deathsmajesty | A Small Village in Shandalar, Laaaaaaate Friday Night (Fandom Time) (Reply)

"Kill! Kill Her!" "Kill the witch!" A group of villagers stood outside of the church that abutted the local graveyard. They were waving farm implements, various weapons, and lit torches. "Filthy death mage!" "You'll get yours soon, witch!"

Liliana	The sharp disappointment and aggravation upon discovering that the old cleric had died earlier that year had been lost in the general pain and exhaustion that Liliana had been dealing with since the Veil had split open her skin in the Onakke tomb. She had been far more interested in getting into a bed to rest than anything less immediate than that. And sleep, blessed sleep had come. For ten minutes, perhaps. Maybe even fifteen. But then she'd been awakened by the whispers in her head, whispers that sounded a lot like the ticking of a clock. They didn't have long on Shandalar, a handspan of hours or so. Nowhere near enough time to make any headway if Liliana slept, but plenty if she took steps now find out what she wanted - no, what she needed to know. So he was dead. So what? What was death to the Mistress of it? Nothing, of course. It was, as usual, the living that were causing a problem.
Ugh. Peasants	"Desecrator!" "Grab an axe!" one of the townsfolk called. "Break the door down!" "Give us back his body!"
The Cleric's Corpse	Inside the church, the dead body was propped up against a wall, watching Liliana with a dispassionate curiosity. "Lili, your enchantments will soon fail."
Liliana	"Don't call me Lili," Liliana gasped out by reflex, on her hands and knees, clutching her side. The pain that came when her flesh tore from using the Veil wasn't ebbing. If anything, it was increasing, leaving her struggling to catch her breath.
The Cleric's Corpse	"They will smash these walls and hang you from the rafters," the corpse continued as if she hadn't said anything at all. The noise from without was getting louder as people began slamming the hafts of their makeshift weapons against the door. "Has all your power bled away?"
Liliana	"Stupid chatty corpse," Liliana said, gritting her teeth through the pain. "Most undead just stumble around and moan. What the hell is your problem?" "You called me from the grave," he reminded because that's definitely what the situation called for. Pedantry. "You didn't want a mindless servant, you wanted me." "I heard you knew more about the Onakke than anyone, but you've told me nothing. Nothing useful, at least."
Unruly (and frankly unnecessary) Mob	"Come out, graverobber!" The hammering grew louder. "Return his body and we'll make it quick!" "It'll go worse for you if we have to come in there!"

***
Loathe as he was to leave Liliana's side, Ignis knew that, especially with all that blood loss, she was going to need far more than just the ministrations he could perform in their room. Rest, yes, but also food. And he would need...well, if not coffee exactly, at least something strong to calm his nerves and settle his tense anxiety. And venturing into the village to procure dinner and a mode of transportation to get them to the rendezvous point for their portal home that would be far less taxing for Liliana was far more productive than merely pacing worriedly around the room and wearing out the rug with his fine shoes.

Before departing, he took a moment, brushing hair from her forehead, off her shoulders, and leaned in to press a light kiss against her cheek. "I shall return shortly, my love," he whispered, then made his way for the door.

The arrangements, thankfully, did not take long at all, although he wondered if he should have taken a bit more time in haggling prices or at least insisting on better quality for the victuals he was able to procure, but the sooner he returned, the better.

Although it would seem, even with his haste, it was not nearly soon enough.

Ignis noticed the distinct lack of breathing immediately upon entering the room again, a detail that rendered him stricken, for a moment, at the door. "Liliana?" he asked, not quietly, forcefully, and the lack of response sent another surge of panic through him, and he'd have leaped to quite the dire conclusion about the state he'd left her in if not for the fact that the sound of her was not the only thing missing. Even in the musty closing heat of the room and the lingering blood clinging to it, he couldn't find the scent of her beyond those lingering residuals. The food was hastily deposited on the nearest table; there was a slight stumble in his step on the way to the bed, fear gripping his lungs and holding hid breath hostage as he confirmed his dreadful suspicions. So. Not the worst scenario, but one following rather close in its wake.

Not dead, just...gone.

Of her own volition? Or was it abduction? For a brief moment, Ignis wondered if she'd taken this opportunity, as soon as he stepped out, to planeswalk away. But no. She would be far too weak for that. It would have been a near suicidal move.

"Moving at all right now is damn near suicidal," he murmured to himself, but he wasted no further time in his next step: a thorough interrogation of the innkeep, which lead him absolutely nowhere. The man had been thoroughly unhelpful, and incredibly, frustratingly so.

