Lies & Labyrinths

Lilith dreamed that night of her home in flames, of Wheatsburg engulfed in a great inferno and the trees of the forest behind the schoolhouse dancing in the firelight. She could hear the screams of the dying, the shouts of soldiers, the smell of spells flying across the sky and some great beast with giant wings that blotted out the stars above as it passed overhead. She was holding someone, whose face she couldn’t see, and she was sobbing.

Lilith woke up sobbing, being shaken from her slumber by Emily.

“Lilith! Lilith!” she repeated, who finally snapped awake and bolted upright, looking around the darkness of the room.

“What!? What’s going on?” She asked, finding her throat and head hurt.

“Take a deep breath. It's night, we're in your room.”

“What are you doing here?” She asked, her head a blur as she started to piece the events together.

“You begged me to stay so I did. I’ve been napping on the floor. You were having a nightmare I think; you kept calling for me.”

“I did?” Lilith rubbed her head. The memory of the dream was fading, replaced with the nightmare of the waking world. “Did I say anything else last night?”

“Only that ‘they’re all evil’ and ‘they’re going to kill us’.”

“Oh, good. You got the gist of it then.” Lilith climbed out of the bed, noting that there was the light dampness in the silhouette of her shape on the bed from a night of cold sweats. The blankets were all stuffed in the corner of the bed in a loose pile from her tossing and turning, something that in all of her life she couldn’t recall. In fact, it had been the first time barring a bad fever as a young girl that she could even recall having not slept soundly through the night. She hoped it would be the last time. [41]

Throwing her legs over the edge of the bed, Lilith stood up, moving to the dresser. "The school's gone and started profiting off the war."

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to go break the scroll printer I made.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“And maybe burn the school down while I’m at it.”

Emily sighed, sliding off the bed as well. “I’ll go get my staff. Meet me at the park.”

“I’ll be there, but I need to go talk to someone first.”

“What?”

“Just… trust me. I feel like we’ll need all the help we can get if we can pull this off.”

Her only stop happened to be three doors down from her own. Lilith pressed her hand against the knob, trying it to no avail. She thought of knocking, but the chance of waking a prefect on the floor was too great. She sighed pressing her head against the door while her hand still held the doorknob. If only there were some way to pick the lock…

Wait! That was it! She focused on the bracelet, pushing one end against the keyhole, then concentrated. Come on, just wiggle in there and hit the tumbler she thought, willing the metal to bend. She heard a small click, and tried again.

The door swung open.

Dwema lay in her bed, turned to face away from the door deep in sleep. Lilith crept inside, unsure what to say or what to do. Hey there, It’s your old study buddy. I was just doing some light breaking and entering and wanted to know if you’d like to have bygones be bygones. No, that wouldn’t work. Wanna blow up the library? also seemed like less of a proper response.

“Dwema?” Lilith whispered into the room.

The dwarf girl rolled over, still wearing a bandage around one eye where she had been clobbered by the metal ball. Her remaining good eye glared.

“I’m sorry.” Lilith said. “I’m a liar. I lie about everything. I lied to get into this school. I lied to get through my classes. I’m a fraud, a fake, and even worse, I lied to you after you gave me a second chance after I hurt your feelings the first day.”

Dwema rolled back over. Lilith felt her eyes stinging as tears started welling up.

“Please, Dwema. I’ll tell you everything, right here and now.”

“Why?”

“Because I need your help. Because I’m not the worst of the liars here. And I need you because you’re the only person who probably has any clue how to stop some truly horrible people before they do something monstrous.”

Dwema turned back around, sitting up. “Start talking.”

And so she did. Lilith told her of the day Arleigh had arrived, of the spell scroll in full detail. She shared her side of the story, when the silver needle broke into its current silver dagger form. She showed the blade to Dwema, morphed it in her hand, and told how she had been sworn to secrecy by the Headmaster, instructed to never show it, never use it on another person. She told Dwema of the mask that she had stolen, of her time with Emily, and then of everything she had heard from Arleigh.

And then she started truly crying again.

“Are you gonna do that much longer?” Dwema sighed, standing up and moving to her dresser to grab some clothes.

Lilith sniffed, wiping her eyes. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m getting dressed. There’s an old dwarf saying, if you want something done, you gotta get a dwarf to do it themselves.”

This of course only made Lilith cry harder, hugging Dwema from behind. The girl struggled for a moment before reaching up, patting Lilith on the face.

“Please, enough of that. Emotions are icky.”

“Okay, sorry, sorry. I just thought you’d never forgive me.”

“I still might not,” Dwema huffed, throwing on an ensemble, “But I’m not about to let you two go to go cause bedlam all alone. You’d probably not do it right anyway. Now let’s go get the druid and come up with a plan.”

Emily was waiting at the gazebo when they arrived, her back turned from the path, staring at the teleporter as if The Knave could spring forth from it at any moment. This of course made Emily jump a good foot in the air at the sound of Lilith clearing her throat from behind. She spun, smiling, then freezing her expression at the sight of Dwema.

