Chapter Text
It was rather remarkable, Lilith Clawthorne thought, how much loathing Odalia Blight could hold in her gaze. Not surprisingly, Lilith avoided doing anything that could set the girl off, lest she face her “Basilisk Stare,” as her little sister Eda labeled it. That was why, despite being assigned to work as Odalia’s partner on an Invisibility potion, Lilith did not dare look up at her for longer than a glance at a time, much less try to talk to her, beyond describing her observations of the potion’s progress. For nearly the last hour, she’d held her head so as to stare into the Invisibility potion as she stirred it, steaming her glasses fierce. Odalia looked more like a blurry figure than anything through the streaked lenses, but at least holding her head like this prevented any conversation that could lead to an argument.
Luckily for Lilith’s sake, when she wasn’t loudly scratching down notes, the vague figure in front of her that was Odalia seemed wholly focused on sending the Basilisk Stare into the back corner of the room, at Eda. Lilith couldn’t see what her little sister was doing, but - after two weeks of class - she had a good enough guess: more likely than not, she sat tilting back in her chair, both hands resting lazily behind her bushy orange head, smirking casually at the ceiling. Indeed, she probably finished the assignment fifteen minutes earlier than every other pair and without writing down the teacher’s notes. Class was nearing its end but there was still enough time for the teacher to notice her state of nonchalance, head over, and ask a pertinent question about the assignment in a vain attempt to expose her as not listening.
Predictably enough, Lilith saw a tall figure, indistinct through the steamed lenses, saunter across her field of vision to her sister’s corner of the room.
“Ms. Clawthorne,” the figure said, “why don’t you explain to the class how the Invisibility potion differs from the Potion of Evanescence?” After two weeks, Lilith could picture his oily grin, used whenever he’d caught a student not paying attention, without seeing it.
“The Invisibility Potion makes your body completely clear instantly, the Potion of Evanescence takes longer to take effect,” Eda said, most likely with a lazy wave of the hand.
“Correct.” The scorn in those two syllables was evident. How dare a student this casual succeed in his class? It was an affront to his dignity.
Odalia seemed to agree. She scoffed, muttering about a ‘filthy, know-it-all brat’ under her breath, and practically ripped through her paper taking down notes with her griffin quil. Lilith winced instinctively, and nearly sent her glasses down her nose and into the potion. A moment of fumbling about with the hands later, the glasses were safe and sound in her hands. WIth a sigh of relief, she dared to clean them off on her robes and put them back on.
Now, her glasses clean, Lilith could see that Odalia was directing the Basilisk Stare onto her. She gulped. All that fumbling about got Odalia’s attention.
“What is wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?” Odalia said, regal and disdainful.
Lilith’s eyes ran to the floor. By way of an answer, Lilith choked out a few yelps.
“Well?”
Lilith’s cheeks and neck burned. “Oh, I … uh … I was just … I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was - sorry, not what I was thinking, er, I mean, I wasn’t really … thinking about …anything … really, truly am sorry … Edalia, I mean … Odalia...” Her internal organs ran for cover.
“Indeed?” Odalia’s eyes narrowed.
Lilith nodded her head, refusing to maintain eye contact. Darkly, Lilith internally laughed at how silly she must have looked to Odalia - all scarlet and pointy and shaky with her blushing face and neck and askew curls and lanky, trembling legs.
“Look me in the eye when I talk to you. It’s not becoming for someone of your stature to behave this way.” Trembling, Lilith forced the joints in her neck upwards, and - against all odds - met the Basilisk Stare head on. Odalia was a head taller, all prim and proper with her snobbish frown and tightly pinned lime green bun. Lilith wished she could stare at the ground again.
“You’re a perfectly brilliant girl, yet you grovel around me. Damn it all, I said to look me in the eye! You perfectly cooked our potion today - it’s a dark shade of lime green, just as our teacher instructed - so you’re clearly a talented student. Grow some backbone, it’s infuriating to see you act like this.”
Lilith blinked. In a decade of schooling at Hexside, this was the closest she’d gotten to receiving a compliment from Odalia. “T-thank you, Odalia, I’ll keep that in mind.” She even managed to stand up slightly straighter.
