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Eda carried her books in her hands as she heard the loudspeaker blare overhead. “Students, we regret to inform you that Grom will be held a second time this year due to unusual stirring patterns. Your Grom Queen will be Eda Clawthorne.”
Eda heard the chatter of all the students around her and grumbled. After she had managed to avoid so many years as Grom Queen, of course the minute she decided she wanted to leave all of this behind…
Her thoughts were interrupted as Lilith began to shove some books into her locker hastily. “Hey, Lily, what’s the rush for?” she asked.
“Eda! Oh, I didn’t see you there!” Lilith said, her glasses askew. Eda held the middle of the frame and fixed them as Lilith sighed heavily. “You… got picked as Grom Queen?”
“Yeah, I’m going to angrily stomp into Principal Bump’s office and tell him he made a mistake,” grumbled Eda. “Just one more way for the school to embarrass me, hm? I don’t even know where I got this lousy curse, thank goodness I found the elixir to ward it off, hm?” Eda chugged some orange fluid from a beaker and looked to Lilith. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Right yeah… I thought you were going to become a wild witch?” asked Lilith.
“Well, I might as well stick out the last couple days of school to at least get my diploma, mother practically begged me to after she heard my ridiculous plans…” growled Eda. “She’s been a bit on the fritz lately, if you haven’t noticed. She doesn’t want me drinking this ‘poison’,” Eda gave a bit of a hiss as she emptied the flask into her mouth. “I thought you were going to run off to the Emperor’s Coven?”
“Hah, well, initiation still takes time. Paperwork and the like… plus the word I’ve been getting is that they actually want me to graduate.” Lilith replied, clasping her own hands together. “Look, if I can do anything for you, please let me know… I…”
“You don’t need to apologize to me again, Lily, for something that’s not even your fault! I must have just ate something bad or crossed someone the wrong way. I’m sure I’ll find a cure to whatever… this is.” Eda said, clinking a nail against the empty flask. Lilith felt dread build up in her stomach as she held back the truth.
“Hah, right…” Lilith said as she scratched her head, looking away.
“Honestly, you know what? How about you step in for me instead? For Grom?” asked Eda, looking to the loudspeaker.
“I… huh?” asked Lilith. “That’s…”
“I know it’s a big ask, but I’ll be there for you, I’ll help you face your fears, we can do this together, it’s just you’ll be the Queen of Grom. I’m just a jack of all trades, maybe you can really make short work of Grom with brewing some potions!” Eda said, beaming.
This was her darkest period of her life and she was smiling through it all for a person that committed the greatest sin against her. Lilith couldn’t look at the optics very optimistically if she turned this down. Yet her fear ran in the back of her mind with every word Eda spoke. “I… I’ll do it.” Lilith finally resigned herself to the task.
“Oh, Lily, you are the best! The best sister anyone could ask for. Let’s get this squared away with Bump and meet up during lunch, huh?” Eda replied, patting Lilith on the shoulder.
“S-sure, sounds… great.” Lilith said in a dejected voice.
“Attention students- your new Grom Queen will be Lilith Clawthorne. Wish her luck, she’s going to need it…” the loudspeaker shouted out as Lilith got to her table. Eda was sitting with Raine as Lilith put down her tray of food.
“Mm, they sound really confident in me, this year’s pick for the Emperor’s Coven.” grumbled Lilith. She hadn’t really been showing this side of herself too often around school, but she knew she didn’t deserve the spot even if she hadn’t tilted the odds in her favor for a battle she never even needed to fight.
“You’re going to do great, Lily, I just know it.” Eda replied.
Raine looked anxious and poked at their food. “Is it okay to talk about…?” asked Raine, looking to Eda.
“To talk about what? The owl beast transformation?” asked Eda. “That’s old hat- it’s been a weekend. New week, new hot gossip.”
“Right, but… it’s not… like, hurting you right? It’s not… a curse, right?” asked Raine. “I’ve been kind of struggling to understand what happened that day.”
