deathsmajesty | Vess Manor, Stensia, Innistrad, Thursday Night (Fandom Time)

Rain hammered against the windows. A flash of lightning illuminated bare stone walls and a couple of shambling corpses. A boom of thunder followed half a breath later. Getting closer, then. Good. She needed the lightning, and the storm matched her mood. She sat on a high-backed stone chair, brooding.

How did it come to this?

Every path she sought toward freedom only seemed to lead her to more closed doors, more dead ends to escape. She'd made demonic pacts to make herself ageless, undying, at the paltry cost of a soul she was hardly using anyway.

Her breath no longer steamed, even on cold nights like this one.

But demons were harsh masters, and soon she found herself working to subvert her pacts, to kill her demons - to have immortality and freedom both. And so...the Chain Veil.

It whispered to her, even now, from the hidden pocket where she kept it. With it, she had killed two demons, lords among their kind. With it, she had once more commanded armies of the undead to nearly rival the hordes she had controlled with a thought before the Mending, had kicked a hole in the walls of heaven to spite angels that would damn an innocent soul to the Abyss.

But the Veil...

She could no longer bring herself to wear the thing on her face, to feel its silken-soft links against her skin. She hated touching it. But when she tried to get rid of it, it stubbornly clung to her skin and the pain for attempting was unbearable. Too many hours in Innistrad, working with Olivia's geistmage, in an attempt to suborn the Onakke spirits within the Veil, to turn them to her will. Too many hours that ended with her gasping on the floor, whimpering in agony as their laughs echoed inside her head.

But using it was worse.

A familiar voice	"Liliana," said a voice. A familiar voice. Wasn't it?
Liliana	She stood. "I'm busy," she said, loudly and clearly. "If you've come to torment me again, get on with it." Something prickled at her temples, a sensation like fingers prying at the door.
A familiar...voice?	"Torment?" said the voice. "I didn't realize it was that bad."
Raven Man	Lightning flashed, illuminating a large black bird perched on the windowsill. As the thunder's echo in her ears subsided, a second voice spoke, seemingly right in her ear. "I didn't say anything," said the Raven Man.
Liliana	She turned. There he was beside her, with his white hair, golden eyes, and elegant black and gold robes belonging to a very different time and place. He was...well, she wasn't sure quite what he was, an ignorance she tolerated only because she had no choice. He had appeared to her in her youth, taunted her, taught her. He had set her on the path that brought her here, and appeared now and then to keep her on it. He could rot in in the nearest available hell, as far as she was concerned. "I'm not in the mood for wordplay," said Liliana.
???	"Fine," said the first voice. A different voice, definitely, full of sharp suspicion. "Then let's cut to the chase."
Raven Man	The Raven Man's spectral lips hadn't moved. And he didn't look wryly amused, as he usually did. He looked...worried.
Liliana	Oh, hells. Liliana looked away from the Raven Man. She made a fist, filling it with deadly magic ready to unleash at a moment's notice. "Let's do," she said. "We'll start with who you are and what you're doing in my house."
A familiar voice indeed	Lightning flashed again, this time illuminating a figure, cloaked and hooded. Liliana's scalp crawled. "You know who I am," said the voice—not from where the figure had been standing. "What you don't know is what I know." That prickling sensation again. Almost like...
Raven Man	"You'd better do something," said the Raven Man. "I can't keep him out of your head forever."
Liliana	In an instant, fear became fury. "Jace? Are you insane? I might have killed you!"
Jace	"You might have tried," corrected the voice.
Liliana	Jace. She'd seduced him on false pretenses, played on his emotions, manipulated him into joining an interplanar crime syndicate, then into overthrowing it. By the time it all went wrong, she'd genuinely fallen for him, and betraying him had torn out one more strand of her threadbare sense of humanity. Not that that had stopped her, and anyway, if she hadn't done it they'd both be heroically, uselessly dead. Still, she could see why he might bear a grudge. But never before, at any point in their dysfunctional association, had he threatened her. She could see him now, right in front of her. She willed her zombie minions to attack him, but ropes of light bound their arms and legs, sent them toppling to the ground. She mentally beckoned more to help, to overwhelm him, but felt no reply.
