John couldn’t look at the scene of horror. He sat on the ground and bowed his head. Later, the wooden-man entered the basement and stood near John. With his orb-eye, John noticed the wooden-man didn’t look around, and he wondered if the thing even noticed the nine corpses. Or cared if he did notice. The wooden-man’s unmoving, painted-on eyes started to annoy John.

It took Lilly some time to arrive. John ignored her, and she went to his kneeling form and wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her head on his cheek. She didn’t say anything, and just held her husband.

John felt a tug on his mind. He thought of refusing. Of raging. Smashing things. Doing something to get Lilly to understand. To really understand. To fear and obey him. He finally accepted the pull.

The world blurred by, and John looked at his wife as she was, in all her terrible beauty. “It’s not what you think, Adon.”

“It’s John!”

“Of course. John. Will you allow me to explain?”

“You said you wouldn’t!”

Lilly closed her eyes. “No. I said I wouldn’t kill wantonly. This certainly doesn’t count. If you’d just let me explain.”

“Three were completely mutilated! There were kids!”

Lilly’s eyes opened and an angry look crinkled her face. “Are you serious! Kids? The youngest of those was older than I was when you offered me the dark gift. Am I a kid? As you see me now? I was fifteen. I would’ve been married at thirteen if…kids! The Eternal took all the actual kids. I can’t believe…kids my ass. And can I continue? I wasn’t finished.”

“You mutilated three of them. There’s no excuse, Lilitu. None!”

“You were being killed! What was I supposed to do? Just watch? I could do something, so I did. It’s my duty as your wife. The ritual to create a dybbuk needed three sacrifices and it does that to them. Know what tier ritual that was? How much wealth I spent? I was desperate and wanted to save my husband. My heart. I can’t lose you. Not again.”

Lilly began to cry and bowed her head.

John half-wished he never entered into the Mind’s Eye of Lilly as she couldn’t see the anger on his face and how he stared daggers at her. He knew this wasn’t business that should be spoken of in front of strangers, though he doubted the wooden-man would understand any of it. He also half-wished his desires hadn’t returned when he ascended to Copper, as seeing his wife as she was, how beautiful and desirable she was, ate away at his resolve. He craved her greatly.

“Are you ready to listen now, John? You know how weak my new body is. I won’t be able to cultivate for years. I can strengthen myself through blood. And…”

John tried to interrupt. “You…”

“No! Let me finish. Did you notice the mezuzah on the door? These were my people. Jews. You know the oath I swore. You can’t say I kill my own people wantonly. Ever. That is a matter of vengeance. A sacred matter.”

John’s heart sank. “Still? You’ve been gone for thousands of years. How can you hold onto such hate still? I killed all the ones that wronged you. Vengeance was handed out on the day I met you.”

Lilly laughed hysterically before she continued. “Not all of them! I told you. And you stole a large part of the vengeance I needed from me that day. That burned in me. That burns in me still. Does vengeance no longer mean anything to you? Are you a man no longer? You know what oath I swore. All my people, all our descendants, will pay the price for what was done to me! I will not be satisfied until they are no more. And when my vengeance is finally complete, I will build a monument to what was and piss on it and bury it in a cesspit!”

John had met many people of strange beliefs in his life, but Lilly’s people were the first he heard of worshiping only one God and no others. Of course, it became a common belief later, with both the adherents of the Christ, then the Muslimun believing the same. But back then, the people of Kayhamut saw his wife’s people as a strange but harmless cult and wanted little to do with them or their little, strange and insular villages.

What happened to Lilly as a child was truly awful. Lilly told John her father was a priest of her people. She had no mother to protect her. Her earliest memories were of her father bedding her. When she was a little older, he would let his friends do the same, and she would be passed around the village.

When she became a woman and could marry, no one would have her. They said she was a seductress and sold herself for favors and was the reason so many men lost their way. Her father said it was her own fault he did what he did to her. She was too pretty and too tempting, and she never tried to stop him.

Her father turned his back on Lilly, and she was forced to flee her village and become a prostitute for real in the closest city. She tried learning witchcraft and curses to mete out some punishment to those that wronged her, and when she was caught doing so it was the last straw. No one believed her story. No one believed a priest of their cult would do as she said, or that all the other men she named, and there were many of them, would be complicit in such deeds.

Most of the men of her village that wronged her so, including her father, went to the city to help convict her, and they recommended she be put to the fire as a witch.

John found Lilly as stones were being thrown at her while she made her way to the pyre. He saw her red soul. When he couldn’t purchase her, he was forced to kill many of the men there, including her father, and take her by force.

