Ria's Adventures
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Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 208
🕑 Added 2024-09-20 16:35:56 +0000 UTCChapter 208: Prisoners of War
With Lysette’s renewed vows to protect the village of Ciricu following the feast of remembrance, everyone’s spirits surged. Both she and her comrades’ tireless efforts were noticed by all. And working together, the people of Ciricu and the Cultivators of Domaria bonded further throughout the first month of winter.
The month proceeded smoothly for those living in Ciricu. As winter maintained its snowy grip over the northern plains of the continent, it seemed that the Archduke of Terea and the High Priestess of Thosse were content to wait until spring to begin massing an army in force. No signs of an invading army approaching from any direction, and with her left eye, Lysette could confirm that no spies or infiltrators were able to gain notable intelligence either.
Even the following Blood Moon brought with it only another token resistance. A mere one hundred soldier detachment attacked Ciricu upon the full moon just before the solstice. And unlike before, Lysette was able to fully restrain herself as she defended her people. Although one person did succumb to a freak accident before he could be healed, every other soldier was successfully depowered, healed, and brought into an increasingly large detention facility.
But it was not at all uneventful for the rest of Aimarion. Although nearly all remained quiet on the northern front, in the warmer equatorial lands to the south, open hostilities had begun along the border between Domaria and Elithria. Lysette had offered on multiple occasions to join the battle upon the front lines, but Saffron was quite insistent on each occasion that she remain in Ciricu to protect Domaria’s northern flank.
On the day before the solstice, Lysette and Mirae again made their way to the holding facility to meet with Julianna and Kathleen— or Jules and Katie, as they preferred— with whom the couple was quickly building rapport and maybe even the beginnings of a friendship. Once the deific couple made their way inside the shared cell for the colonel and her lieutenant, a few handshakes were shared before their conversation began in earnest.
“What would you like from us today, Lyse?” Jules asked.
“Have you made a decision about whether or not you want to join us?” Lysette asked. “I don’t want to impose upon you or ask you to rush to a decision, but once the snows thaw and the temperature starts warming back up, I’m sure the battles will continue in earnest. And after Terea launched a second attack four days ago, we now have quite a few extra mouths to feed and not a ton of food with which to do so.”
“I need to know something, and I want you to be honest with us,” Katie said. “My mother was one of the eight people who died that night. One of the four you killed after the two of us passed out from our injuries. I want to know what her final moments were like. Please, Lyse. Until I know what happened, I don’t think I can fully put that night behind me.”
Lysette took a deep breath. “As soon as the Blood Moon started, my rage began to manifest itself in full. I had flashbacks to my hometown being ravaged by soldiers much the same as you all were trying to do to Ciricu. All I could think about was anger. Anger at the people who slew my family, who pulled their souls out of their bodies, and who nearly did the same to me. All I wanted in that moment was for you two and everyone else to get as far away from here as possible.
“So when Jules charged at me, I snapped. With what tiny bit of control I could maintain, I avoided targeting any vital areas as I stabbed through her. And then you and then several others as well. After about a minute, I’d taken out about eighteen of you.”
“We were powerless,” Katie said. “If we’d known, we would have–”
“You were betrayed,” Mirae interjected. They clutched Lysette’s hand in anger. “Even though it happened a month ago, betrayal, especially by a superior toward a subordinate, is something I will not stand for. Rest assured we will see justice brought upon them.”
“Thank you,” Jules said.
Lysette continued. “By the time your forces were cut down by half, most of the remaining forces fled. I did not pursue, nor did I ask any of my comrades to do so on my behalf. However, four individuals, your mother included, charged forward toward Ciricu.
“Your mother made it the closest. I’m not going to sugar-coat what happened next, and if either of you decide you want revenge upon me, you have that right. But I cut each of them down, one by one. Swift deaths— piercing the heart, severing the head. Your mother was the same. I can’t promise that it was painless. But I promise that it was quick.”
“That sounds just like her,” Katie said. “A professional soldier to the end, always pushing forward, doing everything in her power to see her mission fulfilled.”
Katie tried to hold back tears, but the well of tears broke through the dam and flooded both her eyes. Jules joined in as well a moment later. After Lysette offered the pair each a handkerchief, she and Mirae stepped outside for a few minutes while allowing the couple to console one another.
Once the captive couple had calmed down, Lysette and Mirae reentered the room and took their seats once again. An awkward silence followed for several minutes before Lysette finally broke it.
“I know this means nothing— maybe even less than nothing— coming from me, but I’m very, truly sorry. Nothing I say or do will change my mistake, nor can I bring her or anyone else back to our world. But I do very much regret my actions that night.”
