A/N: This was **[Error]** not meant to be seen.
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Lilith did not dream.
Which made this… unusual.
"This must be a memory," she thought, looking around.
She was in a room, a familiar one.
A room she hadn't entered in a long, long time.
Lilith frowned.
Her study seemed to be rather… under-furnished.
Apart from the desk she used to work on and the bookshelves, the room appeared unadorned, bathed in the light of a bright sky that wasn't crimson.
That, more than anything, felt wrong.
She liked to adorn her room.
This felt like the stage set for a play.
Just then, the door to her study opened.
Lilith knew it was her past self.
After all, she knew which memory this was.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The one who walked into the room wasn't her old self.
A faceless puppet wearing a black dress strode into the study.
Despite having no mouth, Lilith heard a melodic hum as it sat down at the desk.
"Is that… me?"
Lilith blinked once, then again.
Recognition came slowly when she noticed the hair and posture that mirrored her own.
A grim smile stretched across her face.
Of course.
The passage of millennia had eroded the finer details of her memories, so much so that she had forgotten what she used to look like.
What remained, her mind had filled in.
A puppet show.
And she was its sole spectator.
Her gaze returned to the figure at the desk. She watched it work with quiet diligence.
Lilith's lip curled in disgust.
Even without a face on the puppet to express emotions, she could feel the sincerity oozing from her past self, and it sickened her.
There was a knock on the door, and the figure lifted its head.
"You can enter, Naberiax."
For someone well in tune with ardor like her, it was trivial to recognize those beyond the door.
The doors opened, and another faceless puppet entered, clad in white armor with wings fixed to its back.
It bowed. "Lady Lilith."
Lilith's puppet tilted its head, an invisible smile on its blank visage.
"How is Alisax doing?"
"She's slightly disheartened. She didn't expect Alexander to be very strong," the winged figure replied.
The hearty chuckle that came from her puppet sounded alien to Lilith.
It was warm. Too warm.
It felt wrong.
"Poor Alisax. Please tell her I'll get her something sweet."
"I will," the winged figure said, before adding. "There is one more thing I must tell you."
The shift in the atmosphere was immediate.
"What is it?" the seated figure asked, leaning forward.
The winged figure stepped closer.
"Her Majesty has collapsed."
"Again?" The figure at the desk stood up, crossing its puppet-like arms.
The raw concern in its voice was an unsettling reflection of Lilith's past.
"She's collapsed many times by now."
"It's mostly her wounds," the winged figure said.
Lilith knew which words he meant.
"A thousand years have passed since that mad goddess invaded us…" the figure at the desk muttered, "... and she still suffers from them?"
"I'm afraid so."
Even as an invisible spectator, Lilith could feel the anguish and concern emanating from the figure that represented her past self.
And it sickened her.
Yet despite that, she smiled.
She used to be so… pure.
"I told her to rest regularly," the figure said, turning sharply. "What is Genisix doing? Isn't it his responsibility to treat her?"
Naberiax's puppet shook its head. "He is doing his very best in treating her; however, Her Majesty is refusing treatment because-"
"There are others in worse conditions out there."
Lilith recited Phoebe's words together with her past self.
The figure exhaled.
"She's so… infuriatingly selfless."
'She was,' Lilith thought.
"And that selflessness is slowly destroying her," the winged figure muttered.
"Careful, Naberiax." Lilith's puppet said, its voice low and edged with something colder. "This is my sister you are talking about."
"I understand," the winged figure replied, holding its ground.
"But unless we do something, that is exactly what is going to happen to our queen."
Silence followed, low and dangerous.
Lilith noticed the light dim, the warmth fading to a frightening chill.
"Naberiax."
The voice was calm, yet it stung like ice.
"Please leave."
The winged figure didn't respond. It bowed its head and turned around, leaving the other figure in a heavy silence.
Lilith watched her past self remain there, caught in a quiet, unresolved struggle.
She scowled, her expression hardening.
She shouldn't have hesitated.
If she hadn't hesitated back then…
Lilith shook her head.
It didn't matter.
This was the past, where everything had already been decided.
Her surroundings shimmered, and the scene shifted.
She was still in the study, but it was darker now.
The sky beyond had dimmed into twilight, casting a muted glow across the room.
The figure at the desk was hunched forward, its fist planted against the wooden surface. An air of frustrated defeat hung over it.
Lilith remembers this day.
It was the day when she realized that there was no hope.
She had tried everything to relieve Phoebe of her exhausting, selfless duty towards the Lumini, only to fail miserably at every attempt.
"Naberiax was right," she heard the figure mutter. "Phoebe's selflessness is destroying her."
"It's because she cares so much for us," the winged figure said as it entered the study.
The seated figure lifted its head, its voice weary.
"Naberiax…"
"Lady Lilith," the winged figure bowed its head. "I have someone with me who may have an answer."