“I had to forfeit. I didn’t want to join the Emperor’s Coven and I knew that they were going to drag me to do a proper duel with my own sister- I wasn’t going to let them do that, so I just did a little bit of beast keeping and illusion magic. That’s all, Raine, you don’t need to be afraid of me transforming into some wild untamed beast.” Eda lied through her teeth, almost as naturally as she breathed.
“Oh, good! Hah, I just… I’ve never seen a curse like that, but admittedly, as a bard track student, it’s not like I’m exactly learning about that kind of stuff.” Raine replied.
“Well, as a student of everything, I know you have nothing to worry about.” Eda replied. She patted Raine on the back.
Lilith could only gloomily look on.
“Alright, Lily, we’re gonna have to prepare you for Grom. Throw your worst fear at me, let’s go.” Eda said, waving her hands towards herself as they stood in the backyard of their house.
“Are… are you sure you want to be using magic so flagrantly given your… condition?” Lilith asked, tilting her head. “Look, I’ll be fine-“
Eda traced the air with a finger to cast a circle, sending out an giraffe that slammed it’s long neck into the ground. Lilith dodged with her whole body, jumping out of the way as she gasped, hitting the dirt with her fingers.
“What the- Eda!” groaned Lilith, shuffling dirt off her robes. “I’m not even afraid of those… things, anyway…” she said, watching as her sister laughed. “C’mon, Eda, that wasn’t even…”
“Sorry, sorry…” cackled Eda. “They really are demented tall freaks though, huh?” Eda asked, revealing the giraffe to be an illusion. “The sooner the Emperor banishes all of them the better, that’s what I say…”
Lilith chuckled quietly. “I think they might be your worst fear, all things considered…”
Eda gave her a cross look and laughed. “Alright, then, give me a fear of yours or I’m gonna hit you with a giraffe again.”
“I mean… I suppose I’m afraid I’m going to fail the duties that the Emperor’s Coven gives me and something bad will happen to me. My family. I don’t want to fail Belos, but I might not be strong enough to take on the tasks… I thought I was,” Lilith replied. “…but now I’m beginning to doubt myself.”
“They pitted you against me for a reason. Look, I may not agree with the entire system, but if they saw the potential in you like that, there’s got to be something to that, right? Besides, that’s really hard to visualize, heh.” Eda remarked, cocking her head to the right. “What’s wrong?”
Lilith looked up, not realizing she was looking away. “How… how can you remain like this? This calm? This joyous? Knowing you’re cursed?”
“Well, the way I see it, I can either feel miserable about it or I can suck it up and live my best life. One of these sounds like the better option to me!” Eda replied, outstretching her hand to Lilith. Lilith cautiously took it before she heard the back door of their house open.
“Eda!” called out their mom. “Get over here, someone would like to try a cure on you!” Eda rolled her eyes as her mother suddenly ran up to her and grabbed her by the pointed ear. “Now, missy.”
Lilith swallowed something in her throat. It felt like pure bile.
Lilith had a hard time going to sleep since she had cursed Eda. Her own sister. How ironic it was that night that Eda was fast asleep so comfortably- and ever since her own rest was wracked in cold sweat that kept her stiff and unmoving, nailed down by her own dread.
Thoughts crawled across her membrane.
You should just tell her.
She’s going to see it. She’s going to know.
She already knows, she’s doing this whole act on purpose, to see if you’ll break.
Her paranoia danced away in her brain. Each thought scratched away at her- for some reason she felt like her wrists scratched from the inside. Her stomach felt like it was full of abomination refuse. Her eyes were red, her cheeks marked with tears.
She held her hands clasped over her stomach. Of course she had to take on Grom Queen duties mere days after doing something unforgivable. She thought she had seen a reversal to the cure on the parchment, but after pouring over in every spare second she had between classes for the past couple days, she had to have imagined it.
