It is here, somewhere, the magic that beckons her: and its pull is stronger than Ellie's, or else she would have immediately searched for her partner. It angers her for this reason, that it is somehow more important than her wife. Unknown and powerful. She could not resist it—no, that is not right. There was nothing to resist. It simply is, as if it had always been written that she would end up here, for this.

As she traverses the plants, her lip curls at the fungus which plagues them. Disgusting. She did not even know why she disliked it but the plants recoiled at her touch and likewise, she recoiled at theirs. With some struggle, she finds herself at twin pools, and beyond them, a small crevice where a skeletal hand beckons her closer. It hangs out of a shimmering rift, fingers curled over an upward-turned palm, the index finger continuously calling her closer. She obliges.

As she approaches, a chorus of whispers rises around her: The Wayfarer, The Traveler, The Storyteller, The Chronicler— names and titles suggesting the same things, whispers and wails reaching a deafening climax until it snaps to silence, uttering a final, quiet, The— and then, nothing.

It felt unfinished, like some final piece of an unknown puzzle lay just at the tip of her tongue, its name missing. It was hiding, absent, or otherwise just out of reach. Even the almighty—the UNFORGIVEN—banished beyond the known worlds and the End would think so too, that despite its power and knowledge, it felt absent and withheld. But it very much was not absent.

It is here and it is not here. It is the air, the rocks, the rivers; it is the blood that feeds the brain, is it the ink that fills the page; it is the—

a whisper, suggesting a name? or a title? it is unknown.

She realizes then that she is cold as her mind comes to, the scenery blanketed with snow. Against the treeline is the figure, two red eyes watching her from beneath its hood. It beckons her closer, still. She obliges. The closer she gets, the more distorted the image is.

It has a pile of clothes for her: furs and her beaded sash among them.

"These are mine," she says possessively, taking them like she is retrieving them from a thief, and piece by piece, she puts them on. Her pink eye lays steady on the lion-skull, suspicious and wary, but she knows she can trust it. It hands her something else. It is a... cape? Gradient orange meets white meets gradient pink. She holds it open. It is almost as tall as her. She twirls it over her shoulders and ties it at her collarbone.

"Thanks." Without knowing its true purpose, she liked it. It was her.

And as if she had always been, she is back in the cave, standing beside the twin pools of water but this time she is clothed and adorned with her new cape. She looks around for the figure but does not find it, only the dull and shifting realms of the rift it left behind. The urge that pulled her here felt fulfilled, and she sits against the wall to regain herself. She feels tired.

"Ellie," she breathes, her head lifting and her hand clutching the staff, perching it upright as if she is going to stand, but she tires easily and relaxes; the staff lays in the grass. "Ellie, come find me," she pleads, although she knows she does not have to. She can feel it: the movement.

The promise.

The Bond between @Eleanora and Lilith.

Lilith: The Corrupted Witch

(art by bunny!)

From her place in Pegasus, she felt it. The change.

She'd been asleep when it had happened, her rudimentary bed of furs and straw, and when she'd awoken, the bond had shifted. She'd sat up straight, searching, feeling, pointing her mind in the direction of Draco...and it wasn't there. No, it had moved. And not only moved but strengthened, as if there was no longer any feedback between her and Lilith. There was nothing between them now.

Moving faster then she'd ever moved in her life, she gathered her things for the journey, threw on her furs, and took off at a sprint across the meadows of Pegasus. She had never run so fast in her life. Not since the day she'd lost her, not since she had run from the Witchhunters. But she was not running away now.

She kept up the run for as long as she could, exhausted by the time she was struggling through the snow in Ursa, but pressing on. Through Polaris...Orion....and finally, she could feel the distance between them growing shorter by the second. Through Eridanus she went, barely paying mind to the fungus that littered the cave. It wasn't important, not when Lilith was here. She was awake and alive and here.

Heart beating, breath coming in quick, sharp pants, she fought her way through the jungle, avoiding all the fungus she could, before she stumbled out of the undergrowth and in the sight of the Eyes.

