Revelations

Out of the Five doors that were on the second floor, Only three of them were actual rooms. When me and Lilith looked around all the rooms, two of them were just storage rooms. One was for clothes and the other was for what I'd assumed to be tools to help keep the house in good shape. Broom, shears, and a small rake. Not a lot of stuff for a room that could fit even more stuff into it. This room separated two of the actual rooms with beds. The last room towards the end of the 2nd floor was a normal room.

Heading into that very last room, I saw it was just a very minimal room. A bed with a nightstand and a dresser, that was basically it. I can see why this house was just a secondary or back up for the Mallory…

Also, we should probably tell them about what happened in this house.

As I closed the door to the room, Lilith went on and sat on the bed. I flicked my wrist and casted a small fireball, aiming it at the candles inside. Within a minute I had all the candles lit, brightening the room to a comfortable level. The last one I lit was the one next to the bed.

As I finished, Lilith spoke out. There was a sense of concern and confusion in her voice. "Remember those voices I heard back a while ago? The ones of a man and a girl?"

"Yeah, the ones you couldn't tell who's voices they were." I sat down beside her, looking at her. "Did…did they come back?"

"…Yeah. Back in shanford. And it's gotten worse…" Lilith struggled for a moment to find the words. She looked at her left hand momentarily as she continued on. "When I was shanford getting your medicine, I got a vision of someone inside the well there. Someone else was in my reflection.

A vision? Kinda sounds like some horror movie she's talking about. That's…concerning.

"Before, it was just a headache and the voices…now it's seeing someone else. And it's gotten worse." Lilith put her left hand up against her forehead, gritting her teeth. "It happened in the bathroom."

I looked at her with surprise. "Just now? The monster didn't get you while you were in there, did it?"

That white monster that bursted out of the house with Lilith, surely was hiding in the house. Maybe it was waiting for her to leave the bathroom, still she managed to kill it…but imagine if it caught her off guard.

She must've noticed my concerned look as she waved her left arm. "No, I managed to notice it when I was leaving. I'm not really sure how it even got in there in the first place."

"Hm…Maybe a hole or a crack is somewhere in this house. That white monster was kinda stretchy, maybe it slipped through the cracks?"

"Maybe. Anyways, when I was in the bathroom…" Lilith pointed at her left eye. "My dragon eye activated on its own, and the visions and voices came back. This time…it was actually someone talking to me."

"…Someone talking to you? That sounds absurd."

"I thought so too…and then my headache got worse. A-and then I ended up in this hallway that had three doors. The voice kept talking to me about how I was part of her and that I had a piece of her in me. It seemed like she was the one causing my headaches in the first place by contacting me."

"…Ok, that doesn't help with the absurdity..." I sounded even more perplexed by her story. "Do you know who it was?"

Lilith nodded. "yeah…at least I think I know."

"Who?"

"Remember in Prussia when you got that hole in your chest?" Lilith pointed at me.

That's a very specific thing to mention. What does having my chest imploded and penetrated got to do with this?…Actually, hold on…

During the festival, there was someone else with Emmit. A girl, she had an owl mask on her and had something that seemed out of place.

"The girl that was there, she was the one in my vision. I…I think my visions were about her, her name is Sandra."

Sandra? Yeah, that was the name Emmit said. Right after she tazed me with her…

"Hold on, Are you saying the Sandra girl is you?" I looked at her with confusion. That couldn't be true…right? How would that even happen? They're two separate people, there's no way they were together.

Lilith looked at me with an ominous expression. Her left hand dragged itself towards her left eye. "I think so. I mean, she had my other dragon eye on her right eye. There's no doubt."

"I didn't even know you had another eye." I looked at her eyes for a moment. They seemed normal, at least to me….or what would be normal in this world. Her amber eyes had a gaze of exhaustion and concern as she looked right back at me.

"I didn't either…But the way I felt when I saw hers made me certain. She also said I looked like a younger version of her." She then leaned forward towards me. "Do I? Imagine me with brown hair."

I continued to look at her, now trying to imagine what she'd look like with Brown hair. I mean…it kinda fitted with her look, but I'd think she would look nicer if she had longer hair with that color. I can't really say how she and Sandra would look alike since I didn't really get a good look at her…

I kept on staring, now admiring Lilith's look. It wasn't long before Lilith realized that I wasn't responding to her. she leaned back and crossed her arms at me in disappointment as she blushed.

