She might have been at this for over half a millennium at this point, and more than used to the less-than-exhilarating elements of the job, but that didn't stop being a Lilim Sovereign from being relentlessly, unspeakably dull and boring at times.
From her position at her throne, Lilith resisted the urge to fall asleep in front of her fellow six Sovereigns, twelve Lilim government ministers and sixteen state governors. It wouldn't do- it REALLY wouldn't do- to look like one was falling asleep in front of the government that they were in charge of. Sure, voting power on all matters pertaining to the running of their faction was relatively evenly split between the Sovereigns, government ministers and state governors, with the vote of Lilith herself officially counting no more than any of the other Sovereigns, but whatever opinion she voiced on whatever issue the federal government happened to be dealing with… tended to be the direction in which the government would find itself going in.
Taking a breath, Lilith refocused her attention to the long table that stretched across the left side of the throne room, at which the Lilim's Justice Minister- an Incubus with mixed white and pink hair, with a pair of pointed horns protruding from his hair and four tails from his back- was giving a report on Strays from the Devils' side that had crossed the border onto the Lilim's side. Definitely an important subject, considering how dangerous and destructive some of those guys could get.
"-in possession of the Sacred Gear Flame Shake, which generates flames that could burn anyone short of a Dragon, or one of the Soveriegns. Definitely one to watch out for… moving on, there's also a Pawn of Viscountess Oriax, a Lamia, that's been reported to have crossed. Long dark-brown, nearly-black hair, matching eyes, lower body of a snake. Unless they know body-transformation, they won't be hard to find. And that's all the Strays I've received word of within the last month."
There were smatterings of applause among the ministers, though most of the governors- on a table on the opposite side of the room to the ministers, at the right side of the Sovereigns- began talking among themselves in response to the Justice Minster's report, their tones hushed. As the Incubus sat down, setting down the report that they were reading from on the table in front of them, the Lilim's Military Minister, commander-in-chief of the Lilim's armed forces, stood up. Lilith's eyes quickly shifted across from the murmuring governors over to the minister: beautiful even by the standards of Succubi, with long jet-black hair, golden eyes and two thick, curved white horns. With the pure-white dress she wore, one would normally never suspect Albedo to be anything even close to the war hero among the Lilim that she was commonly considered as… but looks could be deceiving.
However, one look at the five tails that protruded from her lower back would tell anyone who knew what that meant that Albedo was not a being to be messed with, if one wanted to live to see the next day. So maybe that was a bit of a clue.
"Thank you for the report, Minister Hurin." Albedo spoke, inclining her head to the white-and-pink-haired Incubus. "With the governors' co-operation, I'll have orders for increased patrols and deployment around the federation sent out when we adjourn for today."
There was a general reply of assent from the governors, though Lilith noticed two or three not looking too pleased at the prospect of increased military presence in their territory. As Albedo sat down, Lilith noticed Ageha- the Lilim's Financial Minister- leaning over and gently pressing her lips against Albedo's cheek, with Albedo allowing herself a smile. One of the few among the present cabinet of government ministers that had kept her position ever since the initial selection of said ministers, upon the Lilim's declaration of independence from the Devils: Ageha- like most Succubi- had found herself a long list of sexual partners over the centuries that she'd earned with ease, thanks in part to her incredibly voluptuous body (that wasn't exactly hidden by the black-hemmed red minidress she currently wore), exotic blue hair and a nature that could only be described as 'seductive to the core'. But through it all, Albedo had somehow been her only partner that had any claim of being a romantic one.
Hell only knew what a relatively young Succubus that was rarely ever seen outside of training grounds or a war-room, and an older lady who'd be more likely to manipulate someone into slitting their own throat than taking an axe to it herself, had in common, never mind enough in common to have things worked out between each other for as long as they had… but they had.
Good for them, Lilith thought. Must be nice.
After Albedo had sat down, Lilith adjusted in her throne slightly as she refocused her attention on the next government minister to stand up. The Urban Minister of the Lilim, a light-skinned Incubus with dark-blue hair that went below shoulder-length, with four tails extending out from his back, summoned a file out of a magic-circle and began a rather long-winded explanation of the benefits of a new housing project across their side of Hell.
With only a small fraction of her mind really focused on what was being said, the rest of Lilith's mind wandered over to her villa back in the human world… or more specifically, a specific guest that had arrived yesterday, and the conversation she'd shared with him during and after dinner.
In all honesty, she thought that conversation with Raylix had gone pretty well. To hear that he was a member of the Old Satan Faction was pretty unexpected: she'd heard through the grapevine that the Gremory Heir had gone missing a few years ago, right before the wedding between him and the Phenex Heiress was due to take place. Hearing over and over again from the Devils' side that it was going to be the biggest and grandest event in Hell's history since her and Lucifer's own wedding so many millennia ago had gotten on her nerves a fair bit, she had to admit, so it did bring her some mild amusement to hear that the event had crashed and burned at the last proverbial second.
The Old Satan Faction having gathered enough forces to require the establishment of new bases in the human world was news to her. With what she'd heard of it from some of the governors, she'd always assumed it to be a relatively small faction, too far under the radar for either the Lilim or the Devils to really pay much attention to. But that band of revolutionaries, headed by the children of the leaders of the Royals Faction, were clearly a larger group than the higher-ups of either side could really guess. And she'd be lying if that didn't play at least a small part in her proposal regarding the OSF and the Khaos Brigade to Raylix at the end of the evening.
She'd been telling the truth last night: she wasn't much of a betting woman. But if she had to wager a Soul or two million on one outcome or the other, she supposed it to be more likely than not that Raylix would accept the proposal she'd made to him. She knew that- obvious crush aside- he had to be at least a little bit willing to trust her after she'd informed him of her lack of intention to turn him in to the Old Satan Faction or the Gremory Clan. What would that really do for her, whether in the long or short term, apart from rob her of some potentially powerful allies?
Lilith was sure that Raylix would at the very least consider her proposal. He was a smart enough guy, he'd made the connection between what the Old Satan Faction wanted and what the Khaos Brigade wanted, off of what she'd told him, all on his own: she'd be more concerned if he hadn't, and she had to spell it out for him. And even if- by the time she returned to her villa in two weeks' time- he hadn't fully come to a decision yet, she had a couple of potential sweeteners to the deal up her sleeve, to pull out and further tempt him with. She rather doubted that the former Gremory Heir (or rather, former Heir now. She'd- of course- heard through the grapevine that the Clan now had a new Heiress to call their own) and his crew really had much direction when it came to their search for the Sephiroth Graal, so she doubted that the idea of her lending her considerable resources to said search, if only for the purposes of finding potential places to point Raylix's search towards, would be something that Raylix would pass up.