And there.

She.

Was.

Elleanora felt the breath catch in her throat at the sight, feeling a skipped beat in her chest. Because there was Lilith, she could feel it, she could feel her. She looked...different. Her skin, grayed and darkened, one eye hidden behind a growth of sickly obsidian crystal, her eyes bright pink-red. Even her staff looked different. She had changed and, for a moment, her appearance haunted Ellie's eyes and fear for what curse had befallen her beloved in these caves took over.

But it was swept aside as quickly as it came. She didn't care. She didn't care what shape Lilith took. She didn't care about anything but her. This was real. This was real.

She swallowed heavily and breathed out a whispered "Lily?" A step forward, an arm beginning to reach out. She tried to speak again, but a lump had invaded her throat and all that came out was a small gasp as tears, belated at this point, sprung to her eyes. The woman there was not the same one that she had last seen falling, consumed by the earth, but also she was. It was the woman she had fallen in love with, bonded with, had a son with, the woman she had sacrificed everything to see again.

"You're awake," she whispered as she got closer, almost as if she were afraid if she didn't say it, it would stop being true. She wasn't sure...what to do. She wanted to run for the woman and hold her and kiss her and be so close to her that the world could never separate them again but she waited, just a moment, for Lilith to make the first move.

As she sat slumped and resting, she was comforted by the fact that she could feel Ellie's presence getting closer, growing stronger. The pause gave her time to wonder, finally, where she was and how she ended up here, and furthermore, how Ellie had found her. Were they still on Let? What happened in the war? She had so many questions she could not bear to think of. Especially—

Lily?

Pink eye opened, focusing on the hazy, glowing outline of the only soul she could fathom calling her Lily. Anyone else would have perished.

"Ellie," she groaned, pushing herself forward, staggering toward the pools where she fell roughly to her knees. Her hand clutched the edge of the basin and she stared into it, finally taking in the reflection she avoided earlier. "Look at me... What happened to me?" she asked, though she did not expect an answer.

"Eleanora, my love," whispered her voice, but her face was hidden in her hands. "I am so sorry... How long was I gone? What's happened?" And here, her face turned upward, seeking the comfort and the answers and the stability of Ellie. "And Adam?" A break in her voice as the name caught in her throat, her eye welling with tears. "Forgive me, forgive me Ellie. Look what I've become."

She wanted to be held, to be embraced, and to embrace—but she was terrified of the chaos that fed her, that ran through her veins like monster's blood. She hid her face again, slouched over and closed up. Don't touch me. I don't know myself. Don't touch me. Hints of thought would tickle the edge of Ellie's mind.

"I am so sorry." Hold me. Tell me everything is okay. These thoughts were stronger, pleading, but guarded. She was scared—not of where she was or what had happened, but that in her current state, she could possibly hurt Eleanora. And it scared her. Everything else was a whirlwind of uncertainty but here, in the middle of who-knows-where, was Ellie. I love you. In this thought was the expression of thanks she felt for Ellie having been here at all, and overwhelming feelings of love and selfish gratefulness.

The soft groaning and the pain in her voice, in the link, broke Eleanora’s heart. She felt the tears at the corner of her eyes, like salted needles ready to spill down her cheeks. It wasnt her fault, it could never be her fault. She didn’t care what she looked like, she didn’t care what she had become. It was her, it was still Lilith before her. She still remembered her and their life, they were still bonded through heart and soul. She could never be anybody or anything else, not to Eleanora.