Jace	"They're not coming," crooned Jace. "All tied up."
Liliana	Liliana had never actually seen Jace lose a fight he'd had time to prepare for. Never let them see you sweat. "Get out of my house," she ordered.
Jace	"Why?" said Jace. "Am I scaring you?" His eyes glinted beneath his hood.
Raven Man	"I certainly hope this display is frightening you," said the Raven Man. "This isn't like him."
Liliana	"Yes," said Liliana, to Jace. "This isn't like you. I'm not convinced this is you." The sensation at her temples became a pounding, with a whisper of voices behind it. She resisted the impulse to strain to hear them, which would only give him an opening. He really was attacking her, then. Enough! She lashed out at him with a whip of death magic--just enough to cause agony.
Jace	The bolt of purple light slid right through him, and his image popped like a soap bubble. "First you try to hide it from me," he said, this time from a corner of the room. "Now you're trying to silence me. But you can't hide something this big. Not forever."
Liliana	"I don't know what you're talking about," snapped Liliana. "I don't know what you think is happening. But you are way out of line." She turned toward him, but when he spoke again he was behind her. She'd seen him use his illusions and his mind magic to melt away into the shadows and become a phantom, to keep his opponents guessing. He'd never done it to her, and she didn't care for it.
Jace	"The drownyard," he said. "The angels! I've seen what they're building out there. And you're helping them. Admit it!" The pressure at her temples became a splitting pain.
Raven Man	"Liliana," said the Raven Man. "I've invested too much in you--"
Liliana	"Stop it!" said Liliana. "There are a lot of drownyards on Innistrad, I warned you about the angels, and you know damn well I wouldn't help an angel for all the gold in Orzhova!"
Jace	"Not for gold," he said. "For the Chain Veil, for the problem I wouldn't help you solve. You tried to keep me from seeing what happened to Markov Manor. You tried to keep me from finding Sorin. Why? Afraid I'll tell him what you're up to? Does Ignis know? Or was it all a ruse to try to keep me away from the temple?"
Liliana	"I tried to keep you from getting yourself killed!" reminded Liliana. "And I don't know anything about Markov Manor I haven't already told you." And then, in a voice that revealed far more emotion than she wanted to, "Where's Ignis? What did you do to him? Gaea help me, Jace, I've been kind to you thus far, but if you hurt him, our past association will mean nothing and you will know what it means to actually have me for an enemy."
Jace	"You can't lie to me," said Jace. He seemed to be losing his train of thought. "You know better. You're...you're redirecting a whole world's mana into this...moon...thing, just to--just to be rid of the Chain Veil? Is that it?" His voice was coming from all around the room now, his hooded form moving every time she blinked. There were two of him, then three.
Liliana	This little show would be annoying enough even if she'd actually done whatever it was. Based on false accusations, it was downright infuriating. "Days ago you came to my door asking for help, Jace," she said. "Yet now here you are with accusations?" And then, tightly, "Where is Ignis?"
Jace	"I don't know," Jace said. "He had somewhere to go. Or do. Was it to warn you, Lili? He's got secrets. I didn't probe them. I should have." So many secrets. They infested this house. This whole plane. "You can't keep secrets from me," he said, an edge of menace creeping into his voice. "All I need is time."
Raven Man	"I don't know what you ever saw in him," said the Raven Man, his face very close to hers. "You're nothing to him but a puzzle to be solved. And he's nothing to you, nothing whatsoever. Or did I misunderstand you?"
Liliana	"Whatever you're accusing me of," said Liliana, "step out into the light and say it to my face. This isn't what you think it is!" Her head throbbed. "And. Do. Not. Call. Me. Lili."
Jace	"How would you know what I think?" snapped Jace. "And why should I trust anything you say? You've done nothing but lie to me, caused me nothing but pain!" The pain in her head intensified. Something warm and wet dripped onto her upper lip. Blood. Her nose was bleeding. "But I can hurt you too, Lili."
