1.91 – At Ease

None really

"Oh. Lilibra, right?"

Lili winced, and for a moment a feeling of distress smothered Maple. She'd displeased her, a goddess, incomprehensible in all manner. Compared to her, Maple was nothing. How could she have done this? It was the worst thing she'd ever done, she wouldn't be able to live with herself anymore—

The feeling passed.

"Really, just Lili is fine. Or any other nickname. Invoking my full name is like...well, it's like if I suddenly screamed your name two inches from your ear. It demands all of my attention for the briefest of moments."

"Oh. Sorry, uh, Lili. Does just saying—g-o-d do that, too?"

She'd been saying god more often, partly out of spite, and partly to cope with the knowledge that they existed. She was mildly shaken. Mildly. She looked down at the teacup again, and tried to avoid the mind-bending reality around them. She felt calm, mostly. So this was the goddess behind so much that had happened. In-person. Shouldn't she feel more...anything about it?

Oh, right. She was at ease. That was probably a good thing, Maple calmly reflected. The literal goddess waved a hand.

"It's not a huge deal, dear, just a preference. Say god all you want, it won't do anything. When you said it at that boulder, I simply happened to be watching at the time, and thought it would be amusing. It was."

"You, um, watch me?"

Was this goddess always watching her? An omnipresent voyeur to all her deeds? Maple realized she found that arousing more than anything, and tried not to show it. The goddess was gorgeous. She would let her watch anything she wanted to. No wonder Emma seemed to like her.

"Not always, dear. I watch a lot of things. And yes, that tea is for you if you want it. Sweetened with nectar."

"Nectar...of the gods?"

Lili laughed in a poised way and took a sip of her own tea.

"It's not ambrosia. No, it's from a kind of lily. I thought it'd be...cute. You understand, right? Maple?"

Was she saying it was intended as a kind of pun? The corner of Maple's lips twitched upward, and she picked up the teacup. Perfect drinking temperature, a pleasant smell, and the liquid inside didn't have any fractals or incomprehensible forms that she could tell. She took a sip.

"It's very nice, thank you."

They sat quietly for a minute. Maple took in the goddess. She had no idea what to say. She'd be panicking over that, if she weren't at ease. Should she ask something? She had a ton of questions. How much time did they have?

Lili didn't seem to be in any kind of rush. And then it was like she'd read her mind, or might just truly be an all-knowing goddess, who could predict even the most obvious of things.

"I bet you have a ton of questions. Let's limit it to...oh, three. Even giving you information is taxing, depending on what it is. No tricks, though. I'm not a genie. Don't ask me for the answer to life, the universe, and everything, and think I'll tell you anything except '42'. Let's just have a conversation."

Oh boy, what should she ask. What would be important? What she wants from her, probably. Maybe why she brought her here, though that might be a little irrelevant if she didn't care to return. Was anyone else from Earth here? Was she Remi's 'mistress'? She hadn't manipulated Emma too much, right? She kind of worried about that sometimes.

And a host of other questions came to mind, major and minor. Maybe she should ask for a spell or something. But she said she wasn't a genie, it was just a conversation. Maple's face un-scrunched and she let out a breath.

"That's hard, jeez. I don't know what I should ask. You really have seen Earth though, huh? Are you a goddess there, too? Or uh, no wait I didn't mean to waste a—"

"Oh, you silly little overthinking—I shouldn't have set it up that way, after all. Forget about the three questions thing. We'll just talk, okay?"

"Um, okay."

Infinite question glitch, yippee. Maple sipped at her tea, and then gulped it. No matter how much she drank, the same amount seemed to remain in the cup. Infinite tea glitch, too.

"But no, I'm not a goddess there. I do have a lot of time on my hands, and I just peek at things. I quite like reading, in particular, and there's one web serial I'm reading now, that I think you'd probably like."

The realm around Maple seemed to distort even more, and she got the sense the goddess was doing something odd. Defying some natural law, or transcending some boundary that shouldn't be possible. She prompted Lili to go on.

"It's called Otherworld Girlboss Pervert. Delightful story. Alas, showing it to you here would be...costly."

"It doesn't really sound like something I'd read..."

Lili chuckled like she'd just gotten away with something she shouldn't have, but didn't elaborate further. Maple shrugged.

"Okay, I guess um, what do you want from me? Or why did you bring me to this world? If it was you that brought me here? That's three questions, but it's really only one question, you know? I know we aren't doing the question thing anymore, but if we were, my first question would simply be: why?"

"Hah, I thought I said no tricks? But yes, I would have agreed that could constitute one question. Let's see...I did bring you to this world. The reason for that is complicated, but put simply, this world needs it. Innovation, new people, new things. It requires it, to exist."

Maple felt like she'd been rather clever, it wasn't really a trick. Her next question was the same thing.

"Okay, I guess. But why me?"

"Oh, partly random chance. Additionally, I made a little bet with my sister this time. The human's goddess you know about—don't say her name. The one Thera had been under the influence of before liberating herself."

Maple nodded. Claira. She didn't say it. And, she wouldn't say the names of any gods in the future. It made sense why Sasha and Thera danced around saying them, now.

"You were meant to be her pick, but we swapped. And where would you be now, if you she had gotten you? An obedient, chaste priestess. You would have fit in quite well, I'm sure."

