From Bookish To Goddess

Highthorn came back out and put Donna in the center of the room. I could have just used telekinesis, but seeing her dragged across the floor by an uncaring Highthorn felt like a good start of her punishment. This interrogation needed to be handled carefully. I was already stressed and unready to unload on her so I sent Highthorn a mental whisper. {Please stay by my side during this one and tap me if I start to unload.}

He came over and whispered in my ear, “She deserves divine wrath.” He wasn’t wrong, but I just shook my head at his response.

I undid Donna’s sleep spell and before she got up, I applied ‘lesser temporary clarity’. She wrapped herself around her legs, water filling her eyes. She peered up at me with fear.

“That won’t work in this situation. While your reaction may be real, you are not yet regretful of what you have tried to do to me and the Valwrecks. We also found out some worrying information from Martin.”

She stared off trying to buy time, but I wasn’t waiting to hear her weave lies.

“Why did you attack me repeatedly?” I asked, stopping her from taking too much time to formulate a safe answer. The truth circle would force it out of her.

She looked up and snarled working her way through her scratchy strained voice to speak. “You are a fake, a false god, a dirty mongrel lover. You can just go back to whatever dog house you crawled out of, you mongrel. Humankind doesn’t need anyone like you.”

The vitriol in her was way too high for someone of privilege to have. That really didn’t bother me though; her actions had gone way too far to be excused by anything in her past, especially with so much access to resources that no one else could get their hands on. People like her made me sick. I wasn’t even a god willingly but I would be obliterated before I allowed some nasty royal to dictate how I am going to lead the people that had put all their belief into me. 

“How are you able to cast aside the otherkin so easily? You even plan on ditching humankind when you run away from here. So how can you say you only care about humans?”

“They are the lowest of the low, meant only to serve those above them. Just above those cursed half-breeds are peasants and commoners, then above them are the nobles riding off my coattails. I am stronger and smarter than all of them. I have divine right bequeathed to my bloodline by the real Goddess Astrid.”

“Who told you this? I never bequeathed anyone anything.”

“You aren’t her! My mother showed me our family tree. We go back over a thousand years. To when this country was founded by an inner circle member of Goddess Astrid’s followers.”

“You mean my fan club. You’re related to one of those people who hung on my every word and idolized me as the perfect being?!?” 

She didn’t reply because she didn’t have an answer because she probably didn’t know who, but I knew it was definitely one of my fan club members that created this spawn. I didn’t have time to deal with looking into who this supposed founder was. It didn’t matter who it was. I doubted that they would have expected an outcome where one of their own was so vicious. They would be ashamed and cast out by the others for causing me problems I they were still around.

“Are you planning on getting rid of your dad?”

“Yes, I am planning on getting rid of that cursed mutt sympathizer. He is an outsider, a mere blood donor to my great matriarchal blood line.”

The air became dense with my magic as it leaked out, pressurizing the weight of everyone’s soul in the room. It was ready to invade Donna’s very soul. How could anyone want to rid themselves of a nonabusive parent? Her very existence disgusts me, she needs to meet my soul rending spells because she obviously shouldn’t have one! I walked towards her, extending my arm, only to have it pushed down by a conflicted Highthorn. Once he touched me, I took a moment to thin out my mana and get myself back under control.

“Thank you,” I said, looking around the room. Everyone looked drained and lost from the after effects of my mana leak. I was also mentally worn out. It was time to bring this to a close. “Highthorn, take her back to the holding room. Everyone else, take the rest of the day off. I know there is a lot to do, but we need clear minds to do it. Spend time with your families or friends while I spend time with my books.” I cast a silence spell on Donna so I didn’t have to hear her words anymore.

Highthorn took her away as she weakly fought back. He just slung her over his shoulder and she hit his back like a bratty child. I would have been fine with her being dragged out, but this was more humiliating. Which was obviously the better choice. This villainess needed to be knocked down a peg and her time would come soon.

“Lady Astrid, could you send Fianna back? She hasn’t come back yet and after all of this I want to let her know I love her.”

I wondered if he thought she would turn out like that thing. “I don’t think she is going to turn out like Donna.”

“I know, but I just want to hold her.” 

A chill went down my spine as feelings of missing my own family had begun to hit me. “Yes, of course. I will let her know.”

I headed back into the library and located Fianna. When I found her, she was surrounded by a pile of books. That’s how I was when I first came in. I had immediately made a book fort. “Hey, Fianna, it’s time to go. I will bring you back by tomorrow.”

She poked her head up over the front gates of her book fort. “Yes, Lady Astrid. Thank you for the time you have given me.”

“We are friends now, Fianna. You call me Astrid, especially when not in public.”

She instantly turned a light shade of pink before hiding herself in her fort again. 

That had been too much to ask of her too fast. I could just clear her of her shyness but it wasn’t good to mess with your friend’s minds. They would be clones of whatever you wanted, not their own unique people. That’s why necromancers could get away with their long speeches; all of their zombies were brain dead. It was hard not to laugh at my own joke. Fienna may have thought I was laughing at her.

“Come on, it’s time to go. I will tell the bears not to touch your books. I know how terrible it is when they put all of your own organization away.”

“Yes, Ast—“ she said before stumbling to only use my name before cutting herself off and heading to the front door at a fast pace. 

I looked at a bear that was looking between me and the pile of books. “I know you heard me. No touching.”

It just turned away and headed to another section. I went to the bearista and just began venting about the day’s events.