Raven Man	"He's getting through your defenses," hissed the Raven Man. "Do something!"
Jace	One of the images of Jace snapped his head toward the Raven Man, eyes wide. "Who--?"
Liliana	So you can see him! There was no time to dwell on that revelation, which was followed quickly by another. Liliana smiled. And I can see you. She let loose a bolt of magic at Jace, the real Jace, that left him doubled over in pain. The other two Jaces vanished. "Now then--" she started to say. But the pressure at her temples started up again. Damned fool. She raked another blast of necromantic energy over him.
Jace	He cried out, fell to the floor--and lifted his head, eyes glowing, face contorted. "Tell me what I need to know!" he snarled, rising. "Tell me about the drownyard!"
Raven Man	"He's asking leading questions, trying to bring certain thoughts to the front of your mind," said the Raven Man. He smirked. "A basic maneuver of the telepath."
Liliana	The smug bastard was right. Liliana's vision swam as Jace tried to force his way into her mind. "Stop it!" she said. "Even if I knew anything about a drownyard, your tricks wouldn't work on me." She sent another bolt of agony through him, then another, but he kept up his attacks. He fell, rose, fell again--and this time only made it back up to his knees before she lashed him again. "Tell me," he growled. Her skin had begun to burn, her demonic scars etched in purple flame. And the Veil...oh, the Veil wanted to help her. It siphoned off a few stray rivulets of necromantic energy and returned them to the stream fivefold. She struggled to hold it back, to keep it from killing him instantly. A niggling thought, something about the connection between the Chain Veil and the Raven Man, but she couldn't focus enough to chase it, not without losing her stranglehold on the Chain Veil's power. "Stop doing this!" she cried. "I can't control--"
Jace	Jace was screaming now, eyes still glowing, his assaults on her mind intensifying along with the pain. "Just...tell...me!"
Raven Man	"He's almost broken through," said the Raven Man. "Kill him."
Liliana	"Don't tell me what to do!" she shouted--at both of them, at the Chain Veil, at the moon and the world and at death itself. "Stop it!" The backlash started, agony suffusing Liliana as the Chain Veil took its toll. Blood began to drip from her scars. She gritted her teeth. She'd felt worse, though--when the scars were administered, for instance. Killing Kothophed. Shandalar, last summer. She'd survive this. Jace might not. She still wasn't sure why she cared about that, but she did.
Jace	"You'll have to kill me," wheezed Jace, tears streaming from inhuman glowing eyes.
Raven Man	"Do it," urged the Raven Man. "Or will you let him kill you?"
Liliana	Liliana's vision began to fade. "Jace, I don't want to hurt you anymore!" The words echoed against stone, the pounding in her head stopped, and for a moment there was no sound but the boom of thunder and the drumming of the rain.
Raven Man	The Raven Man sighed in disgust and disappeared in a rustle of feathers.
Jace	The glow in Jace's eyes faded, and he stared up at her, wan and sweating, looking suddenly very vulnerable and very young. "Any more?" said Jace. His voice was hoarse. "As in, any longer? Or as in more than you already--"
Liliana	"I don't owe you any answers," said Liliana. "And you damn well owe me some." That, at least, told her she was dealing with the real Jace. Who else would pick apart her wording rather than face the reality of the situation?
Jace	"What did you do to me?" he asked, breath still coming in heavy gasps. "I feel like death." "That's the idea." He almost smiled, then his eyes went wide and he staggered to his feet. "You're bleeding!" he said.
Liliana	"Yes." Genuine concern, moments after trying to pry open her mind like a jam jar. Classic Jace, honestly. She didn't know what she expected. "We should--" "No," she said. "Tell me what the hell is going on." Finally, a few zombies padded into the room. Not her freshest specimens. These were the tattered ones she had placed out in the fields to keep the werewolves away with the stench of rot—he'd probably missed them on his sweep. She set them between her and Jace. Keep him away from me.