Katie shook her head. “We are soldiers, warriors, and Cultivators. A path of fighting, bloodshed, killing and possibly dying awaits each of us as soon as we step along that path. Of course I wish she were still here. I want to see her again just as much as I’m sure you want to see your family again.
“But I know you’re not a bad person. You’ve treated us far better than Terea has historically treated its prisoners. And succumbing to blind rage and bloodthirsty retribution won’t help me— or her, or anyone else— move forward.”
Lysette nodded. “You’re right. It’s been a balancing act for me as well.”
As the incarnation of Aimarion’s Reciprocity, retribution was a core part of who and what Lysette was as a deity. Retribution empowered and shaped her, manifested within her Spark, and remained the driving force for her continued pursuit of power. Power enough to topple the gods. But more and more, she was accepting— both internally through meditation and experience, and externally through her bonds and pacts with others— a more complete understanding of who and what she truly wanted to be.
Jules looked at both of the demigods. “When you mentioned before that you wanted us to help you, what exactly were you asking? Even though I respect how you have treated us and the soldiers under our command, I doubt you can trust me to take up arms against my own countrymen. I don’t think I could, myself.”
“Of course. And I wouldn’t ask you to do such a thing. I want two things from both of you. First, I want you to serve as the official liaison between us here in Ciricu and the other Terean soldiers. Many of the soldiers here served directly under your command. And if I understand correctly, you are high enough rank that even those who don’t are still likely to have at least heard of you and respect your authority.”
“I agree to that.”
“And secondly, I could use your help growing foodstuffs. Before, when it was just your detachment and the four soldiers alongside Captain Potani, the food situation was tough, but manageable. Now that we also have the responsibility for hundreds of prisoners of war, I could use the help.”
“You want us to be responsible for growing our own food?” Jules asked.
“Ultimately, yes. Ideally, at least in the longer term, I’d like each of you to renounce Terea and join our side. Not that I expect that to happen today— or ever— but that’s what I would like to have happen.”
“And if we don’t agree?” Katie asked.
“Then… we’ll find a way to make it through the rest of the winter somehow. I don’t know how just yet, as I’m the only one who currently has the ability to accelerate plant growth like this.”
“Who currently has the ability?” Jules asked. “Is someone else working on that as well?”
Mirae looked at Lysette, and the two nodded in an unspoken gesture of understanding. They spoke. “Lyse and I both possess the ability to transfer our own abilities to others, she more so than me. If you agree, we will give both of you her plant growth ability, under the condition that you help us in growing food for the people of Terea and the soldiers formerly under your command.”
“Did you not take away our ability to Cultivate?” Jules asked. “I haven’t been able to use any of my abilities since that night.”
“I didn’t do that. What I did was drain the Essence out of your Spark, depowering you in the process. I can restore that Essence, and use it to give you my ability.”
“Are there any risks to that? It’s not a power I’ve ever heard of.”
“On most Cultivators with a solid foundation, and even those who have never Cultivated before, it is effectively riskless. I have used it many times successfully, and never heard of anyone having any side effects.
On someone like you who has been drained of her Essence? I have used that ability once before. It was on one of my comrades who very, very narrowly escaped the clutches of death. She seems to be recovering rather nicely, but I can’t say it’s completely riskless. Again, I won’t force you to do so, but it would be a big help.”
Jules dropped to a knee. “I know. You’ve made that clear time and time again, every day over this past month that we’ve been talking. And even though by all rights you could have taken our lives, thrown us into work camps, tortured us for information, or left us to shrivel up and starve, you have chosen time and time again the path of treating us with dignity and respect. And from what I can tell, you want the same for everyone in this village as well.
“I would be honored to assist you, Lyse, if I can do so for the betterment of my subordinates and everyone else who lives here.”
“Even knowing that I’m this big bad demon lord that’s going to lay waste to the gods one day?”
Jules laughed. “Even if. If this is how a demon lord treats her captives, then I’d like to see how she’d reign over the rest of Terea as well.”
Lysette frowned. “Not reign. Protect. Guide. Empower. Support. Guard and shield and take up arms in the defense of Ciricu, yes. But I don’t wish to rule. I think I could do great things as a ruler, yes. But I think I’m far too corruptible to be a ruler either. Better that rulership remains where it ought to be. In the hands of the people. Not gods, demons, or kings.”
“What about you, Katie?” Mirae asked.
“Some part of me is going to see you as my mother’s killer for a long time. Probably forever. But that’s the nature of war and conflict.
