Lies & Labyrinths

The first day of school is the longest in the school year; this is a known oddity of the inner workings of time at the academic level. The second day of school is almost as long, but shortens. After that, they become more blurred together.

Lilith had gone to Klymviner’s, dejected to find the professor had returned safely to the school. Back to writing on the board while her classmates continued their best to decipher the lockbox. The students had figured out that the puzzle required a four letter word by trial and error, noting how it locked after 4 incorrect letter presses. Someone made the intelligent decision to write out every combination, and one by one the class worked their way through it.

Lilith finished her work far faster on the third day, feeling more confident in her handwriting. Klymviner didn’t care; honestly she seemed to have forgotten about Lilith. The whole class seemed as big a farce as Arleigh’s, just focused on the entirety of the student body instead of the bottom feeders in detention. The box did eventually click open, revealing that same bigger-on-the-inside box. It wasn’t empty. Instead, only a single playing card remained on the inside: A knave of spades. The color drained from Klymviner’s face at the sight of it, and off she had gone to the headmaster to report the latest. None could be certain when the Knave had taken it, but it had at the very least thrown the scent off of Lilith and Emily’s heist of the magical artifact. A passing gift it seemed, of Lilith's mysterious benefactor.

Twixtfeather’s class was much the same; the Stygian children were back, seemingly just as confused as before. She sat near them this time, and so did Emily (who seemed all the same, yet very happy. Lilith would later come to find out that to keep undercover, Emily had made a few important but unnoticeable alterations to her form with the mask to stay incognito, while still keeping the dysphoria at bay). The other students now openly stared at Emily, Christopher Stonehammer and his gang seeming to have a sort of reverence for Emily that circumvented her friendship with Lilith. Stonehammer even stopped by their desk when class let out, whispering to Emily that if she needed anything, anything at all, to simply let him and his friends know.

Somehow, the sudden friendliness of the former bullies made both of them all the more sick.

“What was that about?” Lilith asked after the bell had rang, as the pair walked the hall before inevitably splitting up for their next class.

“The Stonehammers were big fans of my dad…” she admitted. “People like them fawn over power.”

It was probably why they ran in such a large group and all looked to Christopher, the boy with a noble title and the clear physical advantage.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Emily glanced around. “Can you meet me at the garden at lunch? I’d ask you to meet me after class, but, well…”

“Yeah. Thanks for the reminder of my prison sentence. I’ll be there and we can talk, whatever it is.”

They waved to one another, parting at the intersection of the hall while the other students filtered around them to their respective classes.

Inam had converted her entire room to the printing of the spell scrolls, and had made quite the progress. She was so caught up in her work that she had completely forgotten to talk about reading the loom, only operating it. The woman had drafted diagrams, and showed Lilith during the class how to operate it to maximum efficiency. Together, they made punch cards for more spells. It was a good use of time, if time-consuming. All that work to make the punch card, and then the machine would take care of the rest. A little bit of work for a lot of a break in detention. It seemed a fair trade-off.

Emily was waiting at her tree when Lilith arrived during lunch. She leaned against the tree with her staff leaning against her shoulder, much like a shepherd from Woolton. She smiled at the sight of Lilith, taking the staff from her shoulder and laying it across her lap as she sat firelog style, giving a small wave to Lilith when she got closer.

“Thanks for giving up your lunch for me.”

“No problem, but that’s two you owe me, Em.” Lilith grinned. She sat down on the ground, trying her best to match the stacked-leg pose of her friend before crossing her legs in a more traditional sitting pattern. “So what’s up?”

Emily offered the staff with both hands. “What’s wrong with this?”

“It’s a metal stick?” Lilith asked.

“No. Well. Yes. But not that. Druids don’t use metal. Our gifts were communed to us by the Fey, and they forbid iron. Yet, this staff is covered in iron plates.”

“That’s what you wanted to show me? A stick with iron?”

“Well, it’s the engraving.” Emily gestured once more for Lilith to pick it up, rolling it in her hands for her friend to see. “Right there. It’s in the same language that the stygians speak. I can read it now, because of the mask.”

Lilith glanced at the letters, lifting up the staff to inspect it. She definitely couldn’t read it now, so it seemed spot on.

“What does it say?”

“That the blood of two friends is needed to release it.”

There were two small thorns on the staff, one made of wood, one of metal. It seemed that was where they were to draw the blood.

“You want to do this here? With me?”

“Why not? You’re my friend. You’re my only friend here, Lilith. The other kids think I’m weird, and I think I’m weird. I don’t really belong in any of the other buildings, just out here. Just like every Oshmari before me. But this time is different, I’m also here as a Yashmari.”

“Is that bad?”

“There hasn’t ever been a Yashmari student. And I don’t want to be followed around by the likes of Stonehammer, but that doesn’t do me much good, since everyone seems to know about me now. The kids whisper in the halls, and the professors give me looks. Inam nearly faints every time I even squeak now.”

“She seems preoccupied lately if that helps.”

“Maybe a little.” Emily smiled. “So, friend… Want to see what my dad left me?”

Lilith took a sharp inhale, nodded, and then without another thought, pricked her finger against the wood of the staff. Emily did the same on the metal, both of them wincing at the smallest drop of blood that fell on the iron and ironwood. There was a click, and a snap as the metal fell off the staff, and beneath lay a cloth fabric.

Emily reached out, grabbing it and pulling it out. She stared at it, then seemed to grow sad,dropping it and letting tears well up in her eyes.

