Prophet of Sin: Detour (act 4)

“I’m telling you he’s not waking up.” Trox repeated. “You were asking about all the alternative routes, and you have your answer.”

“But why does he move at all then- Ah!” Lillian screamed as a giant half bear claw, half hand dropped down next to her.

“Too loud.” The large humanoid bear stated before slowly slugging his way off the road. It was quiet for several minutes as the bear slid about a centimeter before flopping down again. Actually taking up more space as his thick rat tail spread out with the rest of his body “Meh.” And with that, the quiet snoring returned.

“No further questions?” Trox stated as Lillian got back on the wagon.

“Nope.” Lillian replied. “Not a-... What that’s?” She asked before reaching around back of her for a box. Trox looked at it before setting off down a side road.  

“Hmm. must be for you.” Trox replied. “Otherwise she would have told me, I think.” Lillian opened the box, and took a silver coin with a symbol that looked like a broken spider web.

 “So the small little things in the web once weaved. Seems they’re finally breaking free.” Lillian read the words around the coin.

“Must like you. Never gave me a coin.” Trox stated.

“So is every demon lord insanely powerful? Lillian questioned distracted as she studied the coin.

“Comparatively…” Trox stated. “Why?” At this moment the landscape started to shift wildly, and grew ever more complex. “Hold on to something, Lillian.”

“Hmm?” Lillian questioned. “Why?” A large series of bumps answer her question. Various tentacles shot out, and she tried to reach out form something only to fall just as Trox was taking off.

“No!” Trox shouted, and tried to halt his horse. But the horse was already terrified. It had no problem taking off, but stopping was a different matter.  The conflict between the two put resulted in a severe hit to the wagon. The damage forced Trox to make a decision he wasn’t entirely proud of, and left Lillian behind for now…

Lillian had had no idea what caused such a massive quake, but her determination to hold on to Ameri’s coin had cost her. She got up. Turning around when she heard a lot of wood splitter, and saw Trox taking off in a panic.Most days she would have been more offended. But as she looked around she realized she had a more pressing issue, this looked nothing like the path they had traveled down. “Okay… Trox went that way. And the wagon is going to lose product, if it keeps running so I’ll just…” Cautiously Lillian stepped forward, and then jumped back as some sort of land octopus came out of the ground. As she jumped backwards in fear the octopus sunk back down, and the ground seemed calm again. For the first time in her life Lillian reached for the cross once around her neck after her butt plopped on to the ground.

“Right…” Lillian paused realizing it was no longer there. “You don’t have it, anymore.” She took a deep breath and got up. Then put the coin into one the few pockets a uniform like hers carried. “It never helped you out anyways.” In his typical fashion Desmo had climbed up on to her shoulder out of seemingly nowhere. “Find our way to Trox.” She stated firmly. Desmo was already sniffing the air, and pointed down a the southern path with his tail. So that’s where Lillian went, one way or another she was getting out of where this was.

Meanwhile Trox looked back along the road where he had left Lillian, and sighed. “She’s a demon now. She’ll be alright…” He slammed the wagon with his fist. “Of all the times, Langonoro.” Trox took a deep breath. “Alright how did this stupid thing go.” It had been quite a while since Trox did any kind of magic let alone a ritual it had been quite a while since he had needed to. Nonetheless he did with relative ease, and had his wagon repaired in almost no time at all. After wiping away the magic circle he had drawn in the ground he stood up on his wagon for a better view, and dug through his jacket. “I don’t get it.” Trox stated as he pulled a telescope, and started looking through it. “You’d think he could have just learned to be a heavy sleeper.” After looking around the area he threw the telescope over his shoulder, and took off.

Lillian, however, walked down the trail confused. Her current surroundings were nothing like they were supposed to be. “Where even are we?” she asked, turning to Desmo. Hopefully her demon companion might have some idea. Desmo looked around still with his tail. He was clearly doing his best to try an answer, but eventually just shrugged. Lillian sighed, and just kept following the direction his tail was pointing. Slowly the area around them got darker and darker, which was very odd since they had left early in the morning. Lillian walked more and more cautiously as the atmosphere changed around her. In an instance she sharply turned, and heard a low growl as Desmo nearly flew off. “Sorry.” Lillian stated. “Just… I could have swore that was him…”

“So Paul came to.” Lillian went stiff as a board as Maggie spoke. “I guess mom probably wrote him to-” Desmo slapped his tail across Maggie, and made enough to nudge Lillian forward while still on her shoulder. Lillian shook herself out of shock, and started running.

“They’re not here. That can’t be. It-it’s all in my head.” Lillian stated in a panicked sliding to a halt once she realized she had somehow entered a maze. Several shadows walked along the walls. Lillian backed up against one of the walls as the shadow of her mother started to approach. Only for a lantern light to be shined on it.

“Guess I’m not even an intruder anymore.” Trox stated. “Should probably be offended.” Lillian hugged him tight, and he looked down. “Or maybe you just got a little too much to work with.”

“It's your fault!” A hand reached out, and grabbed Lillian. “Making her consort with demons.” The clear tone of an angry mother echoed throughout the walls. Lillain struggled to break free. Getting pulled away again as Trox reached for her. 

“You took our sister!” The silhouette of another girl charged forward before stopping just before an unfazed Trox.