"Godsdammit," he swore, let it settled, huffed out a breath, and prepared to procedurally broaden the scope of his search until he could figure out what had happened.
***

Very Bossy Corpse	"Liliana." The zombie's voice was sharp. "You must get up. Find your missing wits and move."
Liliana	"Everything...hurts," Liliana said. She hadn't used the Veil's power when she'd demanded the cleric return to his body and rise so she hadn't started bleeding again, but the agony still hadn't lessened any. Was it because she was on Shandalar? Because she had continued to use magic once the bleeding stopped? Some other, even more dire reason? "I can't remember what it feels like not to hurt."
The Mob Continuing To Just Be Like This	An axe head burst through the wood of the door, was pulled back, and then slammed through again. Then several more times until it had hacked a hole big enough to show a leering face through the other side. "You had your chance, witch!" the face said, smiling at her in malicious glee before sending several small, spiked orbs to come tumbling through.
Liliana	"What...are those?" she asked, leveraging herself upright to her knees. That movement alone made her head swim, but she pushed through it. She was Liliana Vess; she wasn't about to be taken down by a handful of dirt-grubbing peasants. Honestly, this whole fuss seemed vastly unnecessary.
Know-It-All Corpse	"Firestars," the corpse told her. "They must have enlisted the mages. Shandalar is incredibly mana-rich. Most people have at least a little magic and even the smallest villages usually have one or two full mages." The corpsed tsked at her. "A pity you're all alone, Lili. This isn't looking very good for you. Especially if you don't get up."
Liliana	Something...about that didn't seem right. She wasn't alone, was she? Or at least, she shouldn't be... It was hard to concentrate with the axe continuing to slam into the door, feeling like it was slamming into her skull at the same time. It was possible her headache hurt more than the rest of her. No. Of course she was alone. She was always alone. Liliana Vess had no one but her zombie servants and that was how she liked it. For one thing, it meant she was never reduced to a pitchfork-and-torch-wielding rabble just because someone had been mean to the corpse of a person she'd liked or whatever. The pain in her head receded slightly, enough for her thoughts to clear slightly. "Why do they care so much for a sack of bones?" Cranky necromancer was cranky. "You were mouldering in the ground, doing nothing for anyone."
The Dead...Cleric?	"Yes, he was a beloved cleric," the zombie said, rising to his feet as well. "Mourned and mouldering, but certainly not forgotten. You could not have chosen worse. You may have to kill the entire town before they stop trying to avenge him."
Liliana	Again, something about that sounded wrong, but Liliana couldn't put her finger on it. It was like trying to catch a fish barehanded; wriggling out of her grasp before she could get a good grip. "Just hours ago, killing was like breathing and I didn't even care. There was an angel..." The zombie moved to her side, movements fluid and easy the way they shouldn't be considering the extreme state of decay the body she'd raised had been it, skin and muscles mostly rotted and gone. "I killed her," she continued. "She was trying to tell me something, but I killed her. Why did I--"
Definitely Just A Normal Zombie	"Yes, yes," the cleric said impatiently, interrupting her thoughts and sending them scattering again. "There's a time for introspection and this isn't it, Lili."
Liliana	"Don't call me, Lili," Liliana said, weakly, leaning on the cleric as they started to move. She tore the Chain Veil from her face, metal links scattering in the darkness - but as before, it wouldn't leave her grasp. "Be...silent. Too many noises yammering at me. I just want it to stop. I want it all to stop." A second later, the firestars exploded, sending them both flying. Liliana hit a wall and slumped down, merciful darkness engulfing her.

***
There were many times when Ignis truly cursed his sightlessness, and this was absolutely one of them. To be searching blindly for Liliana on an unknown plane without any real sense of where she'd gone...if he wasn't already feeling the capacity of his desperation, he'd disparage himself for all of his bold claims of certainty that he'd be able to find her practically anywhere. His mind reeled with possibilities; where could she even have gone? He had to think. Would it be she dictating her action? The Chain Veil? Where would they want her to go and where would she go? Where might he be able to find information on either?

They'd sent an angel to defend the tomb; could he find an angel now and convince them to help, especially without the immediate prejudice clinging to him that usually came with Liliana's company? A church of some sort, perhaps, or maybe...

That's when he heard the cries rising out of the darkness, the angry roiling of a building mob. It was just noise, at first, until he was able to focus on it, and drift his way toward it.

"Quick!" they called. "We have to catch up! They're probably already battening down the door! We can't let them have all the fun!"

"I told you not to go and grab the axe from the barn! I told you it would take too long!"

"But I wanted the bigger one! There's plenty of time, the church has got solid doors! We won't miss out on any witch-burning, I promise you that!"

"Oh, we better no--"

It was then that Ignis had approached and cautiously decided to step in. "Pardon me," he said, "but what is all this commotion?"