Out of everyone in his crew, he DEFINITELY seemed to be the most focused on finding it, so that could be a deciding factor in her favour.
Another potential extra hand she could play- a rather less subtle one but one still worth considering- could be one that catered to Raylix's… baser, instincts as a male Devil. She was damn sure- no, she KNEW for a FACT- that Raylix enjoyed the company of women. Almost every Clan on the Devils' side of Hell employed at least a few maids to take care of the needs of their male members, and the Gremory Clan was absolutely no different. Add onto that the members of the small crew that he'd built up for himself… even if he hadn't gone and done it with any of them, there had to only be females in that crew for a reason.
Of course, she wouldn't outright order Hikari or Kurumi to do anything drastic, like try to openly seduce Raylix into following her. They were her daughters, and there was no question of her love for them being enough of a restrainer for her to not go THAT far, when matters concerned them. Then again, she probably wouldn't have to: depending on how Raylix was getting on with them back at the villa, planting the mere idea in his head would probably be enough to bring him to her side.
She'd just have to wait until she returned back to her villa and see for herself how things had panned out, once these two weeks of official business had concluded. But in the meantime…
"You're saying you don't care about the very people you want to hole up with this new program?"
"Of course I'm not, when in Hell's name did I ever even imply that?! I'm just saying that this is more immediately important right now, and needs to be considered at the very least, for the good of us all!"
"And you think that something like that is going to fit into our budget? With everything else we've had to dedicate it to?"
"Raise the budget, then? It's not like you had a problem with calling for that course of action when you proposed that new hospital program? That, might I add, hasn't had anything close to the results you projected it would have?"
"That was because we had room to raise it! With where we're at now, and the budget where it's at, we're getting to the point that-"
"Oh, for Lucifer's sake, will the three of you stop bickering?" Naamah called out, from her position two seats to the left of Lilith's throne, to a trio of arguing government ministers. At the sound of one of the Sovereigns speaking down to them like that, the Educational, Health and Urban Ministers- two Succubi and one Incubus- all ceased their discussion just before it could get too heated. "I don't believe it's any of your places to determine how the programs we vote to pursue get fit into this government's budget. That's OUR decision, at the end of the day, with Ageha's assistance and advice."
Ageha silently inclined her head slightly at Naamah's direct mention of her, and Albedo allowed herself a small smirk as she looked over at Ageha.
"That's right." Eisheth, from her spot three seats to Lilith's right, remarked. "You'd do well to not overstep in future. Shall we put this to a vote and move on?" she asked, addressing the assembly at large rather than anyone in particular with her last ten words, which received a general murmur of ascent from all involved. "Alright. Lady Lilith?"
"Hm?" Lilith looked up, adjusting her position on her throne again. "Ahh, yes. Of course."
As she had done literally dozens of thousands of times, over the centuries since the Lilim gained full independence from the Devils, Lilith lazily raised her right hand and fired a bolt of green energy into the wider throne room, indicating her vote in favour of the proposal that the Urban Minister had put forward. The energy-bolt fizzled out before it could really go anywhere, but everyone had seen where the great Lilith- Queen of Sin, first of her kind, the Asherah to Lucifer's Yahweh- stood on the issue. And though no-one in the room said it out loud, that was pretty much that.
Just one of the many, MANY perks of being who she was, Lilith thought. As… complicated, as her personal feelings on that subject and all the circumstances surrounding it were, she'd long-since judged the perks of her unofficial status to outweigh whatever negatives came with the false image that many- not just among the Lilim but across the supernatural world at large- had of her. They were worth making use of… for now.
Naamah and Eisheth, the two that had called out the three bickering ministers a moment or so ago, were the next to cast their votes. Both busty beauties in their own right- Naamah with short wavy brown hair and golden eyes, and Eisheth with hair and eyes of a matching peach-like colour- both in elaborate dresses that accentuated their beauty to inhuman levels, and both with six tails each to signify their power: they definitely deserved to be mentioned as far as the conversation of the most beautiful women in Hell were concerned… at least, most beautiful women in Hell that weren't named Lilith.
Both bolts of energy that they fired out of their hands were of the same green as Lilith's, indicating their agreement with her stance.
The same couldn't quite be said for Leohart, one of the three Incubi among the Sovereigns and easily the youngest (both in appearance and actual age) of the seven. A tall, tan-skinned young demon with purple hair and blue eyes, and clad in bulky black armour that even had extensions fitted out to cover his five tails, he fired a red bolt of light into the air from his seat to Lilith's direct left to make for the first vote against the motion.
The second came from Agrat, from Lilith's direct right. Though she hesitated for a second in the aftermath of seeing Lilith, Naamah and Eisheth all cast green energy-bolts into the air, seeing Leohart cast a red bolt must have emboldened her in spite of that to cast her own red bolt into the air. As the bolt fizzled away, she looked up at Lilith's throne, meeting the dark Queen's crimson eyes with her own dark-blue pair that matched her long hair. A slow breath escaped her as she did so, her impressive chest rising and falling within the constraints of the black suit she had elected to wear to the meeting. No matter what she wore, it looked damn good on her, though that didn't stop her five tails from poking out below her shirt and jacket, and above her pants.
Lilith nodded, accepting Agrat's vote before turning her attention to one of the only two Sovereigns who hadn't cast their vote yet: Wilbert, a well-built Incubus with red hair and matching-coloured eyes, a goatee and pointed elf-like ears (more a rarity among Lilim than among Devils), and clad in the kind of clothing that one wouldn't see as out of place among the Pillar Clan Heads on the Devils' side, though what WOULD have been seen as out of place among the Devils were the six tails protruding from his back. He raised a hand and- after a second or two's consideration- fired a green bolt into the air.
All eyes then turned to Asmortael, the last of the Sovereigns that hadn't voted yet. Definitely the thinnest out of the three Incubi among the Sovereigns, and probably the thinnest out of the seven outright, he also had the shortest hair among the seven: stark-white locks that could barely even be called locks, as they didn't even go down to his chin like Naamah's hair did. His eyes were on the opposite end of the colour-spectrum, however, with them being as dark as Lilith's hair: pure-black, with almost no distinction whatsoever between his irises and pupils. His plain, almost casual choice of clothing- little more than just a white t-shirt and shorts- would probably have raised eyebrows among the governors and ministers, had his own six tails not been more than enough of a warning for anyone to not question his clothing choices. Like with Wilbert before him, he fired a green energy-bolt into the air.
