Lies & Labyrinths

“Emil Is that you?” Lilith blurted out. The girl froze, then softened.

“How did you know?”

“Because you’ve been wandering the halls all day and are the only student not going to a class. And you keep staring at me. What’s going on?”

“It’s my uncles. I can’t do this, Lilith. I can’t be who they want me to be.” Emil finally sat at the bench, anxious energy radiating off them even without the shaking. Lilith sat next to Emil, who had taken it upon themselves to shrink into a ball with their knees tucked up to their face in the few seconds it took for her to cross the room. Lilith placed a hand upon their shoulder, trying to think of what to say.

“Who are they? And what do they want you to be?”

“They’re Yashmari.”

“Yashmari? Like the tribe of the Lord of Skorn?”

Emil shook his head, looking up. “My father was the lord of Skorn. And they want me to be the next one. But I don’t want to be-”

“A lord?”

“A boy.”

Lilith blinked, processing that development. It did make sense. Emil was pretty bad at being a boy by all counts.

“Okay, so you don’t want to be a boy. You don’t have to be.”

“But I do. The prophecy… it says the son of Skorn would do so.” And then the sobbing really did begin.

“Yes, well, it didn’t say anything about the daughter, did it?”

Emil stopped crying, lifting their head up, the crease in their forehead furrowing in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“So I’m in Loomreading, yeah? I went looking through one of the notes yeah? End of the world? They have a word for it. Omeger.”

“Omega.”

“Right, ’s’what I said. Omega.” Lilith shrugged in her most casual gesture, trying to quickly reclaim face. “There was one like, months before our birthdays that the world would end on Sulore. Didn't happen. Prophecies come and go all the time. They’re a dime a dozen. They’re patterns. And they shouldn’t dictate your life for that matter. What does matter, is what do I call you now?”

Lilith’s friend smiled. “I think I like Emily.”

“Emily it is.”

“You’re acting very okay for someone who just said they don’t want to be their gender.”

“Yeah, but the first day we got to know each other was in the girl’s bathroom.”

“Okay, fair.” Emily smiled. It was nice to see; a familiar face with a shred of happiness on it in an otherwise dark world. Lilith leaned over, hugging her friend, who only ended up crying again. Lilith swallowed her discomfort, holding her tighter and patting her back through the process. She said nothing; there was nothing to be said.

There was a sudden burst of the door open and both Lilith and Emily jumped a good three inches off the ground. Emily’s uncles glared as he came charging into the room. Emily shrank further into the corner, but the man did not stop in front of her. Instead, he stopped in front of Lilith.

“You. The twig teach' with the glasses said you was friends with Emil.”

Lilith glared up at the man, saying nothing.

“Don’t need to deny it girl. C’mon. You’re coming with us.”

Lilith darted a look to Emily as if to tell her Say nothing.

Emily returned a look that seemed to say Don’t, but before another wordless word could be said, her uncles were dragging Lilith off to interrogate her about Emily’s current whereabouts.

The Yashmari uncles had dragged her into an empty classroom, then tossed her against a desk, pointing a stern finger.

“Talk. Where is he?”

“I haven’t seen Emil all day.” Lilith scowled at the man, gripping her side in pain from the throw.

“Yeah? Well I happen to know magic. In fact, I can make you tell the truth.”

“Are you sure that’s a good-” the one brother said before the other interjected.

“Yes, I’m sure.” The man waved his hands together once over before flicking his shaking fingers and murmuring. “Abracadabra…!” He said. Lilith heard the sound of a spell scroll tearing and noted the light glow of a spell scroll in his sleeve. He was a lousy magician. [35] The man pointed his finger, a blue spell launching from his fingers.

“Make ’em count, you only got the f’ree, remember?”

“Yes. And it’s Three, Edgar.’” The man rolled his eyes, returning his gaze to Lilith.

“Alrigh' girl. First. Have you seen Emil today?”

The spell caught the words from the man’s lips, then buzzed into her ear. Her tongue began to grow numb, itchy, and staticy. Her mouth began to glow. She thought about the question. No, I haven’t. I’ve only seen Emily.“No.” Lilith said.

“Huh.” The taller uncle looked back to his brother, then to Lilith. Maybe it’s broken?”

“Maybe she’s telling the truth.” Edgar said. “Ask her sumfin’ else Eurock.”

“Alright, do you know where Emil is?” Eurock said.

Drat. I do know where Emil is. Lilith tried to not lie, but her tongue boiled. So instead, she remained honest. “I’d rather not say.”

“That’s a yes.”

“That’s a maybe.”

“Wait, did that count?” Question number three.

“How should I know?” Lilith answered truthfully. The spell broke, but the adults didn’t seem to notice.

“Alright then. Where is Emil?”

Lilith took a big breath and let out a rather long lie. “He ran away and is never coming back. He said he doesn’t want to be the lord and then he took a teleporter out of here this morning. He’s far away and you’ll never find him and he hates you and I hate you!”

The uncles stared at one another, then the girl. “You think that’s true?

“I’m right here.”

Emily stood behind the pair, disguised as a boy, the disguise she had worn the longest. Her uncles spun to face her, going through many emotions at once before settling on “Where the bloody hell have you been?”

“Hiding, because you won’t take no for an answer!”

The uncles looked at each other. “No to what? You are LORD, boy!”

“I’m not! And I don’t want to be!” Emil’s voice was rising. “YOU want it. That’s why you’re doing this. Or you’re doing it because of tradition! Well, tradition got my dad killed, along with a whole lotta people. Maybe I don’t want tradition!”

Emily’s eyes were watering now. Lilith thought of sending her all the strength that she had to keep going, wishing there was some spell for that. [36]

“Is this really how you feel?” Euroch said, staring down at Emily.

“It is.” Emily said.

“Okay." His tone seemed definite. "C’mon Edgar, let’s go.”

Emily’s eyes lit up. She had been partially wincing, expecting a hit from her uncle. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Do your school, but know we’re waiting. We’ll let go of those teachers, but you gotta take the staff. Your dad insisted on it for your thirteenth, and I doubt we’ll be able to visit for parent-teacher night after today eh?”

Emily hugged her uncle, wrapping her arms around his belly and squeezing, though confused as to the sudden turn of events.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime. So where were you hiding?”

“I had a good place.” Emily said, smiling.

The uncles left shortly after that, but not before returning with a staff for Emil. It was mostly wooden, with an encasing near the top of a red iron that interlaced with sprouting branches, like a miniature tree reinforced with metal.

A gift, from her father.

Footnotes:

[35] A travelling magician was where Lilith had first heard the word for wizard. Harold The Wizard, he had called himself. But she had learned most magicians were just liars with things hidden up their sleeves. She supposed that might actually make her a magician as well.

[36] There is, it’s called being a goo friend.