“I should have known. Just more war stuff.”

Lilith reached out. “May I?”

“Sure.” Emily said with a dejected tone.

Lilith took the paper, letting Emily clutch the staff once more (more for comfort than anything else) as she looked over it. It was a map, but one without words, or references. Only seven circles across all of Temrin.

“Shouldn’t there be like, letters or instructions or anything?”

“No. My people don’t believe in it.”

“They don’t?”

Emily shook her head. “I had to learn how to read and write when I got here. Klymviner was very cruel to me when I arrived. I was no more than seven and she ridiculed for not knowing my ABCs.”

“Why don’t your people believe in writing things down?”

“Oshmari are druids. We do not write our traditions down for conquerors to find. We are resilient. We pass down our knowledge each generation. The Oshmari are the bringers of peace. But my dad’s side, the Yashmari, are the bringers of strife. The various families took that to mean different things. , Some thought that meant to wage war. Some thought that meant to make weapons. Others thought that meant to make slaves. The Warmakers, the Swordmakers and the Debtmakers.”

“Which one was your dad?”

“My father was a slave.” Lilith flinched, frowning at the words. “Conquered from his homeland, by the Debtmakers, who force people to take life debts when defeated. Slave takers is a better name. After that he was eventually sold to a smith of the Swordmakers until they made him an apprentice in the art. And when he learned all he could, he killed his master and the Debtmakers and made his own army of Warmakers. And one by one, he conquered all of the tribes of the plains around the mountains of Skjorn, and then he took the mountains themselves. Where my mother and her family were from.”

“Wow.” Lilith let slip, holding her breath the entire time as she listened, captivated. “Is that where your family met?”

“Yes. My father arrived by himself. Claimed it was his ‘right and rite’ to be there, to lay claim. My grandfather could tell right away that he was practicing some sect of our ways, and offered to speak with him. They talked at length from sundown to sunrise, my grandfather explaining the way our two groups work together. That the people of the basin protected the people of the heights, and that his people had seemed to have forgotten their ways. And so my father stayed and sent his army off.”

“You mean to conquer. Your dad took over an entire continent.”

“I know.” Emily looked away. “He did more than that. He thought he could take over all the old ruins around the world, protect them. Keep them from falling to some 7 blokes he was worried about. Then he went off to Sulore and never came back.”

“The Seven Princes. Your dad was trying to take over everywhere to stop them from being taken by devils. This was his map?”

“Mhm.”

“These aren’t conquest points. They’re the ritual sites. Look, here’s my hometown.” Lilith tapped on an unassuming patch of brown near some mountains of western Avalon. “My home is right behind this circle right here. When I was younger, I met a group of traveling Oshmari. They did something to purify some old ruins behind our town in the woods.That means this is the map that The Knave was after, the one your uncles were talking about.”

“And I’d kindly like for you to hand it over.”

Lilith and Emily looked up. The Knave towered over them, close enough to see the cracks in the mask where a silver needle had been stabbed through,close enough to see a ruby red eye that looked like the orb of Orvis affixed in an eye socket.

Close enough to see the billowing cape without any wind, and the armor made of weaving wooden lattice.

The reaction of Emily was impressive, if not futile. She swung the staff, the end glowing as she attempted to launch some nature spell that Lilith had never seen. The Knave was much faster, grabbing the end and wrestling it from the girl's hands, tossing it with a clatter down the polished stone steps that lead to the veranda of the teleporter.

Lilith conjured her dagger, the bracelet swiftly turning back into a blade as she stepped in front of her friend.

“Why are you here!?”

“To tie up some loose ends.” The Knave responded. “I will not harm you, but I need to see that map.”

“You’re going to use it to finish what my uncles started, aren’t you!?” Emily said, scrambling her bottom up the stairs and smacking into a pillar.

“Far from it. I’m restoring the balance. All it would take to bring the world crashing down is for you to be the one to complete the Weaving. I know you’ll make the right decision next week, Emily.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know many things, girl.”

The Knave reached down, picking up the map and looking it over. They took out another map, and without procuring any pen that they could see, simply placed their left index finger on their map and marked all seven locations. When they were done, they dropped the map to the ground.

“There. Now, you’ve been so kind to me, so I’ll let you know how things are going to play out from here. I will see you both next Friday, at the Weaving. It will be in your best interest to not follow me. I really wish you wouldn’t, but I know you will, Lilith. Just like I know you don’t have the heart to try to attack me because you want to trust me.”

The Knave stepped past the two. Lilith glared, blade still drawn. Every fiber of her being, save for a small shred wanted to lunge forward… but she didn’t. Her hand trembled and she stayed the blade, even while she watched The Knave walk up to the teleporter.

“That’s broken.” Lilith said through gritted teeth.

“They actually fixed it this morning. But I won’t be using it for traveling anywhere else.” The Knave reached into their pocket, procuring something that looked like a watch, but with a large amethyst crystal. The same one Lilith had watched the Knave take from the desk of Arleigh her first night.

“Where are you going?”

“Here. Just not now. I told you already. I’ll see you next Frivas.” The teleporter began to glow, humming in sync with the crystal. The Knave opened up the face of the watch, spinning the hour hand around it clock-wise. When they were finished, they snapped the lid shut and clicked a button at the top. The teleporter began to grow in color, flickering and humming before the Knave vanished altogether.

Emily and Lilith took all but a second to look at each other, before sprinting off immediately to find the nearest adult.