Liliene was a good girl at heart. She had disobeyed her mother. Or was it mothers? It felt like both Luna and Nex were, sometimes. Well, she had disobeyed her family and headed south, and worse, she had talked to someone. Reluctantly, she decided to accept her punishment.
For what felt like an eternity, she had diligently bled for her magic, learned from her mother, and sweated through Nex’s swordsmanship lessons. Surely it was enough?
“Mama! Can I see if Laura’s here today? Please,” Liliene asked.
Luna looked at Nex instead. “I see no other reason to keep her grounded.”
“It’s barely been three days…” Nex’s gaze dropped to Liliene’s. She looked at her princess’s eyes. Big. Red. Wet. Liliene knew she had won at the first hint of her big sister's exhale. “I suppose you can…”
“I’m going!”
For a moment, Nex wasn’t certain that Lili hadn’t inherited her distant ancestors’ mist form, as the little girl was nowhere to be seen after a blink.
During all those days, Laura had assiduously spent a few hours each afternoon in her clearing, playing with whatever artifact was easily accessible in the shop’s storeroom. Today was the same.
She tensed at the sound of rapid footsteps and the distant rustling of bushes. She thought it was an animal at first, maybe a wolf, but what emerged from the undergrowth was a blond-and-white blur shouting her name.
“Laura!”
Liliene extended her arms toward her friend and ran into the middle of the clearing.
“Ouch.”
She quickly changed her mind and found refuge under a willow tree, rubbing the exposed skin of her arms.
“Lili?” Laura padded toward her and stopped at the edge of the tree’s shadow. “Is it the sun again?” she asked, scrunching her nose as she looked up.
“Hm.” Liliene nodded with an embarrassed flush.
Laura looked at the girl waiting for her in the shadows. She didn’t understand why, but knew taking that single step to join Lili was a choice, one that would leave a mark. She took it anyway.
“Look,” Laura said, taking two small necklaces out of her pockets. A little disk dangled from each. “It’s a new one we received yesterday. I heard noble girls love it!”
Liliene took the necklace and examined it curiously. “What does it do?”
“Ehe.” Laura grinned smugly and put one around her own neck. She turned the wheel to choose a color and pressed a small button. Her eyes turned pink.
Liliene’s eyes widened in surprise. Quickly, she put her own necklace around her neck and pressed it. “Blue!” She had no idea if that had worked, but from the giggle coming from Laura, it probably did. “Is it magic?”
“Very low grade, but yes.” Laura raised a single finger and started to explain. “Artifacts are tiered by the potency of their magic. First…”
But Liliene wasn’t exactly paying attention; she turned the wheel of her necklace madly, her eyes reinventing the long-lost item known as a disco ball.
“... and the very rare ones, found only in ruins, we can’t reproduce yet.”
“Look! I can do magic, too.”
Liliene opened her palm and stared at it.
“Lili?”
Liliene faltered. She had done it a few times, but piercing her own skin from the inside always felt really, really gross. No matter. She bit her thumb instead.
“Lili! Are you okay?”
Laura, panicked, took her friend’s hand in her own. She froze when the blood that ran down Liliene’s thumb coalesced into a ball. Lili was frowning hard in concentration as she stared at the blood. It rippled first, then shifted into a vaguely humanoid shape with dangling limbs.
“I’m not as good as mama,” she admitted, a little red. “I tried making you…”
The dangly monster was Laura, just a very avant-garde version of her.
“This is…”
“I’ll get better, and I’ll make a prettier one!”
Laura recalled her mother’s stories, the tales of the land that they now inhabited. The scary monsters of the night who manipulated blood and feasted on human flesh. The same ones who feared the sun, for it would kill them. But they went extinct ages ago, or so the tales went.
“Are you… Are you a vampire?”
Liliene lowered her gaze and pulled the blood back in. The wound, now clean, had already started closing.
“Hm.” She nodded. “I think.”
“Are you going to… to eat me?”
“Eh?” Liliene looked into Laura’s eyes. She didn’t look scared. With her wide eyes, she looked like a rabbit politely asking about its own life expectancy. “No?” She wanted to say no, period, but she did feel the urge to bite Laura the other day.
Liliene pressed the button on Laura’s necklace to turn her eyes back to normal, to see the real, vibrant green eyes of the other girl. “Are we still friends?” she asked, playing nervously with her own necklace.
