Chapter 11 - Emerald Eyes

Lilith

“Uuuwaaaaaaahhhhhh~~~!” I exclaim after taking a good stretch as I wake up. Mmh hm hm hm, that wine was good. Seems I don’t get hangovers either. Bonus! Alright, it’s a brand new day! Well, actually it’s night. Uggh, let's see, find my status in this new... UI, oh aha, I am now 5 days, 1 hour, and 12 minutes old.

Since it’s dark, how about I try a spell to light things up. I want to make my finger act like a candle to start, or well, have a tiny flame on the end of it like one, that is. So let’s try this, magic, without the erm.. ‘WorldMethod’ just, pure, Lilith power! 

I imagine the mana flowing to the tip of my finger, and, as it exits, the molecules in the air get excited faster and faster, and faster, and FASTER until.. Kaboom! Erm.. oh.. Wait? IT WORKS! Holy shit. I did it. I can’t help but interpret my own wording in a... uh, different light. Mmhmm hehe, faster! faster! boom! More than one way to heat things up ehehe. God— ess I’m hopeless, no wonder I’m part succubus. Hnngh I really wanna learn the language, it’s awkward trying to find people to smash when you can’t talk, you know?

Oh well, I’ll get there. Right now, I think, since I have a light, I want to check out the rest of this building, I have no idea if I’m completely alone here. I am pretty sure the top floor I’m on and the one below me are abandoned. I’ve been careless again though.

Alright, let’s go! Making my way across the room, past the old and broken furniture, I find the stairs down, it seems pretty dusty here, actually, I need to be careful, I could light a cobweb up and send this place ablaze. 

The floor below me seems unoccupied too, there are several rooms with beds and dressers, most in bad to terrible condition, there are two rooms with ok looking beds, one the dresser is missing all the drawers, the other one is fine other than missing one drawer.

The windows all seem broken and the curtains are tattered messes. I’m surprised with all the homeless people I saw on my way here, that none of them are in this building, I wonder why? I have a… not great feeling about this.

Exploring further, I find the stairwell down to the next floor, the 3rd floor, I believe, the stairs have collapsed though, the floor seems dark and empty of people though. In order to climb down, I use a modified version of the trick I did in the cell to escape my bindings, I stretch my legs and arms into tentacles and lower myself down gently, making sure to keep the flame going, I left my hands intact, to help with that as well as climbing down.

Reaching the floor safely I change my appendages back to normal and continue to look around, this floor looks very torn up though, mostly just filled with debris, and a few walls partition parts of the floor, without fully enclosing into rooms, I can’t really tell what this floor could have been for.

Slowly exploring around I look for a way to the next lower floor but I am not seeing one. It’s possible it’s collapsed and filled with debris from this floor. I can’t imagine what could have created so much debris, this floor is filled with several feet of fairly smashed up trash and other debris, almost as if it was done on purpose? Maybe? I don’t know, it just seems unusual.

As I near some of the windows I catch a faint sound, curious, I sneak closer to the window, extinguishing the flame to avoid being seen. Peeking out the window I can see two men, one in a dark long coat with a hat, a second one dressed in light armor, a mix of leather and chainmail with a dirty tan hooded cloak. The noises are muffled grunts coming from a bound and gagged woman.

From what I can see, she is wearing a beautiful green robe-like dress with gold trim that is quite modest but yet shows her beautiful figure, in the dim reddish glow of the magic lamps her auburn hair seems to almost be glowing. I have a bad feeling about their plans with her.

Peeking further out the window as they get close to the building, I feel my heart rate begin to spike as they walk directly towards the building I am in. Holding out my hand slightly, I turn my finger into a small spider, I lower it quickly down the side of the building with a spider thread connecting it to my hand, as it reaches the ground floor I swing it into the building and latch onto the wall with its feet.

I hide and secure my body’s position on the 3rd floor, then close my eyes and shift to the spider’s perspective. I watch as they pass by me, the man in the dark long coat uses his free hand to pull a key out of his pocket as they approach the door to the building. I quickly scurry towards the door, ensuring I extend enough thread to maintain a connection, angling it downward towards the wall hoping it will stick and not get severed accidentally.

