Lilith's Shadow Omnibus: Volume 2, page 20
“This is hard for me to believe,” Gina said, rubbing her forehead. As Lilith looked at her unhappily, the heroine quickly added, “I’m not saying I don’t believe you! I just have a hard time believing it. It’s just… I suppose I’d find it more believable if you’d been kidnapped by Hermes or something. He’s been known to do that.”
On the other hand, Rachel was just looking at Lilith, a pensive expression on her face. It took her a few more moments before she spoke, and when she did, relief rushed through Lilith.
“I believe you, Lilith. What we found there… the magic was strange. I couldn’t decipher it, and neither could anyone else I spoke to about it. Coupled with us being unable to find you even via divinations… it would explain things. I just don’t understand,” Rachel said, sighing. “Why would they take you away without a hint of explanation? Why would they take you at all?”
“I don’t think that they knew when it would happen. Just that it would eventually,” Lilith said, shrugging. “As for the rest… I don’t know. Ra and Bastet were… odd. Serket healed me, but much of what she said was oblique, and now that I examine it again, she told me a lot of nothing. It was interesting, if completely jarring… and not something which I’d have agreed to, under the circumstances.”
“I hear that,” Gina said, shivering. “Stalker Seven was really irritated about your disappearance. I think he was hoping to have you dead before we could respond. And the sheer amount of apologizing that we heard from Carolyn… I think you’re going to have a small mob waiting for you tomorrow.”
Lilith nodded, grimacing at the thought, but she could understand it. She was somewhat lucky that she hadn’t shown up when people were around, she supposed, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.
“Did they give you anything?” Rachel asked suddenly, jarring Lilith out of her thoughts.
“Hm?” Lilith asked, blinking and looking over at Rachel curiously.
“The gods. Did they give you something? I mean, if they brought you to their realm, they had to have a reason for it,” Rachel clarified, blushing a little as she added, “I’ve heard of them being really generous.”
“Yes, at least after a fashion. I haven’t had a chance to go through the bag Ra gave me… it’s in the other room,” Lilith said, nodding toward the wall. “It’s rather heavy. The really interesting thing is what he did to the pendant, though. I’m not sure that I dare take him up on his offer, though.”
“What offer?” Gina asked, looking at the pendant again. “Why’d it change colors, anyway?”
“Remember how Insight told us that there were rumors that people could go through more than two awakenings, but even a second awakening like mine was incredibly rare?” Lilith asked, quirking an eyebrow at them. The two nodded, and she shrugged. “Well… he confirmed that a third was possible. He just said that those who’ve tried thus far have all been in such bad situations that the process killed them instead.”
“Oh, ick,” Gina said, suddenly looking queasy. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t. He… put an opportunity in the ankh, though,” Lilith said, raising it and smiling at them wryly. “He told me that it would allow me, and only me, the opportunity to go through another awakening if I chose to accept it. The part that concerns me is that he said that surviving it would be my problem.”
The two heroines stared at the ankh for several seconds, then looked at each other. For a moment Lilith wondered if she’d said something wrong, but then Rachel smiled wryly.
“You do know how to keep life interesting, don’t you?” Rachel said, shaking her head. “Now, as much as I want to keep talking, I do need to sleep. I’m sorry, Lil.”
“It’s alright,” Lilith said, growing just a little disappointed, but she got up and walked over to Rachel. “I’ll see the two of you in the morning. Assuming I don’t get abducted by another deity in the middle of the night.”
Rachel giggled, pulling Lilith into a hug and giving her a quick kiss. Lilith returned the kiss as Gina stood while laughing.
“That would be awkward. Don’t do that, Lilith,” Gina said, hugging Lilith just as she pulled away from Rachel.
“I’ll try. Alas, I appear to have rather little control over what they decide to do,” Lilith said, smiling and hugging Gina again. She was a little disappointed that they weren’t even more concerned about her, but Lilith tried to suppress the worry. Something felt… wrong. Like she was missing something important.
“Well, at least we’ll have some clue if it does. See you in the morning,” Gina said, releasing Lilith after several moments.
Smiling, Lilith made her way to the door and out again, and paused to hear the heroine lock her door again. Her smile faded a little as she stepped over to her own room and unlocked it, murmuring, “Good night, both of you.”
She’d only barely stepped into her room when Lilith stiffened suddenly, realizing what she’d been missing.
Her link to Gina was missing, she realized, mentally groping for it. That was what was missing. And not just Gina, but Rachel’s wasn’t there either. She searched for them quickly, growing more and more frantic… and for an instant she wondered if Ra had broken the bond. She dismissed the thought just as rapidly, as it didn’t make any sense to her. No, the bond was gone, and anxiety hit her.
“They’re… no, why is this happening? I was only gone for most of a day…” Lilith whispered, wondering what she’d done wrong.
She doubted she’d be able to sleep well, not now.
Chapter 26
Friday, August 15th, 2031
Astrodome Convention Center, Las Vegas
“She was where?” Carolyn demanded, incredulity rushing through her.