Why did she have to choose this curse for her sister? Was there nothing better at the Night Market? Something that would have merely just put her out of step wasn’t enough, was it? Even if she thought it would be for a day, why…
She scratched at her arms before stopping, breathing quietly. The night was longer than it had any right to be.
The wind howled outside, hitting against the fortified wood of the house, causing it to creak quietly into the night.
She knows you did it, she wants you to expose it to the whole school. That’s what you deserve.
That didn’t make any sense as she began to kind of poke at it logically- something she would have to do to survive the night without an insane emotional outburst that would get everyone in the house running to her. She wasn’t the one who needed help, anyhow. That was Eda and she had to help her.
She went back to dissecting that thought. Eda couldn’t have known about Grom becoming restless for the second time this year, let alone so close to the end of school. That didn’t make any sense. Even if she had caused it, which she certainly couldn’t have- she was doing maybe too good of a job hiding it. She had seen the way she acted around Raine. She didn’t exactly have the best poker face about her real feelings.
She was emotional and it came in outbursts, sudden and very passionate. Trying to hold it back wasn’t really possible for Eda. Even she wasn’t sure how Raine didn’t know Eda was obviously in love with them.
She chuckled quietly to herself. Maybe that was something else she could help with. She resigned herself to getting the two of those together as Grom dates. She wasn’t one for romance- in fact, she had often spent Grom hanging against the wall or near her sister and feeling oddly out of place with everyone else there. She had thought she’d develop feelings for at least someone, but… that didn’t seem to come to her, honestly.
She turned her head against the pillow and finally felt her eyes rest, her brain not feeling as white hot from her own guilt anymore. She tried to think away from her usual thinking patterns. She thought back to what Eda said.
Well, the way I see it, I can either feel miserable about it or I can suck it up and live my best life.
“Hey, Eda.” Lilith said as she sat on the steps outside of Hexside, seeing Eda approach her.
“You worried about Grom?” asked Eda, sitting down on one knee as she let her leg hang over multiple steps.
“Mm, yeah, but you need a date for Grom.” Lilith chuckled.
“Oh, what? Those are always such a waste of time.” snarked Eda.
“Mm, I can think of at least one person worth your time.” Lilith remarked as she nodded her head over to Raine, who was reading a book while leaning against a railing. “Ahaha, you’re blushing! I knew it!” Lilith shouted as Eda looked over.
“Aw, you don’t have to rub it in, Lily,” Eda replied. She shook her head. “I mean come on, What are you going to do all Grom if I’m preoccupied with Raine?”
“I’m HOPING for that, Eda! What, you think I wanna go at this with my worst fears potentially exposed to everyone? At least you’ll be distracted while I totally punt it to the floor.” Lilith remarked, crossing her arms.
“I…” Eda tensed up as Lilith quietly pushed her towards Raine. “C’mon, Lily, you aren’t seriously expecting me to-“
“Freaking Alador got a date, you need one too!” Lilith blithely pushed her sister towards her obvious crush.
“Wait, Alador got a date? Well, that’s all you had to say!” Eda said, running over to Raine, before her sprint became slow steps. Raine picked their head out from their book, looking at Eda directly in the eyes.
“Oh… um, hi!” Raine waved, looking away from Eda as Eda also darted their eyes away. “Is… there something… you um, want?”
“Sorry, not sure why I’m tensing up so much.” Eda remarked, rolling her shoulders. “Do you um, wanttogotoGromwithme?” she said in one breath, feeling it pulse out of her breath.
“Uh, sure! Iwantedtoaskyou, actually, so I’mgladyouapproachedmebeforethat, haha.” Raine also said in a nervous shaky breath, some of their words sticking together.
Lilith crossed her arms. That was at least one good thing she did for her sister since sticking her with the curse. She felt a needle run through her body as she watched the scene.
You think this makes up for anything? Can they even be happy together now that you’ve cursed her?