"Oh! They'd found a filthy death mage, desecrating the area!" "In our own graveyard! Can you believe it?" "So we're all off to the church to--"

Ignis did not give them the chance to finish, especially since he could hear it now, carried on the wind, the roar of the riotous crowd with their malicious intent. He murmured a word of appreciation and spared no further moment in rushing to follow it, praying and hoping against all hope that he wouldn't be too late.
***

Liliana	Vessel of evil...harbinger...ours ours OURS OURS... Liliana groaned, stirring back to consciousness. "Get it out..." she pleaded to--someone. "Please. Please." A flash of light against smoked lenses, a strong grip on her hand, a deep voice in her head murmuring 'Iana.... Too many thoughts and sense-memories, and the confusing images fled as she became more aware of her surroundings: the heat and light of fire, the hot stone behind her, the new aches and pain that came from being flung into it like a ragdoll. The Veil is a weight, she thought, a little delirious. Maybe I never escaped that tomb. I'm still there, trapped like a dumb beast.
A Very Normal Zombie	"A soul such as you should never be trapped," the cleric told her, once again dragging her to her feet. "Do not permit yourself to be tethered, Lili. Cut away everything that binds you, keeping you from fulfilling your destiny. Everything. Everyone. You have much to do, Liliana Vess. Don't let feelings make you weak."
Liliana	For a second, as the cleric stumbled his way to her, Liliana could have sworn he looked the way she'd remembered from the grave, a blackened and rotting skeleton with neither eyes nor skin. She blinked however, and suddenly she saw the same man that she'd seen all even, flesh whole and unblemished, beard still full. How--? Her aborted question ceased to matter once the Onakke took up their horrible chanting again. Vessel...promised to us...nurtured at the root... "I can hear the Onakke in my head," Liliana said, as he helped her stand and they started up the stairs. "There must be some way to sever them from my mind. If I could cut them from my mind with a knife, I would." Once again, she tried to drop the Veil, but her fingers refused to open. She tried three times before stuffing it into her pocket and continuing the arduous climb.
Definitely Nothing Weird Here	"The bond can't be broken so easily," the corpse said, helping her up through a trapdoor that opened to the empty belfry. "You took the Veil. Come now, vessel. It is not for these commoners to have." "Vess..." Liliana corrected weakly. "Vess. And not...Lili."

Ignis	As he rushed in the direction of the shouting mob, Ignis was half expecting their murderous clamor to begin to transform, into hideous, horrified screams of anguish and death. Tracking down a necromancer? In a graveyard? Oh, those foolish townspeople were lucky indeed that Liliana was in the state she was in, or else he was certain there'd have been no crowd left to rush into by the time he got there. But with everything that had happened, and what it must have already have taken out of her to even get all the way here from her bed in the first place. "What is going on here?" he demanded, once he found himself in the fray swarming around what he could only assume was the church. Yes, he knew the answer. Or could very much deduce it from what he'd discerned already, but, perhaps by asking it, if anything, it would slow their progress, even if just a bit, a tactic he hoped to employ even further by adding, with commanding insistence, "Are you all mad? Stop this at once!"
Angry Mob	"Are you?" a burly farmer demanded. "The death mage raised our most holy cleric, turning him into zombie!" "Yes!" screamed a red-faced woman. "Who knows what filthy necromantic rites she's using him for!" A general roar of agreement from the crowd, almost bordering on a cheer. The people here were angry, and they wanted blood. "Drag her out!" "String her up!" "Burn the witch alive!"
	"Oh, you bloody fools," Ignis spat out, his frustration welling up in him genuinely, right along side his fear and desperation, and he shoved his way forward through the crowd. His voice lifted louder now, hoping to rise over their clamor. "If that's what she's gone and done to him, just imagine how much worse she could do to you! Do you have any idea what it is you're even up against?"
Mostly Angry Mob	Some of the villagers quieted, looking at each other with unease. No, it was clear that they hadn't considered what a necromancer in fear of her life might do to them. Several of them from the back and sides peeled away and vanished into the night. Most of the townsfolk however, caught up in anger or a belief in their own imperviousness or the righteousness of a mob, remained exactly as they were - if anything, lifting their implements higher. "Who do you think you are?!" someone yelled back. "Yeah, who even are you?" someone else called.
Ignis	There was, at least, some small relief in the fact that some of the villagers seemed to have quieted, perhaps even realized the fool's errand they'd been embroiled into, but not nearly enough, and Ignis could tell, they would be even less so the closer he got to the church. "Clearly someone with a much higher regard for your lives than you yourselves seem to possess!" he barked out. "And someone much better equipped to handle this situation by far! Move out," he began shoving his way through the throng, having given them ample time to move, and so anyone still deterring him had only themselves to blame, "of my way! I must reach--" A cheer, from the front of the rabble. "You had your chance, witch!" Gleeful and manic. There was no more time to mince words. Ignis shoved his way through the crowd; thinking fast, he wrenched a pitchfork out of the hands of a startled peasant. He shouted out one forceful "Clear out!" before giving the tool a fighting circular swing, then driving it down into the ground to use to better vault himself over the mob. Shouts of surprise followed as he descended in front of the door. The ground shook as he landed, though the sudden burst of fire and the wave of heat hitting him from inside the church told him it had nothing to do with his acrobatics. Fuck. "Liliana!" he shouted, springing forward and sprinting into the blaze.

