Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 145: Date with Lilith [4] The Birth of a Witch

Cassian stood behind the swing, watching Lilith’s back as she swung slowly before him.

"Back then..." Lilith said, slowing the swing by dragging her feet on the ground.

"I didn’t even know what an Avatar was. I doubt there was a single person in that small geography I lived in who knew the meaning of the word. Ignorance is sometimes the greatest bliss, isn’t it my prince?"

She tilted her head slightly to the side, her eyes drifting away.

"Back then, church, religion, priests... Such things hadn’t spread to the east, to our lands."

"People prayed to the soil, the sun, and the rain. Of course, we knew gods existed; their names were mentioned in ancient parchments left from our ancestors, in the songs of bards."

"But to us, they were nothing more than legends, fairy tales told to put children to sleep. Untouchable beings living in the sky, having no business with us mortals..."

Her voice trembled and turned into a whisper.

"Until... Yavres made me his avatar and became the master of my dreams."

Cassian frowned. "How old were you?" he asked harshly.

"Eight," Lilith said with a bitter smile. "I was just eight years old. My world consisted of this swing I’m riding, the cheap but frilly dresses my father bought, and the songs my mother sang while combing my hair. I was a small child unaware of everything."

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as if reliving that moment.

"One night... He summoned me to his own dimension. I was in a dream, but everything was more vivid than reality."

"It was a place where snow fell even though the sun was shining, where trees bore golden fruits, and the sky shone with colors I had never seen."

"I was wandering around there in astonishment when I met him."

"He said he was a god, the owner of the universe we live in. He told me I was blessed by him, that I now had an unbreakable bond with him. His tone was so soft, so reassuring... It was more tender than even my father’s voice."

Lilith wrapped her hands around the chains of the swing.

"He gave me a tour of his paradise. He offered me fruits, made crowns from flowers that never faded. Everything was so beautiful, so perfect that I felt like the protagonist of a fairy tale."

"At the end of that first meeting, when it was time to part, he bowed before me. A god bowed before an eight-year-old peasant girl and put his finger to his lips. ’This is our little secret,’ he said. ’You are the chosen one, Lilith. You are special.’"

Lilith laughed, but the sound was like a sob stuck in her throat.

"To be special... How enchanting a word for a child, isn’t it? For me, it was just a fun, mysterious game. It was like a small child making an extraordinary imaginary friend that no one else could see. Back then, I didn’t know this was a chain cast upon my soul, or what being ’chosen’ actually meant."

The swing creaked slightly.

"After that day, he continued to enter my dreams a few times a month. He showed me more wonderful things each time. He told stories; he spoke of the creation of the world, the dance of the stars. He lit small lights at his fingertips for me, bent time. He said one day I could use these powers just like him, that I could beautify the world. Day by day, the bond between us strengthened. I saw him not just as a god, but as my best friend, my confidant."

Lilith threw her head back and looked at Cassian. There was pure sorrow in her eyes.

"After my mother and father... he was the third person I loved most in this world."

Cassian remembered the days he spent in Dr. Aris’s laboratory. Those voices telling him he was "special," that fake affection... He felt nauseous.

Lilith turned back to the front and continued.

"But one day... His face was sullen. His paradise had turned gray. He made a strange request of me. He said he was very lonely, that he had no one in that vast eternity. Imagine, Cassian, a massive god was crying on a little girl’s shoulder. He told me, ’I can only meet with you a few times a month, and for all the remaining time, I am all alone in that endless void.’"

Her voice hardened.

"I pitied him. With my child’s heart, I felt sad for his fake loneliness. I asked him what I could do for him. After all, we were best friends, right? Friendship required sacrifice."

"And he," Lilith said, choosing her words one by one, "asked me to take him to my world, to my boring, mortal world."

"He said it was a very simple procedure, that we would just deepen the bond between us a little more. ’Just let me,’ he said. ’This way, I will be with you, inside your heart, at every moment. We will never part.’"

Lilith gritted her teeth.

"And I... In my stupid, naive state... said ’Yes’. I formed that bond with him, I opened the doors of my soul wide."

