Chapter 17 - Hope for Happiness & Blind Revenge

~ Nellie ~

Hah. The day I met Mistress Lilith? I can’t say if it’s the best day ever, but it’s definitely when everything changed for me.

You want to know about me? Hm. What is there to say, really? I was born to parents that loved me. I was a child that was never meant to be. Uncle Ives took me in. My parents couldn’t keep me, I used to blame them, but not anymore.

I call him Uncle Ives, but he’s not really my uncle. He did raise me though. Combat, Magic, Etiquette, Tailoring, Housekeeping, Diplomacy, Management, and more. He even taught me the art of the Silver Tongue, so to speak. I owe him everything, really.

I say that and yet, I am a hypocrite. I’ve longed to leave and explore the world longer than I can recall. Somehow despite all I owe him, he appeased my wish. Because of him, I would be able to find a Master to travel the world with.

I expected some old rich man would take me in, and I would play the part. I was going to the highest bidder so I needed to be appealing. I was ready to do what I had to.

That never happened, though. Instead, Mistress Lilith came to my rescue. I say that, but she frightened me first. Mistress’s power is frightening, one day, I wonder if the world will tremble before it as I once had?

I understand her more now, though. She doesn’t even understand herself, really. When we met, she felt as frightened of herself as I was. She forced her power to do something I think the goddess who granted it never expected her to.

Lilith shared her mind with me, maybe more. I don’t know as much as Lady Lilac about these things, I’m not an academic like her. All I can say is somehow, I saw Lilith’s past and present.

More than that, I can feel her, always. I can feel what she feels. Sometimes I can hear what she thinks, for example, when she thinks or talks to herself. She does that often.

I care little for others in the world. As beautiful as it may be, people can be dark and ugly. Somehow, I care for Mistress now. Her heart was once beautiful, but now it is stained by the blood others have spilt on it.

Even still, I want to save what beauty is left. I am being very selfish. I can see her heart, no one else can see her heart, nor any heart. We all guess what other people think or feel.

Those close to us, parents, siblings, we trust them. Even still, we don’t know what they hold, until it leaks out. I hope for happiness. I enjoy when hearts overflow with happiness.

Most people hide their hearts. Servants like me hold up a facade for the sake of our masters. Others at Uncle’s academy could pick whomever they wished, none would turn them down.

We could assist our master, be their pillar of strength and reason, mold their hearts, and shape their actions. Through us, they could become better masters, for a better world, Uncle Ives would tell me.

Even if it is broken, I will tend Mistress Lilith’s heart. No one else is fit for the job. No one else can see her as I can now. One day the world will smile before Mistress’s heart.

~ Elicia ~

Tristan is dead. I’m alone now. I’ve been crying in bed all night. She stabbed him and he died. She was aiming for me. He died to save me. I wish I had listened to him and called someone.

I hate her so much. I was blinded by revenge. I could have led a happy life with Tristan, he hadn’t said it, but we were going on dates every day, food was just the excuse.

He kept my heart from collapsing. What will I do now?

*Knock*  *Knock*

I sat up and wiped my face off with the sheet and called out toward whoever knocked on my door, “What is it? I don’t need room service.”

Through the door, a muffled voice replied, “Miss Elicia Sweetwood? I’m the bereavement broker for Tristan Maygold, I have a letter for—”

I jumped up and ran to the door before he could finish, opening it quickly. “Letter? From Tristan?” I asked, trying not to sob anymore.

“Yes, miss, can you please place your hand on this case to verify your identity?” the broker replied apologetically.

I placed my hand on the case, after a moment it unlocked and he offered it to me. We nodded to each other and I shut the door as he left. I walked over to the bed, sitting down I opened the case, and looked at the contents.

It contained an envelope with my name on it in Tristan’s handwriting, as well as a certificate of deposit for the bank and the privateer guild. I took out the letter and set the rest aside.

I finished the letter, placed it back into the envelope, and case. Setting the case on the dresser, I stared out the window for a while, from my spot on the bed.

I spoke towards the box, “I’m sorry Tristan, I know I am being stupid, but I don’t care anymore. I have nothing left, because she exists. If that one woman is right and my hands are already bloody, they might as well be coated with her blood too.”

~ Lilac’s Residence ~

Three days have passed since Lilith met Lilac and Nellie, and had the confrontation with Elicia that resulted in Tristan’s death. Lilac was sitting at her desk in her bedroom writing in her journal about the day she met Lilith.