The "Cleric"	Once she was safely through the trapdoor, the cleric let Liliana fall to the floor, turning out to face the star-strewn night sky that was already filling with smoke. "The Onakke were brilliant creatures, slaughtered into nothingness," he said expansively, arms spread. "You should've seen the sky on the night it happened. The stars were so angry they burned scars in the firmament. It was glorious...a great working of magic unlike any Shandalar had ever seen before."
Liliana	"Why explain this to me now?" Liliana asked, body wracked by coughs from the rising smoke. "It's a little late to be useful, dead man." She wasn't even sure she was going to make it off this stupid building.
You Know, This Might Not Be A Cleric After All	"Death isn't an option for you," he said sternly, staring down at Liliana's prone form. "Remember Josu's warning?" Liliana raised her head. "My brother? You...know...Josu?" "Lili, I know everything about you," he murmured as Liliana sagged back to the floor, lashes dark against unnaturally - even for her - pale cheeks. "You didn't recognize me? Even with all the hints I gave?" He shook his head at her, watching her shallow, erratic breathing. She was conscious, but only barely. "No, I suppose not. Not in this temporary husk. Asking me if I remember your brother - do I remember the skulls dancing through the Caligo? Remember the skin-witches burning the essis grove? Do I remember you, with your frantic need to save your brother? Your youthful desire to please your elders? Now you only want to please yourself, just as it should be." He slid an arm beneath her head, propping her up. "The root of evil. The veil of deceit. The vessel of destruction. All the aspects I cultivated, yet they led here. To a godforsaken death, little one." He raised a glowing hand, pouring a tiny fraction of power into her. "Barely enough and only because you are here that I can do that much. But power nonetheless. It's the only idol worthy of worshi--HURK!"
Liliana	Once more, blood poured over Liliana's hand, but this time it wasn't her own. The sheath at her thigh was empty, the knife buried in his solar plexus. "You really think I've forgotten our last talk so quickly, Raven Man?" she demanded, voice thin, hand shaking, but still determined enough to pull her knife out and stab him again. More blood poured out, rich and red. "Perhaps you've forgotten that I'm not that same young girl you tricked before." She pulled the knife out to reverse the swing and slit his throat.