Lost in the constantly shifting irises of her friend, Laura simply smiled. “Yes. We’re still friends.”
“Do you want to see my home?” Liliene’s mood had instantly recovered, and she jumped to her feet. She took Laura’s hand without a care and ran toward her modest abode.
Laura’s body tensed more with each step they took inside the dark, damp cave hiding the entrance of the shelter.
“Are you sure you’re not going to eat me?” she asked, looking left and right.
Her insistence on that particular subject amused Lili. She chuckled and turned to face her friend. “Not unless you taste like cake!”
Laura smelled her arm. She probably didn’t.
Liliene slammed her palm against the wall panel. The door, barely visible in the dim light, released a burst of air. Liliene had quickly pulled the two of them in front of it.
“Wha…”
Laura watched as the giant slab of metal slowly opened, speechless. It revealed a white interior which looked even scarier, as if devoid of life. The walls were perfectly flat with nothing on them, no decorations, no portraits, no nothing.
On a table in the rightmost corner sat a pile of books, the only sign of the place being inhabited at all.
“Lili?” came a voice from another room.
Nex appeared and, seeing the two girls happily hand in hand, let out a weary sigh.
“I suppose what’s done is done. Come on in. Why are your eyes violet, by the way?”
Liliene ran around everywhere, showing Laura every bit of treasure she possessed, meaning very little. Until they ran into the trinket collection, that is.
Most of the artifacts had been there when they had opened the shelter, and, truth be told, they were nothing exceptional. A device taking pictures, one doing calculations for her, and one other, a cat moving its paw when put directly under the sun.
“They… They’re all working?” Laura asked.
Then her eyes locked on their target. Like a starving cat, she pounced on the small, rectangular one.
“Is that a picture box?”
Laura’s whole body was coiled, her eyes shining with an intensity Liliene had never witnessed.
“Hm. Yes… Mama fixed them for me.” Liliene jumped to her feet and ran to Luna. “Mama! Make it take a picture of Laura and me!”
The two girls spent their afternoon together, jumping between the shelter’s relics until the sun started to set and Laura had to go home.
***
Laura lay in her bed, fiddling with the trinket the blue-haired lady had given her. It was a small, rectangular panel displaying a picture of her and Lili. She looked at the picture again and clutched it to her chest.
“Mom!” she screamed. “Can I invite a friend over?”
Hearing no answer, Laura arranged the frame on her desk and padded downstairs.
“Mom?”
Her mother sat at the table, reading a missive on a small piece of paper. “The church is coming to oversee the progress we have made,” she said to her daughter. “It’s by their grace that we can exploit such fertile land. You must be on your best behavior, Laura.” She held her daughter’s gaze for a moment. “That means no more sneaking artifacts out for a while.”
Laura tensed, looking at the ground. She had no words to defend herself. Her mother stood and picked her up. “I don’t mind. You’re a responsible girl. You always bring them back, and you never break any. I’m proud that you’re curious, Laura.”
Laura flushed and let her head rest against her mother. “Thank you. I’ll be able to keep borrowing them? After the people from the church are gone?”
“Yes, sweetheart.” Her mother ruffled her hair. “Now, what was it about a friend?”
“Yes! I’ve met this girl, Lili. She lives in the forest with her mother.” Laura knew she couldn’t say much more than that. The two ladies taking care of Lili, Nex and Luna, had been very insistent that it was for Lili’s safety. She had to keep their location a secret. Laura promised, and promises were important.
“Alone in the woods? That’s weird; I didn’t hear of anyone settling there. But then again, I suppose the forest here isn’t that dangerous.”
Laura nodded. “I went to their house. They’re really nice. And you’ll see, Lili is so pretty it’s unfair.”
Her mother chuckled. “Alright. Since they took care of you, tell her mother to come along with that ‘Lili’ next time. I’d like to meet them.”
***
The following day, it was Nex who came to greet Laura’s mother, for the sole reason that blue hair wasn’t exactly commonplace.
“Thank you so much for inviting our little Lili to play today. She doesn’t have that many friends,” Nex said with a bow. While Nex had at least a plausible hair color, she still wore a shawl to hide her horns.
“Oh, think nothing of it. I’m Elise,” said the middle-aged lady standing on her porch.
“Nex.”
Elise frowned. “That’s a peculiar name, Nex. Not from around here?”
“No, we’re from the region.” Quite literally. Before you, even.
