The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Aurea

"So you can now hear all the prayers in real time?"

"Not all, yet. But up to one thousand."

"Even now, while you're talking to us?"

"Yes."

"And can you see your temples?"

"My temples?"

"Yes, the sacred places dedicated to you. I think I heard it somewhere that the gods were able to watch over their sacred places."

"Hm… let me see…"

Mom again closes her eyes, but this time she comes back quicker than with the prayers. Maybe she's getting the gist of it?

"Yes. I can see them. All the sites that are dedicated to me. Including one in Essendia."

"In Essendia?"

"Yes. It seems that a person who was brought there as a slave created some sort of altar in captivity and is converting other slaves."

"And can you help those slaves?"

"I'm already working on it. It seems that I can't simply teleport them out of there, but I can lend the one who's been officiating a fraction of my power."

"Oh, you're giving him priestly power!"

"It seems so, yeah."

"That's so awesome, Mom!!"

"It seems that I need to become a bit stronger to do more impressive miracles, like teleporting the whole group to safety. But with my magic, the priest will be able to at least ease their suffering, and maybe find a way to escape."

"And you're lending these powers right now?"

"Yes, I'm actually talking to her at this very moment. She is a wolf beastkin who's been living in captivity ever since she was born, probably the daughter of a slave herself."

"Wait, you're talking to her at the same time you're talking to us?"

"Yes, Aurea. What you said at the very beginning is true. And thanks to you, I know how to pull it off now. I will be able to not space out here when I'm brought to that weird place."

This is all good news and all, but there's something fishy going on… she's being too unemotional. Like distant.

Maybe that's how deities are, so better not to press it further. She's dealing with a whole lot of stuff inside her head that I can't even begin to comprehend.

"I thought that priests needed some sort of ordination through a church and that temples needed complex rituals and all that stuff."

That's a good question, Levy.

"Yes, my love. That is normally the case. I don't know how to explain how I know it, but it seems that it works differently for me because of my own history and my beliefs. The nature of my religion is free of those constraints."

"I see…"

Well, that's pretty helpful. It means that we can sow the religion throughout the lands controlled by the Church through a grassroots movement.

The goddess will soon awaken, and then we'll need every little bit of advantage we might gather.

Even though a goddess of compassion isn't exactly a direct boon to a war, any godly help will be much appreciated.

"I know what you're thinking, Aurea. Don't worry, this war is a war of compassion, after all. It's a war to end slavery. And I'll do all that's in my power to help. As long as it doesn't bend to other goals."

"Huh? Can you read minds now, Mom?"

"Don't you know that all mothers can read the minds of their children?"

"Huh?"

"Hahahahahah. I'm kidding. One wouldn't need the powers of a deity to guess that you were thinking about the war. After all, you are one of the generals, and your life has been all about it for some time."

She laughed. At last, a display of true emotion. It was a genuine laughter that reached her eyes. For the first time today, she really looked like the mother I know.

"I guess you're right, Mom. And you may rest assured, that is the only goal of the war."

"And, on my side, I will make sure that my religion stays decentralized and free. No more big churches dictating what everyone's life should be like."

"My wife really became a goddess in the truest sense, after all…"

Levinna has been mostly silent through all this conversation, and I had kinda forgotten about her, so focused I was on all the possibilities that having a deity on our side might bring.

Mom Lily turns to me with a compassionate gaze and says just one word. But that's all I need to understand.

"Aurea…"

I nod, stand up, and leave.

:::

PoV: Levinna

Our daughter is so amazing. One chat was all she needed to find out a solution to a problem that I was racking my brains trying to solve.

Which brought to light another, bigger, problem.

After she leaves, Lily and I are alone in the living room, and I know that the officers of our institute are probably aching to talk to us and ask for directions on some practical matters.

But this is not something I can leave for later.

"Lily. Are you… still you?"

This is the big question, the core of all my worries.

Has becoming a goddess fundamentally changed who my wife is?

"That isn't an easy question to answer, my love. Short answer, yes, I'm still the woman who fell in love with you, the woman who gave birth to Aurea and who lived ten years as a slave."

"I feel like there's an 'and yet' coming…"

Her chuckle is still as bright as always.

"And yet, I am not just that. Especially now that I am listening to my followers' prayers… I'm a lot more than… no, I think that it's more accurate to say that it's like that exactly because I am the person I am."

"What do you mean?"

"There are hundreds of cries for help coming through my mind at this very moment. Can you even picture a situation in which I, Lillian Annes, would hear all those cries and, wielding power, I would just ignore them?"

"You're right. That's who you've always been, the woman I've always loved."

"There you have it. And yet, all this listening, and all this power, have a toll. I can listen to all and heed most of it. I can talk to several people and split my consciousness like this. But only by using the emotion that defines the divinity in me."

"Compassion…"

"Exactly. By wielding compassion as the instrument through which I exert power, the feeling of compassion itself ends up taking precedence over everything else. And all other emotions end up being submerged in a sea of pure compassion."

"Even love?"

"Yes. Love, anger, lust… Everything else is dulled out within me. And yet, I can't bring myself to refuse them, now that I can hear all of them."

This time, I'm the one chuckling.

"If you did that, then you would be ceasing to be the Lily I've always known and loved."

"Right? Do you understand now?"

"I do… it's like the exact same thing that empowers you at the same time binds you."

"That's the very nature of power, isn't it?"

"You're right, Lily. As always."

"And it doesn't mean that I don't love you anymore or that I don't want to be with you. Those feelings still exist within me."

"But they are milder because you are overwhelmed with compassion. And you seem distant because you are processing so much information at once."

"Yes."

"I'll have to redouble my efforts to spice things up, then."