"Hey, I'm trying to be serious here. Stop ogling me."

"Ah, sorry. Just been awhile since we got time to ourselves…" Trying to contain myself from admiring her, I tried answering her. "Well…I can't say for sure if you do look like her. I haven't gotten a full look at her."

"Hm…" Lilith looked down, her thoughts trailing for a moment. She mumbled to herself, loud enough for me to hear. "Am I really a part of her?"

As she mumbled to herself, she started to mess around with her left arm. Rubbing her fingers together and moving it in a rhythm. All seemed normal about it, but just earlier it was flaming with black heat. Something that completely threw me off.

"Lilith…Is your arm ok?" I asked, pointing at her arm. She looked at her arm, examine it herself.

"Uh…It should be. Feels normal to me. Actually…Feels better than before." She answered, looking back at me.

"How'd you even get that?" I got closer to her, lifting her left arm and examining it. As I held it, it felt a bit heavier than the last time I held it. Like way heavier, and the heat that came off of her was immense. How the hell was she not feeling that?!

"Ow! Lilith, you are dangerously hot right now!" I rubbed my hands. "How are you not burning or feeling anything from it?!"

"Hm? They feel fine." Lilith lifted her left arm. "Is it that hot? I don't know how to…turn it off."

Hm…That might be a problem. Maybe it's attached to her mana somehow? She could control it to lower its heat. Like adjusting how powerful a spell is.

Wanting to try that out, I lifted my right hand once more. "Here, place your hand next to mine."

Lilith gave me a concerned look. "You sure? Won't I burn you?"

"Not if you control it. I think maybe since you just got it, you just don't know how to limit it….how did you get that arm to do the fire thingy?"

Lilith thought for a moment, rubbing her chin. "Hmm…When I fighting the white monster, it almost killed me." As she said that, she pointed at the hole that was near her left shoulder. There was a hole within her clothing. "It stabbed me and almost choked me to death."

"What?!" I exclaimed out loud. "You almost died?" I looked at her shoulder, noticing no hole or wound there. "There's nothing there though."

"It healed. Or I think it did, I ended up getting scales too. I guess that's what healed it." Lilith prodded at where her wound would've been. "I guess that's another thing I gained."

"How'd that happen?"

"…I ended up seeing myself in the same hallway again, And I think I opened…one of the locked doors."

"Locked door?"

"Yeah…Sandra said that I shouldn't open it unless it was necessary. I don't think I opened it all the way, only a little bit. But once I did, I felt an immense amount of heat coming from me and I guess my arm was the product of it." She then lifted her hand after she said that, moving it slowly closer to mine. "You think I can control it?"

"I'm sure you can. Just focus, look at me." I used my left hand to point at myself. "We can still talk while we do this."

Lilith cautiously looked at me, reaching her hand out even more. The heat from her hand exuding out and warming the air around my hand. Lilith looked to be concentrating, her eyes looking at her arm as she seemed to be trying to limit her mana from flowing. With nothing really happening, it seemed to stress her out.

"Anything else you wanted to talk about?" I asked her, watching her still.

Lilith looked at me, stopping her concentration. "Yeah…I was wondering something else."

"What is it?"

"Who do you think I am?"

"…what do you mean by that?"

"Like…When Sandra was talking to me, She told me that the Real Lilith was behind the locked door. The door that I let open. If that's true…then who am I really? Am I really just a part of Sandra and the real Lilith? Am I not really someone of my own?" Lilith looked down, frowning. Her left hand exuding more heat than before, it made me move my hand back.

That's a tough question to answer, huh? This question she's giving me reminds me of when we were in Prusha during the winter. Seems like she is still struggling to accept herself. Can't believe she's asking me again for advice after the last time I did…Still, it's better to try than to not.

If Lilith is really just two people mashed together…I wouldn't say she really is either of those two people. Just a mix of their personalities to make a new one, at least I think. I wouldn't really know the full extent to it all, but I know for the fact that Lilith wouldn't taze me with a taser.

"Lilith…" I tried to figure out a way to answer her. "…you aren't either of them. It's just like what I said back in Prusha, You are you. The Lilith I found in Shanford, The Lilith that became my friend, The Lilith that came along with me and is still with me. That's the real Lilith I know." I moved my left hand that wasn't held up and drifted it close to Lilith. "Maybe you do have a piece of whoever in you, but that doesn't make you them. You don't feel like Sandra or that other Lilith. You feel you, right?"