A curious hum escaped Elise, but she didn’t press her. Instead, they watched the two little girls run around with glee. Laura took Liliene’s hand and laughed, leaving the safety of a tree’s shadow.
It didn’t take long for the effects to manifest, and Lili ran away, her skin red and sweaty. Laura quickly hugged her. “I’m sorry, Lili, I… I forgot. Are you okay?”
Liliene nodded bravely, her eyes wet.
“Is she…” Elise started, but didn’t even know what to ask.
“She’s sickly. Her skin is very sensitive.”
“Oh, dear.”
“It’s not life-threatening. But it hurts her a lot after a while.”
After studying Nex cautiously, Elise asked, “Are you really her mother? You don’t look a day older than sixteen.”
“I’m twenty-four, actually. But thank you for the compliment. And she’s my little sister.”
Elise’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. Life truly was unfair. She recovered her spirits and looked critically between Nex and Liliene, and frowned. “You don’t look alike at all.”
“Ah, I know. She’s adopted.” Nex’s impassive face broke into a small, sad smile.
“And your mother?”
“Also sickly; she’s sorry she couldn’t come.”
The frown on Elise’s face deepened. “Your sickly mother adopted a sickly child, and you live alone in the woods? What is it going to be next? Everyone you once knew is dead?”
Nex’s expression was all the answer Elise needed.
“Oh, dear. I’m so sorry.” She grabbed Nex’s arm, giving the girl no choice but to follow her. “You’re eating with us tonight. And take our leftovers to your mother.”
And for the following months, Liliene and Laura were joined at the hip, exploring, adventuring, and having the time of their lives.
One month in, two additional place settings appeared on Laura’s kitchen table; two months in, the girls had cycled through every artifact in the shop; three months in, the girls conspired to have the same haircut.
By the end of the fourth month, planning had become unnecessary. The girls would meet in the clearing without any agreement; they would study together, play together, eat together. It was a small miracle they could be pried apart at night.
For Nex, Liliene’s current happiness far outweighed the risk of getting caught. In such a remote village, living amongst humans didn’t sound so bad. They were still, well, humans. But some of them could be surprisingly entertaining. Nice, even.
***
George wasn’t a man to believe gossip and rumors, but when he heard about a girl with red eyes appearing in a northern village, he knew it was his duty to check it out, using a routine inspection as a pretext. The settlement he was going to check sat eerily close to the former Demon King’s territory, after all.
He took a few heroes and rode north for days. When he arrived, he recognized that the place was fairly new. The timber of the houses was still pale and unweathered; the main paths hadn’t been worn bare yet. The village fell silent as he and his troop invaded the only square.
“I am George Laurent, holy paladin by the grace of our Lord,” he exclaimed, pulling his sword from its sheath. As if to answer his call, the sword glowed golden. “We are looking for a small child of ten years, blond, with eyes red as blood. If any of you is sheltering a vampire, an enemy of the light, you will face divine retribution.”
He studied the faces in the crowd; he wasn’t expecting any outright answers, but the crowd usually gave him all the information he wanted. And today was no different; they all glanced in the same direction.
“Eh?”
Lounging under the shade of a porch were two little girls, one of them perfectly matching the description he had heard in the rumors. The blond one looked at him with a mix of hurt and panic.
“She’s mine!” a hero roared at the sight of Liliene.
“Wait!”
George had no time to react. The male hero ran his fingers through his blond hair while arcs of electricity jumped along his body. He charged at them, spear in hand. In a blink, he had closed the gap, as if his body had turned into a lightning bolt. He abruptly stopped a meter short of reaching the girls. His head fell, followed soon after by his body.
Standing in front of the girls was a woman with electric-blue hair, holding a blade that looked as if it were made of mist.
“Malachar’s doll…” George had met her only once, during a peace talk when he was a boy, and he had loathed the experience. But he knew what she was capable of.
His eyes landed on the blond girl, now trembling and hiding behind the doll’s legs. He truly hated this assignment.
George dismounted, his grip on his sword tightening.
“My Lord. Show me the path.” He closed his eyes to pray.
…
Nothing came. No instinct, no path to victory revealed to him. Was the doll simply so strong that even his Lord couldn’t find him a path? Or was the child innocent?
“Leave,” Luna said.
“Luna, kill them,” Nex said, having rushed over at the commotion.
“Denied. Priority goes to saving energy.”