The taller girl nodded, still not smiling, and began to clear away the table. With that, Lilith felt her jaw unclench and let her shoulders fall. In spite of her still trembling shoulders, she felt the tiniest bit of pride - she had looked the Basilisk Stare dead in the eyes, without literally turning tail. That had to be worth something.
“Well?” Odalia said looking up, still disdainful. “Are you going to stand there gaping like a fool, or am I going to clean all this up by myself?”
“O-oh! Right!” Lilith, again avoiding eye contact, scurried over to help.
The bell ringing (or, more accurately, screaming) minutes later signalled the end of the school day. Subsequently, the sounds of crashing footsteps behind her, followed by a sudden great weight smashing into Lilith’s back and sending her forward, signalled the beginning of what Lilith dubbed “Eda time”.
“Any reason you’re choking me?” Lilith deadpanned. Eda’s arms and legs, now wrapped around Lilith’s neck and waist respectively, were remarkably strong, considering how scrawny they were.
Eda snorted. “What, I can’t hug my favorite sister in the whole wide world?” Her honking, pubescent voice sounded shockingly like that of a snaggle back's mating cry. The resemblance was uncanny.
“If you want to be nice to me,” Lilith said, blowing her sister’s orange hair out of her face, “you could consider getting off me and walking beside me, like a civilized person. Perhaps you’d find the change interesting and make it permanent.”
Eda wouldn’t, but at least now Lilith could tell Odalia that she’d tried to civilize her “wild” sister.
“Hmm … I could … but I’d rather you give me a Porcum Back ride. Hi ho, Silver!” Eda slapped Lilith’s face, nearly knocking her glasses askew.
Lilith rolled her eyes but shuffled out the classroom, straining quite a bit more than she expected under Eda’s weight.
“So,” Lilith said, (Eda loosened her grip around Lilith’s throat, apparently gracious enough to let her older sister breathe) “are you ever going to explain why you decided to tackle me from behind? Also, who is Silver?”
Luckily for Lilith, consciously trying to maintain Eda’s weight on her back meant she paid little mind to the students most likely pointing and laughing at the spectacle.
“No offense, Lily, but you’re kinda weak,” Eda shrugged as best she could without falling off. “I expected you to go a little faster. Oh, and Silver’s some horse on an old show that humans called ‘Boomers’ watch. See, humans have this thing called television - ”
“Thanks for ignoring my question,” Lilith scoffed, huffing a little from the effort. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not very strong, so I can’t carry you, my bookbag and your bookbag. Get off my back.”
Eda jumped off, allowing Lilith to gasp for air, and circled to face Lilith while walking backwards. Her expression screamed ‘butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth.’
“Y’know,” Eda said, hands in her pockets, “if you’re gonna be in the Emperor’s Coven, you’re gonna need to put on some muscle. I’ve seen you get winded just going up and down the stairs at home. You’d probably break your arms tackling a criminal, like ‘RAGH! Curse my weak nerd arms!’”
Lilith wiped her forehead of sweat and smiled, relieved she could walk without an extra hundred pounds, about twenty of which came from Eda's backpack, on her back. “Because, as a witch, my first resort when chasing a criminal would be to tackle them, instead of using magic. Very astute of you. Besides, would they rather have a four-foot-eleven girl that can be knocked over by a light breeze?”
Considering Lilith could barely carry said girl more than a few feet, and was only three or four inches taller than her, she knew she was the last girl to be picking on someone for their lack of musculature. If she was going to join the Grdugby team, she had to start working out a bit...
“Hey,” Eda shrugged, still walking backwards, “I’m small but scrappy. And I’m not scared some prissy little rich girl’s gonna bite my head off if I look at her funny.”
Lilith’s smile dropped. She’d forgotten that the other people in class could see her quivering in Odalia’s presence. Titan, did the other students think she was a weakling too? “Heh … yeah…you’re right about that...”
Eda looked away, regretful … then tripped backwards into a trash can. Walking backwards apparently had its drawbacks.
“Little help?” The trash can echoed her cracking voice. Lilith did her best to tune out the students who stopped or slowed down to point and snicker, and pulled her sister out by the knees, helping her to her feet.
“You okay, there?” Eda said, knocking the trash from her robes and fiery mane as best as possible.
