- 22 -

The discovery of an extra book among her father's belongings didn't strike Lilith all at once; it was slow and measured. The shadow of doubt crept across her mind the way the dark creeps across the Earthly plane each night. At first full bright, then the light fades, and before she realized it was pitch black.

The morning had started out unassuming. Lilith woke to the sound of knocking for the second time in a row. Instead of Pandora, this time it was a young security officer. Not the mountain of a man Lilith had met the night before, but a fresh faced boy who introduced himself as Stanley. Apparently, Pandora had requested someone escort Lilith to the dinning hall in her absence and he had been assigned.

That ruins my plan to skip breakfast.

Lilith didn't exactly need to eat, but she did need to appear human. Each trip outside the room was one more opportunity to drop her mask, but skipping meals would be just as suspect. Without much of a choice, Lilith graciously accepted the man's offer and followed him off to breakfast.

By the time she returned, Pandora was already back, seated at the writing desk filling a notebook. Lilith drilled her with questions about her health and well being. Each one met with the hunter's repeated assurance that she was fine. She had her doubts, but Lilith could only ask the same questions so many times, and soon found herself with nothing much to do.

In the end, she decided to read. That was the seed of her discovery, though it would take time to bear fruit. Lilith opened her father's satchel to retrieve the novel she had stored there the night before. She made her way back to the bed, got comfortable, then opened to the next chapter before her brain registered that something was out of place. There had been a change. An extra notebook packed safely in the bag that she couldn't recall seeing the night before.

Had she imagined it? She must have. It didn't make any sense otherwise. Things don't just appear from nowhere. She must have seen wrong.

Lilith tried to turn her attention back to the novel, but the words blurred together on the page. She couldn't force herself to focus. Her thoughts kept crawling back to her father's bag and the extra book she had seen inside.

Thought she had seen.

She didn't know anymore. She needed to check. But how? Pandora was still in the room. She couldn't drop her mask now. She still needed to diligently play the part of normal human girl. If she started tearing through her bag, counting the items inside it would do nothing but arouse suspicion.

But the uncertainty was eating away at her.

Lilith would need to get Pandora out of the room, then she could look. Upturn the satchel and be done with this creeping anxiety. But she had no idea how to go about it. And until she figured out how, she would be consumed by the fear that something was very, very wrong.

First, she considered claiming she had lost something during breakfast, then asking Pandora to search for it. Except, what item would she have reasonably brought with her to eat? The best she could come up with was saying she took her book to read, but Pandora would have surely noticed that she had been reading that same book all morning.

Next, she considered the possibility of Pandora leaving to use the restroom. The closest one was far enough from the room to buy her five, maybe ten minutes. But how exactly was she meant to control that? If it happened naturally she wouldn't complain, but it wasn't like she could make Pandora drink a bunch of water.

Of course, maybe Pandora didn't need to be the one to leave. Lilith couldn't instill the urge to pee in anyone else, but she could lie about needing to go herself. The only problem was normal people don't take their luggage with them to the bathroom. Inspiration refused to strike. Lilith didn't know how long she spent pretending to read, all while she tried to find any way to separate her and her satchel from Pandora's watch, but each fresh idea that popped into her head was equally worthless.

"Is something wrong, Lilith?"

Her heart jumped at the sudden question. She took a moment to ensure her voice was steady before she replied. "No, I'm fine. Why?"

"You've barely said a word since you came back from breakfast. I know you have your book, but it's been a few hours and you've hardly flipped any pages."

Shit! The mask was slipping. Lilith searched for any excuse that could hold it in place even a second longer, but once again she came up short. She fought with every fiber of her being to keep her face calm as panic overtook her mind. No matter what excuse she made, Pandora would know; she was too perceptive.

A ringing interrupted Lilith's scattered thoughts. The bell the crew used to call the passengers to each meal. Its sound acted as a muse; each chime further cementing an idea in her mind.

"I can't believe you noticed, but I guess you need to be observant as a hunter. I've been feeling a bit nauseous since I came back."

"And you were worried about my health. Should I take you to the infirmary?"

Lilith let out a small chuckle. "That's why I didn't say anything. It's not that serious. I ate too much and got a stomach ache like a little kid. Kind of embarrassing, huh?"

Pandora's eye narrowed, face awash with concern. "Are you sure? You could have eaten something bad."

If she knew she was talking to a youkai she wouldn't be so worried. Lilith threw on a little smile and gently said "I'm sure." Raising her arm, she flexed, though no muscle presented itself on her thin arm. "If I skip lunch I'll be back to full power in no time."

"Alright. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No!" Lilith shouted her reply without thinking, then scrambled for an excuse for the outburst. "Didn't you already skip breakfast? They're gonna hang me for murder when you starve to death."