Jace	"You really don't know?" Zombies grabbed his arms and legs. He didn't struggle. "Jace," she said through gritted teeth. "Explain. Now." "We went to Markov Manor," he said. "It was...inside out, rocks floating everywhere, vampires stuck in the walls. All that. Right? I found a book. It's a fascinating book. She's been studying--"
Liliana	"Who?" Lightning flashed, and Liliana saw the book on his belt. It was a large, ornate thing with an unusual binding. She wouldn't mind perusing it herself—unless it was the reason Jace was so...not himself. "Was Ignis still with you?"
Jace	"The moonfolk! She's been--you know moonfolk? Fascinating book. She's been studying the moon--the moon, and what it causes. The tides, the werewolves, the angels. It's all connected! Those weird stones in the countryside--you haven't touched them, have you? Don't touch them. Just...don't. They all point the same way, so there was a, um...a...they all point toward something, is what I'm saying. Not a compass point. A place." "Where?" A crash of thunder. "Parallax!" said Jace, looking at the window, as though the storm had answered him. "That's the word, thank you." "What place?" "Nephil...Neph...Nephalia," he stammered. "A drownyard, on the coast. I mean, they're all on the coast. Of course they are. Drown. Drawn. I was drawn, to this particular one. That's where I saw it. And that's where I lost Ignis."
Liliana	"You lost him?!" Liliana sputtered, then shook her head. Trying to follow Jace's rambling narrative was difficult enough. After this nonsense, however, she was going to get to the bottom of her paramour's disappearance and Abyss help every zombie, angel, and crazed telepath that stood in her way. "Saw what? What did you see?" "The moon!" he said. She glanced out the window and raised an eyebrow. The moon was hidden behind rain clouds, but her point was clear.
Jace	"Not that moon," he said, as if it were obvious. "The other moon. Invisible...but I saw...doesn't matter. There were angels flying around. Zombies, too. I mean, the angels were flying. They were - uh, the zombies - were building some huge stone structure, angels wheeling in the sky, and I thought--I thought--since you'd tried to keep me from going to Markov Manor...and I know how much you're worried about the Veil. Enough to try something really...crazy." He stared at her, eyes suddenly clear. "It's full of ghosts," he said. "Souls. And you want to be rid of the ghosts but keep their power for yourself. And if there's one thing they know about here, it's ghosts--"
Liliana	Her throat tightened, and for a moment she thought he really had read her mind. Then he snapped his head to one side, where there was nothing but a silent zombie, holding him in place. "Shut up!" he hissed. "Geists, fine! Who cares?" "Who--" Urza's missing eyes, was this what she sounded like while talking to the Chain Veil?
Jace	"Never mind!" he said. "These stone things are redirecting all this mana, and it's all going to this drownyard henge, and the zombies are building it and the angels are going mad and you hate angels and you might...you might need a lot of mana. To be rid of the Chain Veil, or to alter it somehow. That makes sense. Doesn't it?"
Liliana	"No," she said. "It doesn't make any sense, and you're not acting like yourself." It wasn't that unlike Jace, really, to get over-involved in a particularly enticing mystery. But no matter how deep he got, he maintained some measure of control--of himself and his powers, if not of the situation. And the one time she'd seen him lose control, he'd ended up putting himself under a mental lockout that took half a year and the death of a friend to snap him out of. And in that time, he'd thought he was that friend and it had all been the result of her manipulations-- Never mind. Now was hardly the time for reminiscences. Jace was a very powerful telepath. If he went mad, he'd take her with him. Among others.

	"Liliana!" Another familiar voice, ripping through the halls of Vess Manor, as raw and desperate as it had been ripped out of the man himself. Exhausted, bedragged, and truly propelled through the storm by fury and desperation alone, to keep up with a godsdamn Planeswalker in the effort to get back to Stensia on time, he all but collapsed in relief when his burst through the main doors, but the victory of having made it was shortly lived. The lightning crash and thundered behind him as dread clenched his stomach at the utter lack of undead servants to meet him there, and his mind reeled over what that might mean, but, no, he couldn't dwell on that now. He had to find her. "Liliana!" he cried out again, only briefly wondering if stealth would have been a better choice, but with only the heated fuel of his emotions keeping him even standing at this point, it was no use. He charged forward toward her receiving hall, knowing it would be the most likely place to start his search and, hopefully, where his search would also end.