For those (like Lilith) keeping score, that was five votes for, and two against so far.
"Ministers?" Lilith spoke, once Asmortael's green energy-bolt fizzled out into the air. Within about a couple of seconds of the word leaving her throat, all twelve government ministers raised their hands and fired off either green or red energy-bolts into the air. Heads immediately tilted towards the ceiling to look at the votes being cast, and tally the greens against the reds.
Unlike with the Sovereigns' votes, that all counted for one vote per person, the twelve ministers and sixteen governors' votes overall counted for four votes each, with votes allocated as an expression of the degree to which they stood on whatever motion was being voted on.
For example, if four ministers' votes came up green in response to a hypothetical motion, and eight came up red, that would essentially mean that the ministers had voted three to one against that motion. And if eight governor's votes came up green and eight red, that would mean the governors had voted two to two.
This time and on this occasion however, Lilith counted ten green votes from the ministers, and only two red. Very much the majority green, but not quite enough for their collective votes to be allocated four-to-nothing, but instead three-to-one. That meant the vote split now was eight-to-three, which was already enough for the motion to go through, no matter how the governors voted, but for the sake of formality...
"And governors?" Eisheth spoke up, once all the coloured energy-bolts from the ministers had fizzled away. To the right of her and the other six Sovereigns, the sixteen governors raised their hands and- just as the twelve ministers had done before- fired off coloured bolts of energy into the air. All eyes raised to the ceiling when the bolts were fired off, as all made their own counts of the green bolts in comparison to the red. Unlike with the ministers a moment ago, it wasn't exactly clear which colour of bolts were the majority among the governors: it was definitely a close vote. There were hushed voices among the Sovereigns as they debated amongst themselves how many votes had gone one way or the other.
"Is that eight-to-eight?"
"I counted seven-to-nine."
"Huh? I got nine-to-seven. Where'd those extra two red come from?"
"I'm wondering where you got those extra two green."
Lilith barely held back a sigh as she looked up at the bolts, that were beginning to fizzle out just as all the others had before them. One green bolt she focused on, two, three, four bolts, five, six, seven… eight-
"Nine." Lilith spoke, her voice cutting through the hushed debate between the other Sovereigns, as soft as it was. "Nine green. Seven red. That's two votes, for and against, each."
Eisheth, Naamah and Leohart fell silent, looking over at Lilith and then at each other for a couple of seconds. After half a second's hesitation, during which all six other Sovereigns calculated what the overall vote came to. Leohart seemed to be the first to come to the same conclusion that Lilith had come to, judging by how he was the first to speak up after that.
"Alright, that's ten to five for the new housing project. Motion passed!"
Light applause from all over the throne room, from ministers and governors alike. Judging by how hard each minister and governor in particular applauded the news of the motion passing, it was pretty easy for all to tell who had voted for and who had voted against the motion, though the sound tapered off fairly quickly as the External Minister stood up, file in hand, clearing her throat in preparation to talk about whatever diplomatic matters involving the Lilim were important enough to be brought up to the rest of the government this time around.
Things calmed down after that, over the next couple of hours that passed during the rest of the meeting. No more big flare-ups and arguments from either ministers or governors, no more closely-contested votes on any motions brought to the table, just reports on the specifics of what happened to be going on in the Lilim government or smaller territories over the last couple of weeks.
But once those next couple of hours had passed, it was becoming clear that a majority of those in the throne room were losing their focus a bit, and a temporary adjournment to the proceedings were called with an agreement to resume things the next day. No-one made an attempt to approach Lilith as she rose from her throne and left the room, nor did Lilith really want anyone to… or need anyone to, for that matter. She'd kept her distance from all her allies- official ones, anyway- for longer than most beings- supernatural or otherwise- could even comprehend, and she wasn't about to start now.
She'd come too far to start now.
Taking a breath when she left the throne room, Lilith immediately turned right and headed down the hallway, passing the occasional servant that either leapt out of the way when they saw her coming, or just saluted her outright. At the pace she was going, it didn't take long for her to reach the stairs that led up to her private chambers, and even less time for her to ascend the stairs in question. After making it to the top of the stairs and pushing open the doors, Lilith let out a sigh as she looked over at the California King-sized bed that was directly opposite the doors she'd just come through… and the woman sleeping in said bed.
Lilith let out a short snort at the sight of Eve- hair splayed out all over the place, her chest slowly rising and falling in conjunction with her slow breaths. Immediately removing the heeled shoes she was wearing and tossing them aside, before doing the same with her dress to leave her naked, she quietly moved over to the bed and extended two of her tails out, slipping them under the covers and gently wrapping them around Eve's body, sitting down on the side of the bed that Eve was facing in the process.
"Hnn…" A small moan escaped Eve as she felt herself being dragged across the bed. She blinked a couple of times as she was lifted from sleep, her bleary eyes focusing on Lilith within a couple of seconds of them opening. "Lily… is this Heaven?"
Lilith giggled, reaching out and stroking Eve's hair for a second, letting her favourite pet pull herself closer to her as she did so.
"Not quite." Lilith replied. "I just got back from today's session, was going to have a bath. I'm in the mood to have some company while I clean myself up, if you'd like to join me?"
"Of course~!" Eve replied, a smile breaking out over her face as she lifted herself up. A rather smaller smile of her own broke out across Lilith's face as the covers dropped down, revealing Eve's own naked body to the first Succubus' eyes. The other five of her seven tails extended out to wrap around the rest of Eve's body, lifting her up off the bed outright and softly depositing her into her arms. Planting a gentle kiss on the top of her head, Lilith carried Eve away from the bed and towards the door to her private bathroom, just to the right of her bed.
Lilith knew, and she was pretty sure Eve knew, that things were going to rather escalate beyond just cleaning themselves up.
----- ----- -----
An aimless hummed tune escaped Tamamo-no-Mae's throat and nose as she moved through the kitchen, picking up a spoon and using it to raise some of the rice out of the pan that she was presently standing over. After lowering her face closer to it to work out its temperature, and judging it to be slightly too hot for its intended purpose, she lowered the rice into one of the compartments of a little box just by the pan.