As the long coat man inserts the key I position myself above the door, ready to sneak in as they open it. I can see the woman more clearly now, her beautiful face is marred by a large bruise on her left jaw, with some cuts and scrapes on her left cheek and forehead, Her smashed hat hangs off her shoulder, caught around her neck and shoulder by some kind of small scarf like length of cloth. Her eyes look filled with anger as she continues to struggle in vain.

I couldn’t see it before but she has some sort of collar with a dull brass appearance around her neck that looks more like a restraint, not a part of an outfit.  As he opens the door a shadow falls across her face and I can see her emerald eyes are faintly glowing, as they express her anger. I’m startled out of my dazed stare as the man in light armor shoves the woman forward, as the two men enter the building, quickly I run inside, onto the ceiling as the door shuts behind me. I can hear a clunk as one of them locks it again.

Following them down the dimly lit hallway, as I run along the ceiling, leaving my trail of silk attached to it behind me, they approach a set of double doors that has a locking mechanism somewhat similar to the cell I was trapped in a couple days ago, except this one has 11 switches as a combination.

I see one of the men moving toward it and rush to position myself nearby and try to see the combination. Thankfully, for me, the woman is struggling enough that both of them still have to hold her, slowing down the progress of entering the combination. I watch as he flips the switches one by one, 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 11th. A low, deep series of clunks accompany the unlocking of the door, followed by a soft rumble as some mechanism unseen in the walls moves along with the slowly opening door.

Behind the door is a staircase leading down to somewhere I can’t see, but the faint glow of magic lamps can be seen softly illuminating the bottom of the staircase. As the two men push the woman ahead of them and into the staircase, I leap onto the top of the door frame, making sure to shoot more spider silk thread toward the ceiling and wall to secure it firmly, hopefully, before bolting down the staircase along the roof following closely behind them.

The rumbling of the door mechanism can be heard again as the large door slowly begins to shut. I recite the combination to help myself remember, “1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th. 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th. 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th.” I stop as we reach the bottom, I can see a short hallway with two doors on each side, that splits into a T shape at the end. Directly at the end of the hallway, at the ‘top’ of the T shape, is a double wide door of iron bars.

The woman seems to be running out of energy and is not able to struggle as hard as she was previously. The man in the dark longcoat leaves her with the other man and goes to open the iron door. As I scurry toward it, I begin to hear some noises and chatter, it almost sounds like a party or event of some sort.

As the door opens and I run in along the ceiling, I hear some music too, it sounds more like something I’d have expected to hear back on earth, than... well, here. The sounds of more traditional instruments mixed and warped in such a way that they sound somewhat akin to modern electronic dance music, but in a distinctly more analog way. Melded together like one of those weird fusions of styles I recall from earth, like classical music and heavy metal.

I follow the man in the dark long coat down the hall, looking back I see the other man, with the dirty tan cloak, is waiting by the door of iron bars, still holding onto the woman in green, she doesn’t seem to be struggling anymore. I turn back around and catch back up to the long coat man, the hallway we’re walking down has empty cells with iron barred doors along it, most seem to be used as storage, as well as a few rooms with solid wooden doors as we near the end of the hallway.

A dull light made of a mixture of various colors spills into the hallway as we reach the end and it opens into a large room with a high ceiling. The walls and ceiling look to be made of old worn stone, but the floor is covered in a soft looking maroon colored carpet, along with maroon colored curtains with gold trim lining the bottom half of the stone walls.

Magic lamps of various colors hang from the ceiling in even spacing, seemingly rotating, creating dark and light spots as shadows dance across the room. A small stage made of a dark, rich colored polished wood sits directly across from the hallway’s entrance. Upon it 5 people seem to be playing various instruments, seemingly with some magic as I can see various lights erupt from parts of their instruments as they play. 

A woman is up front, as if she is singing into a microphone, but the sounds emanating from it remind me more of those people who can do things like beatbox with their mouth, only, distorted and changed in some way, as she plays with what look like buttons that line the upper third of the stand of her ‘microphone’ with accompanying small flashes of light.