She rushed forward and fell to her knees in front of Lilith, her hands coming up to gently caress and hold her face, looking into her one eye, all the love and relief and joy she felt spilling through her eyes and across their bond. ”Shhh, it’s okay, Lily. It’s okay. You’re here you’re alive. It’s been…so long, my love. A long, long time. But it’s okay.” She smiled and tasted salt -she hadn’t even noticed that the tears had spilled her her eyes. ”Adam is fine, he’s a strong man. He’s safe. Oh, Lilith…”

She wanted to lean forward and hold her close, feel her body against hers to confirm that this wasn’t a dream, that this was all real, she needed to feel her against her skin, but as Lilith closed into herself, Eleanora hesitated, hands retracting a bit, unsure. She could feel her pain, the chaos under Lilith’s skin. She could feel her turmoil and Eleanora hurt for her. She wanted to cry and scream and tear apart the world for hurting her love like this. She wished she had the magic to break into Draco and smash the Black Spire to bits for making Lilith lose herself.

She wished she could do anything to help her.

But all she could do, when she felt Lilith’s silent plea, was surge forward and hold her, arms wrapping around her body and grasping her tight, carefully avoiding the spiked gemstone crown, pressing her nose into the side of her head as she squeezed and held her and sobbed quietly into her skin. ”It’s okay, everything is going to be okay. I love you, I love you, we’ll be okay.” She could feel her gratitude, her thanks, and Ellie knew then that it had all been worth it. Every sacrifice she’d made, the pain she’d endured, the years she’d spent waiting, if just for this moment.

The whirlwind melted away.

Ellie's words were held--set aside--by Lilith's grieving mind, because the sudden press of familiar skin, the scent of Ellie's hair, the wracking sobs... There wasn't room for anything else. The tears that had been welling up spilled over in a pour, and it was some stray, absent instinct that lifted a hand to wipe them from Ellie's bare shoulder.

Lilith wanted to ask more about Adam. And she wanted to beg, to demand, to know why Ellie had done this to herself--thrown herself into... to wherever they had both wound up. Even though she knew why. She wanted to ask where this place was, and a horrified part of her wondered if they'd both been damned to some hellish afterlife. She hated the idea that they might have been. She hated the idea that Ellie might have followed her, right into the corrupted, stinking bowels of it--and she loved her, that she had. And she hated herself for that, and she...

...cried, all of it overflowing into wracking sobs, her discolored arms pulling Ellie closer, holding her tight. I don't want to let go, came her pleading thought, a touch of grief at the edge of Ellie's mind.

It took her long, trembling moments to find her words, and when she did, she asked none of the things that she wanted to. Instead, she spilled out three broken words, her voice breaking: "I love you."

Then--filled with grief, with mourning, a love and guilt so large they subsumed the rest, but the purest thought she'd ever held: Thank you.

She held her tight, as if one moment someone would pull her away, as if the ground would open up and swallow her again. She breathed in deeply, the scent of Lilith like a long forgotten memory. The stink of corruption meant nothing to her, not when it was her, not when she had been waiting so long to be near her once again.

She felt something cold on her shoulder and raised a hand, just as Lilith went to wipe the tears herself. She caught her hand and held it, another piece of her that she held tight. Her skin was cold, as if life had never returned to her, but she could imagine its warmth. She could imagine the last time she’d held it, running across the blackened earth, screams on the wind. Terror and grief and the agony of losing her, hand slipping from hers, golden eyes locking with her green, filled with panic and fear, and then she had never seen them again.

She wanted to sob, from joy that she had found her Lily again, or sadness that she hurt so deeply, she didn’t know. But not yet, not while Lilith grieved and cried, not while she felt the pleading in her mind, the guilt and the pain. She shushed her with a thought, repeating back over and over It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. Because nobody would have been able to stop her. Not Adam, not Tamulus, not Lilith herself if she had begged her to stay away. The moment she’d felt their bond reawaken, it was like life had returned to her bones. She would have gone anywhere. She would have thrown herself into hellfire if it meant she’d see her love again.

She knew Lilith knew this. And she knew she’d feel guilt all the same. The only thing she didn’t know…was how to get her to love herself again. It would take time, she knew. To get used to this place,just as she had to get used to it. But more so she would need to get used to whatever corruption had done to her. Despite their bond, Eleanora had no idea the depths that chaos had hollowed from her, how much it had changed her. She had no idea what had even happened to her.