	"Ignis!" Liliana said, forgetting Jace for a moment to all but fly to Ignis as he burst into her receiving room. "Thank Gaea, you're all right. I was worried--" A crash of lightning illuminated a chagrined-looking Jace, still held by her remaining zombies. Her arms surrounded him, mouth finding his, forgetting briefly that her skin was once more wet with blood, and that her kisses would taste of it, too.
	And not to mention the overwhelming, horribly familiar smell of it, reaching him even before Liliana did, but it didn't matter. In that precise moment, the only thing that mattered was that she was in his arms again. (He would have to get used to it, anyway, that coppery sting of her blood on his lips). As he kissed her back, though, he would only let his relief rush into him so far, as he could only begin to imagine what must have occurred to have left her in such a state. "You're bleeding," he stated, unnecessarily, and softly, as he drew away from the kiss. He lifted a hand, to gently brush a thumb against her cheek, the concern and distress even more plain on his face without his glasses. (He'd lost them, somewhere along the way, in his mad dash to return to her, but that mattered least of all at the moment). "I take it Jace has found you, then."
	"I didn't hurt her," Jace protested, then quailed at the glare Liliana shot him over her shoulder. "...Much. I had to try to break into her mind!" He looked at Ignis, pleading. "I told you. I have to stop her. And I can't trust her to tell the truth. Liliana always lies. You must have figured that out by now."
	The irritation and cold fury that crossed Ignis' face at the sound of Jace's voice twitched at that addendum, at that gall... There seemed to be a small battle going on behind that irritation, taking the measure of just what sort of man he was, but then, Jace kept going... "Darling," he said to Liliana, pulling back from her slightly. "Excuse me a moment..." How kind of Jace to make this evening easier for him by broadcasting exactly where he was. Not yet realizing that Jace was already being held back, he reached out to grab a hold of the front of his cloak to help guide his aim better, as he pulled back his fist and sent a punch cracking squarely across the other man's face. Unarmed combat was not his forte, but the tension of this entire escapade had him hitting Jace so hard it stung his knuckles. He gave his hand a furtive shake as he pulled it back and then settled, with a very deep sigh, one arm folded in front of him, supporting the elbow of the arm with the hand now pinching the bridge of his nose. "There," he said, dropping his hand again. "I feel much better now. What's all this, then? About trying to break into your mind?"
	Liliana couldn't bite back her smile. She knew that it likely wasn't just that Jace had attacked her and insulted her that had made Ignis lash out. It had almost certainly been a culmination of all the aggravation he'd undergone dealing with Jace this entire time...but it was still quite nice to have someone moved to defend her honor. Not that she had honor to defend, granted. But then Ignis was asking for clarification and Liliana found herself torn between honesty and the desire to protect herself, to deny the hurt, the fear, indulge in only her anger and let no one know that she was anything but unassailable. Liliana Vess was no one's victim. "He tried to break into my mind," she said airily. "Gave me an ungodly migraine and a nosebleed." She waved a hand dismissing it as unimportant. "The rest of this is actually me. The Chain Veil wanted to help, not that I need it to keep him in check. I wouldn't let it." The backlash from keeping the Veil from turning Jace into a nasty paste on her floor still burned in her scars, but she clenched her jaw and refused to give it the satisfaction of a reaction.
	Ignis had been worried, that the Chain Veil had come into play again, but hearing that it not only hadn't, but that she'd actively refused to use it... Well, this whole tableau would have to wait a moment to continue, because Ignis needed to kiss her again, pouring even more of his relief and gratitude and, yes, absolute utter exhaustion into it. And then, the fussing. "Do you need anything? Are you alright? I'm so sorry I couldn't it make it sooner."