What was he supposed to do? He had to admit that part of him wanted to throw more heroes at her. They would be slaughtered without achieving anything, but they had clearly outlived their usefulness. He would even say that, for the most part, they were a thorn in everyone’s side, nothing more.
The answer didn’t matter. He was a tool, and a tool that nobody wielded was useless.
“We pull back,” George ordered.
“What?” one of his aides said, looking at George incredulously. “Our mission is right in front of—”
“We pull back,” he repeated with more strength in his voice. “We’re lucky to have seen her and lived to tell the tale,” he added, pointing toward Luna with a jerk of his chin.
On his way back, George prayed for answers he didn’t have. Why was the girl living in a remote village in peace? Why didn’t Malachar’s doll end their lives? Was Malachar alive? They never found his body after all.
***
Luna rushed Liliene home and started packing their few belongings.
“I know of another shelter north of here. Barely a week on foot,” Luna said.
“Mama?” Lili stood frozen between the two older girls, feeling her world crumble. “Mama, I don’t want to go. I…”
Nex knelt in front of Liliene. Her face was as pained as Liliene’s; she was a second away from breaking down. “We have to, Lili.” Nex pulled Liliene's small body into a hug. “I don’t want to leave either. I… I saw how happy you were. I’m so sorry, Princess.”
“But…” Liliene’s body shook, fighting weakly against her big sister’s grip.
“What if those men come again? What if we endanger Laura?” Nex said, and felt terrible for using the girl’s affection against her.
Silence reigned for a while, save for Luna’s efficient packing.
“Can I say goodbye? Please.” Liliene wasn’t even able to meet Nex’s gaze this time.
Nex looked at Luna for confirmation.
“We probably have a few days before they regroup and come back, but I’d prefer to put some distance between us as soon as possible,” Luna said, not stopping her work.
Under cover of night, Nex and Lili made their way to the village. They wouldn’t risk being found, not again. And there was no telling what the villagers’ reaction would be.
They stood in front of Laura’s house; thankfully, the window to her room was open. Nex wasn’t as skilled as Theresa had been, not even close. She wondered in passing if Liliene would ever awaken to that side of her powers. Nex focused and extended a small domain over the neighboring shadows. All of a sudden, she felt everything in range, the shapes of the trees, of the buildings, and every presence moving within her territory.
Then the world around Liliene turned black. When she blinked the darkness away, she was standing in Laura’s room, next to the bed.
“Lili?” Laura gasped in surprise.
“Shhh.” Liliene put a finger to her lips and smiled.
She wasn’t expecting Laura to throw herself at her, but welcomed it.
“Are you okay? There was that man, and… and… and Luna, she… ki-killed him.”
“Hm.” Liliene nodded. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t the first dead man she had seen. They had been found once, in the past. It wasn’t a happy memory. “I… I came to say goodbye.”
Laura tensed, her face lifting slowly to look at her friend. “Goodbye?”
“Mama said we can’t stay now.” Liliene's composure broke; she clutched at the other girl’s shoulder. “I don’t want to… I want us to stay together. Forever…” Her eyes watered.
Laura tightened her grip on Liliene’s dress and gave her a watery smile. “You sound like you’re proposing.”
Proposing? Liliene had read the stories about fated love and marriage. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was about, but apparently, it was about two people living together. That sounded exactly like what she wanted. “Hm. I want us to get married.”
Laura made a sound between a squeak and a laugh. “We can’t, silly. We’re both girls.”
“Eh? Why?” Liliene pulled back a little to look at Laura’s face. “You don’t want to?”
“Maybe? I don’t know… Maybe I’d like that…”
Liliene puffed out her chest; she was the older one here. At least she thought she was older; she wasn’t too sure, but felt like it anyway.
“Then, I’ll come back and marry you!”
Laura wasn’t sure what the future entailed, or whether or not Lili really meant it, but in that moment, she wanted to believe it. She stood up and gave Liliene a peck on the cheek. “Okay. I’ll wait for you, Lili.” The blush on Laura’s cheek spoke for itself.
After a nod to Nex, who was waiting outside, Liliene gave a last wave to her friend. A dome of shadow engulfed her body, and the next moment, she was gone.
Laura fell onto her bed and curled up into a ball, unable to stop sobbing.
Outside, Liliene took Nex’s hand in hers and walked away, looking back and hoping to see Laura at her window. It never happened. “Nex? Are you and Luna married?”
Nex groaned and looked at Lili with amusement. “Princess, do enlighten me as to your reasoning.”