“Shut up,” she told herself quietly. “Just… shut up, brain, please…”
You can’t get the bitter taste out your mouth and you never will.
She’d slap herself if she felt like it wasn’t going to be a distraction.
“You’d think the Emperor would have built this kid prison over something that wasn’t a ancient burial ground, hm?” Eda playfully questioned as Lilith looked over the weapon rack, hours before Grom. Lilith gave her a side eye, before focusing back on the weapon rack.
“What do you think, Eda, scythe, or rapier?” asked Lilith. “I got to pick at least one of these.” Her eyes poured over the weapon rack, where a variety of Grom-fighting tools were on display. Her eyes almost seemed fixated on a scythe with a purple tendril around the staff, intertwined with the end of the sharp blade.
“You’ve been eying that scythe. I suppose you want to reap what you sow, hm?” asked Eda.
“On second thought, maybe I really should focus on using the rapier…” Lilith said, gulping nervously.
“What’s… up, Lily?” asked Eda as she put her hand on her shoulder, causing Lilith to shudder in a unsettling fashion.
“I’m… really nervous about Grom. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to…” Lilith started before falling to her knees. Her mind raced for secondary excuses. “I didn’t even get to fight you, how am I possibly… going to even know if I’m ready for something like this?”
“Grom isn’t even that hard, Lilith. Especially for senior students like us. Just…” Eda patted Lilith’s shoulders. “Take it easy, it’s going to be alright, okay?” asked Eda, in a sincere way.
“Right… right,” Lilith said as she held the scythe in her hand, feeling the light weight in her hand. “Okay, I think I figured what I want to use.”
“Good, how about you just, go get ready in what you want to go in combat for, hm?” asked Eda. “I got a nice brown suit fashioned out of some of dad’s old stuff I knitted together. I’m sure you got some kind of nice little number of your own you’re thinking of, hm?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll just wear that black dress from last Grom, honestly.” Lilith replied.
“Heh, stay in that headspace! We’re going to look scary good, hm?” Eda said, rubbing the top of Lilith’s scalp playfully.
“Maybe… I think my dress has a rip in it…” Lilith replied.
“Well, that’s nothing I can’t fix.” Eda putting her fist on her hip.
She’s smiling for you, traitor.
Lilith smiled back.
Lilith avoided people like the plague. This is normally what she did, but this time it was because she was feeling sick. Her raven feather dress probably had nothing to do with it- it was just the uneasy feeling something terrible was going to happen. Everything went too smoothly. Everything felt too nice for a horrible person like herself to get away with without some sort of strange karma ripping her life apart.
How was she supposed to know? Even as a smart kid, the scroll baffled her. The contents were well above her level even as someone who had taken up a couple ancient languages here and there, and yet as she poured over more in the aftermath, she realized with startling clarity what she had done to Eda. Eda, her sister.
She watched as Eda and Raine awkwardly danced in the left center of the room, a bit away from most of the commotion in the dead center of the room. Principal Bump was supervising as usual, and Perry was commentating obnoxiously.
“Darius and Alador have seemed to get into some sort of alteration… folks, step away from the punching bowl, it will get violent if you approach it!”
She held her plant-based cup and felt the strange rumblings of Grometheus below. Better late than never- she watched as the floor descended downwards.
“Attention: Lilith Clawthorne, our Grom Queen is now supposed to slink into Grom’s cavern to defeat it right now! Please give her some applause as she goes to defeat the monster!” Perry bellowed over the mic.
Lilith huffed as the weapon armory popped out from the floor, nearly knocking a fellow student away with the speed of which it lifted off from the floor. Lilith quickly grabbed the scythe, feeling the weight it against her fingers. She clamped down onto the platform in her Slitherbeast fur boots and headed into the cavern.
It was darker than she had imagined, even with the party lights and music bellowing in the distance. The disgusting sounds of a slimy, writhing Grom filled the air, and the air felt warm. It was no fluke- Grom was gestating far faster than usual. Lilith felt beads of sweat against her forehead as she went into the cavernous pit, readying her scythe. She had kept a couple of pre-brewed explosive potions in her hair too, in case things got deadly.