John said, “I know well how some of them wronged you. But your desire to kill all of them for the sins of a few makes a mockery of something as sacred as vengeance. And to hold on to such hate for so long. It…just let it go, Lilly. You had them enslaved. They were slaves for centuries. Is that not punishment enough? Or what you did to them after they were freed and allowed to leave Kayhamut? You tortured them so much and for so long we had to leave civilization. You’ve made them pay a thousand times over.”

A mad look warped Lilly’s face. Her eyes widened and she screamed, “All of them! All will pay! Until there are none to!” She pointed at John’s formless body and asked, “And what gives you the right to monopolize how everyone should seek vengeance? Or satisfy their own sense of it? They put a black pit in my chest, and it will not be filled until they are no more. And what the fuck is Kayhamut?”

John was taken by surprise. If anyone should know, it was Lilly. “Kayhamut is…the small city I found you in was east of it. The great empire a little west of where you were from. They conquered the lower and upper parts of the river and ruled from White Walls.”

Lilly said, “Mizraim. Misr. Egypt. Were you trying to say Kumat? Really, Adon, your accents are always horrible and there is little you say correctly. And the city you found me in was in Egypt. What was it called? I forget the city, if you can even call it that. I remember the province was called Eastmost. But my people, the Children of God, the villages our tribes lived in were all called Goshen throughout the lower delta.

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“We were there. Apepi only ruled the north, the kingdom wasn’t unified, and he wasn’t in White Walls. You know they were hardly made slaves at all. We were always treated as strange outsiders to avoid due to our beliefs and little changed for them after my deal, it just made those prick Levis important. And they weren’t freed and allowed to leave Egypt. Seti called for anyone willing to resettle the northern coasts and my people were willing to move to that shitty region he wanted occupied as a buffer against the Hittites. I told you to kill him. He reneged on the deal I made with his ancestor. Probably his ancestor. You’ve always let people take advantage of you.”

John felt guilty and dirty. His wife had an answer for all his charges, and it annoyed him that she corrected how he named the region. He went there long before she was born. He knew what it was called. It stood for something like black soil, or dark soil, or something like that. “Just, please, no more of this. Let this be the last. If…”

Lilly interrupted. “No. If I can save you by killing some others, I always will. I promised not to kill wantonly, and I won’t. To save you, to save my husband, my dear heart, the only man to make my heart content, I would destroy this world and everyone that lives on it. It hurts me so much that you wouldn’t do the same for me. I am your wife!”

Lilly crossed her arms over her chest. John said, “How many have I killed for you? I never let harm come to you. I killed to protect you. You killed innocent people. And it was for nothing. Ridge-head was almost dead.”

In a serious tone, Lilly said, “You did always keep me safe, Adon, I know. You killed so many for me. But you also killed me, remember? And that’s been eating away at me. And…and something else has been eating away at me too. My father…this body’s father. It happened again. But differently.”

Lilly’s eyes became glassy with tears once more. “I slowly become me as the body I take ages. Without the Tree of Life, it’s much slower. My last body, I wasn’t really me until I was sixteen or seventeen. Even now I’m only about ninety percent me, if that. It started when I was so young, I wasn’t enough of me yet to stop him.”

Lowering her eyes and holding her hands together in front of her, Lilly continued. “He was always very nice about it. It was like I was his girlfriend. He’d bed me and take me out for ice cream or to a playground or an arcade. He would do anything for me. Buy me anything I wanted, his little girlfriend. I’d have him drive me by your place all the time. I said I liked the houses. When one near you went up for sale it was easy to get him to buy it.

“The part that really hurts was my mother. This body’s mother. I know she loved me. I could feel it. She had to know what was going on. She pretended nothing was. I don’t think she wanted her perfect life ruined by accepting what her gorgeous, rich husband was doing to her daughter. Or maybe her mind couldn’t take it.

“Anyway, having that happen again brought up a lot of old feelings and memories. I killed them both. After the Tree of Life came back and I became more myself. I killed them and walked out. I was so happy to have my husband back, the man I fought so hard to return to and love so much and would do anything for. But then you told me you killed me. Thought you killed me.”

Lilly started to sob, her shoulders shaking as she did. The sobs began to lessen, and Lilly said, “You killing me and…my father…it…it’s too much…I…”

Lilly looked up at John for a moment before lowering her teary eyes again. “I want to do better. I do. I just want us to be happy. And love and support each other. That’s all I want. I fought so hard to get back to you. It took so long. And now I have these…things, eating away at me. Making the hole inside of me bigger. It doesn’t feel like you love me anymore. It feels like you’d rather I stayed gone. It hurts so much.”