“Yeah,” Eda said, rather abashed. It was her turn for her face and neck to turn scarlet. “I, uh, I meant to do that!”
Lilith laughed, “I’m sure, you did, kid. They’re not gonna let you into the Emperor’s Coven if you’re a pathological liar --OOF!”
Something knocked Lilith forward and she fell, banging her forehead on the trash can in the process. Clenching her teeth in pain, she blinked stars out of her eyes and rubbed her throbbing forehead as she got to her knees.
A haughty voice - too deep and mature to be Eda’s - snapped, “Watch it, nitwit! Oh, it’s you.”
Eyes widening, Lilith gulped and shrunk away from Odalia. “Sorry Odalia…”
Eda tutted. “Yeah, we wouldn’t want to get in your way - you gotta go home and practice your spoiled bitch face!”
Odalia huffed. Privately, Lilith noticed that Odalia’s boots had heels six inches high, perfect for stomping her guts out if Eda sufficiently annoyed her.
“Edalyn … please,” Lilith hissed out the corner of her mouth. Eda brushed that aside, walking between Lilith and Odalia to smirk into the Blight’s face.
“Stay back, child,” Odalia snarled. “I admit that, despite being a howling layabout, you are a competent enough witch-”
“That’s a funny way to say ‘top of our class without even trying’, but okay.”
“You watch your mouth, girl.” The Basilisk Stare, dark and stony as Odalia’s voice, came out in full force. “I belong to a proud lineage of these isles’ most powerful and influential witches. I have a legacy to live up to, to work hard at fulfilling, and I cannot and WILL not let a -”
“Wow. I really don’t care.”
Lilith wanted to scream in exasperation. “Eda … please stop … I’m sorry Odalia, my sister means no harm…”
Odalia whipped her head, almost comically, to glare at Lilith. Lilith imagined her six inch heels stomping her throat in. She shut her mouth, her heart incessantly beating her ribs.
“You’re defending this disrespectful trash?” Odalia snarled, shoving Eda aside. She pointed at the bits of garbage still in Eda’s hair. “You’re defending this literal trash?” she repeated, a hint of haughty laughter on her lips. Slowly, too afraid to look away - lest she get kicked or blasted in the back - Lilith crawled away. “Every day, she insults the halls of our great academy. Strutting about the hallways, pranking us well-behaving, hard-working students, arrogantly acting as though she knows all. She’s a disgrace to us all.”
That was crossing a line. Despite herself, despite how her throat felt like burning sand and how her hands trembled and how her eyes threatened to water, Lilith slowly said, “My sister is not a disgrace.”
Odalia’s glare, remarkably, deepened and darkened. “Oh, really?” Her voice was no longer pitch-black and cold; rather, each syllable dripped with sarcasm. “My deepest apologies. I suppose you have some explanation for how a student two years younger than everyone else in our class hasn’t fallen behind, despite turning in all her homework a week late?”
Arms across her chest, Eda cackled, “Bold of you to assume I do the homework at all.” Typical of her, and rather unhelpful to the situation.
Regardless, Lilith straightened her spine and stood to her feet. Her voice quivered, but only slightly and she was louder than before. “Eda is not a cheater, if that’s what you’re saying.” She clenched her fist to stop her trembling. “She works just as hard as you do-”
“Just as hard as I do,” Odalia repeated, cutting her off. She looked ready to rip Lilith’s hair straight out of the scalp with her teeth. “I say again, Lilith: you are a highly intelligent and qualified young woman, yet you seem intent on debasing yourself and contradicting my every word of advice - when I told you to not fear me, I didn’t mean you should risk your neck standing up for a spoiled, little brat-”
“Stop it.” Her fear gone - but not for long - Lilith glared up into Odalia’s hard eyes. “You’re never going to say another thing about my sister. Not now. Not ever again.”
Eda nose and cheeks flushed. “Lily …”
“Is that a challenge, Clawthorne?” Odalia, now totally ignoring Eda, spat out Lilith’s surname as though it were a slur. Not a surprise, as she probably had practice hissing slurs at her “lessers”.
“You know what? Yes. Follow me to the Grudgby field.”
“What’s your game, Clawthorne?”
“...I challenge you to ... a witch’s duel.”