Grom began its assault by merely throwing itself towards Lilith, which she expertly dodged and used the blade of the scythe to focus her balance as she suddenly turned and did a crescent slash with the scythe. The scythe was a incredibly inefficient weapon for cutting or maiming as only the inner part of the blade was sharp, but it allowed Lilith to climb it easily. As she climbed it’s skin, which was a moist black mixture, she looked for the head of the beast.
She ensnared her hands around the beast and grabbed a explosive potion from her hair. She spat out some stray hairs that got into her face and yanked the cork off to send it off with an explosion. An easy Grom defeat, just like she had theorized. Her hand dropped the potion and Grom exploded, sending Lilith flying towards the back of the wall. The scythe dropped to the floor with a loud clang.
Lilith almost felt proud of herself in the moment, but her insecurities began to manifest in her head.
Don’t think you’re so great.
If everyone knew what you did, nobody would be cheering.
Without Lilith’s direct attention, Grom began to reform. Lilith gripped her head, trying get a hold of herself.
Stop! Stop! I should be able to have at least one good moment to myself- please…
She looked up and saw the face of the Owl Beast. She gasped in horror as it began to form from the blackness, oozing chunks of Grom becoming manifested into a large, overwhelming version of Eda as the Owl Beast, muttering in strange noises.
“CRRRR! CRRR!” the Grom-like Owl Beast shouted from it’s beak, breaking into the gray brick with it’s talons.
“N-no… no… no… no, no no!” Lilith shouted repeatedly, running from the Grom Owl Beast, feeling ice roll down her spine. She barely recovered the scythe as she ascended up the walkway, much to everyone’s shock.
“NO! NO! NO NO NO!” Lilith shouted with a shudder in her breath, making her way to the back of the gym as Grom cornered her. Suddenly a loud blast of golden colored magic hit Grom in the back of the head and it turned it’s owl-like head all the way around to face her, dripping parts of itself as its attention shifted.
“Get away from her!” Eda shouted at the top of her lungs. She had fastened her hands around her staff, Owlbert’s eyes opening as she sent off liquid bullets that drilled through Grom’s body. Grom began to change targets as people began to clear from the gym, watching from the doors in anticipation.
Raine shuffled onto their feet awkwardly as they grabbed their instrument, summoning it from the ether a second prior. They began to play it as a golden glow of bard magic began to appear across the ground, closing their eyes, shutting the world off as they played to their heart.
With the bard magic in play, Eda’s magic doubled in size and blew off sizable chunks off it’s body that landed against the wall near Lilith, who watched in sheer wonder as her sister and her Grom date lay waste to Grom quickly.
Grom snarled as it transformed quickly- a giant version of Eda snarled awake with bile running out it’s mouth and it’s eyes filling up with blackness put Eda to a uneasy freezing standstill and Raine soon found themselves overwhelmed with Grom’s chatter as it began to form oozing dummy clones of itself. “N-no… stop looking at me…” Raine said, needing to stop playing.
Lilith quickly cupped out a flask of explosive juice. Grom was significantly weakened by this point, even as it was healing off Eda and Raine’s fears. She wanted to be done with all of this. Her anger began to eclipse her fear and she popped off the cork and threw the bottle, watching it explode against Grom-Eda’s head, watching it explode in a grisly explosion of black sludge.
Eda huffed as she leaned against the staff, watching as Lilith suddenly ascended into the air with the scythe, launching downwards as she pulsed some basic light magic through the long handle and released a light beam that incinerated the remains of Grom completely, the flecks of Grom remaining in the air as almost black ashes.
Lilith landed on her foot, coughing up a little cacophony as she got to her knee.
“We did it?” asked Eda, rhetorically. Lilith stood for a moment before shaking her head up and down. “We did it!”
