Lies & Labyrinths

The pair spilled out of the teleporter, landing on grass in the middle of the night. The Knave swung their legs around, getting themselves right-side-up all the while still holding the orb beneath their arm, then began to run.

Lilith’s head spun, her mind reeling from the vertigo as she tried to reorient herself, shuffling to her feet to look around. A pain was ripping through her as she rematerialized in the Material realm, her body struggling to keep up with the changes. She was still blonde, as far as she could tell from the golden locks in her face. Her left arm burned with a pain that coursed up to her head, nearly clouding her vision from the stunning, blinding ache. Lilith tried to look around in spite of the agony. They weren’t in the school. They weren’t even indoors. They were alone in some great field, just Lilith and the Knave.

The crickets chirped in the stillness, as a wave of familiarity overtook her. She glanced around again; she knew this place. The geography was off, but she was certain of it. This was Wheatsburgh. Not the Wheatsburgh she knew; this was the road that led to home, but it was no longer cobblestone, but a solid dirt road. There was no schoolhouse. Just a meadow. Peaceful. Quiet. Boring. Except for the thief and herself.

Lilith held up her left arm, focusing and clearing her mind, doing exactly as she had been instructed by the greatest teachers in all of Temrin. Singes began to form at the nape of the Knave’s neck, a bright orange-red flame catching the back of their cloak aflame.The Knave dropped and rolled, patting the flame out, giving Lilith the rare opportunity to catch up. She spun her fingers around, summoning the Silver blade as it melted from bracelet to its sharpened form. Lilith prepared to break the very rules that had been laid out to her, to never use it to harm a person, to show it to another living being. She tossed the blade as hard as she could, feeling sure of the throw.

The Knave spun a hand back, deflecting the blade.

Lilith’s eyes focused on the Knave’s hand, noting a silver dagger that looked awfully like what hers, only a bit different. A bit more refined.

A bit older.

The Knave turned, pulling off their mask as they did, shaking out long blonde locks. The kind of hair Lilith now had.

The Knave was a woman. A woman staring at her with a piercing blue eye that matched hers, and the ruby red of the stolen artifact, now used as a prosthetic.

Lilith stared at the Knave, the Knave staring back.

“You’re me.”[49] Lilith whispered, gripping her arm and wincing in pain.

“I’m you.”

“But, you-“

“Wouldn’t know a spell from a spade. That’s what Arleigh said to you. To us, the day we left for the Veilweaver’s Academy. The day our life changed. The day you made it your life’s mission to prove that man wrong and make a name for yourself.”

Lilith held up her hand, calling her dagger back, holding it up in her best defensive stance that she could muster. It was a bluff; she was clearly panicking. None of this made sense, any of it. There was no way that she would turn into the Knave. She couldn’t be someone like them. There was no way they could be here, for that matter.

A muffled noise echoed under The Knave's arm, as the rolling continued, snapping Lilith momentarily out of the paradoxical migraine. The Feyline Anchor! Lilith had almost forgotten all about it.

“Put the orb down and step away from it!” Lilith shouted, her voice cracking.

“I was planning on it dear.” The Knave placed the orb on the ground, drawing their fingers along the letters on the globe. It clicked, then whirred, an outer shell opening and unfolding, small tiles clicking and clacking as they subtracted themselves. The noise grew louder. It sounded like crying.

Lilith stepped forward, heartbeat racing. The Knave of Spades stepped back, off of the road, letting her approach and see.

There was a baby inside. It couldn’t have been more than a year old. Swaddled in red cloth, with a small bag next to it inside of a little orb-shaped crib.

“Is that…”

“Us. Trapped in an orb at the beginning of time, to keep us from the end.” Whispered the Knave of Spades. She knelt down by the crib, softly tracing her hand against the babe’s head, feeling the soft flesh of its newborn hair. Lilith’s eyes fell to the Knave’s neck as she did, noting the same locket of her mother’s. The Knave took it off, putting it inside the crib along with a note.

“Happy first birthday, Lilith.” The Knave said, kissing the forehead of the child. The older woman turned, looking to Lilith.

“She deserves to have a keepsake. Something from her parents. Don’t you think so?”