She did the same thing a couple more times to fill up the compartment as much as she could, and then lowered her hand towards the steaming rice, focusing a spell through said hand that cooled the rice down to a more acceptable temperature.
After setting the spoon down and shifting the pan of rice off of the heat, the pink-haired kitsune turned her attention to the slices of salmon that she'd magically fried and sliced earlier. Procuring a fork from a nearby drawer, Tamamo stabbed one of the fried slices and transferred it over to another compartment of the box she'd put the rice into. Over the next moment, she did the same with the other slices of salmon, and was pleased when she realised at the last one that she'd managed to pack it all into that compartment without leaving any wasted space.
It wasn't something that she'd have been pissed off at herself if she'd failed to do that, or even something that she'd have noticed, but it was just something small that provoked the thought of 'huh, I did that. Cool.' to suddenly appear in her head and then leave as quickly as it had come.
"After... afternoon."
Tamamo almost jumped out of the cardigan and skirt she'd thrown on an hour ago as she heard the door to the kitchen in Lilith's villa being pushed open, half a second before Cinder's tired voice and yawn met her ears. Turning around, the sight of the young Stray Magician in little more than a red nightie, her hair free and looking slightly frazzled, and tiredness clear all over her face, met her eyes. It looked like she'd only woken up a couple of minutes ago, if that.
"Hi, Cinder." Tamamo replied, turning around and returning to her work. "Sleep alright?"
"Yeah..." Cinder answered, stretching her body as she did so before moving across the kitchen, closer to where Tamamo was stood. "Something smells good."
"Thanks! I- uh…" Tamamo stammered, her eyes shifting around a little bit. "I thought I'd make something for Raylix." She spoke, her voice trailing off a little as she looked back at the box, letting out a slow breath. She looked back at Cinder, who was running a hand through her bedhead. Looking back at Tamamo, she shrugged.
"Okay, yeah, cool." She replied. "Go for it… actually, where is he? I haven't seen him."
"Training room, probably." Irene's voice sounded into the room before the woman herself, dressed in a white t-shirt and shorts with her hair down rather than in its usual braids, pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Didn't you see how he was eyeing it up last night? Hey, Tamamo."
"Hi." Tamamo replied, turning back towards the bento box and humming, as if in deep thought. Yawning, Irene walked past Tamamo, casting a cursory glance over at the box of food she was putting together, but not making any comment before circling back around closer to the door, as it was pushed open again. This time it was Esdeath who entered, her blue hair slightly frazzled from having woken up late, but it looked nowhere near as bad as Cinder's. It looked like she'd actually attempted to run a brush through it, unlike the younger Magician.
The blunette hummed to the three at large by way of greeting, immediately making for the fridge and opening it, before leaning over to have a look inside. As Tamamo followed Esdeath's movement with her eyes, she noticed Cinder's eyes zeroing in on Esdeath's ass as she bent over. But no comment was made as she moved over to the fridge herself after Esdeath stepped away, holding a couple of cans of some drink she couldn't quite see the name or logo of, and looked inside herself.
"So, we've had a night here to sleep on what Raylix told us from Lilith." Irene remarked, leaning up against a nearby counter as Esdeath tossed one of the cans she'd procured from the fridge to Cinder, while opening the one she kept for herself and taking a gulp. "About the Khaos Brigade."
"The… what?" Cinder replied, blinking a couple of times and rubbing at her eyes with her arm before opening the can that she'd received from Esdeath. "Ohh, that, yeah. Sorry, still waking up."
Esdeath rolled her eyes as she took another sip from her own can, but didn't comment any further.
"I was wondering what thoughts any of you had." Irene continued, shifting herself on the counter slightly. "On what Raylix told us that Lilith told him. I've got my own thoughts, but I just wanted to hear all of yours."
Silence fell over the four women for the next couple of seconds, with only Esdeath and Cinder sipping and gulping their respective drinks, and the hum of the cooker that Tamamo had been occupied with prior to the other women entering, meeting the ears of all in the room. As well as the shutting of the fridge, as Tamamo pulled out what looked like a box of pickled carrots, and a small collection of what looked like berries, and made her way back over to the cooker and box.
"I mean, if we're airing our perspectives on this," Cinder spoke up, setting her can down on the counter near where Irene had perched herself. "I'd rather be part of a larger group and, well, have somewhere at least semi-permanent we're able to stay, rather than having to jump around the world every week or so. Though as for what Lilith apparently said about the Brigade… I might have to get back to you on that."
"Hmm. That's fair, that's fair." Irene nodded, looking over at Esdeath, who was leaning against the fridge and taking another gulp out of her can of drink.
"I think Cinder said a good chunk of what I was going to say." She remarked, letting out a slow breath. "I'd rather have a specific place to call home than not. I mean, where I met you and Raylix, Cinder, I'd been living up there for several decades. Hell, maybe a century or two, it's hard to really remember how long. But something that you didn't bring up was about destabilizing the order of the world…" she allowed herself a small smile as she took another sip, a familiar glint entering her eye for a fraction of a second that both Cinder and Irene picked up on immediately. "No matter the cause, the idea of getting into a good fight with someone strong enough sounds fun to me."
Irene shook her head, letting out a small snort from her nose as she stretched herself again.
"Should've figured you'd say something like that, Esdeath." She remarked. "Though I guess I can't entirely disagree. I definitely appreciate having fought and struggled for something over just having it handed over with no resistance, I think we're all of one mind on that front."
Though she wasn't facing the other three women at the moment, Tamamo nodded as she arranged the carrots and berries in the box as best she could in what she thought was an aesthetically appealing way. Cinder and Esdeath both nodded as well, with murmurs of agreement from the pair of them.
"Although…" the scarlet-haired Platinum continued, after taking a breath. "Something isn't quite adding up for me. Did you remember actually, you know, any specifics of what Raylix told us about the Khaos Brigade? Because I… don't."
Silence fell across the room again, as Cinder and Esdeath shared looks with each other and Irene. Esdeath idly scratched her lower back as a thoughtful look came across her face for a couple of seconds, with a similar look coming across Cinder's face at around the same time.
"No, uh… me neither." Cinder remarked, gulping down the last of the can's contents and tossing it into a bin at the corner of the room. "I don't remember anything either."
Esdeath shook her head, in agreement with Cinder.
"Exactly." Irene replied, taking a breath. "I guess Lilith just didn't tell him the specifics of what the Khaos Brigade's all about… or she did, and Raylix is keeping it from us."
