An eerie quietness enveloped the hallways of the church as Lilith made her way through, with the only sound audible being the shuffling of feet. Not a single person extended a helping hand, despite it being clear she was lost. Maybe it was because she refused to reach out first, but it was weird.
She continued to go past rooms, whispering the numbers as she went until she finally stopped at the number written on the paper and, after double checking, knocked on the door. “Delivery for Priest Owen,” Lilith said with a raised voice.
“Coming!” a voice replied, followed by the knocking of what she could guess as scrolls and books onto the floor and the rushed feet coming to a halt at the door. It took him a moment as she heard the rustling of clothes as he fixed himself before opening the door.
Adjusting the strap of the bag around her shoulder, Lilith stood up straight, presenting her name and rank. “Hello, I’m with the Mailroom. My name is Lilith, and I have a package for a man named Owen. Is that you?” Lilith asked in a serious tone.
“Ah, yes. I’m Owen,” he bowed lightly, hair messy and eyes sleepy. “Please, come in.” Brushing books and scrolls aside, he made as much space as he could on his couch.
“I see you’ve been busy,” Lilith said, while taking glances around the room.
Owen scratched the back of his head and sheepishly laughed, “Gabriel can be a slave driver sometimes.”
“Speaking of Gabriel, I’m assuming you know who this package is from?” Lilith asked.
“I was told to be expecting you,” Owen answered.
“On that note,” she took off her bag and placed it on the table. “Do you mind opening this?”
“Sure?” Owen responded in a confused manner.
“You only need to take out the crystal that’s in there. You can ignore everything else.”
Opening the bag, Owen reached in, searching aimlessly until grabbing the crystal and placing it on top of some books on the table. “Is this what Gabriel wanted to give me?” He asked, trying to figure out what was going on.
“No, no. It will help me give you the package he wanted me to give you. It’s just impossible… well, not impossible. Extremely reckless if I were to do any of this.” Lilith took the bag from Owen, tossing it on the couch, and stood next to him. “Now, take hold of that crystal for me. It will take as much mana as it can, so we will be quick before it drains you.”
With worry, Owen followed Lilith’s directions and took the crystal. Quickly, it absorbed Owen’s mana, causing him to wince.
“Don’t pull away,” Lilith remarked as she watch, then got closer. “It’s very simple. Just activate it like any other magic tool.”
Owen did just that, focusing his mana actively into the crystal. The inscriptions lit up, and after the mana reached every inch, a barrier formed around the room. “I don’t think I can keep this up for long,” Owen said with worry.
“It’s fine. It will only take a second.” The moment the barrier expanded past Lilith and Owen, Lilith opened up the void, reached in, and placed the package on the floor between them.
As soon as Lilith’s void gate closed, Owen let go of the crystal and fell backwards onto the couch. He had nearly depleted his mana, and he only kept it up for a minute at most.
“What is that thing?” Owen asked, his breathing heavy. “It’s like it has a mind of its own.”
Lilith shrugged. “Do you mind putting it back in the bag? As you can tell from our little stunt, I can’t freely use my mana. Oh, and take the fake package just in case.”
“A cursed,” Owen said underneath his breath, but loud enough to allow Lilith to hear it, causing her to take a step back.
“Is there something wrong with that?” She asked, ready to take action if needed, but Owen simply stood up after catching his breath, put the crystal back into the bag, took out the fake package, and handed it back over.
“I can’t say I have the best opinion of you cursed ones, but…” Owen looked over at the package. “If Gabriel trusts you enough, then that’s fine. Plus, I don’t think we could’ve ever got that in here without you.”
“He gave me one stupid mission, you know that?”
“But you made it work,” Owen said with confidence, yet the confidence didn’t come from him knowing Lilith could do it, but from Gabriel, who gave the mission to Lilith.
On the verge of rolling her eyes, but stopping herself, Lilith readjusted the bag back over her shoulder. “I don’t mind helping this time, but I don’t wish to get dragged into this anymore than needed. If there’s nothing else needed from me, then I need to head back so I can move on to my original delivery.”
“No, thank you for the package.”
Immediately after leaving the church, she wasted no time. Heading back to the mailroom, Lilith sat down at the table. “Owen received the package, but why couldn’t you do it yourself?”
“Because they are wary of me.” Gabriel walked over to his desk, grabbing a few papers and a rolled-up map. “I can’t hide things like you can, and if they witnessed me directly giving Owen something, then it could backfire quickly.”
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“Sure, but you knew I couldn’t open it freely,” Lilith said, annoyingly.
“I simply had faith in what you could do.” Gabriel placed the small stack of papers and map in front of Lilith and sat down across from her.
So this is where you rely on a God?… Lilith groaned to herself. It was a copout, but she didn’t think she would get an actual answer.
“Now, then.” Gabriel unfurled the map, exposing an overview of the entire city alongside red dots and numbers next to them scattered around. “Each dot is a location for a delivery and the numbers…” Gabriel pointed to the papers, directing Lilith’s attention away from the map. “They match with the numbers here. Names, exact address, and any other details we had.”
Lilith’s eyebrows raised, “this is pretty impressive on such a short notice.”