“That’s how it always is when the transition between races happens. That’s why we like working with you. It is a chance to try and right the wrongs of the past,” said the raspy sounding bearista.

“Did they do the whole wage slave thing in the past?”

“No, just slavery or genocide till the minority flooded the majority. Then they would take vengeance on the former majority till they were gone either by being bred out or other more violent means. Then they would forget what they had been through, then do it to others. We were too weak at the time to make a difference. We were all united bookworms, not a magic master bookwyrm like you.”

“Hmmm, what’s the difference between a bookworm and bookwyrm?”

“The amount of knowledge and ability to use it. Also, how they treat knowledge needles to say you have a very large amount of knowledge that you can actively access. The procedure you did to create your memobrary was unique. Then, when you would test out combinations by mashing their concepts together, you surpassed the average bookworm. Then, when you managed to defeat the dungeon becoming its master, you gained a lair like a dragon. That is something not even the goddess managed to do. So in almost every sense you are a book dragon or bookwyrm for short.”

Flash backs of defeating the last level of the dungeon made my body tremble. I blanked out for a moment before my mental blocks could get back in place. When I zoned back in, the bear was looking at me with concern. There were things in there I didn’t want to recall, but I needed to visit some people in there soon since I had promised to return once a millennia to see if anyone had redeemed themselves.

I still didn’t understand why it was so odd that I wanted to master the uses of the books I was reading. Creating new spells was relatively easy, especially as you did it more. It was better to move the conversation onto something else, so I tried to divert topics. “That makes sense, but wouldn’t I be a book goddess now?”

“That is a problem, isn’t it? I will have to take that up with the others.”

It was good he was looking into that, but it was far less important than most things on my ever growing to do list. “Any idea on how to handle the whole kingdom takeover thing?”

“I will have some of the other bears bring you relevant books. You can expect them in your bedroom within the hour. As for direct guidance, well, I don’t want to do that. We all failed, but I will say, watch how you look. Image will be key for growing more followers.”

I summoned up two berry bash smoothies that contained most of the berry flavors I knew of and gave the bearista one.

“We don’t drink.”

“Well, two for me then!”

I wondered what the bearista’s past was. “Hey, bearista. What’s your name? I am sure it’s very unique since it is from so long ago.”

“You can call me bearista. It really has sort of become my identity since you coined it so long ago. My old name is connected to the old me and times have changed. I want to change with them.”

“Haha, yes please do, I didn’t mean to coin that for you,” I said, smiling. It had been a sort of off handed comment I had made and just sorta stuck, I guess. It was super obvious to me.

“Most visitors would just call me bear or try to get my attention without naming me. Your name was cute and funny and we are cute and fluffy. The bearbrarians like their name even if it is close to being called barbearian. The bear guards do feel a little left out.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise. It never really crossed my mind after I was introduced to them with that name.” I pursed my lips and frowned in contemplation. “What about beardians?”

He nodded. “That is great. I will let them know later. It definitely fits the whole theme and the original intention of this place.”

Original intention? I never knew what it was! “What was it?”

“I wasn’t there for it, but from what I was told, it was a safe place for the goddess and her closest followers to bring their kids to read together. The children’s section was actually the first place that was made and had the original stuffed bears.”

“Oh wow, then what happened?”

“Well, as they got older, more books were added for their age. The adults had more time to read as their kids got older as well, unless they popped out more of them. More and more books came of high quality from noble gifts and it became a recourse with many rare books. That was when people with no kids started to visit to read for general purposes and the kids, now adults, wanted to read more adult stuff. They brought a new generation as well. Some people wanted to stay after death so they beseeched the goddess to allow them to stay.”

There was such a long history to the place, but it sort of made sense. My understanding of deities was growing. They really are just extra powerful mortals that have broken through to some sort of new level. The gap was probably greater than that of neophyte to archmage, though. I had no idea how I had crossed the threshold. It probably had something to do with my believers. 

The bears were real people. I felt bad for terrorizing them all the time and chasing them around. “I would like to gather everyone up and apologize for chasing you all around. Would that be possible?” I said, guilt creeping up on me.

“No need, we actually love the attention and it brought back memories for most of us. Most of us brought our children here and did the same thing. This place was intended for children and their families to grow together. You being youngish and playing games with us felt good. Then you even brought a family here and brought back the original purpose.”

That was good to hear. It explains why my parents’ friend brought me here in the first place. I had luckily done the right thing, even if I hadn’t meant to. Maybe it was setup that way so maybe I was influenced by the library’s design. I tried telling myself, still feeling guilty.

It brought me to a question I had been having for a while. “What is the purpose of this place now? I was told to bring more people and books.”

“This is your place now. You can do whatever you deem fit with it. It is your divine realm. We do want more books and people, though. We are sort of tired of just talking to each other.”

That was a lot to consider and decide on, which I had no time for at the moment. Just the idea of changing something so ancient felt weird. I was reluctant to bring just anybody here, but there had to be a solution to getting the bears some social time though. “How do you all feel about leaving this place and visiting the outside?”

He shook his head, then tilted it. “We were bound to stay in this place. It was part of the deal for binding our souls to the bears and staying here, but since you are the controller now, you can change that. I will talk with the others about it. We have become very introverted even amongst each other.”

That was a good stopping point, and I needed time to process and rest. I had been way too social recently and just needed to curl up with a book. It seemed like I was finally getting help with my todo list, even if it was expanding. I really needed to learn how to delegate more so I could read more.

{Firth! I have some tasks for you—