Ch. 37 – Secrets Revealed?!
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《Psst! Maven……》 Henna’s voice resounded in Maven’s head in a conspiratorial whisper.
Thinking it was unusual for Henna to send her a secret communication when they could all speak to each other, Maven followed along.
《Why the secrecy?》
《That organization Fae was talking about…… Fae was clearly brainwashed. Through dark magic or some other power, I have no idea - but she’d clearly been warped in some way.》
《You won’t hear any argument from me…… No human should ever act like her. She’s a million times worse than cult members from my previous life!》
Maven involuntary shivered, remembering the expansive list of odd and cringey behavior Fae had exhibited over the last month.
《It’s a lot easier to twist someone to your purpose when you have a blank slate, so they locked her past away. They filled her mind with the skills, thoughts, and ideals of their choosing. Unnecessary emotions were likely pruned as well. Spies don’t need feelings like compassion, guilt, or love. I’m not sure how she behaved before meeting you, but I’ll bet it was a twisted caricature of what she once was.》
《But isn’t she cured already? She said her memories returned when I cast magic on her.》
《Brainwashing someone isn’t such a simple thing. You can accomplish it with dark magic, but it’d require a whole mess of seals and bindings. Are we sure you lifted them all?》
《You think her mind is still warped from whatever they did to her?》
《It’s possible…… You agreed she’s still acting like deviant. You weren’t even trying to cure her before, maybe there’s still some leftover bindings or something. Whatever was affecting her before, it must have been powerful…. Ordinarily, brainwashing is done with dark magic, but I should be able to sense any and all dark magic. Yet, I couldn’t feel a thing when we first met her. Can't feel anything even now...》
《Hmmm…… So what should I do?》
“Just hit her with some more magic!” Henna said, switching to verbal communication. “Really focus on purifying Fae’s heart and soul. Bring her mind back into balance! Fix the pervert….”
Looking shocked at being called a pervert, Fae turned confused puppy dog eyes toward Maven - as if begging her to say it wasn’t so.
Maven, for her part, was unable to meet Fae’s eyes, unwilling to deny it. Kannon and Shayna just looked confused, having been left completely out of the loop.
Still refusing to meet Fae’s gaze, Maven just extended one hand in the priestess’ direction and gathered her magic. She filled her hand with every scrap of power she could muster, reflecting her overwhelming desire to turn Fae into a normal person again. Not only did she invest this spell with an inconceivable amount of pure magic, but she even channeled some of her unique brand of divinity into the spell.
Fae just stared worriedly at Maven’s glowing right hand, concerned about whatever her goddess had planned for her. However, she had no thoughts about resisting or protesting. Not against the intentions of her dearest goddess. Kannon and Shayna just sat, dumbstruck, on the bed as Maven crafted her most powerful purification spell to date. An overwhelmingly powerful, yet astoundingly gentle, aura permeated the room - soothing all who it touched. All this, before the spell was even cast.
Maven shoved as much magic into the framework of the spell as she could and compressed it to the utmost limit, like an archer pulling back the string of their bow. Then, the arrow launched - the magic flew. The iridescent orb flew directly into Fae’s heart.
The mature, white-haired priestess’ body then began to glow brightly. White light emerged from within the depths of her body, pushing its’ way out of every pore. The pristine alabaster light, however, carried a hint of corruption with it as it exited Fae’s body. A disturbing, dark purple mist twined Fae’s body as the purification magic did its’ job. That unnerving aura was the embodiment of the power warping Fae’s mind.
Something about that deep, dark magic felt wrong. Whatever had been holding Fae in its’ grip, it was incredibly alien and foreign. As if it didn’t belong in this world, or any other. Kannon and Henna both recoiled from it, their divine instincts screaming at them - warning them to run away. Far, far away. Whoever had done this to Fae, they were a threat. A threat of unprecedented scale and power.
Whatever they were, however they had implanted into Fae, it was enough to scare even a goddess to death.
67
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So it is all but certain that whatever “deity” this organization is using (or being used by more likely), they are foreign to this world (an outsider). Since that is the case, it would seem that there isn’t a low chance that they had something to do with this whole situation in the first place (humans were easiest to manipulate to start this off).