Eda gasped, her eyes as wide as giraffe’s hooves. “Lily...you can’t be serious about this!”
If Odalia was surprised by Lilith’s newfound boldness, she didn’t show it. Instead, she, almost casually, said, “I accept. Don’t worry, I won’t bind you in an Everlasting Oath; wouldn’t want a talented witch like you to lose your magic, or worse. But I will make you a deal - when I win, you will have to admit to me and yourself that your sister is not as talented as she pretends to be.”
Lilith faltered a bit, but steeled herself, just long enough to say, “If I win, you have to admit that Eda is actually smart and talented, and that I’m not as spineless as you think I am.”
“Hmph. I’ll be waiting for you. Take as long as you need to prepare, Clawthorne. You’re going to need it.” Growling, Odalia brushed past Lilith and through the front doors.
With that, Lilith realized she may have made a mistake.
“Holy crap Eda, why didn’t you stop me from doing that?!?”
For her part, Eda looked equally stunned. “Dude … you just challenged Odalia Blight to a witch’s duel …for me...”
Lilith blinked. She really had … the second Odalia started insulting her little sister, she’d stood her ground, albeit for just a moment.
Then, Eda seemed to put the thought aside and grinned wildly. “Don’t kick her butt too badly. I might wanna go at her when you’re done.”
Outwardly appreciating sentimentality never was Eda’s forte. Nevertheless, Lilith forced a nervous smile and said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You better! Y’know … I think you can win on your own, but … if you want, I know a few tricks that can help …”
“No,” Lilith said firmly. “I … I probably did something really stupid, but … if I don’t beat Odalia on my own, without anyone’s help … I couldn’t live with myself. I got into this mess, I’ll get out of it. My way.”
Again, Eda was stunned. Then, she nodded resolutely. “Alright, Lily. Go get her.”
“...You think I can win?”
“Course you can, Lily. You’ve been working to join the Emperor’s Coven since we were little. You probably know way more about the other covens than her!”
Lilith somehow doubted that, but she nodded. Surprisingly, she did feel ever so slightly better - her sister’s faith in her, and her confident grin, were practically infectious.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
With that, Lilith, feeling a strange combination of confidence and terror, led her younger sister out the front doors and around Hexside.
***
When they arrived, a small crowd had gathered along the sides of the Grudgby field. The field itself was empty, save for Odalia Blight, who sat back against the far goal post. Silently, Lilith motioned for Eda to stay back. The cheers and jeers of the spectators got Odalia’s attention; she looked up to see Lilith on the other end of the field.
“I admire your resolve, Clawthorne,” she said as she stood up, “along with your newfound courage. But you are beyond foolish if you believe you can best me in a duel. I’ve taken private lessons with the Boiling Isles’ top duelists for six years. I am on track to be valedictorian and to join the Emperor’s Coven when I graduate.”
So much for Eda’s assumption that Odalia only knew Potions magic.
The two witches met in the center of the field, ten feet from one another.
“Lilith, this is your last chance to back out.”
Lilith, wearing an impassive mask to hide her terror, responded, “Say whatever you want, Odalia, you can’t scare me.”
Lilith knew she was a terrible liar. Odalia seemed to know too, given her tiny smirk.
“To win, I have to knock you unconscious or make you surrender. Understood?”
Lilith nodded.
“Very well.”
Odalia shot a pink fireball. Lilith ducked and shot a stream of acid. Odalia blocked it with water.
Lilith shot a blue fireball before Odalia’s feet. The dust cloud covered her next move: she made a tiny blue flame in her right and a large blob of water in her left. Moving the two close to another, she waited until the water boiled.
When the dust cleared, she threw the boiling water at Odalia. Odalia sidestepped seconds before being scalded.
“Impressive, Lilith,” she said, her expression unreadable. Behind her, the audience roared its approval. “Very creative …” The water had landed and made a puddle behind Odalia. That could be helpful ...
Lilith swung acid at Odalia’s face. She summoned an abomination which blocked it. The abomination charged at Lilith, who circled around it. She sent a fireball at Odalia and it, keeping them off balance.
The puddle was now in between Lilith and Odalia’s abomination.
The abomination leapt over it, and Lilith got out of its way. Odalia shot another fireball at Lilith’s face. She blocked it with her own fire and retreated. Odalia followed her. Good.