“I’ve taken the lives of mothers and daughters, sons and fathers as well. If that’s the standard by which I judge people, I’d have to judge myself to the same standard. A standard to which I would come up woefully short.
“But I know that you aren’t a bad person or demon or whatever you really are, Lyse. And I want to see this new world right alongside my love too.”
Lysette smiled. “Thank you both. Let’s get started right away.”
Chapter 207: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112051730
Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170
Chapter 209: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112440644
Comments
Jessica
The winning strategy in an iterated prisoners' dilemma is tit-for-tat. However in the real world we don't have clearly marked buttons for cooperate or defect and we also don't have a perfect recall of moves, not even our own let alone other people's. So in the real world errors can occur leaving us in a defect/defect spiral if we play hard tit-for-tat. This is what Danitha said back in the days: "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." In the iterated prisoners' dilemma with errors the winning strategy becomes tit-for-tat-with-forgiveness. However, the theory doesn't quite translate when instead of points we have human lives at stake. If a person or a people/state can expect forgiveness they will more easily commit atrocities. This is why knowing whom to forgive and when is quite a profound question. In real life we have the saying "never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity", however, we also have the saying "once is an accident, twice is negligence, thrice is deliberate". I am taking Reciprocity serious because I believe it to be the foundational principle of ethics, that is the idea that you can't claim protection under an ethical rule unless you are first willing to grant that same protection to everyone else. And thus if we want to be forgiven for the stupidity of our youth, and I very much do want that, we have to also offer the same forgiveness to everyone else first. With that, however, we run head first into the fundamental attribution error, which is the tendency of people to excuse our own shortcomings with our situation, like our sub-optimal upbringing or lack of information, while attributing the shortcoming of other people to some fundamental aspect of their personality. And that makes it easy to explain to ourselves why we deserve forgiveness while others do not. If we take our own desire for peace serious we need to find a way to elevate ourselves above mere tribalism and class warfare. And to do that we need to answer the question of what to forgive and what to reproach. Because if we forgive nothing we all deserve to die, but if we forgive everything we all will die. And if we draw an arbitrary line our lives will be at the mercy of those that do get to draw that line, but if we claim no such line can be drawn we are back at might makes right. And this tension really is at the heart of this story. Asterion claims that no such line can be drawn unless there is a single most powerful deity to draw it. His error becomes apparent as soon as we ask why that should be him. The eternal war of the gods is exactly the result of this approach. Lysette on the other hand wants to let the majority decide. Her error is not quite as apparent because we are so used to democratic propaganda, however, Karcheck was a good reminder that the "dictatorship of the majority" doesn't allow room for those that deviate from the norm. And the need for a mechanism that establishes the group volition allows for a bad actor to usurp that mechanism. This seems to only leave us with the pessimistic notion that peace itself might be impossible and we will be left with eternal warfare until the universe dies its entropy death. I'm not sure if that is my final judgement, but it brings me back to my cottage and the tea and muffins. Because there at least I can say that it isn't my fault, and I can be happy until someone kills me for it.
Bielna
Okay, after thinking for a few days, I think I should expand on this. This comment came from the fact that Lysette, for a Demigoddess of Reciprocity, is... really blind. She entered another country as a spy, attacked people in their home, killed and tortured them to death, and destroyed their souls, all for power and money. Even after understanding her actions were wrong, she made no amend, returned none of what she earned from those actions. So, if the soldiers, including Katie's mother, deserved death, what does Lysette deserve for what she has done ? She's the Goddess of Reciprocity, she should understand consequences for one's actions. Worse, the justification itself is so hypocritical, as Lysette has forgiven herself, chosen that she deserved another chance, while deciding those soldiers didn't. She holds herself as special. It's not killing in battle, like Mirae did, she decided that those people deserved death on biased, unequal criteria, and carried the sentence immediately. This in itself makes those murders unjust, one more evil Lysette committed and is accountable for. I really believe Lysette tries to be a good person, and that she will try to make amends for what she's done, eventually. But... I'm worried at some point it's going to be too late. Point that is already passed. She decided that people deserve death for crimes no worse than hers (if not here, then in Marol and Kattor), that she could take their whole life for what they've done, which means only one thing. ... So at this point, the only hope for Lysette is that the people who come after, who will decide what is right and wrong after the gods have had their power cut off, will be kinder than her. That society will decide that, even when one has committed a crime against someone's life, it does not justify taking their life in return, because society wants to be better than that. It's not a given, even nowadays, many countries have death penalty or true life sentence. That's where Katie comes in. She's showing forgiveness. Not in the sense of not killing people for wearing the wrong uniform, but true forgiveness, where someone who has committed an actual evil act by arbitrarily executing someone defenseless, who has hurt her personally and irrecoverably, still is forgiven, and she doesn't ask the perpetrator's life in return. So when I say I hope Lysette faces a situation where someone has truly hurt her, has taken a life precious to her, it's not for her to suffer. It's because I hope to see a happy ending. It's because it would give her a chance to face and choose forgiveness, so that others might see it, believe it to be good and choose to Reciprocate that forgiveness for Lysette herself, as some of the things she has committed are beyond reparation. It's not like a happy ending is a given. I hope it won't end with her betraying Reciprocity and making it an hypocritical excuse for her fight, forgiving herself for crimes she has killed others over, doing like the other asshole deities and holding herself to different, easier standards than mortals, happily having her revenge against Asterion while the families of the people she killed unjustly are left to cry. But at the same time, it would be sad if she ended up paying with her life, either literally or by being forced to dedicate herself in her entirety to the service of others. I know it could happen, that it would be a good ending, but not necessarily a happy one. I hope there will be a path where, while she will have to give up part of her life in service to others as penance for what she's done, she would still have a chance to live happily, spend some time in retirement with Mirae, raise a family. This is why I find this moment from Katie so important. Because she's choosing forgiveness rather than Reciprocity, and that is something that is likely to be necessary to have a chance of reaching a true happy ending.