Near the stage is a large round table, with a maroon cloth with golden patterns, and several people in very fancy looking clothes, what looks to be some bottles, an elevated tray that resembles a snack tray, except it is filled with indents that contain what look like long thin cigars, as long as a sparkler one might see during new years on earth.

The scent of a sweet and intoxicating smoke fills the air, as a visible cloud of it lingers just above the reach of the curtains lining the wall. The man in the longcoat passes by the other variously sized tables with different colors of cloth, making his way towards the large maroon and gold one near the stage.

I can’t easily follow him as the ceiling is so much taller, I fall behind as I climb quickly up the wall, the scent of the smoke strengthening significantly as I reach the ceiling and am enveloped in the cloud. It smells sweet, reminiscent of vanilla and cinnamon, and feels intoxicating and relaxing. I try to ignore the feeling and rush as quickly as I can toward the table.

As I enter the area above the table, I do my best to secure a good chunk of thread as an anchor, and slowly slide down through the air, to get near enough to easily use my telepathy. I try to focus on listening to the longcoat man and the one he appears to be addressing, a man dressed in fancy looking, but loose fitting clothes resembling something from the 1700s, colored maroon and black with golden trim and designs.

He is also wearing a hat that looks like a cross between a top hat and a baseball hat, the body of the hat resembles a top hat, but the brim is wide and flat in the front almost like a trapezoid, widest at the front and thinning significantly as it reaches the sides, and disappearing completely at the back. It is black with golden trim along the edge of the brim, finished off with a small maroon colored band near the bottom of the tophat part.

I begin to hear their conversation, the longcoat man is talking first, “...Freedwell. She caught and attacked us as we were planting Roulf Freedwell’s body for Humphrey to find, which we did as you requested, he is nailed to the kitchen door of his restaurant.”

A devious smile crossed the lips of the man in the weird hat, as I could hear his reply, “I must be a gratuitous host, then, please bring her in and give her one of those vials to calm her nerves. I want our guest to be able to relax. Have an attendant bring her a comfortable chair with some armrests.”

“Right away, sir Goodmond.” replied the longcoat man before he turned and walked away, stopping to speak to a waiter along the way.

As I hang there in the air, I look over the people on the table, there is a pretty woman in a white dress with a red sash, pale blonde almost white hair, with a wide brimmed hat with red trim that could be out of the 50s. She has elbow length white gloves and is sitting sideways in her seat casually puffing on one of the long thin cigar-like things. She’s facing a man in a dark blue suit with white accents that looks as if it could be straight out of the Victorian era.

Two more men wearing pinstripe suits reminiscent of something from a mobster movie, one black and white, another maroon and gold, sit across the table from the other three. The woman isn’t talking, but the other three men seem to be discussing some kind of auction planned for later that night. The one called Goodmond by the longcoat man is simply sitting there with a smug grin plastered across his face as if he’d won some game or bet.

I take a moment to look around the place, it appears most tables have 3 to 5 people, and there seem to be about a dozen tables, give or take, scattered across the room. Most people seem to be relaxed, chatting, and smoking those long thin cigar-like things. There are roughly equal amounts of men and women, as far as I can see.

While I’m not sure if I plan to interfere, after all, I have no idea what is going on with the woman in green, I am considering it, as I assess the room and try to think of potential plans. Right now I would prefer non-violent solutions as I’m not very confident in my fighting ability. Thinking over my abilities, the next best solution seems obvious to me, as I float in this intoxicating smoke, hoping it will have the effect on people I think it may.

Taking a moment to look over the descriptions of two abilities I haven't investigated yet, I hope from their names that they will help me pull off my plan.

I giggled to myself for a moment, hearing myself through my ears before remembering where my body is, as I switch back to look out my eyes and away from the spider, I lean back out the window and peek to make sure no one is around. I lean back inside against the wall again, out of sight, and focus back on the spider I left dangling over the table.

Looking around again I notice the longcoat man is pulling the woman in green up to the table, she is stumbling as she walks like she’s somewhat out of it. He places her in the chair a waiter brought and ties her arms down to the arms of the chair with a single wind of a thin rope.