"After that moment, everything changed. He could now speak to me not only in my dreams but in real life, even when I was awake. His voice echoing inside my mind was sometimes even louder than my own thoughts. He would enter and exit my mind whenever he wanted, without recognizing any barriers."

"I kept hiding this from my family. Because this was our little secret."

"But my family... One day they noticed the strangeness in me."

"My frequent spacing out, smiling while staring into the void, whispering to myself... They were worried about me. When they asked, ’Daughter, are you okay?’, I lied to them on Yavres’s instructions. ’Everything is fine,’ I said. ’I’m just playing a game.’"

The air suddenly grew cold. Lilith’s shoulders tensed.

"But one day... The game ended. Things started to change, pink dreams turned into nightmares. One afternoon, while playing in the field... My consciousness shut off as if a switch had been flipped. Darkness. Just darkness."

She fell silent. She fixed her eyes on a point, as if seeing that moment again.

"When I opened my eyes... When my consciousness jolted back into place, I wasn’t in the field anymore. In front of me... there were many corpses. Thousands of people... Armored soldiers, peasants, horses... All lay lifeless, torn apart, clutching their weapons. Behind me was a castle shattered to pieces, not a stone left standing, a village burning in flames. The smell of smoke burned my throat."

She raised her hands and looked at them, trembling.

"I went into shock for a moment. I thought I was still in one of those dreams. But the smell... The smell of blood and burnt flesh was too real. When I looked at my hands... Those small, delicate hands of mine... Were covered in warm, sticky blood up to my wrists. There were pieces of flesh under my fingernails."

Cassian narrowed his eyes and listened carefully to what Lilith was about to say.

"At that moment," Lilith said, her voice trembling. "Yavres spoke to me from inside my mind. His voice wasn’t so soft anymore. ’They were bad people,’ he said. ’They were going to hurt you. They needed to be punished. We just delivered justice.’ I didn’t even understand what he was saying. Who was bad? What had I done? Fear seized my whole body and I fainted right there, amidst those corpses."

"When I came to... I was home. In my safe, warm bed. My mother was by my bedside, she hugged me. But her hug wasn’t like before; she was trembling. There was an expression on her face more scared and anxious than I had ever seen before. It was as if she wasn’t hugging her own daughter, but a monster she didn’t know. And my father... He was sitting in the corner of the room and wouldn’t look at my face. He couldn’t."

"When I asked my mother what happened... She answered hesitantly, stuttering. For a full month... I had been missing for a month. I was lost. And a month later, at midnight, when I reappeared in the village square... I was covered in blood. My hair, my dress, my face... As if I had bathed in blood."

Lilith let out a bitter laugh.

"But do you know what was the scariest part? In that state, inside that pool of blood... I had a huge, innocent, and happy smile on my face. As if I had played my best game."

Cassian got goosebumps.

"The villagers..." Lilith whispered.

"They thought I was a demon, that I brought a curse. Some even grabbed their scythes to kill me right there that night."

"If not for my father... My father begged them, knelt before them. ’She is just a child,’ he said. He saved me from death that night."

"After that... My life turned into a dungeon. My family started to be ostracized by the village. No one spoke to us, everyone spat on the ground when passing in front of our house. Even... Even my mother and father, every time they looked at me, I saw that suspicion in their eyes. They thought a demon had possessed me, that their daughter was no longer that old girl."

"As for Yavres... he was constantly crying inside my mind, apologizing to me. ’I lost control,’ he was saying. ’I wanted to protect you, I overdid it. It’s all my fault, forgive me Lilith.’"

"He was so sad that... And I, with my child’s mind, didn’t abandon him while the whole world turned its back on me. I didn’t care what people thought. I didn’t care about my mother’s fear."

Her eyes hardened.

"Yavres was my friend. My only friend. He couldn’t be bad, he wouldn’t lie to me. People were wrong, not him."

The swing sped up, and so did Lilith’s voice.

"The troubles didn’t end there. The nightmare was just beginning. A few times a month, sometimes once a week... I continued to disappear mysteriously. No matter what my family did; even if they locked the doors, nailed boards to the windows, kept watch over me... Somehow, I managed to vanish as if I had turned into smoke. And for a long time, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, I wouldn’t be around."

