Cassandra Pendragon

I had been lying through my teeth, from the very beginning. I knew who she was. My subconsciousness was at least clever enough to realise I might need that particular information.

Lilith, the mother of succubi, queen of shadows. Crazy, erratic, hedonistic, driven by her own, twisted version of fun. And incidentally, one of the people who had helped put the nails in my coffin. Of all the immortals, she was one of those I really hadn’t wanted to meet. Especially with how weak I still was, at least in comparison to her.

While she had mimicked my appearance almost perfectly, with a few changes, her aura was still her own and I couldn’t remember ever having felt so utterly helpless. Dragons, fey, spiders, constructs of magic… nothing had prepared me for the unbridled power that oozed out of her.

Every breath set the residual sparks of energy around her in motion, she wasn’t even trying, but her mere presence changed the laws of the world. The very air seemed to circle around her, her flickering thoughts more than enough to cause a visible effect. Even the connection through my tattoo became distorted, Ahri’s voice gone. Stones began to crack or rippled like water while she shuffled on her feet, the burned out runes in the walls glittered with renewed power and the portal behind me hummed, its energies replenished. Not that I’d have used it. There was no telling where it’d lead by now.

And then, there were the pillars of fire she had conjured without so much as a whispered command, ravenous, swirling towers of darkness and flame that crackled around me, a constant reminder of what she was capable of and it made me sweat. If she decided to turn my world into ashes on a whim, there wouldn’t be much I could do to stop her. And while I didn’t expect her to, it was impossible to say for sure. That girl had a psyche as wild and twisted and as the depths of the void. There was only one thing I could try. I had to somehow keep her attention focused on me and pray that she’d leave, once she got what she had come for. Hence my irreverent behaviour. As long as she was curious, she wouldn’t turn her mind towards something, or rather someone, else.

And my last quibble had struck a chord. With a flourishing gestured, her fur melted away and her tails disappeared. Shadows enveloped her and when she reappeared, she was someone else entirely. White, flawless skin, blood red lips, exaggerated curves, a pitch black crown of horns and a dark allure that put the puny charms of a vampire to shame, all bundle up in black, skin tight leather with a few red highlights. I swallowed dryly. Maybe I’d have been better off facing my own image. At least I had seen her flaws as long as she had been wearing it.

“Better,” she purred, her voice a throaty, enticing whisper. “Or do I make you uncomfortable?”

“A bit,” I admitted, “but as long as you don’t come any…” of curse she immediately stepped forward and ran her hand caressingly up my arm with a mumbled “prude”. I already wanted to protest but something else caught my attention. The ring I was wearing, almost forgotten since no one had seemed to notice it, suddenly grew warm around my finger, when she touched me. From one second to the next, it pulsed with power, a glowing star on my hand that connected to her core, a diffuse link but strong enough to grant me access. Lilith recoiled as if she had been hit.

“You’ve found it again,” she hissed. A relieved grin spread across my face. It seemed like I had known what I had been doing when I had sent that little gizmo through time.

“I never lost it in the first place. Or did you think I was clumsy enough to drop it in the void?” Maybe it hadn’t been the best time to get smart with her. Fangs broke through her lips and ebony, bat like wings formed on her back. The whole building shook when she stomped her foot, either in frustration or anger, and the resulting shockwave would have been strong enough to knock me down, if I hadn’t manifested my wings in time. Space deformed around her as her power flared, the cracks in the walls widening while the room suddenly splintered, several versions of it collapsing back into themselves before I even had the time to see them clearly.

Moronic as I was, I didn’t take that as a clue to make myself scarce, but instead teleported to Layla’s side and spread my wings over us like a shield. Not a second too soon. The next pulse tore through the air and obliterated the sleeping vampires in a heartbeat. Not even ashes remained. Only the faint afterimage of their essence lingered a moment longer before even that was carried away. For all intent and purposes, it was like they had never existed in the first place.

“Lilith,” I hollered. “Stop that! You’re ripping this place apart! Get a grip.” She grimaced, clearly torn between venting her anger and a palpable fear of what I might do, if she couldn’t control herself. Caution won, at least for the moment, but she was balancing on a knife’s edge, her nature threatening to spill over any second. And if it did, we’d be doomed. There was no way in hell I’d be able to stop her, ring or no ring. She could change or annihilate reality on a whim!

