vague sense of shame through their shared telepathic bond.
“Changing the subject; were you able to find anything about this fan club I apparently have?”
“I did. And conveniently enough, they should be having a meeting starting here in a little bit. They are meeting in Building 7, just to the northwest of the Central Administration Building.”
“Convenient indeed. I was just thinking about how tonight was as good of a time as any to pay a visit.”
With a note of mutual understanding, Nightshade took off again and Lysette wandered in the direction of the meeting place. Although her vision was limited by the range of her aurasight in this form, she’d spent enough time on campus at this point to know the general layout by memories and the pathways that led directly to her destination.
Less pleasant was the odd sensation that came with being stepped on while dissolved. It didn’t hurt, and in fact generated no physical discomfort at all as her shadowy form effortlessly snaked around the feet landing on her. It still felt weird, as did the psychological sensation of having a boot pressed against your incorporeal body, pushing right down into the center of her vision. Her curiosity now sated, she made her way through the remainder of campus and arrived at Building 7.
Strangely enough, none of the buildings had names, other than those with obvious functions like the dining hall, the dormitories, and the library. There had been some movement for some of the buildings to be named after famous graduates or donors over the years, or so Lysette had overheard at one point, but ultimately, with so many noble families, all of whom were headed by very long lived individuals more than willing to hold grudges for centuries or more, no steps were ever made in that direction. Naming a building after someone in exchange for some minor pittance was just asking to make many other very powerful individuals very angry.
Building 7 was a fairly nondescript building filled with mostly classrooms, as well as a few faculty offices, mostly those who worked with and taught Mental Cultivators. Since Lysette didn’t presently have any aptitude for that discipline, she’d had little reason to come to the building, and found herself lost for a couple of moments through the intricate pattern of hallways and stairwells that never seemed to go quite where one expected. It wasn’t an illusion— aurasight wouldn’t be affected by that. More that the building was designed to be as nonsensical as possible.
Unfortunately, Nightshade either didn’t know exactly where in the building this fan club meeting was taking place, or was taking a page out of her master’s playbook and being as circumspect and roundabout as Zarielle tended to be. With her aurasight limited in range and her other senses diminished while incorporeal, it was proving more of a challenge than expected to find the room. Escaping into an obscured hallway, she returned to physical form, remaining cloaked as she listened for any signs of footsteps. Finding one about a minute later, she tracked the source down, dissolving just her legs to remove any noise from her own feet as she trailed.
The footsteps belonged to what appeared to be a rather tall student, taller than Lyse by about an inch. They had brunette, shoulder-length hair and an androgynous figure. Lysette was uncertain as to their gender, but set aside her idle curiosity. Lysette followed them as they walked down a flight of stairs, but instead of heading into the hallway as expected, the person ahead of her opened a side door on the lower floor, entering into another stairwell, this one leading to an even higher floor than the previous one. Of course it was something asinine like that.
Lysette did feel more than a little awkward trailing them like this, but they seemed not to have noticed as the two made their way to a hallway noticeably louder than the others, filled with a number of students, some of whom she vaguely remembered from the meeting two nights ago.
The decor and general vibe of the gathering was not at all what she had expected. She’d expected a loud, boisterous gathering filled with party snacks and merrymaking as they gushed over her accomplishments and maybe tried to emulate them or work towards them herself. Instead, the mood was a lot more somber, a lot quieter and much more formal. Less like a party and more like a… religious service?
Lysette looked at the arrangement of the desks as she slipped in under the guise of her invisibility cloak. The desks and tables were neatly arranged all facing the front of the room with a lectern which was serving as a makeshift altar. Below the lectern was a small basket made of some sort of reed or vine, much like an offering plate with various items inside. A few coins, mostly of bronze and silver, along with a couple of knuckle-sized crystals. The person Lysette was trailing reached into their pocket and pulled out a few pieces of silver, dropping it into the basket before walking over to one of the seats in the back and lowering their head.
What’s with the money? Lysette could at least understand the crystals. Although she was fairly confident that Essence didn’t operate that way, it at least made sense if they were trying to offer her power in that manner. But what good was money going to do? Were they planning to buy her a gift? Maybe an extra large custard? Or was this just used to pay for the rather elaborate smell of orange-tinted incense that was now burning in the middle of the room. Lemon would have been better. Like the custards. Maybe a lime custard next time?