	Liliana stroked his face, fingers gentle and cool, if slightly tacky with drying blood, though so much less than usual when the Chain Veil was involved. "I'm fine, my darling," Liliana said tenderly. "I could use a damp cloth to clean myself up with while I continue to demand what the hell Jace thinks he's doing." She leaned in to kiss him again. "I know you tried, love, and I'm none the worse for wear." Sure, she was bloody and her head throbbed and scars burned and her heart was still racing a mile a minute at how close Jace had come to cracking open her mind and doing who knew what kind of damage to her while he did so, how willing he'd been, but she could handle all of that, now that she knew Ignis was safe. Mmm. Something else to never examine closely.
	"'None the worse for wear,'" Ignis pointed out, "would not require a damp cloth." But he was then kissing her forehead, and pulling her into a gentle embrace just to hold her a moment while he felt terribly conflicted between wanting to go fetch exactly that and how loathe he was in that moment to leave her side. "And I daresay," he murmured, and, yes, he knew you were there in the room, Jace, that was why it was murmured in a way that carried, "I don't believe he's thinking much of anything of value at all." But, more seriously, he added, "I'm afraid that whatever it was we encountered at Markov Manor is affecting him....very poorly. Nor was it helped by a stint in a madwoman's brain."
	Jace glared, then looked around at the bound zombies a little shamefaced. "That's not...not..."
	Liliana squeezed Ignis, brushing one more kiss across his scarred cheek, then reluctantly disentangled herself from his embrace with one last squeeze of his hand. They would have later to continue their reunion, to let Ignis fuss over her, to cuddle and reassure one another that they were both all right. Right now, she needed to figure out what in the Abyss was going on outside her manor walls, and, more importantly, how it was going to affect her. Crossing over to Jace, she stood before him and tried to hold his attention. She didn't want to touch him. She was, in fact, afraid of him. And it was to spite that fear that she cupped his chin, making him look at her. She would not be held captive by fear. Jace, however, blinked and flinched at her touch. "Jace," she said quietly. "What happened to you out there?"
	"Nothing," he said. "Everything. Nothing happened. Everything was already like this." He tried to turn his head, but she held him in place until he was forced to look at her. She stared into eyes that were not quite the eyes she knew. "You really didn't do this?" he asked, voice plaintive. "I really didn't." "Oh, thank gods," he said.
	Now bereft of Liliana's physical presence, Ignis shifted toward them, a thoughtful frown on his face as he wondered when or if he should interject. The knot of frustration still heavy in his stomach tightened, but other parts of him, mostly his sympathy, at the relief in Jace's voice, loosened. But how long would it last? How long before the moment of clarity was buried in the fog of whatever influence had been moving him since Markov Manor? And he was tired. He was exhausted, and just wanted nothing more than to fall into Liliana's arms and let the sweet contentment of sleep whisk him away for a while, but there was still so much at stake. He cleared his throat slightly. "And now," he proposed, "that we've finally crossed out that possibility, we can turn our attention back to who or what actually did do all this. And I don't think it would be a preposterous conjecture to to assume it may be tied to precisely the reason you came here in the first place, Jace."
	Jace slumped forward with relief and Liliana's zombies let go of him. He staggered a bit in place, would have fallen if Liliana hadn't stepped forward and caught him with an aggrieved, "For Gaea's sake, Jace, you're about to topple over." She carried him down to the floor, ending up kneeling beside him while he panted for breath a little bit. Her magic was not kind to the living, even when she had done her best to negate the worst of it. But possibly that could be of use to her right now. If he felt weak, wrung out, maybe he wouldn't be in a hurry to rush off into the night again. She had to keep him here. Had to get him to a healer, or maybe a geistmage - to someone, anyone, who could untangle whatever had happened to his mind. He wouldn't be safe until she did, and, more importantly, neither would she. "You need some rest," she said. "Some time to think. And a bath, if you don't mind me saying so. Both of you." She rested her hand on his on the stone floor, trying to anchor him. Trying to keep him here. "No time," he said. "If it's not you--" "It's not like you to go running off on a hunch. If anything, you should be helping Ignis figure out how everything is linked," said Liliana. Keep him focused. Keep him here. "I know people here. I have access to resources you don't. If this drownyard you saw is connected to what's happening with the angels, we can uncover it. But first you must rest."