"I doubt Raylix would do that." Esdeath replied, almost immediately after those words left Irene's mouth. "Would he have any reason to do something like that, after all this time? Because I can't think of even a potential one."
"Me, neither." Irene shook her head. "Apart from one, though it's a bit of a long shot. You saw how Raylix was acting around Lilith throughout… well, all of last night, right?"
"Who didn't?" Cinder replied. "He could barely stop looking at her, or even string a few words together." She let out a short breath, looking down at her own body as she spoke.
"Raylix obviously has some kind of feelings for Lilith." Irene remarked. "Anyone who couldn't at least suspect that would have to be a fool, at best. Now I'm not saying for certain that it's what she did, or is doing, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lilith wasn't at least half-banking on whatever feelings Raylix might or might not have for her to lead him in a direction that she wants him to go."
Esdeath let out a hum, as she finished the last of her own drink, and crushed the can in one hand before tossing it into the same bin as Cinder.
"So what do you propose we do, Irene?" she asked. "Try and take Raylix and run? Or just make a break for it and save ourselves?"
Irene sighed, sliding off the counter and landing on her feet, stretching again.
"Honestly? I'm not sure yet." She replied. "But if action of any kind needs taking, I'd rather it didn't have to come to us having to flee from one of the most powerful women in the world, or having to abandon Raylix."
Tamamo let out a hum as she shut the box she was working on, opened a nearby drawer with one of her tails and reached over to take out a fork from one of the compartments inside.
"Yeah." She replied, using that same tail to shut the drawer and carefully picking up the food-box she'd put together. "It's mostly thanks to Raylix that I'm even alive right now, rather than trapped as a rock on the other side of the world right now. No matter what, that won't change."
Without another word, she left the kitchen and made a beeline for the stairs, passing Hikari through the main foyer as she did so. The silverette- with a towel wrapped around her hair and clad in just a dark-grey dressing gown, didn't speak to or even acknowledge the kitsune as she passed, which Tamamo didn't really mind. Ascending the stairs and making her way onto the first floor landing, she made her way down the hall towards the door to the training arena, where she couldn't help but have a feeling that was where Raylix was. Either that, or in his room, since she didn't see him in the living room, and she couldn't sense him anywhere outside.
Tamamo's suspicions were confirmed as she approached the double-doors that led to the training hall that Kurumi had briefly shown them last night. They were slightly open, allowing the sounds of familiar grunts and also-familiar swings of a sword to meet her ears. Once she got close enough to the doors in question, she took a peak through the open crack, just to make sure she wouldn't end up with a face full of sword if she were to step through, and then stepped inside. Her eyes immediately flicked over to Raylix, in the same clothes he was wearing yesterday, dashing around the room at speeds almost too fast for Tamamo to even perceive, seemingly locked in tense combat with an imaginary opponent.
A couple of two-handed swings, quickly followed up by raising his sword to deflect a hypothetical strike, jumping back while taking his right hand off the sword's handle to fire a few bolts of demonic energy into the space he'd created with his jump, land and take a looser, one-handed but still defensive stance. Half a step back before leaning back forward and swinging directly in front of him, followed up by a short dash forward and another slash. As Raylix advanced forward, seemingly on the front foot against his imaginary opponent, what looked like a dagger made out of demonic energy forming in his right hand. As he threw out slash after slash with Gaeneron in his left hand, he occasionally thrust out a stab with the dagger, and even more occasionally shifted himself to the left and right, dodging the imaginary swings back at him from his hypothetical opponent.
Tamamo couldn't help but appreciate the conviction Raylix was putting into what- to anyone that didn't know him- would probably just look like someone flying around and swinging a sword and dagger at nothing, for no discernible reason. To be fair, she didn't know her saviour all that well either... but she knew him well enough, she thought.
It was around that point that Raylix looked up from his dashing around the room, and noticed Tamamo standing close to the doorway. He didn't stop his movements around the hall immediately, electing to just slow himself down in what looked like a controlled manner, over the process of the next moment or so, until he came to a stop. Taking a breath and dispelling the energy-constructed dagger from his hand, he looked over at the kitsune.
"Tamamo." He remarked by way of greeting, his tone neutral. "Hey."
"Hi." Tamamo replied, taking a breath and shifting herself on her feet as she met his eyes. "You been at that the whole morning?"
"Pretty much." Raylix replied, stretching both arms. Though the business end of his main weapon didn't go anywhere near Tamamo, she still took half a step back as Gaeneron- which Raylix was still holding rather loosely in his left hand- shot out. "Nice place to train, honestly. Spacious, not far from somewhere to sleep or eat-"
Right on cue, a low rumbling sound met both Raylix's and Tamamo's ears, a sound that both parties immediately recognised and judged to have come from Raylix himself. Or more specifically, his stomach, which the chestnut-haired Devil let out a short chuckle at.
"Heh. Might as well get something."
Dispelling Gaeneron out of his hand, Raylix made to move past Tamamo and leave the arena. But Tamamo was slightly quicker, stepping into his path and holding out the box and fork.
"You don't have to do that!" she cried, loud enough to shock Raylix into stopping in his tracks. "Here, I made this… for you."
Raylix looked down, seemingly now just noticing the box and fork that Tamamo was holding out in her hands for him. He blinked a couple of times, surprise flashing in his eyes for a fraction of a second, before looking back up at Tamamo.
"Oh… thanks." He replied, reaching out and slowly taking the box and fork from the kitsune, who smiled as he did so. Opening the box with one hand and sitting down on the ground, Raylix took hold of the fork and used it to scoop up some of the rice in one of the compartments, before stabbing one of the slices of what looked like fried salmon. Transferring it to his mouth, he couldn't help but notice the look on Tamamo's face as he took the first couple of chews: mixed anticipation of what he'd think of what she'd made for him, and anxiety at… also that.
It was good. Very good. Loads of flavour in the salmon, and the rice was at the perfect temperature to compliment it. Ever since he'd opened the box, he'd been assaulted with several different scents emanating from its contents. All of which different, all of which pleasant, and all of which seemed to come together and make something even better. Raylix instead chose to stab a couple of the pickled carrots with his fork for his next bite, followed up by another of the slices of salmon. Using the rest of the fork to scoop up some more of that rice, he let out an appreciative hum once his second mouthful went between his lips and met his tongue. Occupied as he was with working through said second mouthful, he noticed Tamamo visibly relaxing just out of the corner of his eye, and heard her sigh of relief.