“What do you mean? Her parents? That’s mom’s necklace. She’s supposed to give it to me when I get married, did you take-”

There was a noise. Lilith looked up, seeing a light bobbing from the end of a cart. She could just barely discern the shape of a horse drawn carriage. The Knave placed a hand on Lilith’s shoulder then drew a finger up to her lip, shushing her. Kneeling down, she drew a pattern on the ground, red light appearing in a circle around the crib, illuminating the orb bright enough that even a young couple could see. Not just any couple, one heading towards their honeymoon home on farmland freshly purchased. The Wheats.

The Knave pulled Lilith back into the shadow of the night, wrapping them both in a partially singed cloak that enshrouded them completely from view. They sat no further than ten paces away, watching as Peter #5 and Penelope Wheat stopped their cart, climbing off and approaching.

“Penny, come quick” Peter Five hissed.

“What is it Fivey?” Lilith and the Knave both shuddered at the repulsive nicknames.

“A babe.”

“A blessing from above!” Penelope Wheat-Nee-Carrot exclaimed.

“Abandoned?”

“Yarp, looks like a note ’n everything.”

“A newborn y’think?”

“No... look. Too old. Maybe a year?”

“You’re right...”

They didn’t even read the note, just took the baby and the bag, leaving it on the side of the road. The Knave and Lilith looked at one another, then both seemed to remember their parents being illiterate. Back into the carriage the pair climbed, now with baby in tow, leaving Lilith and the Knave alone once more. The Knave stood, pulling the cloak of shadows off, returning the pair to the light of the moonlit night.

“Well that was a waste of a letter.” The Knave sighed, leaning down and grabbing the note and sticking it up her sleeve. “Come on. We have somewhere to be.”

Lilith watched as the Wheats took the babe and headed off back down the road, the light of the carriage lantern bobbing as they went. Lilith looked back, The Knave already moving towards the woods. She knew this was the last decision to be made on the matter, and was the very moment that she sealed in the very steps that would lead her to retrace the last two weeks in the far future as an adult. This was the moment that the loop closed, and her destiny had been determined.

“Why? Why all of this? Why follow me into the teleporter? Why write the name Lilith in the paper? Why guide me through all of that pain; why me?” Lilith called out. She was disarmed, alone, confused.

It was a beg, a plea to her future self. The Knave turned, watching Lilith. She opened her mouth, then promptly closed it, swallowing before continuing."

“The day that you left for the Academy was the day that war came to Temrin. The Five Burghs are no more. The survivors have fled for Dorwiny, and that is just in our homeland. The rest of the world is preparing to follow. It would have been much worse, but someone managed to destroy a nefarious machine, one capable of supplying all sides with enough power to kill themselves and all they held dear."

The Knave gave a weak smile, her good eye welling with tears.

“I didn’t want this for you. None of it. But someone has been tampering with our world, pulling the strings. They’ve broken time. And the only way to fight them was to break time back. You needed to learn what you learned, because I learned them that way.”

“And how were they learned before?”

“That’s a story for another day. But you will learn it, how things were supposed to be. How they were changed. How our real mothers met. And it just so happens, this is the day I know for certain where one of our mothers is. I’m going there now. You’re welcome to come along. You’ll get more answers from her than me.” The Knave started walking forward once more.

“What’s her name?” Lilith called out.

She didn’t know why this question rooted her, but she had to know something more. Something tangible.

The Knave turned her head back. “Ava. At least, this one. I believe the other’s name is Alara Rayne.”

“You believe?”

“Yes. I come from the future where you followed. And she said that when I was older, she’d tell me everything. I plan on making her keep that promise.”

Lilith thought about that for a moment. It was an answer. It was a confusing answer, but it didn’t make more questions. That was good enough. Somehow, knowing that even her future self had the truth dangled in front of her made this all the more reassuring that it was the right path. That meant there was still a path to be walked.

The Knave extended a hand. Lilith watched it, pondered on it, and then walked forward. She took the hand of the Knave, the pair disappearing into the thicket of the forest together into the night. She wouldn’t know it, but this was the night her childhood had ended as Lilith Lavoi set out alone into the world with no one to trust but herself, to face the consequences of her lies in an uncertain future.

Footnote:

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