Pandora burst into laughter. "Not out at sea, you'll have to walk the plank. But fine, I'll go eat." She rose to her feet and scuttled through the narrow walkway to the door. Turning back she said, "Just be sure to get some rest."

Lilith snapped her book shut and set it on the end table before pulling the covers over herself. "I promise."

Pandora nodded and left the room. Lilith laid as still as she could. Every muscle in her body itched to get up and rush for her bag, but she forced herself to wait. She didn't want to be caught if Pandora returned having forgotten something. Being caught meant being killed.

The lock clicked, followed by the sound of the key being ripped from the door. Pandora's footsteps faded into the distance. Even once they were inaudible, Lilith waited another five minutes before throwing the covers off. She rushed to the satchel. Gripping it by the bottom, she whipped it toward the bed and the contents shot out across the bed. The loose bullets her father had packed overshot the mattress and clicked as the hit the ground but Lilith ignored the mess. Her attention was focused on the books scattered in front of her. A few that were present the night before, and one that certainly wasn't.

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A book bound in brown leather, a brass bookmark pressed between its pages. Lilith lifted the book from the bed and stared at it. She had been so desperate to reach this moment, but now that it was here she was afraid of what came next. She pulled in a deep breath, then ran her thumb along the pages.

I have to.

Lilith cracked the book at the marked spot and slowly opened it, as if she was waiting for a trap to spring from its pages. Nothing launched out at her, but what she found inside was just as treacherous to her safety. Written in her father's hand was a detailed account of the night her father met a youkai at their front door. She remembered that night well; he had made her sleep in the dining room that night because it was the only room without windows.

There was no doubt this notebook belonged to her father. That explained its place her his satchel, but not its absence the night prior. Bile rose in Lilith's throat. She didn't want to accept what that detail meant but she couldn't come up with another explanation, fantastical or otherwise. The book had been missing because someone had taken it and it was back now because they had returned it.

Who am I kidding. Pandora. Pandora took the book.

Maybe she hadn't read it. That was a stupid thought too. The only real consideration was whether the notebook contained anything that could link Lilith to her father. The marked page only made reference to his daughter; she wasn't mentioned by name. Did the rest of the book follow suit? She flipped to a random page and began to skim. It detailed the effectiveness of gunpowder mixed with different ratios of youkai blood. She didn't quite understand what that meant or why it was useful, but such a list would be free of her name. She flipped to another page, a reminder to have Fennel order supplies from Lunden. That would be safe.

Lilith's hands shook as she flipped through more and more pages. She had no time to check each one. Pandora would only be gone for so long and she couldn't risk being found reading the notebook. She hesitated for a moment, then clapped the book shut. She needed to clean up the mess she had made. As she repacked the satchel, the question of whether her name was inside the notebook festered at the back of her mind. There wasn't much reason for a hunter to write his daughter's name among anatomical drawings of bisected monsters, but then again she was a youkai herself.

What if he had written about the hunt where he found her? What if Pandora had read it?

After returning the bag back in its place Lilith crawled back to the spot Pandora would expect her, resting beneath the covers. Her body shook more and more each minute as she laid there waiting for the hunters return.

Pandora didn't come back when Lilith expected. Something must have held her up after lunch. Perhaps she was doing more invigoration on her hunt, or maybe the youkai had attacked again. It was even possible Pandora was just giving her some alone time since she had claimed to be sick. She wasn't sure the reason, she only knew the result. Lilith laid in the bed for hours, waiting.

With each minute that passed, she was more frustrated. She would have had plenty of time to go through the notebook if she had decided to try, but it wasn't like she could get up and start now. Pandora could return any second, but after that second passed it was another Lilith now knew would have been safe. She was paralyzed by the unknown, drowning in her thoughts.

What would happen when she returned? If Pandora really knew, it was only a matter of time before she killed her. But she had acted so normal before leaving for lunch. Maybe she did know. Or maybe she was waiting for nightfall to kill Lilith in her sleep.

"Are you sure you don't want to see the doctor? You look worse than when I left. You're shaking."

Lilith turned to find Pandora hovering in the doorway. She had been so lost in thought she hadn't even heard the door open. She grit her teeth. If Pandora does plan to kill me she'll have an easy time. I have no situational awareness.

Lilith crossed her arms across her chest and forced a fake shiver. "It's because I went to the restroom. It's warm in the room, but out in the halls this thin dress isn't really warm enough."

"Make sure to wear your jacket when you go out from now on."

"Yes, mom."

Pandora's eye rolled. "I used to talk like that when I was a kid. Careful, or you're gonna grow up to be like me," she said taking a seat at the writing desk.

