Chapter 82 – Improper
Orestis walked through the temple, occasionally getting a few greetings or bows. Where ‘occasionally’ meant the times he actually noticed it. Since the whole temple knew he was Chosen of their goddess, everyone was bowing or greeting him.
Apparently, etiquette was also a thing in the tenets of Lyse.
Still, I expected her to call for me much earlier. Maybe this is also etiquette for her to wait until I’m free to give me a scolding.
He eventually walked into the inner sanctum. Lyse’s avatar was already waiting inside, seated in a high-backed chair with a second chair placed directly across from it. The arrangement was deliberate. And suitably distanced from the walls, the door and the centre of the room.
Quite pleasing to look at.
He took the seat without being asked. The goddess watched him do it, then waited, letting the silence stretch. He waited for her.
After a moment, she said, “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Nothing?” Orestis said.
I mean, I’m the one who’s supposed to get scolded. Better to keep quiet and get it over with.
“It’s good you understand. I don’t like it when people make excuses,” Lyse said, nodding. Then she promptly moved on. “All this time, when you said you wanted privacy, I thought you just wanted a break from Lu’s constant spying. I even gave you the benefit of the doubt when you decided to hide from all divine sight, including mine. I told myself you were simply tired of being watched and wanted a short reprieve.
“Instead, what do I find? You were off keeping company with a necromancer. Someone who was going to become a future evil. Really. For shame.”
As he listened to her go on, Orestis realised that this goddess, who was otherwise quite economical with her words, could get very verbose when it came time to expressing her grievances and opinions. He listened while she explained at length precisely how he had failed to meet her standards.
She was like this with Maxim too, I suppose—I was there when she started. But I did walk out before she really got going.
“… and then today, you even spoke with her while pretending to work. I wouldn’t have even known if you hadn’t mentioned it later. You tricked me, your own goddess. So disappointing. I’m disappointed.” At this point, she paused and gave him a curious look. “Actually… how did you do it?”
She tilted her head. “I keep very careful watch. I should have noticed if you’d done anything.”
It was not a secret or anything—just a simple application of divine power from the opposing alignment. Well, the execution had taken him the better part of a decade to refine. That was one benefit of having Eleuthera as his opponent; she helped him refine his skills.
With a god that could not be blocked by anything directly, he had to get creative—and he had to be absolutely perfect. Anything less and it would end up useless against her.
Regardless, it was nothing worth a second glance after one got the hang of it. So, he told her how he did it.
“Huh. That’s clever,” Lyse said when he had finished. Then she sighed. “Too bad only Lu can use a method like that.”
She was referring to how only Eleuthera was capable of drawing from another god’s reservoir. But that was only under normal circumstances.
“Nothing’s stopping you from using my method,” he pointed out.
Lyse frowned at him. “Lu has told me what she’s been able to figure out so far. Isn’t it built on faith as the foundation? We gods are unable to worship each other.”
Orestis tsked. Eleuthera was only partly right. This was why he was willing to just tell her how to do it—at the rate she was going, she would take years to figure it out. Again.
Well, as long as she enjoys the process.
“It’s not faith; it’s belief,” he corrected. “It starts from believing in the existence of the god, and believing in their miracles.”
Lyse scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. Everyone knows we exist. And most of us perform miracles every other week.”
Orestis raised an eyebrow. “You already see the problem.”
The goddess blinked and took a moment to process that. She looked genuinely confused. “Wait. Seriously? None of them have bothered to install locks? That’s like the basics of the basics.”
“Forget the locks,” he said wryly. “They haven’t even installed the doors.”
Or walls. Or fences. It’s like walking through an open field right now.
“They don’t know because they probably never even looked,” he added. “Honestly, I doubt they even care.”
And because there was absolutely no security on their most foundational principle of access, every subsequent layer of security was riddled with holes as a result.
Lyse, who understood that, sputtered. “That’s… that’s…”
“Embarrassing?” he offered.
“Improper!” she exclaimed. She shot to her feet. “We have to tell them!”
“Don’t bother,” he advised. “I once spread the knowledge to everyone. Instead of fixing their security, most of the gods got together and decided to wipe everyone’s memories. Less work for all of them.”
“Those useless, lazy, good-for-nothing…!” Lyse drew a deep breath and forced herself to stop. Then she sat down again. She still looked extremely offended, though.
“Embarrassments, the lot of them,” she declared.
“Right?”
Lyse nodded and crossed her arms. “No point in talking to such people. It’ll just be a waste of effort.” She turned to him. “Wait. Do you remember those who took steps to fix things?”
Not all of them; he wasn’t like Maxim with his perfect memory. But Orestis did remember some. He sent the relevant memories to Lyse through their soul link.
A bit of her tension eased as she parsed through the memories. “Oh. Okay. I’m glad those two are on the list.”
He wasn’t sure who ‘those two’ were supposed to be—but he assumed they were among the gods she liked. She smiled happily for a moment. Then she caught herself, and the disapproval returned.
“But let’s shelve that for now. Back to the main point.” She straightened. “Why did you feel the need to hide things from me at all? Did you think I would go around telling everyone what you were up to? Do you think so little of me?”
Right. I guess we’re back to the scolding.
Her voice did not rise, but it took on a hard edge as she continued. “How can you lack trust in your own goddess? I thought you knew me better than that.”
“In fairness,” Orestis said, “I didn’t know you at all.”