“But… how? When?” She turned paler by the second, her carefree mask giving way to rage and worry. Before my eyes was one of the rarest sights in the whole multiverse: a grown immortal on the verge of panicking. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy the show, I was trembling like a dead leaf in an autumn wind. If she went overboard, there was no telling when or where her rage would stop. This world, my home, might cease to exist simply because she threw a fucking tantrum.

“Before I ever lured you into the void. Shortly after I acquired it, I’d say, but I don’t know for sure.” To my credit, my voice was barely higher than normal. But I took great care to stick to the facts and not antagonise her any further. One outburst had been more than enough and I didn’t want to risk another. If I managed to get her back on track, my… our chances would increase drastically.

“And you haven’t tried using it? Good for you. Do you even know what it does? What was sacrificed to make that thing?” She was gradually getting back her bearings, wings and fangs disappearing and even her crown of horns retracted into her skull.

“I do, I have seen it. If you play with the forces of creation, it’ll come back to bite you in the ass, won’t it? And that’s something even an immortal can’t shrug off.”

“You… you have no clue what you’re actually wielding, do you? Forces of creation? The whole farce with the nine families? Hon, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. But sure, go ahead, try it. See what happens.” She had been visibly struggling for control, but now, she calmed down significantly. “You’re going to be surprised… and most likely dead, an instant later.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Why should I? Unless you force my hand, of course.” Another blatant lie. Sure, I had some ideas by now, given how the ring had reacted to her presence and what she had done but when it came down to it, I didn’t even have the inkling of a plan what I might do. Channel my energy through it and hope for the best, maybe, but as far as plans went, that was a rather terrible one. But at least better than anything I had had a moment before. And if she feared the ring, it was my best chance to get out of here unscathed and with a world to return to. “Mutually assured destruction is the perfect foundation for every fruitful friendship, wouldn’t you agree?” I said.

“Mutually assured destruction,” she echoed. “And I always thought I was insane. But you’ve got me beat by a landslide. But at least I know now why Mephisto is still here. Have you told him? Does he know you have that thing?” He didn’t and I remembered all too clearly how my instincts had warned me not to. Now, I could guess why. But she didn’t have to know that, did she?

“What difference does it make to you,” I asked. “I’m the one wearing it.”

“Unbelievable as it is. I think most of us wouldn’t even survive its touch. You haven’t changed much, have you, Lucifer? Still meddling with things you don’t understand, bigger than you can imagine?” By now, her glaring aura had receded. It didn’t feel like staring at the sun anymore when I watched her. It was closer to looking at a floodlight, painful but not quite blinding. “I guess it doesn’t matter, in the end. Unless… damn my dame, I guess I shouldn’t have come here. If I had known…”

“What are you even taking about? Forgive me, but I can’t follow.”

“Of course you can’t. I’m just wondering… it’s very tempting to chop you into little pieces and return that ring as a peace offering.” I tensed but before I could do more than blink, she already continued as if a death threat was a perfectly normal part of any causal conversation. “Unfortunately, I imagine my head would be next… maybe it’ll be for the best if you keep it. Right, at least I don’t have to worry about being bored for the next few years. So Lucifer, Cassy, tell me,” her eyes roamed around the room and it changed. The runes, and portal, even the door disappeared. With a soft rumbling sound, the cracks in the walls vanished, the patch of glass I was standing on turned to stone and the pillars of fire petered out. The next second, dark carpets formed on the floor, satin hangings covered the bare walls and a table with two chairs and a wide array of wines materialised. Even the smell in the room changed, from spent, acidic magic to something that reminded me of the sea under a starry sky. “How have you been?” She sat down elegantly, conjured two glasses from thin air and filled them with a dark crimson liquid from one of the decanters. “How’s life been treating you? Are you and that feathered, fiery nuisance of an angel still an item?”

I was baffled. She had switched from a menacing lunatic to a gracious host in the blink of an eye. No magic, no weapons, no attacks, no seduction, she just sat there, swirling the wine around in her glass, a serene smile spreading across her face when she took a sip.

“Are you just going to stand there? It’s no poison, you know, and drinking alone always feels like boozing to me. Come, join me. We might as well be comfortable while we have the chance.”

There wasn’t much to add to that. Hesitantly I slipped onto the other chair, its upholstery surprisingly soft against my naked skin. Unfortunately the images of her little outburst, the feeling of her energies pouring out of her, reality bending, the utter destruction of the vampires, still haunted me and I just couldn’t get my muscles to relax.