“The only person who took your sister is you.” Trox stated, and the shadow faded in response. Lillain screamed, and Trox watched as she dived for the coin Ameri had given her. Lillian’s mother now holding a ripped apart pocket. The ground began to crack as the shadow of her family surrounded her. “Lillian!” Trox tried to grab her attention as several voices began ranting and chastising Lillian. But his attempt went unnoticed, and the ground became several separated floating stones floating in a vast sky. “Lillian! You earned that coin Lillian!” Trox shouted once more as he floated away on his rock, and began jumping to the others.

Lillian remains curled up on her rock trying to drown out the voices of her family. For a moment in finally at least just gibberish until Trox’s voice briefly went in sync with her father. The words “you earned that coin.” Echoed in her mind. If there were two people on this earth who would never agree, it would have been Trox and her dad. So why those words? She jolted out of thought by her eldest sister stomping the ground. Somehow they were alone now.

“I taught you.” Maggie stated as Lillian got up. “I gave up years believing in you!” There was a long pause as Lillian thought back to those days.

“You were always so reluctant.” Lillian recalled. “And so was I, but mom made both of us… And you made me. Into you, or you tried to.”

“Yeah, I guess mom was right.” Maggie replied. “I should’ve put more effort into the weakest link.”

“You should’ve treated anything you ever did like it actually mattered!” Lillian rebutted.

“Well that can be kind of hard, sis.” A male voice stated and Lillian turned around to face her brother Paul. “When even after all we did for you turned your back on anyone.” Lillian looked down in anger.

“I’m so tired of hearing that.” Lillian stated. “So tired of thinking it, and holding myself back because of it.”

“Turning into a demon is holding back, now?” Paul questioned.

“No. it one of the few times I didn’t. One of the few times anyone let do something I want to. I’ve just been so bogged down by the rest of you. I barely even noticed.”

“Is that why this coin is so import-tant.” Lillian kneed her brother in the stomach before taking the coin back.

“That was given to me.” Lillian stated. “By one of the first people I’d ever call my friend. So even if it's demonic. Even if it’s just some stupid coin. Even if it falls into whatever the hell this place is. It’s mine.”

“We believed in you Lillian.” The voices were becoming more detached now, and it was becoming harder to make out who was saying what, but the images of her family were clearly giving their best effort, even from Trox’s limited perspective. What they were doing he had no idea, but given the state of the environment it wasn’t good.

“And you.” Trox turned around. “How dare you fill my daughter's head with such corrupted thoughts.” A woman Trox had never met stared him down. There was a brief pause before Trox’s slowly began laughing like a madman. “You find this amusing.”

“Amusing and worth celebrating.” Trox’s replied best as he could when his laugh started dying down. “I guess that explains my lack of nightmares.”

“You don’t feel guilty?” The woman Trox, assumed was Lillian’s mother stated. “You’ve corrupted our-”

“1,460” Trox replied. “That’s the number of times I’ve found her alone at night. That’s the number of times Lillian has been punished for who she is. You broke your family, and maybe helped it along.” Trox continued. “But I’d do it all again, if it means seeing the moment another ‘lost’ soul finds herself.” Lillian’s mother faded into the shadow, but the voices Lillian was dealing with seemed like a different story.

“We did everything we could.” Lillian’s father stated.

“That’s not the thing in dispute here, dad.” Lillian replied.

“So you admit you failed!” Her other sister replied.

“I admit I failed based on your standards.” Lillian stated rather calmly. “And I admit you did everything in your power to maske me follow rules that I just couldn’t, but I don’t consider that a failure.”

Trox leaped from stone to stone before quickly as he could before finally coming to Lillian. It took far longer than he had expected, but Lillian seemed to be handling it well. Her father on the other hand got angrier and angrier finally he charged at Lillian before surrounding her in light green flame. Trox leap at her shock, but the back off the moment after realizing how hot the fire was.

“You took your time.” Lillian stated calmly unaffected by the flames.

“They could still take you back, you know?” Trox stated. “Even if this illusions didn’t.” Lillian shook her head.

“My mother is a purist. My father spent his life commanding respect.” With a sweep of her arm the flames around Lillian vanished. “Even if I wanted to go back, there’s just a legacy I failed to uphold.” Lillian reached down, and picked up her coin.

“All this for a coin?” Trox questioned.

“You get cool demonic things.” Lillian replied.

“That do important things!” Trox responded.

“This does a lot of things.” Lillian stated.

“Name one.” Trox stood there as Lillian flipped the coin in the air before slapping it on to her wrist. It moment the environment around them faded away, and Langonoro’s snoring could be heard behind them. 

“You couldn’t have vanished the dreamscape earlier?” Trox stated. “What did you have fun with the nightmares?”

“No one was around to tell me what it was!” Lillian rebutted. “I had to piece together after yet another person ditched me.”

“Did you not see the giant octopus? I can’t exactly turn around, and still have a way to get around. Had you not… beside was coming back for you.”

“Hmm?” Lillian looked up after stuffing the coin into her bag. “Had I not what?”

“Forget about it.” Trox replied as he drove both of them along the route to Mortiker.

“No, tell me.” Lillian stated as Trox sighed. “I won’t be mad, I promise… I’m just a curious nun.” Trox chuckled in response.

“Had you not” Trox began. “Got after something that must mean a great deal you given that it came from one of the few people to ever accept you. We wouldn’t have gotten into this situation.”

“Uh-huh.” Lillian stated. “Didn’t work for you. I get it. Well, for whatever it’s worth. I’m glad you're also one of those people”

“So am I.” Trox replied as they continued their journey.