That gave her pause. “What? Really?”
“I was only familiar with Eleuthera back before my regression,” he clarified. “And even then, it was just her popping in every so often to annoy me. You, I only heard about in passing.”
“That’s… surprising. Why was that?”
Orestis shrugged. “No idea. For whatever reason, you didn’t like me back then. According to Eleuthera, that is. She mentioned it once.”
“Huh.” Lyse looked up, one finger against her chin, and considered that for a moment. Then she said, “Hm… yes… I can see how that might be the case.”
“Wait, you can?” he asked, feeling curious despite himself. “So what changed? Must be a lot if you decided to go from avoiding me to making me your Chosen.”
Which was somewhat strange, when he thought about it. Because as far as he could tell, he didn’t think he was all that different from how he used to be.
Well, maybe I’m a bit less violent, but that’s all. Oh, and not trying to kill myself, but I doubt she cares about that.
… Or does she?
Orestis frowned as a thought occurred to him. “Hold on. Are you telling me your domain of Proper Passage also extends to dying properly?”
Could it be that she had been upset before because he had been trying to die before his appointed time? Then again, he had been immortal—he had no appointed time to die.
But then, Lyse cut off that line of thought with a look usually reserved for idiots, then said, “What? Where’d you get that from? I don’t care how or when anyone chooses to die.”
Oh. So it wasn’t that.
“In that case, what was it?” he asked.
“I’m not telling you,” she replied. “Since you were keeping secrets from me, think of this as balancing the accounts.”
Orestis gave her a flat look. Figures.
“Anyway, we were discussing your habit of keeping secrets from me. You should stop trying to change the subject,” she said.
He was fairly certain she was the one who had changed it—twice. But he chose to be the bigger person and not say anything.
“Did you truly believe I would have opposed your choices if you hadn’t hidden them from me?” she asked.
“Would you not have?” he countered.
“I might have advised you on the impropriety of the whole business.” She paused, then added, “Possibly at length. However, advising is not forbidding. I would not have tried to stop you.”
At least she was self-aware enough to know that she would have spent quite a bit of time on the subject. Which was precisely one of the reasons why he had decided to be secretive.
“I thought it was inefficient to argue,” Orestis said.
“Oh. You make a very good point,” she replied, suddenly looking very pleased. “Yes. Avoiding unnecessary inefficiency in life, or anything else, is always praiseworthy. I’m glad to have chosen someone who understands one of my core tenets so well.”
Orestis found himself a bit speechless at her reaction. Was she really that happy he chose efficiency over transparency? Not that he was complaining, but most people would argue the opposite. Still, he liked it.
As expected of someone whose skills I acknowledged. Her personality is good too.
Maybe I should take some time to actually go over her tenets. If nothing else, it might prove amusing.
While both Lyse and Orestis were smiling and nodding at each other, they heard the sound of someone pointedly clearing their throat. Someone who sounded suspiciously like Eleuthera.
Orestis looked around, just to make sure, but no one else was in the room.
Still, it seemed to have served its purpose, as Lyse said, “Anyway, that was beside the point. As I was saying, it’s not nice to hide things from your goddess. So, I have a proposal for you: I will not argue with you over your choices, or reveal what you do to any of your friends and family. In exchange, I want you to stop hiding yourself from me. I want to be able to observe you.”
Just as Orestis opened his mouth to reply, there was another throat-clearing sound.
“Oh,” Lyse added, without missing a beat. “And don’t hide from Lu, either.”
“You know,” he said dryly, “instead of watching invisibly, Eleuthera might as well join us if she has something she wants to say.”
“No, that would be inappropriate,” Lyse said immediately. “This is meant to be an occasion for a goddess to scold her Chosen. It loses all its gravity with someone seated in the front row.”
It lost any claim to gravity several minutes ago, Orestis thought, but decided to let the goddess have her way.
Probably a good thing, anyway. If Eleuthera did decide to sit in at this point, we might all start floating.
Still, regarding her request, Lyse had been pretty reasonable so far; he saw no reason not to oblige her. And Eleuthera had never been the type to go around revealing secrets—even if it was only so that she could enjoy watching everyone’s reactions later.
However, he did have one thing he was curious about. “This wanting to watch me,” he said. “Does it have something to do with the reason why you Chose me in the first place?”
“Yes,” Lyse replied easily. And then remained silent.
“I take it you don’t intend to tell me what that reason is.” Not a question this time, but she treated it as such.
“No,” she replied.
He shrugged. He was curious—but not that curious.
It doesn’t really matter, I suppose. I doubt she has any ill intentions towards me.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll stop hiding from you.”
As for the divine essence situation, let’s see how she reacts when she finds out about it.
The throat-clearing happened once again.
If she keeps that up, she’ll go down as the first god in history to come down with a sore throat, Orestis thought, rolling his eyes.
“Yes, yes, you as well,” he said, to the empty air.
“Good. That will be all then,” Lyse said happily, leaning back into her chair. “This was a productive session. I’m quite pleased.”
Just as he got up, Orestis had a thought. He wondered if he should ask or not, then decided that he might as well. “By the way, where am I on that ranking thing?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Lyse said, nodding sagely. “You did lose quite a lot due to your actions. However, you also gained a lot by presenting me with new knowledge, and by demonstrating your understanding of my tenets. In the end, you finished two points ahead.”
A net positive then. Not bad.
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