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Summary:

Wittober Day 27 - Sermon
Lilith gives her first public speech to a group of teenage wild witches. She takes Emperor Belos' advice to try to convince them to join a coven, but she still feels conflicted about the matter.

Notes:

I was originally planning on writing another preacher Belos work for today, but I decided it'd be more interesting to depict how Belos made Lilith give public appearances and how it parallels to the sermons preacher Belos used to give.

I used S1E5 (Covention) and S2S19 (Hollow Mind) as references when writing this fic. I hope you enjoy!

Work Text:

Lilith never really liked speaking in front of crowds before, but she was the head of the Emperor's Coven. There wasn't really a better person for the job besides the Emperor himself. She'd have to put her nerves behind her.

This was her first ever public speech as the Emperor's Coven Head. She was going to be speaking to a group of young wild witches from Latissa that had previously shown disdain for the coven system. Her goal was to get them to all join a coven. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to do that.

She takes a deep breath as she steps onto the stage. A small crowd of rowdy teenagers stood in front of her. None of them looked particularly excited to be there.

Lilith remembers the words of advice Emperor Belos gave to her, to "wow" the audience. He used to give many of these speeches himself, so she trusted his word more than anything.

She begins with an illusion of ravens circling her from above. Some of them look at least mildly interested, which she considers a win. She then begins to speak.

"Citizens of Latissa, I am here to warn you against the dangers of wild magic. You all may think wild magic is "cool" and "hip", but the Titan does not think so."

She then makes use of the Emperor's other word of advice as she causes the illusion ravens to fall into rising illusions flames. Invoke fear.

"i have a relative of mind who refuses to join a coven. She may have all her magic, but she suffers as a result. She has been cursed and she lives a sad life as an outcast from society!"

"So what?!" one of the audience members yells. "We're always gonna be outcasts!"

"I was an outcast too, you know" she says coldly. "It doesn't always have to be this way. Things could get a lot better... or a lot worse. You could end up in the Emperor's Coven like me... or the Conformatorium. Or even worse... you could end up PETRIFIED!"

Lilith creates an abomination of the audience member who spoke up earlier, and then changes the form to make the abomination look petrified. This causes murmurs and looks of horror from the audience.

"The choice is up to you. Believe in a better future or join a coven, or throw out your future and stay a wild witch." She makes the magic disappear and looks at the audience, which continue to stare at her in awe.

The witch who spoke up earlier comes to the front. "I want to join the Abomination Coven. I don't want to be a Wild Witch anymore." They look almost defeated with their eyes filled with confliction and fear.

"Me too" says another audience member who also makes their way to the front.

"I'll join the Illusions coven" says another.

She gives an approving nod as one of the coven scouts comes over and gives the witches their coven sigils, but can't help but notice the pain in some of the witches' eyes.

"Now go and spread the word to other wild witches! Make the Titan proud! And don't forget to work hard if you want to join the ranks of the Emperor's Coven like me!" Lilith then disappears in a flash, leaving behind a sparkling cloud of golden smoke.

Once she's backstage, she lets out a sigh she didn't realize she was holding in. Her first speech had been a success, but she felt... wrong. She made those teenagers join a coven out of fear, something she refused to do when trying to convince Edalyn to join the Emperor's Coven! Was she a bad person for doing such a thing.

No, no, she was in the right. Emperor Belos said to make any wild witch join a coven by any means necessary. She sighs once more as she thinks about how many more time she'd have to do something like this...

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