“Although we may not be an informant guild, I find it important having as much information I can.” Gabriel flipped through the papers until the last page. “The names here don’t have a number because we don’t know where they live or who they are.”
Gabriel handed the papers to Lilith, who then glanced at the list on the last page. Some contained scarce details, while others lacked any information. However, none of them had an address. “These seem impossible to deliver,” Lilith remarked while resting her head on her hand. “Do you think, if given time, you could find these people?”
“We can try,” Gabriel said.
There was a moment of silence as Lilith considered her options. As much as she wanted to, she didn’t have the leisure to wait or attempt to find out where these people were. “If I were to give you the packages for these people, could you get them delivered if you ever find them?” Lilith asked.
Gabriel leaned back, lost in thought, as he deliberated the risks he would have to take to find these people. There was a chance the people trying to find these people would paint a bigger target on his back, and unlike Lilith, who was more than willing to deliver whatever she could, he did not have that mindset. Everything he did was for his own benefit. He was willing to do a brief search, but anything more than that seemed highly questionable.
Lilith's eyes darted across the pages, her gaze flickering towards Gabriel with every turn. She attempted to discern his thoughts on the manner, and each time she shot glances in his direction, the more obvious his answer was going to be. “Is that a no?” Lilith asked with a concerned voice.
“I’m not willing to go as far as you would to find these people, but it wouldn’t hurt to put in a bit of effort to do so,” Gabriel finally spat out, which, to both of them, was unexpected. Lilith barely knew the man, but from the small conversations she had with him, she knew what his top priority would be and this- well, it went against that thought process. Lilith smiled, an unexpected smile. It was better than she expected, and she didn’t have to feel obligated to stay.
“Thank y-”
Gabriel held up his hand, stopping Lilith in her tracks. “Don’t thank me. They probably won't deliver. I’m sure you understand why?” Lilith nodded her head and Gabriel continued. “Some of them might be in hiding, but there is a good chance the others are dead. The reason there is no address for any of them is because we couldn’t find them at their last recorded location.”
“That’s fine. Even if you don’t put in as much effort as I would like, no matter what you do, it would be better than what I could do. I don’t make deliveries here for a reason, so I’m extremely unfamiliar with the landscape and even though I am disguised,” Lilith pointed to her now red hair, “there is too much of a risk. Not to mention the priest and priestess’ here freak me out. Plus, I understand that sometimes, it’s just not possible to finish a delivery.”
“As long as you understand. The ones we could find there shouldn’t be an issue, but just be careful. Some of them could be problematic.”
“Like this one?” Lilith asked, pointing to a name. “Very religious. Goes to church every other day. There’s more, but it’s basically telling me to not go there.”
“If the location isn’t near anyone who can detect your mana, you should be fine. However, there are a few that I wanted to discuss with you.” Taking the documents from Lilith, Gabriel flipped through the pages and took out a page and handed it to Lilith. “If you look at the numbers and their locations,” Gabriel pointed to the map. “Their locations are far too sketchy, even if you were to keep the packages in your bag. It’s not worth the risk of using your mana, so I suggest letting us take care of these. The chance of these specific packages leading to anything that could backfire on us is near impossible, so it would be ideal if you just let us handle it.”
Lilith couldn’t help but agree. There were some that she thought she could deal with, but there were too many variables to take the chance. “That’s fine. I rather not get caught. I have a question, though.”
“What’s the question?”
“Will they search my bag if they see me out doing the deliveries?”
“No, you should be fine because being inside the city means they’ve checked the mail when you entered or it was something from within the city which they ignore.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, and if they ever bother you, then tell them to talk to me directly. It has forever been a rule to not bother the carriers who are in the city. Sure, there is the checkpoint into the church, but that’s only the church.”
Lilith sat on that response, and after confirming with herself that it was good enough, and that she could use Gabriel’s name if something ended up happening, she felt far more confident. Now she just needed to deliver the mail to their owners. “Here,” Lilith stood up and, after extending a hand towards the opened area of the room, let out every package from the list of impossible deliveries. Then she sat down, took out the bag filled with letters, and skimmed through them, pulling out one every so often and placing them aside on the table until she finished and put the bag back. “That should be all of them,” Lilith said while double checking the labels on each letter and package sprawled on the floor.
“I would’ve appreciated it if you did this on the mailroom floor,” Gabriel gave Lilith a fake smile.
Lilith shrugged in response. “It shouldn’t be that big of a problem.”
Gabriel held his smile, holding back any comments, and moved on. “If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Honestly, it's been far easier than I expected. Even getting into the church was easy.”
“It helps when the paladins you had to go through were ones I’m familiar with.”
“Ah, so that was the case. Did you leave a letter?”
Gabriel smiled in response. Something Lilith realized he did far more often that he probably should. “I would still be careful. It might seem fine for now, but the Pope has done some cruel things, so whatever you do, don’t get caught. Be prepared.”
“You’ve been saying that a lot. Or at least its felt like it.”
“Because I’m serious. It’s one thing to be delivering letters you shouldn’t, but it’s another to be cursed. Both bad in the eyes of the Pope, but the latter is something I would never wish even on my enemies. The things they do…” Gabriel paused, shivering from disgusting. Something Lilith never expected to see. “Just don’t get caught.” His eyes pleaded, and Lilith agreed.