I try to focus on the conversations again at the table with my telepathy, I can hear some incoherent thoughts from the woman, the longcoat man simply nods at the one called Goodmond before walking away. 

Goodmond, however, begins to address the woman, “It’s a shame really, what I had to do to your cousin, you can blame your damned half brother Humphery for that. He murdered my nephew Godefray, you know. I do hope you can forgive me, I’ve always been fond of you, Lilac.”

Lilac looks at Goodmond groggily, her gag has been removed, but she seems unable to speak properly, only mumbling in an angry but muted tone. I pick up fragments of sentences mixed in with the incoherent thoughts, “...let me go creep…” “...ruined your chance…” “...want to go home...” looking back at Goodmond his expression seems a little pained.

He reaches out his arm as he stands up and leans in next to her, putting his hand on her chin, caressing it slightly as he speaks to her, in what I imagine, if not for my telepathy, would be a soft inaudible voice, “I’ve loved you since we were kids, don’t you understand, I would have done anything for you. I’m not as terrible of a man as you think, your half brother is the real monster between us three. I’ll never forgive him. But… I… I will forgive you. You can still join me, stand by my side.”

Lilac thinks something incoherent but I feel a sense of disgust and fear, she tries to spit on him but is too weary to do so with any force and only ends up drooling on his hand. Angrily, Goodmond remarks, “Those dumbasses gave her too much.” Standing up and wiping off his hand with a handkerchief, he sits back into his chair and takes a drink from his glass, with a dejected look.

I decide it’s probably about time for me to try and make a move if I intend to go through with things. I’m hanging towards the middle of the table, about 7 feet above them. I want to land on Lilac and disconnect my thread and collect my spider, er... Finger? Spider Finger? Whatever! I want to collect it later, perhaps I can use the puppet master skill on it… and not get sick and faint this time.

In order to get close enough, I need to swing some, I decide to practice some magic at the same time, I think about flowing air currents, imagining a wind leaving from me, propelling me forward. At first, I’m not sure if anything is happening, but as I watch the smoke I realize it’s moving past me as if I was a fan, only, very slowly, I imagine the speed faster and faster, I’m starting to notice a difference, I’m definitely floating forward a bit.

I start to create more thread, lowering myself, I imagine air flying past my spider feet like little jets and try to maneuver myself closer to Lilac. I’m very awkward at first and end up spinning around more than I would like, thank goodness I don’t have a spider stomach full of food to vomit with.

After about a minute of trying, I manage to gain some decent control and begin to maneuver myself to land onto her shoulder, as soon as I make a touchdown I cut all the wind, and quickly crawl up into her hair. Musing, ‘I’m sorry Lilac! Don’t panic! I won’t bite! I promise!’ 

I wind in some of the thread to hopefully avoid it hanging low to the table when it is cut, once I have as much as I think I can manage without lifting myself into the air again, I secure myself as best I can, and bite down on the thread to sever it.

My focus is instantly brought back to my main body’s senses, as I feel the numbness of my missing finger, I try this time, to create a new finger, I can feel the mass in my hand stretch to fill in the new space, it’s hard to tell, but it feels like it’s slightly lighter than my other hand.

I think for a moment how I want to approach this, I did not see anyone besides the two men who brought in Lilac have any weapons. So it might be a bad idea to bring the swords with me, on the other hand, I might very well need them, despite how much I don’t want things to turn to violence.

Thinking back about the… ‘chair’ incident, I begin to wonder if it might actually be possible to ‘store’ something inside me? I have no idea where the wood went, absorbed most likely. Though I don’t really want the swords to be absorbed. I decide to give it a try anyway because I’m not really fond of leaving them behind.

I pull out one of the two swords from the belts along with its sheath, I hold it up to the side of my torso, gauging about where I can place it within me, it looks like I might be able to angle the handle up into my shoulder nearing the neck, and the other end will reach until just below my hips, slightly into my thigh. Damn, that would make it hard to sit. Perhaps if I was a bit taller.