None of that mattered now, though, it was for the future. For now…they were together again. And that was enoug.

”I love you too,” she cried. ”I love you more than the sun and stars. I’ve missed you so much, Lily, so much! I thought you were dead! If I knew there was a chance to find you, that you were still alive, I would have come sooner. Oh, gods, I would have torn the world apart to find you.” She pressed her nose into Lilith’s hair again, her emotions welling up, choking her but also making her feel like as a bird, like she was standing beneath the sun again. ”But we’re together. Nothing else matters. Just us.”

All the reassurances, the promises--she wanted to argue them. No, following her had been a risk-! A terrible, terrible risk! Although she couldn't remember why..? And Tamulus. But the arguments died in her mind to the gentle sound of shushing, the warmth of the hand on hers. And Ellie's words--a rush she couldn't at first respond to, and the promise that nothing else mattered... It was as though the threads she'd been gathering in a great and troubling knot simply dissolved, fading gently away into nothing. It left her feeling... whole again. Untroubled, if just for this moment. At peace.

"Thank you," she said at last, the gentlest murmur, thick with tears. Yet still she stayed--clung, even, and perhaps too tightly--in silence for long minutes, thinking how wonderful it was to be here again. Here being with Ellie--the physical location didn't matter.

At last, she pulled away, an exhausted smile on her face. One hand lifted to brush at Ellie's hair, and she tried for humor. "The world's lucky you didn't have to, then." A shuddering breath, and she took a moment to just study Ellie, as if to memorize her face all over again. And to look for injury--was she all right? Had she come to any harm in this place?

And then Lilith looked around. "So-... Do you know where we are? How did you get here?" she asked. She looked back to Ellie, troubled, and added to those questions. "...How did I get here?" she asked, brow furrowing as she found a long stretch of her memories simply... stripped away.

A hand raised to the back of Lilith's head, gently stroking through her hair as they clung to each other, the minutes passing by as desperate joy and guilt gave way to a sense of peace. They were together...here, in this moment, reunited at last. The moment would pass, of course, as all things did, but Eleanora had learned long ago to not think of the end of a moment but to enjoy it while it was here.

As Lilith pulled away, Ellie followed - still close, of course, her hands still connected to her body, her breath still warm on her face, but enough that they could look into each others' eyes. She let out a small chuckle at the joke, her hand slowly falling from Lilith's hair to her shoulder. "Indeed." She noticed Lilith's eyes studying her and wondered how many scars she was seeing that hadn't been there 200 years ago. Not from the caves in particular, but from the labor of life in the Vaa. Long healed scars from wood-felling axes and hunting knives, splinters that had become white lines on her hands, little marks from cooking and fire burns, among other various small injuries. Nothing major, nothing concerning, but it showed on her skin the sheer amount of time they'd been separated.

Her eyes followed Lilith's as she took stock of the room. Eridanus didn't usually...look like this. The ugly white stringing from the ceiling and the mushrooms everywhere...yeah, she had no idea what had happened to this cave and, to be honest, she'd rather leave as soon as they could, but she would not push Lilith if she was too tired. "We're...in a system of caves. We're still on Let, but we're deep underground. It's not as bad as it sounds - some of the caves are truly beautiful and the creatures that live here are...incredible. They talk - the animals talk! Many of them, at least. I asked Tamulus to send me here when I felt our bond awaken. He did some magic, I don't know what. It knocked me out and I woke up here, in a chrysalis."

As for her final question, Eleanora's brow furrowed and she studied her beloved, one hand raising to touch the crystal on her face, tracing the lines of the obsidian. "I...I don't know. What do you remember from that day? To be honest, I thought you were dead for a long time. We got separated and suddenly you were so far away. And then you were gone."

She sensed that faint unease, and looked around them in a second moment of scrutiny. Yes, there was something wrong here--wasn't there? And yes, she was weary--but for Ellie she pushed herself back up again, squeezing a pale hand to say, take the lead. And to say... I'm with you. I won't let go.