Would she have? She kind of wanted to take offense to that, but...she probably would have just gone along with things if she'd ended up in situation like that when she'd first arrived here, rather than rebelling fervently like Thera had.

Thera hated that goddess and her church. Maple would hate that kind of situation now. Had Lili...saved her from that? What if she would have been happy there, back then, before everything that'd happened?

It would have been tolerable, and she just—wouldn't have known what she was missing? No Emma, the silly pervert to light up her life? Lili continued.

"It would have been tragic, I thought. You know I'm the goddess of sex and freedom, don't you? Us gods get two concepts, these days. Anyway, my sister really chafes on me because of that. She's chastity and restraint. Just tragic. Look how far you've come—or cum—with just a little encouragement."

She laughed at her joke, and Maple had to chuckle too. She was at ease, but she felt like Lili was right. She was glad she hadn't ended up under that one's influence instead. Emma, Thera, her other friends. She'd gained all of that thanks to Lili. But still...

"Um, thank you, first of all. I'm really glad I met Emma, and—everyone. It would have been tragic, and I wouldn't have even known what I was missing out on. So, thank you. Okay, but also. You call that a little?"

She made her a [Slut], an [Interspecies Seductress], she got all kinds of lewd Skills, and so many perverse things happened as a result—

"Yes, yes. I tapped just a little too hard, and it threw everything out of balance. Like how you spanked Thera a little too hard in the bathroom, and left that hand print. I didn't mean to be so heavy-handed, you understand?"

Maple blushed. The goddess had watched that too, apparently. She chuckled at Maple's reaction.

"It influenced things quite direly, you know? I'm the goddess of freedom, not coercion. The ripples of that heavy tap cost me more each day, and that's why you're here. In that spa, and in my domain now. Your classes will reset, fixing the first issue. And before you become all...feathery, I brought you here to make sure that's what you want. If you ended up feeling like that was forced on you too, then—"

She scoffed and shook her head. It'd cost her, much, Maple assumed. Goddess points, or whatever the heck.

"You mean, you could reset my classes without me becoming erogelic?"

"Yep. It's your choice. Cherry?"

She passed a bowl of cherries over, that had just appeared, but Maple felt like had always been there. Weird. She ate one.

"Um, I don't know. What do you think? Is there any reason I shouldn't become erogelic? It seemed kind of cool..."

"I can give you thousands of reasons why you should or shouldn't. You need to decide and live life for yourself, at some point, sweetie. You can't just let it happen to you. You see why she's so troublesome for me?"

Lili turned her head to the floating tesseract fractal, or whatever it was, and gestured to Maple. That wasn't really fair. The fractal stared into her very soul and seemed to morph in a way that said it agreed with her, to Lili's mild chagrin.

"I just meant, is there anything I should know about? It's not—dangerous or anything?"

"Danger comes in many forms, but if it helps, I imagine whatever you think about it based on what Remi told you is true enough. Be sure of yourself by time our conversation is finished. I don't want any but she didn't tell me about this one really specific thing, and therefore I was manipulated into the decision."

"Mh. Alright, I guess. Is it hard being a goddess of freedom?"

Lili looked surprised, and shrugged.

"You should see the goddess of sex and drugs. But, you'd have used one of your questions on that?"

"I thought we weren't doing that? But, probably not, I guess. It's just that if not-freedom things cost you your goddess-points, and that's why your 'tap' was bad, and things need to be my own choice...you just told me to be sure of myself. And to decide. It's like, um, you can't command people to exercise their freedom, right?"

Lili waved and pointed several times to Maple.

"See? You see? Troublesome. And she isn't even usually all philosophical like that, just passive."

"Hey, I'm not that passive. I...I'm becoming less passive."

She had invited Thera to her tent, and then even Sylla. Maybe that had been from the horny zone, partly. Maybe she was a little...passive, overall. But it was her freedom to be that way, wasn't it?

"You are, and I am very happy for you. You're not wrong about it being...tedious because of that kind of thing. I told Remi to leave whenever she wanted. Did she tell you how long she's been there? Quite long for a human. It worked out in the end, now, but...if I had sent her a message reminding her she could leave whenever she wanted, she would have taken it as a suggestion to leave, wouldn't she have? So yes, if you understand, then I would appreciate it—not request it—if you acted in a way that's not detrimental to me. I don't desire you to do anything but exercise your own free will, and I don't desire even that."

Maple tilted her head, but she understood. Lili would benefit from sex and freedom, while exerting control, or coercion on her part, would cost her. But she couldn't command or even ask Maple to exercise her freedom, because then she wouldn't be doing it freely. And even acknowledging it like this was influencing Maple.

"Uh, sorry—or, not sorry, because I should do what I want, not what you want—but not that either, because that's taking it into consideration even more. And this is getting kind of silly, but I understand. I'll do what I want? But not because you'd want that, because it's my freedom. Yes. But I am taking that into consideration because it's the polite thing to do with anyone—seriously, I don't know how you stand being the goddess of freedom."

"And sex. But yes...don't think about it too much, dear, or we'll be stuck here all day. Speaking of which, you are still cumming, back in the physical realm. Time's just slower here."

Maple turned red having the state of her body acknowledged as still cumming. She glanced at the fractal fellow beside Lili. Embarrassing, really.