If I never see your face again, I won't mind

[menocrede.livejournal.com]

Who: Calum, Lilith, and Josiah
What: former lovers meet - not all is as it seems
When: backdated to March 14th
Where: somewhere in Radiant Garden

Lilith knew he was coming even before he had appeared, but she didn't attempt to hide anymore. It just wasn't worth her time or her energy - the man was annoyingly ruthless when he wanted to be. Besides, it wouldn't have been the first time that he had pursued something doggedly like this - it had been one of the qualities she had frankly admired when she first met him so long ago, that stubborn passion. She just wasn't entirely sure what she felt about it anymore.

She waited for a few moments until she could sense the strange presence of his soul a couple dozen yards behind her - strange because his soul was cold and wispy and mingled too closely with the same soul that she and Josiah shared. She was very quiet, not turning to face him - if he had bode ill intent, he would have killed her by now.

"Lilith."

She frowned, and turned to face him. It was unsettling, despite her knowledge of who she was speaking to, to still see him looking like her current master. It was even worse to see that flat, haughty look in his eyes - a look she had never seen on the boy. She kept her voice emotionless, even as a biting sense of fear clamped down on her, "what spell did you use to find me?"

Calum returned the look calmly before gazing past her shoulder and crossing his arms. "If I tell you, I suppose I'll be at the receiving end of your temper. That does not really... incite in me the desire to reveal that knowledge."

The demon scowled - her irritation easily outweighed her sickened fear of the situation. "Let me guess - the holier-than-thou attitude is simply for outward appearances only. How perfectly chivalrous of you." He frowned and took a step towards her, and she retreated the exact distance. "Stay where you are - we have nothing to talk about."

A look passed across his face - though it was within her abilities to read human emotion, many of the ones that did not fall especially in her range of talents were strange to her. She almost would have defined the look as hurt, but it had passed to quickly for her to be sure. Not that he would have felt hurt anyway - he wasn't any more human than she was now.

"We have plenty to discuss," he replied smoothly. He matched her gaze evenly. "If it means anything at all to you, I missed you."

"No." Lilith watched him carefully. "You didn't." Before he could argue, she waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "You ceased caring anything about me the moment you saw that you could become the ruler of the Court."

His eyes narrowed. "You encouraged it, if I recall."

Lilith looked away at the accusation, neither confirming it nor denying it. After a few seconds, she whispered, "Even if I did, you lost yourself in your own ambition. I had nothing to do with that." She turned back to fix him with a cool glare, her lips turning downward in a disapproving look. Whatever had cautioned her to stay away from the pirate was dissipating, and fear was quickly melting into anger. "You are a coward, accusing other people for your own mistakes. You became blinded, lost the trust of the other lords, and paid the price. Why your soul isn't burning in the far reaches of hell, I'll never understand."

If she had expected him to get angry, she was sadly mistaken. His only reaction to her words was a slightly raised eyebrow and a small, quiet laugh. "My goals were never greater than my own will. The other lords were jealous, petty with their own self-interests, and jaded by the power of the sea now that Calypso had been imprisoned." His eyes darkened, and the temperature in the surrounding area began to plummet at rapid speeds. "It was a victory too easily gained for us despite Davy Jones' loss in the matter. I wanted a hard-earned freedom back, and who is to say that becoming the king of the Brethren Court shouldn't have been my reward?"

"And what does that have to do with your goals now?"

Calum took another step towards her, keeping his eyes focused on hers. "I never would have dreamed that this sort of freedom was possible. A freedom of more than one world. But it's wrong, can't you see that?" He gestured vaguely towards nothing, and then shook his head, continuing to walk towards her. "It needs to be fixed."

Lilith fought a violent shiver that had nothing to do with the cold - but even still, she did not back away from him. She stood her ground, and kept her face very, very neutral. "Fixed. Hardly. Theirs is a strange peace, but peace nonetheless."

He stopped only a breath away from her, and sighed. "No. It is wrong. There are too many..." He shook his head. "I'll fix it - show them the correct way how to achieve a perfect freedom."

"You are a lying bastard," she murmured calmly.

He gave her a vague smile. "Very likely. I never denied being that." He reached out to brush a strand of long dark hair over her shoulder, but he paused slightly so that his fingers ghosted across her right temple. "Whatever it takes, right, Lilith? You are the one who told me that: whatever it takes to attain your goals..."

"Go through worlds of fire and snow to get them," she said quietly, closing her eyes at the touch. It had been the truth, hadn't it? She would have done anything to attain her freedom from the grimoire, and Calum would have done anything to get back that pirate life before Calypso had been imprisoned... and at every vile cost detrimental to his soul. But it had hardly been selfless. She remembered that much, things that he had done that had been unforgiveable, even from her viewpoint...

She mirrored his movement, but there was a cruel light in her eyes as she said, "How did it feel to burn to death, Calum?"

His hand snapped back as if she had literally burned him, a shadow passing over his face. She looked back at him, revealing nothing, but somehow, he must have finally realized it, and cold anger swept across his features so suddenly that her eyes widened slightly. "It was you? You were the one who told them about the Tempest?" She remained silent, and it only served to confirm his suspicions.

She knew what he was going to do, and had already begun to react - the sweet-smelling poison that she rarely used anymore. It had once been used in her dreams as an aphrodisiac, but she could use it to harm someone, to use as a real poison. She had never used to against Calum before - those nasty human emotions had been involved with him - so she didn't suspect that he would even-

-then there was sudden, blinding pain that she had never felt before, and couldn't understand why, and she was only faintly aware of a quickly spoken spell that seemed to falter, the words mixing in ways that they weren't supposed to. Then, the world swirled into darkness.

"Oh my god..." Josiah stumbled backwards slightly as Calum's presence vanished. But it was different from before - the spell that he usually cast to gain control had begun to falter, and then it broke - sharp pieces of mental glass shredding at the spell, and probably his thoughts if he could even get those together. Whatever had happened, it left him nauseous and an overwhelming sense of vertigo. He closed his eyes and took a breath... which he regretted almost immediately. A thick, cloying scent filled the air and nearly made him choke.

Grasping at his senses, he tried to determine where he was and why, and that's when he finally saw Lilith. The demon was lying on the ground, blackish blood starting to pool around her still form from the knife wound that was too close to her heart. He clenched his teeth, kneeling down next to her, and vaguely sensing the soul that they shared. "Lilith? Goddammit..." He had to get someone to help her or else... shit.

This was a nightmare.