	"'The shepherd turns on her flock,'" quoted Jace, as he scrambled back up to his feet. "Tell her, Ignis. Explain. Tell her that we have to go to Thraben." The punch forgotten, he crossed to Ignis, trying to grab onto his arm. "Tell her about the moon! Ignis! The moon! She needs to understand and the--where did the invisible man go?"
	When Jace first started moving toward him, Ignis' first impulse was to pull away, to deftly avoid his reach, but there was something in the shuffle of his stumbling feet that kept him in place, so that not only could Jace grab his arm, but that Ignis could grab his back, too, taking it upon himself to hold both his elbows to steady him, a solid support to rely on. A grip that tightened, slightly, with his ramblings. Invisible...man? A crease of consternation between his brow, but he put it aside, for now. First things first, and the most important thing was trying to settle him. "Yes, Jace," he said. "Of course. I will tell her all we've gathered about the moon, and we'll go to Thraben. But it can wait. It's ben an awfully long slog since Markov Manor; we won't be able to do much good if we're worn and weary and without rest."
	"The shepherd turns on her--is this about Avacyn?" Avacyn had turned on her own, had unleashed violence and cruelty that seemed to shock everyone besides Liliana. "How do you know about Avacyn? Is that from your book?" said Liliana, glancing back down at Jace's belt.
	Jace looked at her, eyes suddenly focused again. He shifted, putting Ignis between himself and Liliana, clutching at the soratami's journal. "You don't get to read it." "I don't want--" said Liliana, then decided on honesty. "I won't." "Good. You've already got too many voices in your head, you don't need more." He shook his head. "Don't experiment with the Veil," he added. "Don't do it. So many voices. So many souls. You don't know what you might unleash." "I--" "Tell me you won't experiment with the Veil. And you won't let the invisible man do that either."
	Liliana made a noise of profound frustration. "Can we please stick to one topic? Those of us whose brains are not currently in pieces can only follow so many jumps at a time." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She needed more wine for this. And a new topic of conversation, one that strayed far from promises about experimentation and invisible men. "You can't just walk up to Avacyn and demand answers. Especially not now. She will kill you." And I'm not sure she'd be wrong, at this point. That grim calculation still stung, and Liliana took a measure of comfort in that.
	"After all, Jace," said Ignis, with the cool drawl of a man who had fully expected his logical reasoning and Very Good Points^TM to continue to fall into unlistening ears, "just think of how well just waltzing up to Markov Manor and the Drownyard Temple went for us." He would certainly agree with Jace on the matter of the voices in Liliana's own head, although he needn't say anything about that. It did make him feel a particular frustration, however, of apparently being the only singularly minded individual in the room. "Gods willing," he added, hoping this case was considered, at the very least, "Thraben will still be there in the morning, and so will Avacyn. Better yet, I suspect...I hope, at any rate, that there are other paths available to us when we get there. Surely Thalia will be willing to assist us...or may be in quite the need of some help herself." Again.
	"Thraben," Jace repeated. "You've been there?"
	Been there, seen it, ghouled the lunarch, committed some war crimes. She wasn't keen on going back. She nodded. "Will you--" "No," she interrupted. "I'm not going with you. But it sounds like Ignis is already planning to go out with you once more." Now she was massaging the front of her forehead. She had an all-over headache and its name was Jace Beleren. "Jace, be sensible. Stay here for the night. We'll make inquiries in the morning. We'll find out what's really going on."
	"We," echoed Jace, coming back to her on uncertain feet, and looming at her as lightning flashed and thunder boomed. "You and I are not a we," he said. "You're trying to keep me here."