Stretching, Raylix sat down on the floor, now invested enough in what Tamamo had made for him that he barely noticed her imitating, and dropping down beside him. Over the next couple of minutes, the training hall was relatively quiet, with the only noises that bounced around the room being the quiet sounds of Raylix chewing, the quieter scrapes of the fork against the box's smaller compartments, and Raylix and Tamamo's breaths. It didn't take the chestnut-haired Devil to finish the boxed-up meal- salmon, rice, pickled carrots, berries and all- and hand the now-empty box and fork back to Tamamo, the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of his face.
"That was… nice." He surmised, as the kitsune took the box and fork back and he swallowed the last remnants of his last mouthful. "I liked that a lot. Thank you, Tamamo."
Turning himself away from Tamamo, Raylix got to his feet, stretching his arms out for a couple of seconds as he did so. His left hand was open as he lowered it, and he probably would have summoned Gaeneron back into it had he not felt himself bowled over by Tamamo diving on him, her arms suddenly tightly wrapped around him.
"You liked it…!" Tamamo seemed to half-whisper half-squeal in delight as both she and Raylix landed on the ground, her arms still wrapped around him. "I'm so glad you liked it!"
Pure happiness clear all over her face, Tamamo leaned in closer to Raylix, her eyes fluttering for a fraction of a second before they fully closed. More by reflex than anything else, the Devil tried to pull back from the kitsune leaning in, but with him lying on the floor like he was, he wasn't able to shift his head away from Tamamo's approaching face more than a few inches, slamming the back of his head into the floor. Though those few inches were all that was needed to stop his and Tamamo's lips from touching, though it didn't stop her nose from lightly brushing up against his.
Opening her eyes and noticing Raylix on the ground like he was, Tamamo let out a giggle and straightened herself up again, straddling the Devil beneath her and blushing slightly at the feeling of his pants brushing up against the underwear beneath her skirt. It was just those two pieces of material (or rather three, probably. She somehow doubted Raylix was the type to go commando, especially while training) separating them from each other… they'd be so easy to remove, wouldn't they? Especially when she could feel a certain something beneath Raylix's pants stirring, growing. Hardening, maybe.
Tamamo slowed her breaths in an attempt to calm herself as she reached up towards her cardigan's zip, and pulled it down to reveal the pink bra she was wearing, as well as more of her pale skin. She shuffled herself into a more comfortable position while atop Raylix, which had the effect of indirectly rubbing her most sensitive region up against that particular hardening region below Raylix's pants. A light gasp escaped Tamamo's mouth, and a similarly light blush appeared across her face as she continued to unzip her cardigan until it was completely undone.
"T-Tamamo?" Raylix spoke up, his breaths steadily becoming quicker and quicker in stark contrast to Tamamo's slowing down. "What the hell are you… doing?"
"Isn't it obvious, Raylix?" Tamamo asked, shuffling the top of the cardigan off her shoulders, and letting it slide down her arms. "I'm alright taking the lead, if that's what you want. Toba liked it when I did~"
"I… can't…" Raylix muttered, pushing his hands against the ground and trying to move himself out from under Tamamo as the cardigan fully fell off her arms, leaving the kitsune essentially in just a bra and skirt as she straddled him.
"Hm, what?" Tamamo replied. Blinking a couple of times, concern flashed across her face as she looked down at Raylix from where she was, resting her hands on the ground to try and keep herself atop him. "You can't what? Why?"
"I just… can't!" Raylix repeated, a bit louder this time as his efforts to extricate himself from beneath Tamamo intensified. "Get… off me!"
Tamamo found herself almost falling over as her own attempts to shift herself off of Raylix clashed with Raylix's further intensified efforts to separate himself from her. She was able to keep herself balanced as she got to her feet, however, bending down to pick up the cardigan that had slipped off her arms entirely and slipping it back on, before zipping it back up. By the time she turned around, Raylix was back on his feet, turned away from Tamamo and hunched over slightly, his breaths still coming out very quickly.
The kitsune opened her mouth to speak, but before words could even come out, she thought better of it. Bending down to pick up the box and fork that had fallen to the ground when she'd originally dived on Raylix, her expression became somewhat of a sad frown as she straightened up again and looked back at Raylix (who still wasn't looking back at her), before silently retreating from the room.
As her footsteps faded from earshot, Raylix tried his best to slow his breathing and calm himself down, reaching for the shirt he was wearing and holding it up to his face, using it to target the wetness that was threatening to form at the corners of his eyes, and stop it before it came out.
That was close, he thought, as he lowered his shirt. He couldn't let himself get any closer to anyone than he already was right now. That could- it probably WOULD- lead to disaster. And he couldn't let that happen again, never.
He wouldn't let it.
----- ----- -----
"How the hell did you get your hands on this stuff, Lilith? And so much of it that you're just able to whip some out like it's nothing whenever we're able to meet?"
Lilith's smile- for a fraction of a second- fell slightly as she looked across a couch in the sitting-room within her private chambers atop Gid Castle, at one of the only people she could call anything close to a friend. The Norse Goddess Freyja, associated by the common man with many things: love, fertility, magic, war and probably a few more concepts on top of that: a gorgeous woman who, physicals-wise, looked to be around the same age as herself, and with just as refined an air about her as well. With stark-white hair that largely hung free apart from a couple of braids that went down to her chest on either side of her neck, greyish-blue eyes and an impressive figure, as one would expect of such a divine figure.
While on business back home in Asgard one might see her clad in some ceremonial garb befitting of her position, or potentially just nothing at all, on this particular visit to the world's most desired widow she'd elected to arrive in a simple black sundress that did just enough to cover up her figure, but also remained just tight enough to leave less to the imagination than such a garment would really allow.
"I didn't." Lilith replied, simply, reaching over slightly to pick up her wine-glass, one that was rather fuller than the one that Freyja had just set down. Snapping her fingers and conjuring up a napkin that she used to wipe her mouth with, Freyja's eyes flicked over to Lilith, understanding passing through them after a second.
"Oh, right." She remarked, taking a breath. "Sorry. Forgot."
"Don't worry about it." Lilith replied, taking a more controlled sip of her wine as she adjusted her position on the couch she was sitting on. "I think, after everything, if anyone deserves to enjoy what he left behind, I do."
"Damn right you do, girl!" Freyja nodded, picking up her glass and enthusiastically tapping it against Lilith's, causing both to promptly shatter. "Oh, shit! Sorry!"