Lysette crept to one of the back corners, dissolving herself as needed whenever one of the other people got too close. And she simply watched the proceedings, though services might have been a more apt term. For a few moments the gathered students, twenty-seven in total, just sat in silence, meditating— Cultivating, maybe, though the flow of Essence about them didn’t seem to suggest as such. After that, the student who Lysette had trailed— Mirae, from what she gleaned— stood up and approached the lectern.
“I hope we’re all doing well,” they said, standing behind it.
A quiet chorus of general affirmations and nods filled the room.
Mirae took a deep breath and exhaled, causing a chill wind to blow, one which Lysette felt ever so slightly even from her position against one of the far corners. It didn’t bother her, but a number of students were shivering until Mirae stopped whatever Ice technique they’d developed and the temperature returned to normal.
“Just last night, I finally pieced together yet another technique,” they said. “Have any of you made any recent breakthroughs?”
One young man stood up and pulled out a collection of twelve small metal spheres, each about as large as a walnut, and levitated them in the air, allowing them to rotate in the air above his head for a few moments before willing them back to his hand and putting them away. It appeared to be a similar sort of Matter technique to the one Francis was using to control his shurikens during that duel both in form and effect.
“I’ve gone from being able to control eight of these at a time to twelve in the past four days. And after it took over a month to go from seven to eight.”
“I just ran a minute and thirty seven second mile,” a woman responded. “First time I broke a minute fifty at that.”
“Do you believe now?” Mirae asked.
The man sat back down and furrowed his brows. “I admit that there is certainly a correlation between my joining this group and the advancement in my ability. But correlation is not the same as causation, as you should all well be aware.”
In this case, though, the relation is causal. A part Lysette wanted to reveal herself, but decided against it, at least for a few more minutes. She wanted to get a better understand about the religion that was apparently starting to form around her before deciding whether to officially ordain it, modify it, or completely raze it from the ground up.
The last of those sounded particularly unappealing for a reason she couldn’t quite place. Before her rebirth, Lysette was never fond of crowds or praise or social gatherings. It was one of the reasons why she’d taken a position as an herbalist. A job that allowed her to spend most of the time in the fields, only making occasional forays into town. Even celebrations and parties always gave her pause. She’d attend, especially for the sake of her family, but that didn’t mean she liked it.
But this, on the other hand, filled her with a sense of satisfaction that she couldn’t quite place. Her best guess was that, in some roundabout way, her brain must’ve felt a certain rightness at the prospect of being worshiped, a consequence of being reborn as a demigoddess. Those human feelings hadn’t entirely vanished though, only being suppressed somewhat by a new psychology she was only just starting to cognize.
“I do understand your hesitation, Gerald,” Mirae said. “I didn’t believe at first either, but seeing both Lyse’s strength, her confidence, and the change she is already bringing to our world, I can’t help but believe now. Believe that she is a goddess in the flesh, sent here to fulfill a divine purpose. And this power she’s granted to us is her way of rewarding our devotion.”
Every bit of their words are half true. She did have a divine purpose, but she hadn’t been sent here specifically. And Lysette didn’t really see the matter as granting them power or rewarding their devotion. It was merely what had felt right to her of her own volition. Just a case of scratching one another’s backs on a metaphysical level. Their devotion, to use their own words, had helped Lysette grow as a Cultivator and a demigoddess alike, and her domain of reciprocity compelled her to act as she had.
“I get that she’s a gifted Cultivator. And I can’t deny that you’ve— that we’ve— gotten a lot stronger since starting this group. But a goddess, Mirae? Why would a goddess need to come study at the Academy? If Lyse were really a goddess, shouldn’t she just be able to snap her fingers and fix all the shit we’re dealing with?”
Mirae stepped out into the center of the room, approaching Gerald as the two’s discussion heated up. “Maybe she doesn’t want to fix all the problems herself? It certainly seems like she’s more interested in helping us fix our own problems than waving her hand and solving them all herself.” They spoke the words with conviction, but there was a hint of hesitancy in their tone and facial expressions.
With the room fully focused on the debate between the two, Lysette decided to make her presence known. She slipped back to the front of the room in silence, hiding behind the lectern that Mirae had vacated moments earlier, returning to corporeality and sloughing off her cloak before emerging in plain sight. Several of the students attempted to get Mirae’s and Gerald’s attention as their argument grew increasingly heated, but they remained trapped in their verbal duel until Lysette finally spoke.
“I think I should get a say in all of this too.”
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Stealthy Lysette! (Though, she'll probably stick with her lemon custard rather than a cookie.)
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