“Abducted by the Egyptian pantheon, according to Morgan,” Adam said, a look of skepticism on his face. She couldn’t blame him since she felt about the same… and she had far more experience with heroes and villains than he did. “I asked if she was joking, and she said no. Apparently, Lilith was about as bewildered about the entire thing as they were. She never really studied mythology, or she’d have thought she’d been hallucinating or something.”
“‘Or something’ is right. Maybe someone kidnapped her and is screwing with her head… oh, hell, the police are going to want to interview her for hours,” Carolyn groaned, rubbing her eyes. “Did you contact them, yet?”
“Yup. I think I saw a couple of officers come through a couple of minutes later, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to interview her already,” Adam explained, gesturing toward the door with his coffee. “I had a chat with security, and they pulled up footage of what happened. It was the strangest thing, a big glowing circle appeared in midair, and she fell out of it. At 2 AM, no less, so no one noticed her arrive.”
“Damn,” Carolyn swore under her breath, her thoughts racing. Even if Adam didn’t think it was possible that Lilith was telling the truth, she knew better. There had been too many close calls with powerful beings over the years for her to take them lightly. Carolyn might doubt it was the Egyptian gods, but with as many people as had been stumped by Lilith’s disappearance, it had to be someone powerful.
While the revelation was an unpleasant one, after a few seconds she decided that it wasn’t a threat, or at least not a real one. Word would already have begun to spread if the abductors knew what was planned for the convention and had told Lilith. Either they didn’t know, or they didn’t care. That was what she had to believe, anyway.
“What do we do?” Adam asked, taking a sip of his coffee. “Things have been hell ever since she showed up.”
“The same thing we were planning to begin with. If anyone asks, she’s reappeared, and they can ask her where she went,” Carolyn told him, shrugging in response. She straightened a moment later. “Either way, try to increase security, hm? I know we don’t have a lot of people, but I’m getting really tired of these attacks.”
“I’ll let Jake know. He’s going to be really irritable that she’s back, after the reaming you gave him,” Adam said, smirking.
Carolyn rolled her eyes at him and headed for the door, waving back at Adam as she replied. “Well, he can just deal with it. I’ll go have a chat with the nice officers, and maybe something will go as planned today.”
Astrodome Hotel, Las Vegas
The warm water sluiced off Rachel in a steady wave, and as it did, she thought. She could faintly hear someone talking through the wall, likely the police that Gina had said were at Lilith’s door. Gina had suited up to keep an eye on them while they interviewed Lilith, and if Rachel didn’t have a panel in a little over an hour, she’d be there too.
But the solitude gave her a few moments to think about the last few days, and to perform a little self-reflection. For whatever reason, when she was near Gina that seemed to be almost impossible, which was puzzling, as were her own recent actions.
The previous week she’d never have let Lilith out of sight at the convention. Not when there’d been one assassination attempt before the convention even started. Even if Lilith had been with Spark, that didn’t explain why she hadn’t been keeping a closer eye on her, rather than worrying about Gina flirting with Vindicator, of all people. Her friend might have had a crush on Vindicator for a long time, but it’d never gone anywhere, which made it even more puzzling. Something was wrong, and Rachel wasn’t sure what… but she was going to find out.
“Alright, let’s see what I can find,” Rachel muttered, tapping the silver ring around her right index finger. She almost never took it off, and she often wondered if Gina even remembered she’d given it to her. She mouthed the words of a spell, and a mist of purple magic seeped out of the right, swirling as the water pelted through it, then wrapped around Rachel’s body.
Examining herself wasn’t quite as effective as someone else looking her over, Rachel knew. Some effects could hide themselves from their victims, but since she’d already noticed something, Rachel doubted that this was one of them. And, as she filtered through her body, Rachel stopped dead, paling despite the warm water washing over her.
“Shit. Ohh… shit,” Rachel whispered, horrified by what she was sensing.
Pervasive psychic energy was imbued throughout her mind, but especially around her emotional centers, which was horrifying. It was subtle, it had to be for her to not notice it for this long, but the moment she started looking it stood out like a beacon. Worse, she thought she recognized the psychic energy, and that terrified her. Lilith was right; Shadowmind was definitely still active.
Rachel considered for just a moment more, then took a deep breath. She’d chosen to do this in the shower for the simple reason that running water helped with magical cleansings. She’d best remove any link that had been planted, and she could figure out what had been done later.
As she got to work, Rachel simply hoped that Gina hadn’t been hit as well. She didn’t put a lot of faith in that, though.
“I hope that Lilith isn’t complicit,” Rachel murmured to herself, her fear spiking hard.
She focused on the cleansing, planning to get it done as quick as she could.
Shadowmind Redoubt Invincible, Asteroid Belt, Sol
Amber stiffened as the psychic link snapped, freezing in the middle of her work, and she muttered, “Damnit. When it rains, it pours.”
“Mistress?” Circe asked, her voice a touch confused.
“I just lost my psychic link to Morgan Le Fay. She must have detected my link,” Amber said, grimacing slightly, then she relaxed as she thought more. “Still, I suppose it isn’t too much of a loss. I’ll probably lose the one to Warden as well, but… they’re not going to be able to tell what I’ve been doing to them, aside from the fact it regarded their emotions toward Lilith. That will probably do a lot of the job of driving them apart for me.”