The Mob That Just Refuses To Quit	Two of the villagers kicked their way into the building, one brandishing a rake menacingly in front of them. "Do you see the witch?" one called to the other. "Or our cleric?" The other threw his hand up as a shield from the intense heat. "No!" he yelled back, over the roar of the flames. "We can't stay in here much longer!"
Ignis	Rushing in past the villagers, ignoring the bursts and explosions of fire around him, Ignis tried desperately to make his way into the church and listen over the roar of the flames and the mob for something, anything that might be useful. He heard the others come in after him, and then instantly regret their decision. "Do you see the witch?" one of them ask, and he latched onto the answer, only to be disappointed in the ensuing negative. They weren't here. Relief, for a brief moment, that she hadn't gotten caught in the explosion, and then a renewed focus, on trying to figure out where she'd gone. Some back room? Were there stairs or a loft? Taking a moment to pull back one magic and infuse another into his knives, the icy blades sizzling and wreathed in steaming vapor from the fire, he moved deeper into the church. There may have been a murmur of protest from someone, a dismissal from someone else to just let the madman burn; his attention was long gone from that rabble, as he felt the sweat pouring down his face, and couldn't help, for a faintly wry moment, huffing at the silver lining that at least he didn't have to worry about the sweat and smoke stinging his eyes or obscuring his vision. Finally, though, he found the stairs, and he wasted no time in ascending them, his feet quick and landing on each step with as little pressure and time as possible before moving on, lest the fires had weakened them to the point of breaking. "Liliana!" he called out, then waited, and listened. No immediate response, but his attention shifted upwards. Hints of a voice? Or just distortion from the cacophony down below, both inside and outside the church? Either way, it was something to go off of, and he was glad for it, once he found the trapdoor and pushed his way through it as well. "Lilia--" But before it could barely even get out, it was covered, buried, under hers.
Liliana	"Coward!" Liliana shouted, voice hoarse, as the Raven Man released his hold on the corpse, leaving it to fall backwards onto the floor, turning into rot and bones and dust. "Where did you go, Raven Man? Why inhabit a dead man? Have you been infesting my mind all along?" The dead man gave no answer. "Fine. The Veil it is, then." Her voice was cold against the rising heat from the fire. She pulled the veil from her pocket, where it gleamed shiny and perfect. She distinctly remembered links flying off when she'd yanked it from her face, but no. It was whole, unbroken, ready to be donned. "Better oblivion than torment," she said.
Ignis	"Liliana," it seemed to come out of Ignis first as a gush of relief, though it was incredibly short lived, with the swirl of trying to piece together the whole of a scene he could only guess at sent his already intensified and desperate feelings reeling. "What--" Whatever was happening, it was clear that it was taking precedence enough that she didn't even see him, was probably not aware that he was even there. He wanted to shout and call out to her, but, without knowing what she was entangled in, he worried that it would only distract her, interrupt her, harm her in some way-- Until that fine hit him like a stab of ice through his chest. His unseeing eyes widened, the knowledge of what was about to happen coursing through him. In her current state, with everything they'd already been through with that blasted Veil already. Each jangle of those cursed links felt like tiny daggers piercing into his gut, and he surged forward. "Liliana! No! You mus--"
Liliana	"I miss you, Josu," Liliana said, voice raw in a way that was different than that simply caused by the sheer volume of smoke inhalation. "Of all the people I've known, across countless planes and distractions, it's you I miss most of all." Again, a weird flash of memory, the sensation of words heard from far away or underwater, a voice that thrilled her heart but she couldn't place--but she pushed that aside. "I know you're waiting for me, Josu, but I'll never die," she promised. "I never will." Tendrils of swirling black ink formed around her, along with a biting chill as she opened herself to the Blind Eternities. Only to collapse to the floor - both tendrils and cold dissipating into nothingness - before taking a single step.
Ignis	"--n't." Ignis' words had fallen short out of his mouth, when Liliana spoke again, his chest seizing in a way that had nothing to do with smoke inhalation, either. It wasn't just that she obviously still didn't seem to realize he was there, but rather what she said, how she said it, and he breathed in sharply through his teeth. His whole body was tense, tightly coiled, for whatever might happen next. He felt the shift in the energy around them, he absolutely felt the temperature drop...and his stomach dropped right along with it as he murmured out a desperate, "Liliana, please," already knowing it would be too late. Only, when that energy disappeared and the heat of the fire rushed back in, there was the crumpling sound of a collapse to the floor, and Ignis' stomach practically leaped back up all the way up his throat. He was at her side in a heartbeat...or, at least, he could only assume that it was that fast, he felt as though he had no heartbeat in that moment to actually measure it by. "Liliana!" he cried out, pulling her up, desperately feeling around for her injuries, feeling that listless weight of her and giving her a shake even though he could already tell it would do no good. "Liliana!" A few attempts to urge consciousness back into her with his fingers tapping her cheeks, before they dropped to her throat to check...good. Good. Whatever was there was weak, but it was there, she was only unconscious, but for how long? And what-- No. There was no time. He had to get her out of her, and so he was shifting her to lean her weight against him as he threw an arm around her and tried to pull her up with him, and then he'd figure out exactly how he was going to pull this one off...