“Loosen up,” she said, when she saw my tension. “There’s nothing to worry about. If I decide to end you, you won’t be able to do jack shit, anyways. But I’m not going to. No, I think for now, I prefer you hearty and whole. But how about my questions? How are you doing?” Was she serious? Probably, either way I wasn’t going to insult her by staying silent.

“Uh, fine, for the most part, I guess. I’m still alive, at least. The last weeks have been difficult and I got to say, being ambushed by an immortal in the middle of a jailbreak is rather unsettling, but it could be worse. Aurora, if you were referring to her, and I are still together. Which reminds me, would you mind loosening your hold? You’re also suppressing my link to her and I fear she’ll do something stupid if I can’t talk to her.”

“Like what?” Good question. Knowing her she might try to get here herself, but I couldn’t say that out loud. Otherwise Lilith might just take that as an invitation to make sure she would.

“She… she has meddled with her reincarnation and I’m not quite sure how much she has truly changed. I’d rather not find out to which length she’d go to and what she could do if she thought me in danger.”

“Oh, don’t worry. Whatever she’s done, as long as she’s not reached her full potential, I can easily nullify whatever she might try. But fine,” she closed her eyes for a moment and a visible shudder went through the room. With a lazy smile she raised her glass. “There. And here’s to true friends, or lovers, if you prefer. They’re almost as precious and reliable enemies, wouldn’t you agree?”

Not in the slightest, but I touched my glass against hers regardless and took a sip while I focused on my tattoo. Whatever she had poured us, it was delicious. Sweet and heavy with a myriad of tastes, all bundled up together. Berries, honey, vanilla and, most dominantly, chocolate.

While the drink slipped down my throat with a feeling of silk and warmth, I projected:

“Ahri, can you hear me?” She replied immediately, her mind a darkening landscaped of worries, fear and barely suppressed anger. “Yes. How bad is it?”

“Pretty bad, I’d say. Another demon has found us. Lilith. I don’t think she’s looking for a fight, but I also have no clue what she actually came here for. But by now… I’ll tell you once I see you in person, I’m not too confident she can’t eavesdrop on us, in case she chooses to, if we talk like this. For now, I’m fine and I’ll try to keep her distracted for a while. Who knows, maybe she’ll just leave. That chick has got some serious issues. In comparison to her, I’m a calculated, cold and logical person. Do you remember her? Any hints or tips? Something I should avoid at all cost?”

She hesitated and I felt contradicting emotions surge through her mind, fast enough that I couldn’t identify them. After a moment she haltingly said: “I… I’m not sure but I’m pretty certain you can distract her easily enough, in case she turns on you.” I waited, but she didn’t elaborate.

“How,” I finally asked.

“Kiss her,” came the grudging reply. “As far as I remember, she’s a slave to her desires. Fuel them and she might forget what set her off.”

“Are you serious? Nobody’s that dumb.”

“You’d be surprised. But I’d rather have you not be forced to try, in any case. Should I… do you want me there with you?”

“By the Great Fox, no! Have you lost your mind? It’s bad enough as it is, she doesn’t need to see you, let alone see us together. But… would you mind keeping the link open? I could use the company. And I really don’t want to be alone with that lunatic.”

“Of course. But if anything happens…”

“You’ll stay exactly where you are! There’s nothing you could do. None of us. You haven’t seen her. Ahri, she changes reality by simply existing within in! Promise me you won’t come.”

“Cassy, I…”

“Promise me! Or I swear to all the gods, I’ll do something stupid to make sure there’d be no point.”

“I… fine. I promise.” The rush of transcendent energies I felt, reassured me, a little. Just until Lilith cleared her throat.

“All done,” she asked. “It’s quite rude to whisper behind my back, so to speak. Say hello to the little firecracker for me. Where is she, anyways? Is she going to join us? I’d be surprised if she wasn’t. Always been the controlling type.” She shuddered. “I don’t know how you can stand her presence. I’d have killed her and made a cloak out of her wings aeons ago.”

“No,” I answered slowly. “No, I don’t think she will. Particularly not now. Why do you hate her?”

“I don’t. Well, not more than most of you feathered folk. I like you, sort of, and still need you, that’s why you think I have a problem with Aurora. But truth be told, that’s just how I am when it comes to people I don’t give a fuck about.”