“I understand, Mistress. As it happens, I have noticed that they had distanced themselves from her somewhat of late. It was most obvious when they were not there to protect her,” Circe replied calmly.
“Good. We’ll see what happens, I suppose. Now I just need to see how long it takes for the link to Warden to break. I suppose I could try to make her unwilling to let that happen but… eh, not worth the effort,” Amber said, shaking her head. “They’ll realize the error of their ways eventually. If they just knelt down and begged to serve me, their lives would be much better.”
“As you say, Mistress,” Circe agreed, and Amber got back to work.
Chapter 27
Friday, August 15th, 2031
Astrodome Hotel, Las Vegas
“Of course I don’t have any corroborating testimonies. I got yanked into a world that the inhabitants claimed was the afterlife of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon,” Lilith said, just a touch exasperated. “I know there was footage of me reappearing in the convention center, which I’d hope would help.”
“Sorry, ma’am, but we just have to check,” Officer Woolford said, jotting down a note on her tablet, something different than Lilith had seen before. All of the other officers she’d been interviewed by had used regular notepads.
“I’m not surprised either, Lilith. I mean, you did have someone trying to kill you,” Gina said, already suited up to look like Warden. “Even if Stalker Seven is in jail, that means more people could be coming after you. Or that you could have been replaced, like Blooming Orchid was.”
“I thought that the Doppelgangers have been doing community service in San Francisco, though,” Lilith protested, frowning at the thought.
“They have, but they aren’t the only shapeshifters out there. One villain managed to replace our forensic pathologist for a couple of weeks,” Officer Jenkins interjected, the blonde glancing at Lilith’s bed regularly. Lilith couldn’t blame her, since Ra’s gifts were laid out on the bed.
She didn’t know why he’d given her a new undersuit. This one was primarily white with gold trim, and included a golden ankh on the back and chest. Personally, Lilith didn’t think it would look that good on her, but she wasn’t going to say that aloud. There was also a chessboard made of polished wood, with gold pieces that had a distinctly Egyptian theme for one side, while the other was made of some sort of bright green crystal that Lilith desperately hoped weren’t emeralds. There were also a few other gold statuettes, including one of a man with the head of a falcon, and a broad necklace like Lilith had seen worn in various depictions of Ancient Egypt that morning, though hers was significantly heavier-looking, as it had numerous gold beads and fasteners.
The police had taken pictures of all of it, murmuring something about running it through the system to make sure that no antiquities were missing, but Lilith doubted that they’d find anything. If they did, she was going to be very annoyed with Ra.
“Really? What were they doing?” Gina asked, looking at the officer in shock. “I mean, the medical examiner? I’d expect them to try to replace the chief or something.”
“Not when they were trying to falsify the cause of death in a few cases. Someone really wanted insurance money,” Officer Woolford said, shaking her head. “Too bad they didn’t get someone who was good at both acting and performing the job right. We noticed after a bunch of people were given verdicts that were odd, to say the least.”
“That does not sound pleasant,” Lilith said, growing a little queasy at the idea of examining bodies. While she was reasonably comfortable with many aspects of life, bodies weren’t among them. She didn’t like being reminded of her mortality.
“It wasn’t,” Officer Jenkins agreed, looking at her partner. “You think that’s what we need, though?”
“It should be enough, yes,” Officer Woolford said, nodding and looking up at Lilith, a cool smile on her face as she added, “You are a lot of trouble, you know. I’m surprised you even leave your house.”
“I’d rather risk being killed than to hide at home constantly. That’s little better than being in prison, if you ask me,” Lilith said, pausing before she admitted, “Though this time came a bit closer than I’d like. I don’t think I’m going to be chasing any villains into the basement alone anymore. I think that being choked has to be at the bottom of the list of sensations I’ve experienced.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Gina said, grinning as she nodded to the officers. “Thanks for keeping this relatively pleasant. Hopefully this is the last time we have to talk to Vegas’s finest on the trip.”
“I have my doubts, with the company you’re keeping,” Officer Jenkins said with a grin. “Unless you manage to keep her out of trouble for three days, which given the last two…”
“That’s why I’m attending all of the same panels as them,” Lilith said, a little miffed by their opinions, though she couldn’t blame them. The convention hadn’t been nearly as relaxing as she’d hoped it’d be. “I can’t think of any other solution that doesn’t involve me leaving, and that would be rude.”
The officers looked at one another, then Officer Jenkins laughed, shaking her head as they headed for the door while replying. “Personally, I think they’d thank you for leaving. We’ll see ourselves out.”
Lilith watched them go, then let out a sigh as the door closed, crossing her arms as she muttered, “They don’t believe me, do they? Ra said people would be skeptical, but I thought that with as many impossible things heroes do every day, he’d be wrong.”
“No, they don’t… and while heroes and villains do perform acts which are incredible, those are things they’ve gotten used to, Lilith,” Gina said, stepping over and giving Lilith a hug with one arm. “Your claim, though… it means that there’s an entire set of deities that isn’t the ones they’re used to just sitting out there, and able to interfere. People get nervous about the unknown.”