When Odalia reached the puddle, Lilith drew a circle. The mud turned to ice and rose to her neck. Odalia was frozen in place, from her foot to her neck. Heart pounding, Lilith shot a massive fireball that destroyed the abomination.
The audience screamed and cheered even louder.
“Hell yeah Lilith!” Eda screamed, jumping up and down. “Take her down hard!”
Smirking, Lilith said, her voice stronger and more confident than ever, “Surrender, Odalia. You’ve lost.”
Odalia laughed. “I wouldn’t count on that.” With effort, she drew a circle with one hand, and an abomination a foot taller than her smashed the ice with a single punch, freeing her.
Lovely.
“That was a rather impressive elusion, I must admit,” Odalia said. A few hairs had come out of place and she looked slightly winded, but still confident. “However, I hope that’s not the only trick you have up your sleeve.”
Elusion. Illusion.
A rather weak pun, Lilith noted, even as she chuckled to herself, but a rather effective idea.
With a twirl of the finger, Lilith created fifteen copies of herself.
“You were saying?” sixteen Liliths chorused.
As Odalia gaped, each Lilith bunched together, mixing themselves up, then created a blue fireball.
Lilith then was seized with another idea. Sixteen Liliths boasted, “Think you can block all sixteen of these?”
“Damnable fool. You think I don’t know that only one of them is real? The others will just pass through me harmlessly.”
“Lucky for you, then?” they called out. “You couldn’t handle sixteen real fireballs.”
A brazen, obvious, arrogant bluff. Mentally, the real Lilith slapped herself. Was this the best idea she could’ve come up with?
“Oh? Well then, if you’re so confident now that I’m weak, why don’t I show you exactly how skilled I am? I’ll deflect every single fireball, real or fake, you can lob at me!”
…
…
This was the girl who had the nerve to refer to Eda as arrogant?
Odalia turned to her abomination. “Abomination, find the real Lilith! I’ll handle the fireballs.”
True, fifteen fireballs were illusions, but choosing the real one was hardly an easy task when sixteen were sent at you all at once, at different altitudes and different directions.
Odalia ducked and dodged and blocked, again and again. Good, she was distracted. Lilith wrapped the charging abomination in thick vines, squeezing it till it burst into bits -
Something thick and sticky crashed into Lilith’s chest, sending her flying into the goal post. Squinting her eyes open, she saw it was … purple?
Grinning maliciously, Odalia drew a circle in the air, and that goo wrapped around her. Lilith’s copies disappeared.
Abomination material. Odalia was going to suffocate her.
The crowd was silent.
“You’ve fought well,” Odalia said. By now she was soaked with sweat, her robes slightly singed from just barely blocking the real fireball. “Extraordinarily well. You’re perhaps the second best duelist at the school. But you are not my superior. This is a move I pioneered myself: as long as I keep my finger pointed at the sky like this, the abomination matter will continue to wrap around your body. If you do not surrender, I will let the matter strangle you into unconsciousness. Obviously, I will not kill you, but OW OW OW!”
Lilith had shot a light spell into Odalia’s eyes. Odalia covered her eyes with her hands. The abomination material dropped. Reaching deep inside herself, Lilith summoned dozens of vines, wrapped them into a massive fist, and punched Odalia across the field into the other goalpost.
“You talk too much,” Lilith deadpanned. Silently, she noted the line was rather Eda-esque. A witch from the Healing coven ran from the audience and touched Odalia’s neck.
“She’s going to be fine, she’s just unconscious!” the witch said. “Lilith Clawthorne is the winner!”
Lilith Clawthorne had just done the impossible.
The entire audience exploded. Eda was the first over and all but tackled Lilith with a hug. As the Healing witch brought Odalia back to consciousness, the audience surged forward - the crash of their whoops and cheers threatening to deafen Lilith - grabbed the two sisters and carried them on their shoulders.
“I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU YOU COULD DO IT!” Eda was practically beside herself, a few tears going down her face as she squirmed and danced in excitement in the spectators’ arms. “She didn’t believe she could do it!” she said to the audience lifting them into the air. “But she kicked Blight’s ass! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
You know what? Eda was not without flaw, but right now … she was totally right.