"No need to worry, no need." Lilith replied, immediately letting go of her glass and holding onto it with her power, and doing the same with Freyja's once she let go. As Freyja stood up, using her freshly-conjured napkin to wipe up some of the wine that had spilled onto herself, the first Succubus snapped her fingers. "I'll get this cleaned up. In the meantime, why don't we take this outside? It's an alright day."
"Yeah, that'd probably be a… good idea." Freyja replied, stepping away from the couch she'd previously been sitting on as a light knock came on the door to the living room.
"Wait outside!" Lilith replied, sharply, to the knock as she stood up from the couch, taking Freyja's napkin and using it to wipe away the wine that had spilled from her broken glass and landed on her. Luckily, none of it had gotten on the dress she was wearing. Moving around her couch, she joined Freyja as she went to open the door. Adam, clad in a simple and rather tattered-looking t-shirt and pants, stood on the other side of it, immediately dropping onto his hands and knees at the sight of Lilith.
At the sight of this, Freyja turned to Lilith, an eyebrow raised, but said nothing.
"Oh, get up." Lilith ordered to the First Human, as she stood in front of him and pointed with one of her tails towards the pair of couches and table between them. "There's been an accident in there, clean up. And do it well, or you know what'll happen."
"Of course, ma'am." Adam replied, his head lowered as he shuffled past Lilith into the living room. Lilith strode past Freyja and out of the room, with the goddess in question following behind her and shutting the door, after which she fixed Lilith with a look that plainly said 'Do I want to know?'.
Lilith just shook her head as the two friends left her chambers, made their way down through the castle, and made their way down into the gardens.
To call the gardens of Castle Gid extravegant would have been an understatement of the highest order. Plants and flowers of all shades, shapes and sizes spread out on either side of the various paths around and through the area. The Succubus and the Goddess passed some servants while on their walk, as they tended to some of the more high-maintenence plants and flowers, among which were ones that straight-up didn't exist anymore, anywhere in the entire supernatural world.
"So how've things been with you?" Lilith asked, returning the salute one of the servants they passed gave her with a nod. "Same old?"
"Same old." Freyja replied, stretching momentarily as the pair took a left. "Appear as the perfect mother to Fólkvangr every once in a while, convince Father that my 'marriage'" she raised her hands to make quotation marks "to Odin is still worth it for the sake of keeping the Aesir-Vanir War from kicking off again, and search for Odur whenever I can."
She let out a sigh as the walk continued, with Lilith raising a hand and gently patting her back.
"It just doesn't seem worth it at times." Freyja continued. "Not when I haven't found him for centuries. Not when Odin will remind me at every opportunity that he could do everything Odur could do, but way better..."
"Of course he would." Lilith remarked. "Though with the life the Allfather's lived, I guess he's earned the right to call himself better than anyone he even hears about."
"Like that makes it any less annoying." Freyja retorted. "I mean, just because he knows the most out of any figure alive today, holds the reins of of one of the few beings that could single-handedly end the world-"
"He also slept with me once."
"Has all the claim you could ever could need to hold Asgard's throne unopposed, and managed to- for all intents and purposes- WIN an intra-Pantheon war, that doesn't mean he should act all high-and-mighty around- wait, what?" What Lilith said fully settled into Freyja's head, with enough force to snap her from her rant and make her look over at Lilith, who had stopped and bent down to observe a random flower that had caught her interest for whatever reason. "He. Slept with you?"
"Yeah." Lilith replied, standing fully upright once again and brushing her dress a couple of times before looking over at Freyja, with a shrug. "Was having one of those days, got a bit tipsy, Odin was right there. Must've been a couple of centuries ago, now, maybe three. From what I can remember of that night, he wasn't anything special. Honestly pretty disappointing by the standards of a God, you could probably get an average Devil or Incubus to do a better job where it counts."
It might have been Lilith's damning comments about the infallible All-Father of Asgard, or the matter-of-fact manner in which she made those comments, but something about it was enough for Freyja to burst into near-hysterical laughter. She laughed so hard she nearly fell over, and had to wipe her eyes on the dress she was wearing to stop herself from crying.
"That... explains... so much!" she forced out, between laughs. "W-wow... WOW. If that's actually the reason behind why he's become such a perv nowadays... he used to be relatively chilled-out when it came to that kind of thing, but... he's still riding the high you gave him when you did him!"
"And that," Lilith remarked, her tone neutral as she walked past Freyja, who was still trying to compose herself "is kind of sad."
It took a few seconds for Freyja to fully compose herself, take a couple of breaths before they returned to normal, and move to catch up with the first Succubus.
"Yeah, I… guess it is." She remarked. "Please tell me you don't mind me telling him that when I have the chance to. It's the only thing I can think of"
Lilith shrugged, giving a non-committal hum.
"Go right ahead." She replied, as she and Freyja took a right when the path they were walking down came to another fork. "Doesn't matter much to me."
Freyja smiled, as she caught up with Lilith and fell into step with her. Silence stretched out between Succubus and Goddess for the next few minutes as they made their way through the garden, just enjoying the Hell air and allowing the sound of cascading water to meet their ears. Though it had been relatively quiet background noise throughout their walk, it steadily became louder and louder as Lilith and Freyja walked along the path, and the source of the noise in question met their eyes. The centrepiece of the garden of Castle Gid, painstakingly forged from pristine white marble that seemed to glow under the otherworldly rays of Hell's sun, the fountain was a relatively new addition. Its base was a circular pool that could have passed as somewhere that one could go for a swim, such was its volume, with a carving in demonic lettering on the outside that could be read if one were to walk all the way around it.
Water continually cascaded from the upper tiers of the fountain, each of which became smaller and smaller the further up it went, with the water being as clear as finely-polished glass. The various sounds created as the falling water landed in each of the tiers seemed to blend together to create an uninterrupted symphony of splashing and trickling that permeated the air.
At the fountain's pinnacle, atop the highest tier, a statue of a person stood at the highest point of anything within Castle Gid's borders aside from the castle itself. Aside from the fact that it seemed to be carved from a silver-like material, and that the person that was being carved was long-dead, it was like looking at the original Lucifer, creator of the Devil race and Lilith's former husband, in the flesh. Perfectly scaled to his real-life size, it was carved in exquisite detail, from the pieces of the armour he wore both in battle and on official business as a Demonic Emperor, to the fine age-lines of his face and the careful rendering of its every feature. Lucifer's sculpture gazed into the distance, looking over the Lilim territory's capital, which used to be the capital of all of Hell. Though it was only a statue of a man that had been dead for centuries, it still commanded the same kind of respect that the man himself used to command everywhere he went.