“Oh, you brought backup.”

“Yeah, she did.”

Lilith stepped closer, whispering in her ear “I didn’t tell her anything else. That’s your choice and I’m not going to out you”. Patting Emily’s shoulder, she smiled. “So, Em, Dwema thinks she might have an idea of what to do.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, two Deltas and a Gamma aren’t much good on their own. Especially if we’ve gotta do a lot of damage fast. So I figured, why don’t we even the odds?”

“And how do you suggest we do that?”

“By getting something that’s been cooped up, jonesing for a fight for a century or so.” Dwema gestured across the garden, pointing to the side of the Central building where Professor Conrad’s (staff’s) classroom was located.

Lilith glanced at Emily, who was mulling it over. “Wouldn’t he just tell on us?”

“Maybe. But I don’t think he will. He’s been cooped up for so long in there, I feel he’s just waiting to get out.”

Emily and Lilith shrugged. It was worth a shot. Off the trio departed, crouching low and sneaking out the garden and around the side of the school. The only opposition they encountered was a snoring Groundskeeper McDougal, who was planted square on a bench with a long-emptied flask. They crept on tip-toes past him, hugging the brick wall and shuffling around it until they were firmly out of sight and directly beneath the window to conjuration.

Dwema returned to the pile of dirt that she had moved once before, focusing her strength on it. Once more, Lilith noted the glow of her (now bandaged) eye, a hint of yellow light emitting as the steps formed, leading right up to the window this time. Dwema gestured for Lilith to go first, who only shook her head.

“Your idea, after you.”

“It was your plan to break things, so you should go.” Dwema countered.

“No, I insist. Age before beauty.” Lilith retorted, smirking at the miniature chance to rile up her friend.

“I’ll go.” Emily interrupted the pair, climbing up the dirt bricks to the window and tapping on the glass before the two could add her to the argument, or make any foolish suggestion to draw lots. The two hurried to follow, hunching down a few steps behind Emily.

“Professor Conrad?” Emily whispered into the dark room of the late professor’s laboratory.

There was the sound of many devices turning on, including the podium from which the staff was suspended.

“Ahrm, ehrm… Who’s there?” The light atop the staff flickered in tandem with the voice of Conrad.

“It’s me, sir. Emil.” Lilith could see the look of disgust on Emily’s face as she said her deadname.

A beam of light emanated from the staff, blinding Emily briefly as she threw a hand up to avert it.

“P-Pay no attention to the staff behind the curtain!” The staff said, drawing a sheet of red velvet to cover its nudity up.

“It’s okay professor!” Lilith said, stepping up. “We figured out that you’re just talking through your staff while you’re off on important business.” Lilith shot a look for the others to play along.

“Ah, Miss Lavoi? My favorite student. And do I sense another figure out there?”

“Me, sir.”

“Oh, Miss Jurgenhad! You three really shouldn’t be out this late, especially when I’m hearing rumors of a burglar burgling! Why, a more jumpy professor would have thought you were here to burgle me! HA! HA-HA!”

The trio exchanged a nervous glance.

“May we come in professor?”

“Of course!” The staff of Conrad said.

The three suddenly popped out of existence, then reappeared squarely within the laboratory in a pile of gangly limbs. They separated themselves, climbing to their feet as the curtain withdrew and the Staff of Conrad spoke once more.

“So what brings you three into my laboratory?”

“Well professor, we need to burgle you for a bit.”

“Come again?”

Lilith stepped forward, stamping on Dwema’s honest foot before she could get another word of the blunt truth in. “Arleigh and some of the others, they’ve found a way to profit off of war. In fact, they’ve got something so dastardly planned that you need to see it with your own eyes. Surely, a man of peace such as yourself wants to see this with his own eyes? We could simply borrow your staff to take you there to see, that way you don’t have to come back to the school and can continue your research. Wherever that is, of course.”

The staff grew dormant for a moment. “Yes, this is acceptable. However, I must be honest with you three. I will lose most of my powers if the staff here is removed from the conjuration field here. I’ll need to be carried, and more importantly, I’ll need to be attuned to one of you.”

“I can do it.” Dwema offered.

“Very well. Raise your left hand out and grasp hold of me- I mean, my staff.” The staff of Conrad the Conjurer said. Dwema did as instructed, grabbing hold of the staff. Her red hair began to rise, billowing from the windless wind that had appeared seemingly from nowhere. The lights in the room with their filament bulbs began to glow, and old dusty papers with carefully written notes from decades ago began to flutter about the room in a cyclone of sheets.

“YES! I AM FREE!” The staff said.

“Shh!” Whispered Lilith. “We’re not supposed to be out right now!”

“Oh, right!” The staff whispered, rather loudly. “You’ll excuse me, but I’ve not been moved in quite some time, and the cleaning staff stopped helping after my violent outbursts to not move my research. Lead the way you three, we have a school to save!”

Footnotes:

[41] It would not.