I use the internet search ability to look up pictures of tall models, find one I like, and take on her appearance and height as best I can judge. She is tall, with a long torso that flairs out into hips a few inches wider, with maybe a 34C cup for the breasts? Just a guess though. I like the size, not too big, and not… as small I used to be. Flat may be Justice to some but I want some gentle hills ok? Is that so wrong?

Her hair color is blonde though, not my favorite, I make it a beautiful strawberry scarlet mixture, at least, I hope, I have no mirror, only references from google-sensei. Eyes, I feel like green goes well with red, I am a fan of turquoise, so I make mine a shade of it, leaning a bit more toward the green side than the blue.

Next up is my clothes, I actually really liked the outfit the woman in white had on, but I’m not sure it matches me, currently. I spent some more time quickly looking through. I find one in a style that I like, but the pattern and colors are all wrong, the design itself is a shoulderless dress with straps and a smocked top, flaring out into a beautiful skirt featuring a tiered hemline.

Click to Expand Image:

Source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/95216173/50s-dress-summer-style-in-white-and

I decide to make the primary color match that of my eyes, a shade of turquoise leaning toward green, I accent it by making the tiered hemline trim a much more blue leaning shade of turquoise, as well as the frilly trim lining the top of the dress and the straps. The design I found shows it with a somewhat thick black belt, I decide to copy it except making the belt the same blue leaning shade as the trim, with the buckle being a green leaning shade like the dress and my eyes

Next, I copy the triple layer pearl necklace from the example, making it the same color as the trim, the blue leaning shade, finally I add some striped bracelets, with a thick inner stripe of the bluish shade, and two thinner outer strips of the greenish shade.

Damnit, I need shoes and something for my legs. I find some women’s boots described as ‘Steampunk Gothic Vintage Style Retro Punk Boots’ in a few colors and copy the brownish reddish ones directly, the boots are a lace-up style that reaches halfway up my lower legs, with a decent sized heel, a couple of inches is my guess, and what I am going with. I pair them with knee high stockings that reach just above my knees, with alternating stripes between the greenish and bluish turquoise shades.

Click to Expand Image:

https://www.wish.com/product/5bc5a602b61f366bc405db7a?hide_login_modal=true

Thinking for a moment about my outfit, I recall the women in white’s flamboyant hat. Google-sensei informs me that the style is called a ‘Derby’ hat, or at least it looks close enough. I find a wonderful design that I like, with a wide brim like the lady in white, except it has a thick ribbon at a slight angle, attached to the lower side of the ribbon is a beautiful flower design with lots of little fluffy looking stems, I... am not sure what they are called and I’m not going to ask Google-sensei right now.

Click to Expand Image:

Source https://www.pinterest.com/pin/661184789030235913/

There, I think I have a fully prepared outfit now. Let’s hope I can play the part of… someone. ‘Hah. I am going to be stupid again soon aren’t I? Please, Izanami, if you can hear me, don’t let me stay so hopeless,’ I sulk to myself a bit. I take a deep breath in, and then realize I completely forgot the whole reason I turned myself taller… as I look down at the swords I had absentmindedly laid on the ground while getting ‘dressed’ I can’t help but facepalm so hard.

With a heavy, reluctant sigh, I reach down and grab one of the two swords, still within its sheath. I part my ‘clothes’ revealing the side of my body, holding the blade up next to me, I think I can just about fit it and be able to sit, it is going to be very close. All this work and I never even tried to see if I could actually do it yet. Here goes nothing, I try to remember the feeling from when I stuck my claw into myself looking for the wood piece, how my flesh just seemed to pull apart and reform around it, I try to imagine the same with the sword, as I slowly press the end of the sheath into my hip.

At first, nothing much is happening, determined, I keep trying, pressing a little harder and really trying to focus on that splitting feeling, and, sort of success? It’s definitely going in, but something weird is happening. I don’t know how to describe it, first I have to explain that, it ‘feels’ like the shapeshifting works similar to the ‘Mana Patterns’ in the way that things I have done before become easier and there is a sort of ‘Memory’ if you will.