You can't just write off stuff as humans being easy to manipulate... Humans probably tried summoning something and ended up with something that they couldn't control or were greedy enough to accept any condition that being proposed... Their greed is the driving factor...'Cause humans are beings that cut the hand that fed them, cut the trees that feed them-_-
@TheLostMushroom I do agree that humans are inherently selfish (babies only understand personal ownership but must learn about ownership of others; and so when they cutely “take” something they are only playing with what is theirs, in their minds at least). Selfish but not evil or good.
But we frankly don’t know the rules that deities of this story operate under. We know that the deities of this world (unsure of their own birth/creation as they didn’t talk about it) invested a great deal of their powers to make it and the people and so act as the pillars that keep the world together. We don’t know if an “unanchored deity” (what I am calling a deity that hasn’t reached the stage of making and maintaining a world for whatever reason) can visit other worlds or not. I do imagine that a passive effect of the “anchored deities” being pillars likely keeps foreign deities away (if the intruder wants to show up anyway the owners will know and the intruder will probably have a major debuff on them where they can’t access most of their power and so risk death and injury by doing such a blatant thing).
That isn’t to say there aren’t ways around it like say sending an artifact imbued with your power as an intermediary and from there, directing worshippers that congregate around it into subverting the world. This thing isn’t just your normal traveling deity and is the antithesis of a deity if their reactions are any indication (some kind of fallen deity?). Perhaps a deity becoming anchored isn’t just an act of creation but also one of self preservation (its a sturdy house to weather the hostile cosmos around) to maintain their self. Or maybe this thing did some kind of divine taboo (eating another deity or something?).
Point is we don’t know and can only guess and speculate. Though MC has a certain direction to appropriate the spies for her goal of changing public opinion.
The races are all people. They shouldn’t have different personality traits depending on their species.
@Vividly They do have different personality traits depending on their species...The Earth you live in had one known bipedal sentient sapiens known as humans and they discriminate based on color, religion and what not...How could you expect a planet with a bunch of such species to not discriminate among themselves...Even if the others don't...Humans with their superiority complex and ego will always claim to be above others....Elves and their affinity with the forest, Dwarves and their affinity with the land and forges...These are a part of their lives in more than one way as opposed to humans who dabble in a bit of everything.
They are all people. Just because they’re an elf doesn’t mean they’re a stuck-up tree hugger, and just because they’re a dwarf doesn’t mean they’re a gruff blacksmith. Personality traits have absolutely nothing to do with species. I don’t know why you would think they do.
@Vividly If you haven't noticed this is a Fantasy world and not 21st century Earth where everyone is the same...It took the humans of Earth so many centuries just to understand the basic fact that ALL HUMANS are the same and equal....How do you expect them to understand that people who AREN'T humans to be equal to them? Not all Elves are the same but the Elves in general respect trees more than humans...Not all Dwarves are the same but on average Dwarves are better blacksmiths than humans. Asking a Dwarf to throw down his hammer is asking him to die... That's the Dwarven pride...They inherently have higher resistance to alcohol...These are the things that differentiate them from Humans...These difference influence their personalities...Humans always consider themselves the hero of their own stories and absolutely believe they are better than every other species...Elves are just trophies to be owned for their beauty and Dwarves are just labourers under humans. There are exceptions but the prevalent mindset among humans during that period is that they are better than everyone. The Elves consider themselves superior and would rather shut themselves inside the forest than deal with the greed of humans. How can the personality of someone who lives for thousands of years be the same as one who would die in less than a century? Saying personality traits and species has nothing to do with each each other is plain ignorance or vehement denial of reality.
Everyone has the potential to have any collection of personality traits. You seem to hate humanity, and assign negative traits specifically to them, when anyone can possess these traits. I don’t know why you have such loathing for a specific species when it’s something all sapients have in common, but who am I to understand the words of the insane?
@Vividly Again, I'll have to clarify...this is a FANTASY WORLD and not 21st century EARTH. How many Fantasy stories have you read? If you haven't read many I've been debating with the ignorant who claims everyone is a fool but himself. And if you have read plenty, recall how many stories portrayed Humans as greedy, self-important creatures who considered anyone different as either vile or something lesser. I'm not gonna deny that anyone can develop above mentioned traits but I've been basing my arguments based on common Fantasy beliefs and I'm gonna do so unless stated otherwise by the Author of said book.
@TheLostMushroom good writers don’t assign personality traits based on species, it’s lazy, cliche, and just plain stupid. Of course, the market has been flooded with low-quality fantasy books, so it’s unsurprising that so many fantasy books do that.