There was still an emptiness, a hole born of grief and a wellspring of--of something overwhelming enough to defy definition. But conversation--that helped to steady her. To focus on one thing at a time. To-

Her eyes narrowed. "Tamulus," she hissed, and then hatred gave uncertain way to disbelief. But the brief tightening of her grip was hatred thrumming through her. "He helped you?" Whatever she was thinking, she withheld it for now, withheld it to hear what Ellie would say, but her fury was clear.

The animals speak. That sparked some recognition in her, but--troublingly--nothing else did. The sense of... loss, of being lost, lingered. "I don't remember," she answered, and the words were quiet. That muted uncertainty said it all. Anything could have happened--anything could have thrown her down here, torn her from her Ellie, from her life and Adam--and she wouldn't know if she stared it in the face. Yet... she blamed Tamulus. A frown creased her face, and she shook her head, and turned, extracting one hand to brush hair from her face and lift her walking staff.

"I am tired, but... you give me strength," she near-whispered. She looked again to Ellie, as if her eyes were drawn there, as if she could not help but gaze at her. Then Lilith forced the faintest smile, pushing away the troubling thoughts that nipped at the heels of her mind. "Tell me more about Adam?" she requested softly. "And tell me... Tell me everything," she said.

As Lilith got to her feet, Ellie again followed, although concern laced her thoughts. Was she okay to walk? She looked and seemed so tired...but the squeeze of her hand and the reassuring brush of Lilith against her mind was enough and, with their fingers still threaded together, she led the way into Eridanus, careful to make a path through the webs of white fungus.

Lilith's hatred of Tamulus surprised her and she looked at her with surprise, stopping herself from flinching at the sudden hiss and hostility. Her brow furrowed. "He did. He was helpful - he put me in the care of trustworthy friends while I was recovering from the journey. He did everything to help me get here. Without him, we would never have seen each other again." She squeezed her hand back. "Did he do something, to make you hate him so much?" Lilith had always been a fiery woman, but this depth of hatred towards Tamulus of all people was new.

She sighed and walked closer to Lilith when the uncertainty set in. It's okay, was what fluttered along their link, a soft reassurance that memory was fickle, especially when something as traumatizing as that night and what had happened to her was involved. "We'll find out. And if we don't, that's okay." Once again, the thought of It's okay, because we're together, came to mind. She wasn't sure if Lilith shared that sentiment, though. After all, if she had found herself suddenly whisked away to a mysterious cave, changed in the way she'd been changed, she would want to know what had happened to her.

But, for Ellie, it was enough to have her back.

She stopped walking for a moment and turned to Lilith. Warmth was blooming, so deep and powerful in her chest. Suddenly overwhelmed with love, with joy, and with Lilith's presence, she leaned forward to press her lips to Lilith's, not minding the cold touch of the obsidian against her cheek. It lasted for only a moment before she slowly pulled away, gazing back into Lilith's eyes as if they were what kept her heart beating - and perhaps they were - before her lips pulled up in a deep, warm smile.

"Adam...yes," she whispered as she threaded her fingers with Lilith's again and broke away to continue leading the way through Eridanus. "He never forgot you. In fact, he takes after you a lot - so strong and fiery, and with a talent for magic that I never had! He wanted to burn the empire to the ground with his hands alone and that anger, well...I don't think it ever left. Still, he channeled it in better ways. When we rebuilt our village, he started patrols across the Vaa. He helped make defenses, organize some of our people to protect us. I think, in those early days, he was also looking for you, hoping that one day he's come across you or hear news you'd been found." She smiled sadly, and glanced at Lilith, eyes slowly sliding past and resting on the greenery around them (between the strings of white).

"He likes tea. He has a garden - I never thought I'd have a green thumb until he showed me how to nurture plants. It was our little hobby, growing our own herbs and flowers and mixing them together. We'd sit together and drink our tea and watch the sun rise and set."