So what is happening right now, is it feels as if the ‘sword’ is entering my shapeshifting ‘memory’ as it enters my body. I also can’t feel it inside me, even though over half of it is now within me. I’m a little afraid to pull it out, worried what will happen with an incomplete memory, as well as the fact I have a suspicion the part of the sword inside me isn’t there anymore. Seriously I cannot feel anything, it’s a little creepy, honestly.

After a minute or so, maybe two, or even three, I’m not sure as I was concentrating. The sword is completely gone, inside me. I can’t help but chuckle at my perverted brain as it gives me the thought ‘That is a new record for the longest thing I’ve ever taken inside me.’

I lightly slap my cheek and berate myself softly, ‘bad Lilith, bad, behave girl,’ before moving on to the next obvious step, ‘I put it in, now I need to pull it out.’ I chuckle again at the perverted spin my brain puts on the thought. I truly am hopeless.

I think about the sword, and, at first, I try to pull i— retrieve it, the same way I… insert— put— the same way I incorporated it. But it just, ‘feels’ wrong, the best way I can describe it, the same kind of wrong your body signals to you when you do something very uncomfortable. I stop and think for a moment, not really sure what else to do, I go with the only idea that comes up.

I imagine the sword in my hand, it, feels more on the right track, but I don’t have a way for it to be connected to my body, so nothing really seems to happen, it feels similar to when you really need to sneeze, almost do, but it just fades away, leaving your nose burning and tingly with no relief.

I decide to just do the simple option, for now, I imagine my arm with no hand and just the sword blade, to see what happens. And what do you know! It actually works! I can’t help but laugh a little maniacally under my breath. This makes things very interesting. I swing my arm around a bit trying to come to grips with my new appendage.

I experiment a little and see if I can change its length or bend it any, while it seems I can, it feels very difficult, like it takes a lot of effort, almost the same as if I was trying to bend a sword not part of my body. After some time I give up and decide to practice later instead, for now, this is good enough. I am able to revert it back into my hand rather easily and quickly.

I pick up the second sword and inser— I incorporate it, in the same manner as the previous one, this time it feels a bit easier and quicker, it still takes about a minute though, I think. I restore my outfit now that both swords are ‘stored away,’ curious if I even needed to change in the first place. 

Taking mental ‘stock’ I can ‘feel’ both swords. I practice a little by making both my hands shift into the swords. I can’t help but think ‘This is so cool! Whack whack whack!’ as I whip the swords around. Soon though I realize there is a huge problem. 

I can’t easily control or pivot them the way you can by rotating your wrist when holding a real sword. I think for a moment and come up with a plan to use something I’ve already done several times, I turn my arms into tentacles with the swords on the end.

The difference in freedom of movement is extremely dramatic, I can’t help but feel fiendish like this and let a laugh slip accordingly. The thought then occurs to me that I might look quite the sight right now, a beautiful model dressed in the outfit I designed, with tentacle arms ending in swords waving them around like a madwoman while laughing to herself fiendishly.

‘I’m not going to become the bad guy am I? Izanami you didn’t make me an antihero protagonist secretly did you?’ I think worryingly to myself. She did remark I would kill many people, at the time I was still freshly murdered… ugh, I can’t help but shudder recalling that. I feel much calmer now, regarding that. But, that feeling she stirred within me when I last spoke with her. I’m scared of it.

Despite how I felt at that moment, I’m not so sure I want to fulfill that prophecy of her’s, if you can call it that. Staring down at the swords that are now my arms, I think about the thug I murdered when I wasn’t taking things as seriously, sure they both seemed to be up to no good, but, is it really my place to kill them for it? If they hadn't been carrying a dead body would I still have murdered them?

What of the people I ran into when I first got here, and in my stupidity went through an emotional breakdown. It’s obvious to me they just regarded me as some kind of monster. Did they really deserve to die? ‘Izanami, if you can hear me, do I really have any right to decide who lives or dies? Why are you giving me the power to do so? What is it that you see inside me… what is it that scares me so much?’ “Uggnnhh,” I groan softly in frustration at my thoughts.

‘Enough!’ I think to myself. I have a… ‘party’ to attend.

Freesia.Cutepearl

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