Liliana	A harsh bout of choking from his side as Liliana slowly dragged herself back to semi-consciousness. "Wh--?" More coughing cut her off. "Rav--" A thin gasp of thinner air.
Ignis	Another surge of relief spread through Ignis' chest, although he was pretty sure it was indistinguishable from the smoke burning through it, as well. He tried to not let himself get too distracted by it; he needed to focus on a way out, cautiously leading Liliana with him back toward the trapdoor. "Shhh," he said softly. "It's alright. Don't waste your breath or energy on trying to speak. Unless it's to direct me to a good, quick way out of here..."
Liliana	"If--" She tried pulling away from him, to walk under her own power, but another coughing fit left her clinging to him instead. He could almost feel when she gave in, shifting from a stubborn attempt to get free to accepting the help he was offering. There was a crash from below as part of the church collapsed. "Not that--" she said, shaking her head at him. "Over." She pointed to the other side of the belfry. "Roof. Then...jump?"
Ignis	It was more Liliana that stopped him than the fire's destruction below them. He'd managed to pull himself through whole cities crumbling around him before, a mere church, while perilous all the same, didn't concern him as much. But his attention and direction shifted with the suggestion, nodding with a grim grunt from his chest. "Roof," he agreed, heading that way now, already making attempts to triangulate their presumed height with the descent and, without consideration of what foliage might be surrounding them, the most efficient way to to fall so that he unquestionably took the brunt of it. "Then jump."
Liliana	Liliana didn't know about his experience in city-crawling, but she did know that she had not done similarly and was not particularly excited to change that tonight. Their way out of the belfry and over to the roof was slow and painful. The wood of the belfry was already hot enough to redden skin and the roof burned their feet through their shoes. Liliana mumbled incoherently as they made their way to the edge. "Here," she croaked. "You...ready...?"
Ignis	And, thankfully for the both of them, Ignis also had a good deal of experience in falling, too. "Always," he said. "Hold on tight." And even if Liliana wasn't going to, Ignis was ensuring that he had a good hold on her, cursing the fact that it would, indeed, be a very blind leap, but trusting his intuition and general understanding of architecture and his work as a lancer to guide him in being able to scoop her up protectively and leap off in a way that would then have him landing as smoothly and gracefully as if descending from one of his attacks. Not...quite, there was a bit of stumbling since holding onto a person and holding onto a lance in such maneuvers was wildly different, and it had been a very long and exhausting few hours and with the heat of the fire and the smoke in his lungs... He didn't drop or (presumably) injure Liliana further, though, that was the important part, and after a small struggle with the landing and fighting against letting his legs buckle underneath him, he straightened to set her down, but with only a moment before he started again. "We should keep moving," he murmured, only now allowing himself to listen for signs that the crowd might still be gathered at the front of the church, or if, now that the church was succumbing to the flames, they had effectively dissipated, assuming the job they'd come to do was now finished.
Liliana	Liliana didn't listen to him. As soon as their feet hit the ground and she had steadied herself, she wrenched herself violently out of his embrace, stumbling a few feet away. "Who are you?" she hissed. "Another one of your little guises? I'll stab you, too. I'm not so helpless as you think, Raven Man."
Ignis?	Well, that was certainly enough to pull Ignis' attention away from listening for the crowd or to the way the fire was growing or attempt to map out a way to stumble their way into relative safety. "Rav--" he started, but the words seemed to wither away and die before they could make it out of his suddenly dry mouth. A tightness crept up through his spine as he slowly straightened that slight bit more, as if steeling himself to endure that threatened stab if that's what she felt was necessary, if that's what it took to dispel whatever disillusion she was under. Or was it worse than that? Memory loss entirely? What had happened in this brief amount of time between when he left her and now? He sucked in a deep, bolstering breath. "Believe me," he said, "whoever you think I might be, 'Iana...." A pause, there, to let that potentially pierce into anything in her consciousness, though he wasn't particularly counting on it, "I'm no one nearly so foolish as to ever think you helpless." He winced, then, before pushing forward with words that his mouth almost refused to want to form, on principle alone, but he forced them out anyway, in a calm, collected, determined manner. "But my name is Ignis Scientia. You know me, 'Iana. This isn't a ruse, or a trick, or an illusion. However, it is imperative that we keep moving until we can be sure you're safe."
Liliana	"'Iana..." she repeated in a whisper. She'd heard that before. She'd thought. Right after she'd woken up from the explosion... And the name Ignis, too. That...it didn't just sound familiar, but it felt familiar. But that didn't make any sense. "I don't know you," she said, stubborn. "I'm alone. As I always am. I know who I can trust and it's one person. Myself." "A pity you're all alone, Lili. This isn't looking very good for you." ...But not too stubborn to keep moving along with him. She knows how close she'd been to dying in that fire. Better a possible death with ('Nys) this strange man than an almost certain one at the hands of the mob.
"Ignis"	"And with all that you've been through," Ignis agreed, reassured by that whisper that, while whatever happened to her memory or perception might not be so easily shaken from her yet, there was hope--or at least the hope that he was slightly less likely to be stabbed now, "I don't think anyone could blame you for that." He stayed close, though, as he moved, one arm held out slightly as if to let her knew that the support was there, should she deign to accept it, without any sense of insistence or demand. Just an option, take it or leave it, no matter to him. He would be too busy listening carefully to signs of distress she might be attempting to hide or mask. "Let us at least get away from here long enough for the church to collapse from the fire and the mob to lose their interest with the assumption that you are still ensconced inside. But, if I may....a question. What do you know about where you are and your purpose here?"