“Indeed, they have! Give it up for your triple Grom royalty, Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne, and Raine Whispers!” Perry shouted from the mic. Lilith felt herself hoisted in the air with the other students and for one small moment, she didn’t feel anything in her head trying to tell her she should feel awful. She outstretched her arms in happiness, looking to Eda and Raine who were also crowd-surfing, much to Raine’s displeasure.
“Ohhh… ohhh dear…” Raine said, sticking their hands up in a paralyzed state.
Eda looked to Lilith and mouthed something along the lines of fetch an elixir.
There, that voice in her head came back.
Eda had excused herself to the bathroom shortly after the celebration, and Lilith stood near the stall door as she saw a flurry of brown feathers fall to the tiled ground. Lilith passed her a orange elixir under the stall door, hearing Eda desperately sip it down.
“Sorry to ruin your big night, Lily.” Eda remarked after a couple audible sips.
“No… no… you’re okay.” Lilith remarked, sitting down on her knees. “I…”
“No, don’t apologize for anything!” Eda replied. How did she still not know? Wasn’t it so obvious? Surely she saw what her fear was, right?
“My biggest fear was the Owl Beast; I feel like I owe at least a little bit of words to you about that.” Lilith snapped back, although she wasn’t sure what the words were going to be. She didn’t know if it was the time to tell her the truth. She felt like Eda was owed at least a real cure before she opened up about it. At least she could then undo the damage a little bit herself.
“I know, it’s… kind of a scary thing. I feel it drain at my magic, I feel it every time I sleep or use magic. I’m looking to getting one of those gem pendants that tell you that kind of thing,” Eda remarked. “I saw that for a moment and it scared me tonight. Sorry for freezing up there, I suppose it can’t be helped.”
“I’m… scared of what will happen if you get stuck in that form, I guess,” Lilith replied. “Sapping your magic is one thing, but will you even retain your humanity?” This was more of a secondary fear than anything else, but she decided in the moment that it wasn’t time to open up about her involvement in the curse.
“Is this why… you didn’t tell me earlier, then?” asked Eda. “I could tell something was up.
Lilith gulped loudly. If Eda could read her then, then she might be able to now if she saw her face that Lilith was once again lying to her. A stall door was saving her from being fully found out, she supposed.
“Yes, that’s exactly why. I didn’t want you to think I was scared of YOU,” Lilith replied succinctly. She clasped her fingers together. “We will find a cure for this.”
“I suppose.” Eda replied. “I think it might be getting worse, so we might need to hurry up, especially if mom starts getting more quacks into the house.”
“With the Emperor’s resources, I’m sure we can find a cure soon enough.”
“Heh, maybe with enough boot licking, I’m sure he’ll help out soon enough. I’m sure the answer lies in the ancient ways he wanted to snuff out.”
“You’re still dead-set on that life, aren’t you?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Living outside of the system is all I’ve ever craved. I’ve never liked it here, you have. It’s just not for me.”
“Well, good luck to you, I suppose.” chuckled Lilith quietly to herself.
“No matter what, we’ll be sisters at the end of the day though. That much I know for sure.” Eda remarked.
“Yeah…” Lilith spoke quietly. “I hope so.”
It was hard again for Lilith to sleep. Even with her Grom Queen tiara locked away as a keepsake, she couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt as it panged her through the night. She had to find a cure; it was absolutely the only way she could live with herself.
You will never find it.
“Stop…” whimpered Lilith quietly as she folded her pillow over her head.
If Belos even gets an inkling of what you’re planning to do with his time and resources, your life will be over. He doesn’t care about mistakes like you.
Lilith whined into the night as she shut her eyes. She repeated over and over in her head to try and get the bad thoughts out.
It was a mistake. It was a mistake that any dumb kid might do. I can fix it. I can fix it and I can make this better. I made her life better already. She always said we’d be sisters.
I have to fix this.
I have to beat this for her.