Freyja didn't notice at first, as she walked past the statue and around the fountain, but when she noticed that Lilith wasn't beside her, she looked back and noticed her friend looking up at the statue of her second husband, with an uncharacteristically intense look on her face.
"Lil?" she asked, doubling back and walking over to the dark Succubus. "You alright?"
"I'm…" Lilith began, before trailing off, her hands having subconsciously balled into fists. She blinked a couple of times and tore her eyes away from Lucifer, shaking her head and taking a breath. "I'm fine, Freyja. Maybe we should head back inside."
"Nah, I think I'm gonna call it a day." Freyja replied, stretching. "Father probably wants my help with something or other, I should head back to Vanaheim before he calls me in a panic."
"That's fair." Lilith nodded. "Now that I think about it, I remember a couple of things that need taking care of myself."
"I won't keep you from them, then." Freyja replied. "Thanks for having me around this afternoon, Lil, and… sorry again about the glasses."
"Don't worry about it, Freyja." Lilith shook her head. "And it's no problem. You know you're welcome around here anytime."
Freyja nodded, and with another wave to Lilith, opened a portal with one hand that gave view to a lush jungle on the other side, and stepped through it before the portal closed behind her, leaving Lilith alone in the gardens with only the statue of Lucifer for company.
She wasn't lying, she definitely had some things that needed taking care of, as she'd put it several seconds earlier. But she somehow doubted that Freyja could have guessed, even in a thousand years, what those things happened to be. After a quick glance around to make sure that no-one was around to see what she was about to do, she waved a hand to open a transportation-circle, and stepped into it before vanishing from the garden, and Hell as a whole, in a flash of light.
An instant later, in another flash of light in an entirely different world, Lilith appeared out of another transportation-circle… and immediately got to work on the best warming spell she knew as the cold snap of minus twenty-one degrees Celsius hit her at full-force. Devils, Lilim and most other supernatural creatures didn't exactly feel heat or cold as intensely as humans did, but even they had their limits.
Once the spell was complete, and Lilith felt her body warming up to an acceptable temperature, her eyes adjusted to the barren landscape, made up of ice, snow and rock that seemed to stretch out forever. Somewhere that only the bravest and best of humanity had even a snowball's chance in Hell of ascending to… the perfect spot for two beings that could make their way here with barely a thought to meet up for a chat.
"You always pick the most scenic of meeting spots, don't you?" she remarked, to nowhere in particular. "Too bad we couldn't make it on a nice day." She could barely hear her own voice above the cacophony of wind, but she had a feeling that the one who'd asked to meet her here, on this day, would have heard her.
Her suspicions were confirmed a few seconds later, when a flat, emotionless voice, that conveyed neither manliness or femineity, met her ears.
"Would you prefer it if I made the day nicer?"
Taking great care not to slip in her heeled shoes on the icy summit, Lilith turned around to the source of the voice, who absolutely had NOT been there when she'd arrived. What looked like a cute young girl, with long black hair about the same length as hers that went down to her hips, and matching black eyes, looked up at her. They barely came up to Lilith's chest in height, they were that small. As well as that, upon a couple of seconds taken to survey the being's appearance, Lilith noticed reptilian-like slitted pupils in their eyes, as well as pointed ears.
The being wore what looked like a black Gothic Lolita outfit, and looked up at Lilith with a blank look on their face.
"You can if you want, Ophis." Lilith remarked, shrugging. "Doesn't really matter to me. If this goes well, we won't have to be here long, anyway."
"Hm." The being called Ophis replied, raising a hand.
Over the course of the next moment, the clouds above the pair of them that blocked natural light from sight, the wind that howled all around them, and the snow that drove down onto their bodies like miniature bullets, slowly vanished to give way to a crystal-clear, perfect day atop the tallest peak in the world. A breath-taking panorama of the Himalayan peaks and the vast Tibetan Plateau stretched out to the north, and the sight of the unmistakeably-real curvature of the Earth… even with the vast sights and sounds of all corners of the supernatural world, with the things it had to offer being beyond imagination for some… there was something beautiful about the peak of Mount Everest.
"Better?" Ophis asked, lowering their hand and looking over at Lilith, who had been occupied with the view in question. Looking back at Ophis and letting out a breath, she focused her full attention on them.
"Yeah, I'd say so." She replied. "So, shall we get started?"
"Why did you reach out to me?" Ophis asked, her gaze unblinking as she looked at Lilith. "Do you have a method to assist me in my problem?"
"Driving the big red dreamer out of the Gap?" Lilith returned Ophis' question with a question, an eyebrow raised. Silence reigned between First Succubus and Ouroboros Dragon for another couple of seconds, with Ophis continuing to stare blankly up at Lilith before she took a breath. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes. And I'd say I have a theory about a way to get them out. But it's nothing more than that so far, a theory."
"I have no way myself." Ophis replied, shifting their gaze away from Lilith and looking out across the gorgeous landscape that she'd revealed to the pair of them with their power. "No methods of removing that loud… thing from my home. Not by myself. I accepted your offer to meet and talk because…"
"Because?" Lilith repeated, turning away from Ophis herself and looking out across the mountain-range. Silence, again, stretched out between the two beings, this time for an entire half-minute before Ophis spoke again.
"I may require help." They remarked. "I may not be enough by myself. If you have a theory… a potential method…"
"It's worth trying." Lilith replied. "Although, for my theory to work to its full potential, it might require a little co-operation on your end. For me to help you, you've got to help me, you know?"
Yet again, more silence. This time for a whole minute, maybe even longer. Lilith even tore her eyes away from the mountains below and looked over at Ophis, who hadn't moved ever since her initial turn.
Very few things, since the end of the Great War, had had the capacity to unnerve Lilith. If she were to count all the times since the news of Lucifer's death that she'd been anything but completely assured of her control over a situation she was in, she'd be able to do count them on her fingers with only one hand… and have fingers to spare, too. But not knowing what the being, this… thing, beside her was thinking, having absolutely no idea at all… that was one for the list, to be sure.
The minute's silence seemed to stretch out for an hour, an agonizing hour (or more) of nothing, before Ophis looked up at Lilith, a hint of interest visible within their eyes.
"What kind of co-operation?"
After letting out a silent sigh of relief, Lilith smiled.