"Of course, the villagers too... Gossip travels faster than wind. They learned this somehow."

"A few months later..." Lilith’s voice turned ice cold. "People started disappearing in the village and surrounding towns. Either they were never found, or they were found dead in their homes, in their beds, torn apart and unrecognizable. The massacres had begun."

She looked at Cassian.

"The eyewitnesses, the few madmen who survived that savagery, said only one thing: A white-haired girl child dancing covered in blood, with that terrible smile on her face..."

"One day... After another one of those disappearances, when I appeared in the village square covered in blood again, my dress in tatters... The situation had changed now."

"This time, my father’s pleas, my mother’s tears wouldn’t be enough. The situation had reached a degree that exceeded even my family’s defense."

"I was scared... I was surrounded. Dozens of people with torches, scythes, stones, and sticks in their hands... Our neighbors, my father’s friends... They all wanted to kill me. There was pure hatred in their eyes. ’Devil!’ they were shouting. ’Witch!’"

Lilith’s voice broke.

"Even... Even my family... They were standing behind that crowd but they didn’t come to get me. My father had bowed his head. My mother had covered her face. They left me to that crowd."

"People started stoning me. The first stone hit my shoulder, it hurt. The second split my head, blood flowed into my eye. ’Mom!’ I screamed, but my mother didn’t move. I was scared, I was hurting, I was about to die."

"At that moment... In that moment of despair... Yavres spoke in my mind. His voice was stronger, clearer than ever. He became my only support. ’Don’t be afraid, Lilith,’ he said. ’They don’t deserve you. They abandoned you, but I am here. Trust me. Just trust me and let go.’"

"And I... I let go. I closed my eyes and allowed him."

There was a long silence. The swing stopped.

"When I came to..." said Lilith, her voice like a whisper from the grave. "The whole village... Was ruined. Houses were burning."

"The people who stoned me... Their corpses were everywhere. Torn apart, crushed, destroyed. Blood had turned the village soil into mud."

"It was quiet. There was only the crackling of the dying fire. Walking on the familiar road inside the ruined village, I returned to my family’s house. Only that place... Only our house remained intact."

"I entered through the door. ’Mom? Dad?’ I called out. Maybe... Maybe they are alive. Maybe they will forgive me."

Lilith covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders began to shake.

"And when I arrived home... When I entered the living room... My world collapsed on me."

She pointed her finger up, to an imaginary ceiling.

"My mother and father... They had tied ropes to the ceiling beam. The chairs were knocked over. Both of them... Were hanging from the ceiling with ropes around their necks. Side by side. Hand in hand."

Cassian’s breath was taken away. This image... This scene reviving in his mind was a tragedy beyond brutality.

"I fell to my knees," said Lilith, her voice drowning in sobs.

"I tore out my hair, I scratched my face with my nails. I cried screaming as loud as I could until my voice was hoarse. Maybe I hadn’t killed them but... They died because of me. They hanged themselves because of me."

She raised her head, tears streaming from her eyes but her expression was dull.

"I was all alone now. I had no family. I had no home. I had no village. I had no one."

"But..."

Lilith wiped the tears from her eyes harshly and that dangerous glint returned.

"But Yavres spoke. ’Don’t be sad,’ he said. ’I will always be with you.’"

"He told me I shouldn’t be sad for my family. He whispered that they were weak, that they couldn’t love me, that they chose to abandon me in my hardest moment, that they threw me in front of those stones. ’They didn’t deserve you,’ he said. ’Look, I am here. I protected you.’"

Lilith looked at Cassian. There was a glint in her eyes, a mixture of hatred and sadness.

"Unlike them... He promised he would stay by my side forever, that he would never leave me. And that promise... In the middle of that bloody, dilapidated house, in the shadow of the swinging corpses... Became my only support, my only truth."

"That’s how it is, my prince..." Lilith’s voice was hoarse, a forced smile on her face.

"A god creates a child like this. First, he loves them, then destroys their world, and then extends his hand as the only savior over that ruin. And you... You have no choice left but to take that hand."