~***~

~***~

“Lilac! Lilac!” Lilith called out as she popped into the room, interrupting Lilac’s writing as she abruptly shut her journal and slid it into a cubby hole before turning to face Lilith.

“Mmm, yes, what is it Lil?” asked Lilac.

Lilith frowned, “Are you still going to call me Lil? It could get confusing! Your name starts with Lil too!”

Lilac chuckled, “Only if you keep using your telepathy, if you learn how to speak Estari you’ll be fine.”

Lilith spoke out loud, “Ꞷ/j#[~n}Ⱡ :L}%[{~╡ k∞F/*. G6−r7╘?” before asking with Telepathy, “How was that greeting? Nellie has been starting to teach me!”

Lilac chuckled, “You just said to me, ‘This day I hope you have a fine butt.’”

Lilith covered her face with her hands while shouting in embarrassment, “Ah fuck no no, I… didn’t mean, you- aaaugh! Sorry.”

Lilac stood up and put her hands on Lilith’s shoulders, “It’s fine, Lil, you’ll get there, no need to worry. You’re not alone anymore, ok?”

“Ok…” Lilith replied softly as she glanced up at Lilac before looking down and off to the side again, her cheeks feeling flushed, still being unused to close contact with people, a holdover from her past life, spent mostly alone.

Lilac let go of Lilith and took several steps back before asking, “Lil, what did you need?”

“Oh! Right! Gosh, I completely forgot! Sorry. Uhm, well… Nellie was saying we’re nearly out of provisions, we need some more from the market if she’s going to make dinner tonight.” Lilith answered.

Lilac sighed, “I guess I have to go again?”

Lilith shuffled her feet as she looked down, “Well you know it’s probably not good for me to go out in broad daylight again, and Nellie still won’t leave without me.”

“Alright, fine. Do you have any preferences?” Lilac conceded.

Lilith handed a quite long slip of paper to Lilac, “Ah uhm, Nellie made you a list this time, it’s a bit long I know. B- but s- she said you could have the last third of it delivered later, the first third she wants tonight though.”

Lilac grabbed her purse and put the list into it with another sigh, as she left the bedroom followed by an apologetic Lilith.

Freesia.Cutepearl

Hi hi, lovely people! <3

I can't believe we've nearly reached 500 readers. As I'm writing this it's 497, and I expect once I post this chapter it'll cross 500, maybe sooner, seems my silly scribbles are #11 on the trending list again. I swear, it's scary but exciting. I do worry about being spoiled though.

It remains incredibly exciting to have so many people following my story, it's a lot of pressure though. For anyone who somehow missed it, this is my first ever story. And I had originally intended to just be practicing and was happy to have a couple dozen people looking at my work.

Being put on Trending so much is, so many things, good and bad. It does feel a bit like one of those dreams where you're naked in public. All my terrible writing, especially early on is fully exposed to the masses. It does really make me want to re-edit and rewrite things to be better. Assuming that my current ability is actually even close to "better," I have a hard time feeling like my writing is anything but crap.

But, obviously, plenty of you seem to really enjoy it, and that fills me with unbelievable joy and makes it somewhat possible to believe I'm actually not entirely terrible, so thank you, seriously. I owe the tiny shred of confidence I now have to all of you.

Speaking of writing, this chapter is shorter than normal, I tried to be a bit less wordy with this one. Obviously, it helped that I didn't have any 1st person for Lilith, hah, she is certainly a messy and rambly narrator. Lilac can be wordy too, but I tried to reign that in a bit. I hope it didn't hurt things too much.

Also, I ended up changing my plans to finish Lilac's journal entry completely and recount them going to Lilac's place. I also decided to just skip ahead to when Lilac was actually writing her journal, as there's not much of interest that happened, and what did can be covered in conversation.

I was not sure for a while if I was going to do time skips at all, but I eventually came to the conclusion, I should just try it out like I plan to many other things, as I am still figuring myself out, as a writer. Thank you again for sticking with me through all of this and reading my scribbles.

Oh, and since I'm rambling so much now, might as well throw in another thing.

After I had some discussion with other writers on the forum, it came up that sometimes hints and implied things, no matter how blatant they might be, are sometimes not enough, so, I'm telling you now, the word "Terror" in the title, and the "Dark" tag are there for a reason. Please don't be upset when bad things happen, ok?

Don't worry though, there will be good and fluffy stuff too. I want to explore many different things. I hope that most of it will be enjoyable to most of you reading. Again, I really can't say enough how amazed and happy I am that so many of you are reading. Thank you, so much.

Have an absolutely spectacular day! <3