Lilith paused, it seemed like her hand was getting colder. "I…do. But it's just when I use my dragon eye…it's like I slowly start to feel different."

"Really?"

"Yeah…There's like a feeling inside that keeps burning. Like it wants me to burn and feel good." Her other hand that wasn't lifted slowly drifted to my left hand, gently laying itself on top of mine. "Can I really control that type of thing?"

"It's like controlling your anger, right? Just harness it, don't let it take you over. You got it." I felt her hand getting colder, almost reaching my hand's temper.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as She seemed to be mellowing out. Her left hand moved closer to my right hand. "Keep…Keep saying nice things to me."

"Eh?" What the?" Is she into that kinda stuff? I mean, no offense. I just didn't expect that from her.

"It's to calm me down!" Lilith said, somewhat annoyed. Even with her closed eyes, I could tell from the blushing that she was also embarrassed by her own remark. "If it's like controlling my anger, then it's got something to do with how I feel at the moment, right?"

"Oh…How do you feel right now?"

"Anxious, concerned…" Lilith said in a lower voice. "Just…Say something nice again."

Hm, should've figured it'd be based on emotions. Her whole mood is out of it, so we just need to get her at a stable point. Nothing weird with complimenting her…

"Lilith…You are a capable person, someone I can rely on."

Lilith took another deep breath, her hands slowly cooling. Her left hand drifted even closer and nearly touched mine, she scooted even a bit closer as she did it.

The sound of rain pattering on the roof above us filled the awkward silence between us. It too seemed to comfort her to an extent.

What else can I say to her?

As I was thinking, Lilith's left hand finally touched my hand. Her thumb was wrapped around it, It wasn't as hot as it was before and it seemed to be getting cooler. She took another deep breath, opening her eyes as she looked at me. A smile formed on her face as she scooted closer once more.

"Anything else?" She asked.

"Yeah…your hands feel nice." For someone that handled a sword and had some hard jabs, her hands still felt soft and smooth. "And you've gotten cooler."

She looked at them. "Did they get better?" She moved her left hand, rubbing it against my own. "I guess I am able to control it…" she didn't continue on with her sentence as she continued to just slowly rub my hand.

"Wouldn't have thought you couldn't." I stared at her. Her amber eyes glowed an enticing light, something I just couldn't look away from. "You really are something."

It was then I realized once more that her hand was just warm to the touch, she was back to normal temperature.

"Do you feel better?" I asked her.

"Yeah…Lot better." She eyed me. "Thanks…"

Her whole face was a flush of red as she continued staring at me. Something was on her mind, and she decided to act on it. With one final push from herself, she leaned in for a kiss. Our lips connected momentarily before she quickly pulled off, retreating back and making space between us. The whole thing lasted for just a mere couple of seconds, and yet it felt much longer than that to me.

"…What was that all about?" I looked at her. Even if she pulled away, our hands were locked together. She still continued to rub her hands against mine.

"For helping me…did you not want to be kissed?"

"I-I mean…it just came abruptly…" I found myself blushing over it now. "Not that I didn't want to kiss as well."

"Well, it's just one for now." Lilith pulled her left hand away from mine. She examined it with intrigue. "Huh…it really did cool down. I guess you were right about it being based on emotions."

"What are you feeling right now?"

Lilith turned back to me, smiling happily. "I feel happy, more relaxed and safe. Thanks to you." Her eyes glanced down to my hands.

"Hey, anything to help you…" it seemed like our little moment was ending, so I decided to change the topic. "You think Kale is doing fine out there?"

She then got up from the bed, her hands drifting away from me, much to my dismay. She then looked out the window in the room, looking to see if kale was out there. "Hmm…he should be fine. I see him outside, he's still checking the area…Actually I did have another question." She turned her head to me. "How'd those things even find us?"

"Oh…The stone we had. It was like a beacon device, it activated inside of the warehouse and I think that's what attracted them." I tried to find the stone, but soon realized that it wasn't even with me. I think I dropped it inside the warehouse…

Lilith frowned. "Stone? Oh…like the one Amelia's dad had, right?"

"…yeah, you noticed it?"