Bielna
It's true, but it goes both ways. In this case, Katie accepts that Lysette killed her mother, acknowledging that she too has killed mothers. By comparison, Lysette has, on multiple occasions, stated that she might lose control and wreak havoc should one of the people under her protection be hurt. While I'm not exactly looking forward to that happening, at some point (especially as the conflict becomes to the scale of nations), Lysette will be faced with the fact that some of her people will be hurt and die, just as she has killed too. Sometimes even in circumstances that are tragic or unfair, defending their home, like the soldiers in Marol. She did have to face that already at the end of book 2, with Silver's death and Amalia's wounds, but the circumstances were such that the killers were already dead. So we don't exactly see her reaction in similar circumstances. But I have a feeling she would not exactly have accepted it as Katie did, in her current mindset. And, eventually, she will probably have to accept that some of her followers might die, and she'd leave the world soaked in blood if she went on a crusade as retaliation every time. The reverse side of the coin for the "it's an inevitable consequence of war". In truth, I don't really mind Lysette killing people depending on the circumstances. Serrena and Mirae have done so as well, with nothing indicating that it was unjustified. It's about the circumstances, between an execution and a death in battle, as well as the justification given for it, whether someone "deserves" it. Consequence of war, versus punishment and revenge. And, especially, whether there is a choice to be made. I'm not sure if I'm making myself really clear here, but... The reason why I like Katie's position is acceptance that violence might lead to violence, but should not in itself be the justification for it. Someone being violent might force you to be as well, and that's okay, it's war. But also, because it's such a "normal" consequence of war, it should not in itself becoming your only driver ; much like how her mother's death does not prevent her from looking towards the future. It's not something the old Lysette could or should have understood, when she was living peacefully in her village and not harming anyone, but the current Lysette who has accepted a path of violence can and should realize that escalation is not always the right path, even if she is, one day, hurt. Katie's decision might not be so deeply thought, but what it means in light of Reciprocity is quite significant. Lysette might realize it, she told them that they have the right to want revenge upon her, and they decided not to, despite Katie's mother being well and truly dead. Lysette might herself one day soon become in a position to want revenge upon someone, for something or someone she has truly lost (rather than reacting only to threats, as happened until now), and want to waive that right in order to look forward to a better future.
Ria Corvidiva
I think that's something to note. Yes, Lysette kills people. But she is far from the only one who has, and I wanted to draw some perspective that this is just a natural, inevitable consequence of war. People die, and those who kill have to make peace with it somehow.
Bielna
“I’ve taken the lives of mothers and daughters, sons and fathers as well." Now that's, that's a great sentence. Especially to admit this to herself in front of the Demigoddess of Reciprocity. This isn't even about trying to see good in someone who's fighting, it's about admitting that when you have done some things to others, then you have to accept that those things may end up being done to you, yet that should not stop you. I don't know if she realized that her motivation connects to Reciprocity, but I love that she used this reasoning to move forward. Other than that, I agree with Jessica, I like Jules and she's a good officer. Managing to walk the line to avoid blind faith but maintain her duty to her soldiers.
Ria Corvidiva
yep, 'did the same to me'
Jessica
I like Jules.
Jessica
"ho pulled their souls out of their bodies, and who nearly did the same." there seems to be some text missing, e.g. "did the same to me"?
