Anya hid in the shadows waiting in anticipation, Lirian always caused a spectacle where ever he went and she didn't doubt that the same would be true here, but then she heard his beat changing pace and saw a layer of sweat formed around him.
It was like she was looking at a regular child and soon he stopped approaching the school but his breathing became labored and he began to look between the school and limo, suddenly he made a mad dash like a dying dog towards the limo and shouted to go home.
She looked around for his source of fear but there was nothing anywhere, and she doubted that he didn't want to go to school, she knew him well enough to know that if he didn't want to do something he would be very vocal about it.
They were just talking moments ago and he was perfectly fine but suddenly he was acting like a child, like a real child too afraid to face his first day of school.
She hopped into the limo, "Lirian wha..." she froze in surprise as Lirain shoved her off.
"GO AWAY!, you aren't real, I learned it early this time, the last time it was a billion years that you trapped but not this time..." she watched in horror as he shouted and smacked himself like a mad man.
She pulled up the sound partition and grabbed onto Lirian, his ramblings filled her with disbelief.
"Lirian, calm down I don't understand what you're trying to say..." she tried to reason with him but it fell on deaf ears.
"Oh, you don't understand!" he barked, "Well, let me tell you what I understand, you are just an illusion a figment of my imagination, you know how I know..."
"BECAUSE THE WORLD HATES ME, EVERYONE HATES ME, I JUST TRY TO HELP THEM TO BE ACCEPTED BUT THEY STILL ALWAYS WANT ME DEAD,"
"I NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG, BUT THEY WANT ME DEAD ALL THE SAME," he roared at the top of his lungs.
"Lirian please I'm right here, calm down," Anya pleaded while holding onto him tightly, she thought he was possessed by some soul life form but her inspection showed that he was perfectly fine.
"THAT'S HOW I KNOW THAT YOU CAN'T BE REAL, NO ONE IS EVER HERE FOR ME, NO ONE EVER WANTS ME, NO ONE COULD EVER BARE TO BE IN MY PRESENCE, DON'T YOU REMEMBER MY 3RD , NO MY 2ND OR WAS IT MY 3RD LIFE," he smacked himself repeatedly as he tried to make sense of which life it was and he hit himself so hard that she heard a small crunch on his skull and a trickle of blood flowed from his temple, "MY PARENTS PUT ME IN CAGE AND MADE ME FIGHT WILD CREATURES FOR ENTERTAINMENT, I STILL REMEMBER AS THE BLOODHOUND SUNK IT'S TEETH INTO MY THROAT TO QUENCH ITS THIRST AND MY HOT BOILING BLOOD SPILLED OVER MY SHOULDER AND GUSHED ONTO THE GROUND, AND THE CROWED THEY LOVED IT THEY WATCHED ME CLAWING FOR BREATH AND THEY CHEERED. YOU ARE JUST AN DELUSION SO LET ME GO." he struggled in vain against Anya's hold.
As she tried to make sense of Lirians ramblings, a storm of images cascaded in her mind, and she saw a child, no more than nine years old, and extremely thin and frail like he had never eaten a decent meal in his life.
The gate to one side of the ring-opened and the child walked in with nothing but a steak knife in hand, and as he walked in a death chant started in the crowd, "Die you rotten piece of filth."
"Death to the boy."
On the side, she heard someone say, "I can't believe that filth is still alive after all these years, if it were up to me, I would have gutted him a long time ago."
"Don't worry I heard they prepared two dire wolves and a bloodhound today,"
"So, he beat five in a row last time."
"Yeah, well they'll be setting all three on him at once this time."
Anya moved with the crowd and soon she started to chant as well, "Death to the boy.", she didn't understand why but it felt right like that boy deserved the most miserable death possible, and soon the battle started.
With nothing but a steak knife in hand, the boy faced the three creatures, he moved around on the field and moved between the creatures dodging their joint attacks and slamming the steak knife where ever he could, it could barely cut through the creature's skin and with each strike it bent out of shape.
Strangely enough, when the boy dodged the crowd didn't cheer but every time, he struck they held their breath and prayed for the savage creature's lives, Anya too felt the same, "I wonder what kind of woman could give birth to such filth!" she shouted and oddly enough the people in the illusion answered.
Anya looked up to a see middle-aged woman with a large banner, on it was an accurate image of the boy's face with a pike rammed through it, she led the chants of wishing the boy death.
When she looked back at the arena, she saw one of the wolves receive a server wound to the throat and its blood spilled like rain and sizzled on the ground, the boy flipped backward and rammed the blade into the throat of the other wolf, but this time the steak knife snapped.
Blood poured from the wolf's throat but it pushed forward and gripped the boys' arm with its teeth and started to rip into his flesh, as the boy struggled the crowd went wild, Anya cheered at the top of her lungs as the bloodhound crept up to the now desperate boy its huge maw opened wide and it chomped on his knee.
The sound of bones breaking echoed and the leg was ripped from underneath the boy, he stumbled without his leg and fell over the wolf's grip on him slackened as it fell down dead-on top of him.
The boy cried out in pain, "Help, someone help, anyone help," but his cries of despair were laughed at Anya ridiculed him and laughed at his pathetic display.
The hound pushed the wolf's body off him and as the boy tried to push the hound back with the tiny handle of the knife, it sunk its teeth into his throat, he trashed on the ground meeting the eyes of all present and his sorrow only grew, they cheered loudly and happily at the hound's success, at the very last second before the light in his eyes faded, Anya saw his eyes, it wasn't silver but, at that moment, she was certain she knew those eyes, the vision disappeared and she was left shivering.
She didn't understand what was happening, but she could hardly believe the words she had said in that vision, and at the end, she knew the boy he might have looked entirely different but he was Lirian without a doubt, the same Lirian she had helped to raise and that she watched over every day for the past decade.
She pressed down on a nerve in his neck and put him to sleep.
She picked up her communicator and called the empress, "Your majesty, something happened with Lirian, today, I'm heading back with him. I think you need to hear the things he said."
Until now all the strange things he said and done were just strange so she would look past it, but today his words frightened her and that vision made her uncomfortable, it was like it was her but at the same time it wasn't her, she felt her every instinct screaming at her to see the boy dead, and she still felt that way, but knowing that the boy was Lirian made her angry at herself.
She soon placed him on his bed at home and left the room with the worried empress, "Tell me what happened Anya?"
"Your majesty, it would be best if I showed you.", she bowed down and opened her mind up allowing her memories to flow around the room, Taliyah saw the entire trip as they went to the school and then the entire panic attack Lirian had and finally she saw the vision that Anya had, from the moment she saw the boy in the arena she couldn't take her eyes off him, she could feel it deep into her bones, that boy was Lirian.
Tears fell from her face and she sunk into her seat, she didn't know what to make of the strange words he said, he spoke about multiple lives and a billion yearlong delusion, even immortals didn't live that long, and lastly, that vision it was another child but no matter the appearance she was certain that it was him.
Seeing such a thing happen to her child made her remember things she didn't want to remember, it was her worst nightmare taking form, and what scared her more than anything was the possibility that Lirian had been lying and using her all along, playing on her sympathies.
It was the hardest thing for her to think of and it was worse than losing all her children all over again if that was the truth then she didn't know what to do with herself, she doubted that she'd ever be able to trust someone ever again.