With a hurting heart, John said, “Lilly…if I knew…I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect you. Never fear that I don’t love you. I always will. I don’t think I could ever not love you. Let’s make a deal. I will do more to show you how much I love you, and you put a hold on the vengeance you want against your people. Once Earth is safe and the invasions are over, we can talk about it then. And I’d prefer you didn’t kill innocent people to save me. I had it handled.”

“You would be dead right now if Stretch the puppet-thing hadn’t shown up. I had no choice!”

John let out a mental sigh. “I understand. I love you, my dear heart. And part of the deal is treating my friends well. You must treat them well too.”

“And I love you so much it hurts, Adon. I already said I’d treat your friends well. I wish you could see what is so easy to see. Let me ask you something. Does the…does Amber not use foul or offensive language? Does she stand in ways highlighting her figure and set flame to desires, and pretend she is too innocent and naive to know what she’s doing? Does she try to always seem wholesome? Almost too wholesome?”

John said, “I…why are we talking about her? I told you she can’t be with a man. I just asked you to treat her well. That’s all that’s required.”

Lilly smiled. “That means I’m correct on all counts. You’re being played by the oldest trick in the book, my dear. I will treat her well, have no fear. Just ask yourself how I knew her game if it isn’t a game? And I accept your deal. For the most part. And there’s one easy way to show me you love me.”

Lilly posed in a way to highlight her curves and figure. “Do you find me attractive still?”

“You know I do, Lilly. Very much so. How could I not?”

Lilly smiled seductively. “I haven’t been with you in so long. I always think about our first night together, under the stars and moon. I’m your wife. Part of your duty is to satisfy me. And part of my duty is to satisfy you. I need to feel you inside of me again. I’ve waited thousands of years. I can wait no longer. We have plenty of time before the evac arrives. Just take me once. Close your eyes and lie back and I’ll do all the work.”

John tried his hardest to lay himself back. “I can’t. I’m trying as hard as I can. I want to very badly. I have no body.”

Lilly laughed bewitchingly. “Not in here, you silly man. Out there. Just close your eyes and pretend I look as I do now. Easy-breezy.”

John went from overly excited to repulsed quickly. “What? You know I can’t. I won’t. That is sick. Can we please do it in here? With you as you are now? Please?”

As quickly as John’s emotions changed, so did Lilly’s, and tears poured out of her eyes. “No! We can’t do anything in here, fool. We’re both in the Mortal Tree. Even if I coached you into creating a body we couldn’t. I’m so fucking horny right now. It’s me in that body. I’ve waited thousands of years to lie with you again. I know the new body I have is very attractive. Most men would love to bed it. You know I’m not actually a child. Stop being such a fucking pussy. One of your duties as a husband is to satisfy me. Are you not man enough to anymore?”

The tears stopped and Lilly angrily said, “I can’t see it, but I can tell what face you’re making, asshole! I’m serious!”

John only knew horny to mean something along the lines of calloused hands, so he assumed Lilly’s usage meant something very different. From context he believed being a pussy meant being timid and cowardly. He didn’t think he was being either. Even the thought of what she asked repulsed him to his core. He hated such men.

And John knew for certain most men felt the same, and he knew Lilly knew it too. His repulsion turned to pity, and he felt very sad for his wife. He knew a big part of her identity was being desired by men, and it must kill her having to suffer through childhood without her greatest power. Having the body of a child and being desired by no one is probably her worst nightmare, thought John.

Without attempting to keep all the disgust from his voice, John answered. “Never ask me to do that. The thought of doing such disgusts me and I never will. When I think of what happened to you as a child the first time, and again this time, it angers me greatly. I will not join the ranks of men I despise. We’ve both lived long and know time goes by quickly. Ten years or so isn’t a long wait at all. Do not ask me for anything like that until you have the full-grown body of a woman.”

Lilly’s face turned rageful for a moment before it calmed, and she wiped the tears from her face. John wondered if real tears could be shed while within a Mind’s Eye. “Oh, Adon, I can’t wait that long, but I know I must. I may lose my mind, so be tolerant. You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. So, I will wait.

“And speaking of things I did for you – I want all the details of your new body. And I want to know everything else. You left out all the important details when we last spoke about this. I want exact [Stats], every [Perk], all your [Skills]. All of it. But be quick. We have time outside but keeping you in here drains my spirit. Or vigor. Outer spirit. There’s no good word for it in English.

“Come then, tell me everything. I know your bones were much hardened. Your claws and teeth pierced the two you fought as if they had no [Fortification] at all.”