Used to? Lilith wanted to say it aloud, but being sassy could wait. It risked pissing Pandora off, and right now she needed to keep her talking. Just how much did Pandora know? There was no use thinking about her next step until she knew. Now she just needed to figure out how to ask without asking.

Even though she had only been back for a few minutes, Pandora was already absorbed in the books she had scattered across the desk. Lilith didn't have a clear path to her goal, but she did have an entry way into the conversation.

"What are you writing, Pandora?"

The hunter looked up briefly, then returned to her notebook. "I'm writing down everything I can remember about my fight with the youkai then checking it against my books. Any little detail could be the one that helps me identify it."

"You don't know what it is yet?"

Lilith had her own motivations for the conversation, but that particular question did come from a place of genuine curiosity. She was surprised Pandora didn't know what she was hunting even after having seen it first hand. Even though her father had been a hunter she knew so little about the process. And yet, she had offered to help Pandora hunt, even if she never actually intended to go through with it.

"Unfortunately, I don't know much of anything about it, aside from the obvious."

"I don't even know the obvious. Guess I don't make much of a hunter," Lilith said, a nervous laugh trailing her words.

Pandora's head dropped and silence festered in the air. Lilith bit her lip. She was just thinking how naive she was for offering Pandora help and she still said that. Why would she bring it back up? Stupid.

"I've been thinking about it," Pandora said. "I'm not used to working with others, but if your offer is still available, I'd Like your help on this hunt."

Lilith's breath caught in her throat. She actually agreed? Why would a seasoned hunter want help from an ignorant fool? Lilith's thoughts drifted back to the book. It could be a coincidence, but the timing lined up. Was Pandora trying to keep an eye on her? Maybe she did know after all. Keep your enemies close as they say.

No, that wasn't proof. But it was a good idea. The more time she spent with Pandora the more likely she was to figure out the truth without drawing suspicion to herself. Getting close would be dangerous, but that was deceptive, because running away would be far more dangerous.

"I don't know how useful I can be, but I would like that."

Pandora's posture changed, the tension in her muscles visibly releasing. A smile surfaced on her lips and for a moment Lilith was reminded how beautiful the hunter was.

"Well then, I haven't told you much, so I'll start from the beginning." Pandora flipped a few pages back in her notebook, then held it up for Lilith to see. An illustration of a long black feather graced the page. Handwritten notes filled the space beside the drawing, though the writing was too small to make out at this distance.

"Wish I had the real thing to show you, but the security crew wouldn't let me keep it. In any case, it's avian."

"Is that all you know?"

"It's all I know for certain... But I suspect it might have a positive intelligence rating."

Lilith cocked her head to the side.

"I guess you wouldn't have any reason to know," Pandora said. She pulled one of the books from the desk and set it on the bed in front of Lilith. She pointed to a block of text on the open page.

╔═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╗

> Wheeler

>

> Ordinary | Positive

>

> When asked they claim to be from a country called Ev, though no one knows exactly where that is. Most sightings have occurred in southern Asia.

╚═══━━━─── 🌸 ───━━━═══╝

"Each youkai is given a rough ranking based on how dangerous they are to hunt. This one here is ranked as Ordinary. That means it poses nearly no threat to humans. Next to that it's listed as Positive. That's an intelligence score based on how they compare to humans. Positive or negative. Anything equal to human intelligence still ranks positive."

Lilith let her gaze sink. She was unable to look Pandora in the eye. "It strikes me just how naive the offer to help must have seemed to you."

Silence lingered for a long time before Pandora responded, "You can't know what you've never learned, so I'll just have to teach you. Do you have any other questions?"

"Do..." Lilith paused, unsure if she should ask her question or not. "Do all youkai have to die? Is there any chance to coexist?"

The silence returned.

Lilith regretted asking. Pandora looked unsure how to answer. Even if she had a response ready the question was a mistake. It made her look suspicious. If I was human, why would I care about killing youkai? I wouldn't, that's why. Yet another unforced error in a conversation with Pandora. Fucking idiot.

"Lilith, do you remember what I said when we first met?"

Pandora's voice snapped her from her self flagellation. She took a second to process the question, then answered back, "I'd like to buy your ticket."

Pandora stammered. "I... Well, yes. But I meant after that."

Lilith needed a bit longer to think about the new question, but eventually answered back with, "We should find somewhere else to talk before he climbs out. Then something about giving him a bath."

Pandora sighed. "No more guessing. I meant on the deck of the ship. I offered to tell you some stories. I have one that might answer your question. Would you like to hear it?"

Lilith swallowed. In truth, listening to a drawn out story about why she deserved death for her existence didn't appeal to her. But with Pandora asking she had no choice but to play her part. She nodded for Pandora to continue. Her mask would remain firmly in place.

"This is the story of my last hunt with Renna."