Liliana	"Of course I know," Liliana snapped at him. She was a far cry from her usual self; she still hurt all over, the agony of the Chain Veil tearing at her skin now mixed with burns, contusions, and the pain of smoke inhalation that wracked her body with periodic coughing spasms. The one bright spot was that the pain in her head was receding, presumably because she was now out in the open air. That rhythmic throbbing in her temples was fading and the voices of the Onakke were mercifully quiet. She stumbled along, her normal grace having deserted her entirely, and sometimes she was forced to hold onto this Ignis' arm as they went. "I'm trying to get rid of this blasted Chain Veil, because I am the master of my own fate and destiny, not a million jumped up ghosts in an accessory."
Totes Not The Raven Man, Rly	On the contrary, a reaction like that was almost exactly what Ignis had mostly expected...and worried about. There was a soft hum to accompany his slight nod. "A million incredibly stubborn jumped up ghosts," he noted, the drawl edged with a touch of bitterness, "who fail to comprehend the meaning of the word no..." With his free hand, he felt around for a tree or something similar, where they could finally stop, and get at least a modicum of the rest that he could only imagine Liliana desperately needed. "Here," he said, guiding her that way as well. "We should have enough distance now. Would you like to sit?"
Liliana	"Stay away from me," she warned as she sat - more like a controlled collapse, really - but her voice held more confusion than sharpness. She wanted him to sit by her, to lean against him and let him take care of her (When you pull away from me you deny me the chance to offer you the same care that you lavish upon me.) but that was ridiculous. Why would she feel that way? No one took care of Liliana Vess save Liliana Vess. "Another one of your tricks, Raven Man?" she scoffed. "The weakest one yet. You really expect me to be fooled by these warm and fuzzy feelings out of nowhere? Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we? Get out of my head."
Ignis, Sure	"Ignis," Ignis insisted, gently, but firmly, and he kept his distance, albeit in as much as a hovering way as that distance would allow. "My name is Ignis Scientia. I don't even know who this Raven Man is. But I need you to think, Liliana. Focus. Very carefully. About how you got here. And where from. Are you certain you arrived here alone?"
Liliana	"Of course I arrived alone," Liliana snapped. "I walked through the portal--" She paused. Why would she have taken a portal when she could just Planeswalk? "I left from Fandom, I wandered through the jungle for bloody hours, we got held up by that miserable cow of an angel, the less said about the temple the better, I got to the inn...going over my entire itinerary isn't going to prove who you are, 'Nys."
So-Called Ignis	"I'm not trying to prove anything, 'Iana," Ignis retorted, trying very hard to not let each surge of minor victory in that answer get him too excited about the slow and steady progress. Rushing in too soon could spoil all the progress he had been trying to make with this concentrated approach. "I'm just trying to get you to remember..." His hand rested, thoughtfully, against his chin for a moment, and then, with a small nod to himself, he slipped his glasses off his face, tucked them into his front pocket, and moved, carefully, slowly, to kneel in front of Liliana, turning his face toward her and imploring her with those sightless eyes as he dug his metaphorical knife into the soft spot in her answer. "We? Got held up by that miserable cow of an angel? Who's we, Liliana?"
Liliana	Liliana couldn't explain the impulse if someone had offered her Belezenlok's head on a platter, but something about seeing this man in front of her, glasses off, scorched out eyes meeting hers had her reaching out to cup his face in her hands, thumbs skimming over his cheekbone, a sense of familiarity in the gesture. "This must be a trick," she said, brow furrowed. "Why else would I be thinking of the Caligo right now? The leaves in the sunlight..." Because his eyes had been green. She remembered that. As a boy, his eyes had been that exact shade. No. That didn't make sense. She didn't know this man and certainly didn't know the boy he'd been. Why would she? Liliana wasn't exactly in the habit of collecting boon companions. A voice like a chiming bell. Only the truly depraved would need a necromancer to do their diplomacy for them! Her own voice then. ...Did I mention, my darling, that in addition to angels being incredibly tiresome, they also lack a sense of humor? It takes cleverness to appreciate wit... Abyss, her skull was absolutely throbbing again, the headache coming back with a vengeance. Her hands left his face to press against her temples. "You wanted to talk to her," she said through the pain. "Rather than just scouring her from a distance. No. But you couldn't have been there. Because I'm always alone. But then...why didn't I just kill her and be done with it...?" Your first mistake was being an angel. The second was thinking you could stop me from going anywhere I chose. But the third and most unforgivable? Was threatening my paramour.
Ignis...?	Oh, the urge to just turn his head and kiss that palm against his cheek was strong, but Ignis just sighed softly, almost desperately, as he merely leaned into it instead. Patience, he reminded himself. A move like that might send these missing memories of him racing back to Liliana, but it might also (was, arguably, far more likely to, in fact) send her recoiling back, digging her heels into whatever had a hold of her even deeper. And that....with this much progress...he didn't dare risk. And when her hand left and her voice returned, he breathed out slowly with his relief that he had not acted so rashly on his own impulses. A soft smile, then, in response to these bewildering, disconcerting versions of reality clashing in her head right now. "Because my foolhardy self," he said, "always has to at least try, and you are exceptionally good at humoring me, in that regard. Because you weren't alone, 'Iana. And you're not alone now. And we both need each other so we can get home."