	"Oh, for the love of--!" Without even realizing it, Ignis mirrored Liliana in massaging his forehead, cutting himself off with a deep breath as he felt even his nearly unending patience wearing very thin. In fact, as his exhaustion started to weigh even heavier than that patience, he felt, at this point, it was very well broken, and his hands flew into the air in a gesture of irritated surrender. "Yes, Jace," he said, his voice positively dripping with sarcasm he presumed the other man would completely miss, but at least Liliana might get some modicum of amusement out of it. "You know what? You are absolutely right. Your company has been such a spectacularly pleasant experience for all involved that we're positively weeping at the prospect of seeing you leave. But if you insist, by all means, bloody go already. But if you got now, you go alone, and when it all goes to utter shit, then at least you can't say we didn't warn you." And with all of that, all his weariness came crashing down on him. "I, for one, am going to bed. I strongly advise you both to do the same." And, with that, good to his word as always, he huffed slightly, almost gestured to pushing up his glasses before remembering he wasn't wearing them, and turned to depart.
	"You want to help me," he said, "but only if I'll stay with you. Only as long as it's convenient. That about sums things up, doesn't it?"
	"Ig--" Jace's little tirade cut off whatever Liliana was about to say and snapped her temper to boot. Her right hand flared with necromantic energy, acrid and purple-white, as she rose, smoothly, and looked him in the eye. "Right now, the most convenient thing I could possibly do is strike you dead and stop worrying what kind of violence you're going to stir up by shouting accusations at an insane archangel," she hissed, "He actually wants to help you, you petulant, whining child."
	He stepped closer, grabbed her wrist - had he ever grabbed her wrist like that before? Hard enough to make her cry out? — and pointed her glowing palm at his chest. "Do it," he said. His voice was hoarse and wild.
	Ignis had resolved to be done with all of this, and not even think about Jace or Thraben or Avacyn in the slightest until after he'd had his morning coffee, but all that changed abruptly the moment he heard Liliana cry out. Exhaustion? What exhaustion? Nearly as quickly as the lightning that flashed across the sky and very tempted to channel it into his very own dagger, which now found itself neatly poised against Jace's back, his hand a tight grip on his shoulder. But as tempted as he was to just drive that dagger home in his gut, he just pushed it a little more and tightened that grip on his shoulder. His voice was low and dangerous in his ear. "Go to bed, Jace. Whole lot of good you'll be for the Multiverse if you're dead."
	Jace froze, letting go of Liliana's wrist, who snatched it back and massaged where the skin was already turning red. Guilt instantly flooded him. "I...I...I didn't mean--I just want--she doesn't listen--"
	Liliana withdrew to Ignis' side, conveying with a simple touch that he could let Jace go, then sliding her arm in his. "We're going to bed," she said. "I honestly don't care what you choose to do, Jace. Go. Stay. It's no difference to me." Together, she and Ignis headed for the doorway that would lead them deeper into the manor. Just on the threshold, Liliana stopped. Turned around. Looked at Jace who was still standing in the middle of the room, looking like a lost child. Taking Ignis' hand in hers, she kissed his knuckles in a silent bid to have him keep going - he didn't need to delay his trek to bed any later. "You ever have a pet when you were a kid?" she asked instead. "A mouse or something?" "I...I don't remember when I was a kid. Much anyway. W-why?" "Humor me," she said. "You must have taken care of an animal at some point."
	"There was...a dog," he said. "In Ovitzia. I fed her scraps. Scratched her head when I went by." "What happened to the dog?" "One day I came by and she was—" He stopped, swallowed, blinked. "Why are you asking me this?" "How did you feel?" "Sad," he said. "Pretty devastated, actually, for a while. But I--I got over it, obviously." "Why?" "Because...because I always knew it was going to end that way. Didn't think about it, but I knew. I—Lili, why?"
	"Because that's how I'll feel when you're dead, you idiot," Liliana said. "Sad. For a while. And then I'll get over it. Because I always knew it was going to end that way. So don't lean too hard on my good intentions toward you. One of these days you'll find they no longer support your weight." And then she left him there, standing by himself in the center of her receiving room. She'd said her peace. She was going to bed.
	"I'm probably going to die in Thraben," he called after her. "Sorry in advance for that. But somebody has to know what's going on." The sound of footsteps was his only response.