Lilith tensed, her fingers tightening into a fist as a third puppet entered the stage, draped in a hooded cloak of pure white that hid its features.
It was him.
The one who set this entire tragedy in motion.
The cloaked figure bowed. When it spoke, its voice was smooth, its words measured.
"Greetings, Lady Lilith. It is an honor to meet you."
Lilith's puppet tilted its head.
"You're that second human that passed through the Tear."
"Indeed, I am."
"I've heard that Alexander was enraged when he saw you," the figure at the desk pointed out.
The cloaked figure shrugged.
"We've had a rather rocky history."
The words moved from him like a smooth river, capturing Lilith's past in their flow.
"But let's not fret about that," it extended a hand. "I am here to help you, Lady Lilith."
"I know of a way to help Queen Phoebe."
Lilith's puppet stilled.
"You do?"
The cloaked figure nodded. "Indeed. But before I tell you, you must understand…"
"What I propose is the only way to help your sister."
"You have done everything you can to help her, but failed," it continued. "It is because you chose methods that would not harm her."
The light dimmed further as the figure at the desk spoke, its voice turning colder.
"Are you saying… that your way involves harming my sister?"
Dark tendrils began to seep from her form, stretching toward the cloaked figure.
The cloaked figure did not move.
"As much as it pains me to say this," it replied calmly. "It is the only way."
The winged puppet stepped between them.
"Please, Lady Lilith," it pleaded. "We've done everything. This is the only way."
"Hebrael," the figure at the desk said, the name cutting through the room.
"You swore to protect my sister from harm, and now you stand here asking for it?"
A shudder passed through the winged figure when its old, true name was spoken.
"If it means a way to free our queen, yes," it replied. "And I will accept whatever punishment follows."
A heavy silence followed.
And then.
"What is your plan?"
The question came slower this time.
Measured.
The cloaked puppet stepped forward.
"Queen Phoebe's selflessness, her absolute care and love for her people, has become what binds her," it said.
"Not chains. Not force. But choice."
"And the shackles formed by this choice are slowly but surely destroying her."
The cloaked puppet paused and asked a question.
"So, how do you free a powerful and stubborn goddess who refuses to let go?"
It did not wait for an answer
"You cannot persuade that kind of will. You cannot reason with it."
Clenching its fist, the cloaked figure said.
"You shatter her with a blow of pure betrayal. What she loves must fail her. What she trusts must turn."
"Phoebe's will is absolute," the figure at the desk said, its voice tightening.
"Nothing is truly absolute," the cloaked man replied calmly. "Not when time is involved."
"When those she trusts betray her, she will endure it. She will resist. She will stand."
"She is strong."
A pause.
"But strength is not endless."
"You remove her from everything she clings to. You leave her with nothing but herself and unimaginable pain."
"It will take a long time, even thousands of years, but her mind will break. The isolation, the pain, the humiliation, it will all strip her mind, her emotions away."
"What she feels will fade."
"What she hates will fade."
"What she loves… will fade."
"In the end…" the cloaked figure's voice was no more than a whisper.
"... there will be nothing left."
"Only emptiness."
Silence stretched.
Even now, listening to that man's words sent shivers down Lilith's spine.
The cloaked puppet let out a soft sigh. "In the end, she will care for nothing."
Then.
Lilith's puppet moved.
In an instant, it grabbed the cloaked figure by the neck and lifted it into the air.
"You are vile," Lilith's past self hissed. "This is your way? To imprison and torture her until she stops caring? Until she feels nothing?"
The grip tightened.
"I should snap your neck. Humanity will be rid of a venomous snake if I do this."
"You could do that," the cloaked figure said, unsettlingly calm despite its current predicament. "And then you will watch her destroy herself."
Another silence passed between them.
"Or I could help you," it added. "And you will be able to help your sister with your gift."
Gift.
That word struck.
Lilith felt it, even now.
Lilith's puppet froze, its grip slackened, letting the cloaked puppet go.
"... How do you know?" it asked in a trembling voice.
The answer was simple.
"I have my ways."
Lilith frowned. She never figured out how he knew.
Its unpleasantness still lingered with her.
She watched the winged figure step forward. "What did he mean, Lady Lilith?"
The recipient of that question was silent.
Its head was lowered.
It was the cloaked figure who spoke.
"It's a power unique to Lady Lilith, a Darkling born from the power of Tenebris."
"As Phoebe gave rise to the Lumini, she can create her own."
It raised a hand as if inspecting it.
"She can turn beings of Lux into her shadowy puppets."
"Beings far stronger than their previous brilliant forms, yet their will becomes hers."
"Not light. Not devotion."
"Something that does not choose. Something that simply... obeys."
The cloaked figure tilted its head.
This time, not toward the puppet, but toward Lilith.
She felt it.
That gaze piercing through millennia and memories.
Watching her.
Knowing her.
"I have a name for them," it said softly.
Lilith spoke.
So did the figure.
"Daemons."