Liliana	"It's hard to think with my head aching so," Liliana murmured. What was real? Why should she believe these fragments of memories compared to almost two hundred years of being alone? It was preposterous. She didn't humor people, especially about angels. But at the same time, if this was another one of the Raven Man's tricks, this was a terrible way to go about it. These memories, these feelings, they were far too bizarre for her to accept, so why hinge another deception upon them when she would just dismiss them out of hand? But she hadn't, had she? So perhaps that was his game, to give her something so outrageous that she would end up accepting it as truth because it made no sense for it to be a lie... Over and over, her thoughts chased each other like rats and her headache grew and grew and grew until it felt like her skull might explode from the pressure and she'd be grateful and-- She leaned forward and kissed him, hard and graceless.
Ignis.	The sound of surprise that escaped Ignis was quickly buried in the same kiss that caused it, only to then be drowned entirely by the flood of emotions that poured through him. He remained kneeling, though he pulled himself up, to wrap his arms around her and bring them closer together, seizing the opportunity to let those feelings overflow into his returning kiss. To hope that perhaps, just maybe, he could express with that kiss all the things his words had still failed to assure her of: that this was real, that she wasn't alone, that he was here and always would be, for as long as he was able or as long as she would have him. And, with a wilting sigh from the part of him he'd been holding down and pressing back this whole time, the part of him that worried that he might never have kissed her again, and the need for air, the need for a breath, there was just one word that remained there on his lips and he pushed it forward with an almost pleading hopefulness on the exhale. "Yours."
Liliana	The kiss might have started hard and graceless, but somewhere it slowed, shifted, changed. Not just the emotions that he poured into it, but the emotions they evoked in return. There was no doubting the familiarity of it. She knew this - the shape of his mouth, the softness of his lips under hers, the feel of his tongue. She knew this mouth like she knew her own hands, not just the back, but the lines upon her palm, the strength of each finger, the sharpness of each nail. Throughout the kiss, the pressure in her head grew and grew, transforming into a migraine made of screams from a millions mouths and a pain so intense that it made her want to curl up and whimper like an animal, building and building to crescendo that might just kill her-- And then his Yours cut through the din like an impossibly sharp dagger wielded by an expert and the clamor just...stopped. The pain vanished and as it did, the memories that had been taken, hidden, modified came rolling back. "Mine."
Undeniably Ignis	And how could there be any response to that than to kiss her again, gratefully, voraciously, melting into it with the flood of nearly debilitating relief, yet firm and determined to not allow it to slip away? Even though Ignis knew, with that responding kiss, that the gold was, in fact, shining in the cracks again, he was fairly certain that there were very few words that ever sounded so magnificent, so satisfying to his ears as that single one right in that moment. But he couldn't take it for granted. He couldn't let his relief lure him into a sense of complacency. As gruelling and tiresome and exhausting as the day had already been, they weren't done yet, and they still had a long night ahead of them until their portal. And he knew the forces working against them were almost as stubborn as he was. Almost. "We should find our way to the rendezvous spot," he said, sighing into breathing again after that next kiss, leaning his forehead against hers, forcing himself to remember to not grip her too tightly, knowing the ravages her body had been through already. "And ride this out until morning there." That had been one of his driving forces in all of this, the thing that honestly had kept him calm over the turmoil inside. Knowing that he would be useless to find it without her, and if they didn't catch that portal, they'd be stuck here for God's only knew how long...
Liliana	The idea of getting up and walking for hours to get to their portal location made Liliana want to cry, actually. Now that the adrenaline of escaping the blaze had passed, her body was only too happy to tally up all of her hurts and injuries. Her feet were blistered, her body was covered in bruises from the blast, and her skin was red and irritated from the radiant burns from the heat. And then there was the usual blood loss and exhaustion from the Chain Veil which, if she had to admit, was something she was becoming alarmingly used to. But, as much as the impulse to cry might have been there, she pushed it away. She hadn't cried since Josu died. She wasn't sure she even could anymore. And certainly not over something so petty and shallow as pain. "Yes," she croaked, forcing herself to stand. She swallowed back a whimper, though she couldn't stop her breath from escaping out in a sharp hiss. It took her almost a full thirty seconds to control her breathing enough to say, in relatively normal tones, "Once we get away from town, I should be able to figure out our way."
'Nys	For a brief moment, Ignis doubted himself, wondering if having Liliana move in her current condition was the correct choice. But no. It was too risky to take the chance; the worst of it (hopefully) was behind them now. Just this last final push, and, at the very least, if they could just reach where they needed to be... "Here," he said, adjusting and ensuring that she needn't stand on her own, that he could support her, unless she truly was going to be foolish enough to refuse, in which case... Well, then, won't they both be in trouble? "I've got you. I'm here. Don't strain any more than you have to. You just tell me where to go, and I'll lead the way. Together. We'll rest once we get there."
'Iana	For a moment, Liliana teetered on the brink of her own pride, her own fears of proving just how vulnerable she was, even to him. How close that mountainside, covered in snow, ashes swirling around her lingered sometimes-- And then, with aching and fragile care, slid an arm around him and let him assist her rise, and then stayed there, so he could help her walk, too. "You're here," she whispered. "And you've...got me." Hushed tones. Tentative tones. Possibly even wondering? Definitely not certain. But willing, at least in this moment, to trust.