Cytherea never lies, and it's incredibly apparent on a second read that that's true. She might omit information, let people come to their own conclusions, or have a brief dying fit to get out of talking but she truly never overtly lies.
she says she was trying to lure god back to the one place he couldn't go, and stop any new lyctors from being created. that was her plan, and that plan stayed in place... Mostly.
The moment she sees Gideons eyes she immediately understands the lineage of this ninth house cavalier, the implications of her existance, and the biggest lie she was ever told. But, she has her plan, and if her plan works out this won't matter.
So she kills the 5th, if they talked to the spirits in the facility, she'd be found out before she was able to get things done. Kills the 4th, making sure to kill the necromancer first, that controlled thanergetic burst the 4th house specializes in would do a horrible number on her. And (I would argue) tries to kill the 6th and 8th via the Avulsion trial, both could easily figure out what she is with their specialties, 6th psychometry only needs to touch the correct thing to see Cytherea 10,000 years ago, and if the 8th ever siphoned her it would be obvious so getting them out of the way would be ideal.
She gets the 9th to help her, she knows what this girl is, and maybe the necromancer can actually get the key, so added bonus (we don't know what she wants the key for from the avulsion trial and it doesn't seem like she actually uses it, so maybe just to keep it out of the other necro hands)
But just as her plans are coming together, as the 2nd calls for God and she's successfully thrown a wrench into any success at lyctorhood, she's figured out, the 6th pieced it together, and tries to kill her.
After getting turbo cancer and the remaining houses fight her, she finds that the woman who is always finding the worst way to go about anything has eaten her cavalier, and joins her in lyctorhood.
She can't achieve her goal any longer. The chances of her surviving till god returns to the 1st is low, even if she won this fight, she doesn't stand a chance against God now. She looks at Gideon, and her plans shift.
She can still win against God, she can still achieve her goal, even posthumously, all she needs to do is get the truth back to the other lyctors.
But how? How do you get a reality shattering lie to pass under the nose of god, the liar himself?
She knows what she has to do, and she knows how to get what she wants from the most manipulatable girl in the universe and so she fights her. She fights hard, she needs to make it look like she wants to kill the 9th caviler, but the entire time she's peppering in compliments "you would have made that little nun such a cavalier" and "you were gorgeous" and once that cavalier is forced to make that choice, to make her necromancer a lyctor, to hide those gold eyes in the Reverend daughters painted face. She smiles.
She knows God will take her in, and he has no reason to believe that he has a secret daughter out there, so he will be none the wiser. She dies knowing she's doomed god, she's at peace, And all this fresh lyctor needs to do to expose God for the liar he is, is just flash her gold eyes to any of her new lyctor siblings.
(Unfortunately harrow is a big gay lesbian and puts a pin in that (haha) for about 6 months)
kianamaiart
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