Lilith shrugged. "It was in his room and my eyes spotted it. But I didn't think it'd matter…until now." She thought for a moment. "…you think he sent them to us?"

"Kale thinks it's Mandy…But it could be Adam as well, considering he has one too." I pondered. "When we were leaving the Mallory house, I asked him about it. He didn't say much, just that it was a novelty item."

"So he lied?"

"Maybe. Maybe he doesn't know what it does."

"But Claire had that rock beforehand, right? You don't think he was trying to track her or something?" Lilith proposed. "You know, to make sure she's safe."

To keep Claire safe? That stone attracted Mandy's attention, that's the complete opposite of what it's supposed to do….or maybe not. Maybe it was supposed to be used to track Claire, but for another reason…

"No…not to see if she was safe." I looked at Lilith. "To make sure Mandy keeps track of her." Then something clicked for me.

The ambush on Claire during her way to Prusha wasn't a coincidence. It was planned by Mandy. Mandy was tracking her from the point when she left Ozoth. Like a hunter hunting its prey. And how else would they be able to track them? Someone must've given them something to track Claire.

"I…I Think something else is going on with Claire and Amelia's dad. Something with him is connected with Mandy." I told Lilith.

"Then I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow…" Lilith said, looking out the window. "The rainstorm isn't letting up…probably for the whole night and the morning." The sound of hard pattering and rumbling of the lightning made it obvious.

By this point, it was already pitch dark outside. It wouldn't be wise to head out and continue our investigation on all of this. And I was beginning to feel the exhaustion from all this whole day, I noticed it was affecting Lilith as well as she began to take off her gear.

Lilith then took off her holster, dropping it to the floor. She then began to take off the leather chest piece she had, I watched on as she finally took off all her gear and examined the charred sleeve she had on her left arm.

"Guess I'll need to get a new shirt…Hey, we still have our bag?" She asked me.

"I think they're at King Vergil's place. At least I hope, if Kale's horse is there."

"Phooey…" Lilith walked back towards the bed, falling back onto it and staring at me. "When did you get a ring?"

"Hm?"

She glanced at my right hand. "On your hand, when did you get it?"

I glanced down to the silver ring on my finger, I forgot that I even had this on. The gift from Synthia and Gerald, one that should amplify Magic and weapons…

Actually, I think this thing might've been the reason why I was able to stagger that black monster.

"Oh. This is from my parents." I told Lilith. "It was a parting gift for when we left Shanford." I lifted my right hand to show it to her. "I think they gave you one too."

"Really? Let me see!" Lilith sat straight up. I began to grab the brown pouch I had on me, rummaging through it until I pulled out the other ring. I showed it to Lilith, who looked at it with intrigue. "Ooh, it's like yours."

"Yeah, I guess they had an extra with them and wanted to give you one." I don't really recall why they gave me two, but a parting gift is a parting gift. If it makes us stronger, we might as well use them. "Want to wear it?"

Lilith held her right hand up, a smile crept on her face. "Yeah, put it on for me."

Taking the ring, I grabbed Lilith by her hand and slowly began to latch the ring on her. But as I did, I had a thought going through my mind. Why didn't I give this to her in the first place? Did I just forget? Maybe I might've been that, this whole day has been hectic so I could've easily forgotten it.

I put the ring into Liltih's ring finger, it fitted nicely and looked nice on her. She pulled her hand away to look at it, in awe at it.

"Woah…now we match." She looked at my hand and then hers. "…it's like we're married now…"

Married?

I thought for a moment, that word echoing in my head as Lilith began to yawn and crawl onto her side of the bed. I'm vaguely recalling something about the rings now that maybe I should've remembered.

"Phooey…I guess we should get some rest. I'm sure Kale will be fine, let's hit the hay!" Lilith said, crawling under the blanket of the bed. But I didn't answer her, rather I looked off at the walls in shock as I realized what I've done.

I began to extinguish the candle in the room, the shocked expression still on my face. Once I got the last one by the bed, I crawled into the bed with Lilith. The shocked look still on my face. The looking thought was the only thing on my head as I stared at the ceiling.

Not even moments passed before I heard Lilith snoring next to me. Her right hand slapped against my chest as she moved in her sleep, but I didn't notice it. I was too preoccupied with the thought in my mind. The thought of marriage.

There was a reason why I kept that ring in the pouch. It was for when I was ready to make our relationship official.

And I put the ring on her.