The last two days had been filled with an odd mix of preparation, errands and planning. The strangest part of these tasks had been how disparate and seemingly contradictory the plans were, though maybe that was to be expected. After all, one side of the plans was to make sure the citizens of the Blessed City had the time of their lives during the longest night, while the other objective was to ensure we could enjoy that night as well. And not just enjoying it by revelling in the devastation Lia and I wrought on the Blessed City, but enjoyment beyond the destruction of our enemies. While there was nothing wrong with a bit of schadenfreude, to make one’s only pleasure on such a night the downfall of one’s enemies was a little… sad.
There had to be more to life than crushing those who went against you. Otherwise, one’s life would be truly empty, as the moment of your ultimate triumph was also the moment that took all meaning and joy from your life. Or, in other words, the moment of your greatest and final downfall.
As I had expected, the different communities we were in regular contact with had already made their plans. While their plans were nothing grand, they weren’t interested in discarding them just to join someone else. Amusingly, they were planning to hold their own celebrations in the style we had pioneered last year, including the dedication to Lady Hecate.
It would be fascinating to see if these plans included a dedication to Maiden, Mother and Crone, or if they were focusing their celebration on the triad’s unity. Depending on that, it might be interesting to see if the fact that Lady Hecate inspired people to craft any depiction of her in our image would change something. However, given that the last time I had been in direct contact with an active worshipper of a divine aspect of mine, I had been in enough pain to bring me to my knees, I wasn’t interested in testing that.
Sure, I was somewhat confident that the problem there was that the Pale Lady was a singular deity, represented only by my divine aspect, but not entirely certain. In comparison, the Maiden, Mother and Crone were a trinity, supported by Lady Hecate, which took some of the pressure off. Or however that worked, the mechanics of divinity and apotheosis were complicated, and I was struggling to get glimpses at anything real, likely due to divine obfuscation. Still, it wasn’t all that vital to me. I had other, more important, projects to work on than the one that might make me a deity, as strange as that sounded.
The only reason I would be interested in those mechanics was that I considered using a tentative bond between the giants in the north and Sigmir to locate Sigmir’s soul so I could draw her back into this realm and craft a body for her. Otherwise, the whole apotheosis thing was something I let happen on its own timeline. There was no real hurry there.
The planning and visits to the other communities also distracted me from my worries about Sunna’s reaction to the Shattering of the soul of her follower. If there were such a reaction, it would either happen when Sunna was in a position of power, maybe on Midsummer’s Day, or when I foolishly dared to venture out into the bright sun. As things were, I had carefully ventured outside during the night, then tested things by going out during dusk and dawn. Nothing had happened, so I was somewhat confident that Sunna hadn’t been able to positively connect the breaking of her follower’s soul and me, or maybe she hadn’t even noticed that her follower had Shattered, instead of just died. There had been that desperate prayer, the scream of help that was both psychic, verbal and magical, all at the same time, but if that had been enough? I just didn’t know.
Some careful, remote investigation of the cave had yielded no results; the body hadn’t been moved, investigated or even found as far as I could tell, but that might just be a trap. Trying to catch the culprit when they return to the scene of the crime, or something like that. I just didn’t know, but, for now, I wasn’t making myself insane with worry about a reaction that might never come.
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“So, are you ready for tonight?” Lia asked me, looking incredibly excited.
“What do you have planned now?” I couldn’t help but ask, the expression on her face making me a little apprehensive. The gleeful grin was far too similar to the look I knew I got when planning some truly exciting experiment. The kind of excitement that ended with numerous dead bodies or widespread devastation. Or both, for that matter.
“You know that fun drug we’ve introduced into the Blessed City a few days ago?” she reminded me, the grin on her face widening, making her look just a little bit unhinged. Or maybe her jaw looked like it was about to unhinge, allowing her to swallow someone whole.
“Yes? Lowering inhibitions, making people’s judgment questionable, that kind of thing,” I nodded. “Honestly, it sounded a little like everyone would be drunk, only without noticing,” I shrugged. Not that I had ever been drunk, the idea of giving up control over my own body, and mind for that matter, made me incredibly uncomfortable.
“Don’t really know,” Lia shrugged, “Never been drunk, never seen someone drunk like that,” she admitted, making me nod in understanding. While I did not doubt that numerous people had tried to drown their troubles in whatever booze they managed to find or make after the change, those people had never been in contact with us. At least not that I had been able to tell.
“Doesn’t matter,” she shook her head for a moment, obviously discarding this line of thought, “What I’ve got in mind is to add an additional component to the mix, making things a little more spicy,” she admitted, the casual tone only adding to my worries.
“What does ‘spicy’ mean in this context?” I asked, making airquotes. The look on her face made me wonder if I actually wanted to know the answer, or if I’d sleep better if I remained ignorant.
“Well, you know how the people of the Blessed City focus on their communal unity, how disagreements have to be discussed, or be judged by those anointed by Sunna, and how they focus on family, marriage and all that stuff?” she replied, making me nod despite myself. There was quite a bit of that conditioning, and I had to admit it worked. Family and faith gave people a relatively stable nucleus, a structure around which they could arrange their day. Or maybe it was part of the wards that controlled the people of the Blessed City, I wasn’t sure. Either way, their community was surprisingly stable for its size. Well, it had been stable until Lia and I started our mischief.
“The added component would reduce inhibitions even further, likely causing their unity, and every family within the Blessed City, to shatter,” she explained, making me nod in understanding, even as I couldn’t help but sigh in discomfort.
A part of me felt deeply uncomfortable at the idea that we would effectively cause a massive orgy, only without any consent involved. Drugged people couldn’t give consent, and we were already guilty of drugging an entire town. Somehow, I felt worse about drugging people like that as opposed to killing them, an emotional reaction that confused me.
“I’ll have to think about it,” I told Lia, postponing the decision. Then, when she looked at me with a raised, questioning eyebrow, I explained my thought process, making her frown in turn.
“I see what you mean,” she nodded, “I’m not sure where it comes from, but I agree. Killing people just,” she paused, “It just is. Especially when the killing isn’t done from up close. If you conjure a storm or something, you are removed from the killing. But this, here, you can imagine how you would feel if this had happened to you. If you realised that somebody had drugged you like that,” she reasoned, avoiding spelling the consequence out, just like I had. “If we kill people, they are dead. That’s it, their time is over, and they are removed from the equation. Death is the end; there are no further consequences. This feels different,” she paused once again, “Maybe,” she shrugged, clearly as uncertain about this as I felt.
“But it’s still the best way we have when it comes to destroying the Blessed City and scattering the people living there in the four winds,” I finished her thoughts, knowing that destroying social cohesion in the city would destroy the city. That this was the best way, even if neither of us liked it.
Hopefully, either of us would come up with a better idea before we had to make the final decision.
