Lillian hardly paid Lex, who was currently standing by her mother talking to the lady of the cloth out of earshot of Lillian or Kaeron, any attention. Her concern was focused on Kaeron, who was doing his best not to care about any of it like usual. He was lying in the tall grass, eyes closed, seemingly unfazed, but something was off. It had felt that way ever since leaving Dekidos, and she was pretty certain that Marie wasn't the cause of, whatever it was... or not the entire cause, at least. He hadn't been sleeping. Neither had she for that matter, which is how she knew that he wasn't, but she doubted that he was also being plagued by nightmares about being kidnapped and tortured every single time that he closed his eyes by still unknown assailants.
He had taken the last three night shifts and would pretend to sleep in the day, letting Lex drive. Honestly, Lillian wasn't sure why she even cared. She was even more surprised to find herself talking to Lex about it but according to Lex, due to the nature of his work, he rarely slept, and Lillian knew with her added presence, and the fact that he still didn't trust her (which never bothered her seeing as the feeling was mutual), that he probably wasn't getting much sleep anyway, but this was different. In all of the time she had spent with him, he had never looked nor even acted tired, but now. That unnaturally beautiful face of his wore dark circles under his eyes, and he was yawning constantly. She had counted six times from where they had left the car to make the hour long trek through dense woods out to this surprisingly well hidden church that he had declared would be a safe place to hide Marie until he could deal with the inevitable wrath of Draefin.
She shook at the name. Anybody who could scare Kaeron terrified her.
"What have I told you about staring." Kaeron growled, not bothering to open his eyes.
Lillian took a step forward but debated rather to push her luck.
He let out an exasperated sigh. "What is it, puppy?"
Her cheeks grew hot. "I was just worried about you, jerk!" She seethed. She felt so stupid for worrying about the ass, but not anymore. He could go right ahead and die from sleep deprivation for all she cared.
"Don't be." He stated coldly, still refusing to look at her.
"Fine, I won't." She spat turning and making it all of two steps when a familiar agonizing pain struck her so hard that her vision blurred, ripping a guttural scream from out of her. The golden light that she tried her best to hide, appearing on display like a beacon, but something was different from the times before. It didn't just stay in her stomach. The light was spreading throughout her body, bringing along with it a heat that boarded the line of painful and threatened to consume her whole.
"Zyla. You have to hurry, sweetheart. Before the crowning. If you don't hurry, it'll be too late to stop it. Do you understand, Zyla!?"
The woman with no face once again stood in front of her, but this time, she was holding Lillian's hand, stroking the back of it as if that somehow could make all of this ok. Electricity danced across their connected hands, but the woman didn't seem to be notice.
"You have to go back now, Zyla. It's alright. I promise that you won't feel alone forever, but you have to go. Now!"
"Mom!" Lillian cried out.
"What?"
Lillian blinked. Kaeron was now upright staring at her with that shrewd gaze of his. She could have sworn she had walked away from him before... whatever that was, unless...
"Now it's my turn." He said, staring her down. "What the hell just happened? It was like you just froze there and not in that way that you do when you're scared, but more like you just... well, froze is the only way I can describe it, and when you finally come to, you call me mom? So, unless I somehow resembled your mother in the sunlight, which I highly doubt." He narrowed his gaze. "Tell me what just happened, and don't even think about lying, or I swear on my sister's life that I'll leave you here with that woman so that you can find your own way to this mythical land of angels, even if I have too drag Lex kicking and screaming.
Lillian lowered her head, avoiding his judging eyes. How much could she trust him with. It was no secret that he'd rather watch her die than put Lex in any more danger but telling him the truth about herself would only serve to put all of them at risk, but without his help she had no chance at making it, and that also was not an option.
She lifted her head again, coming to a decision as she met his gaze. "I can honestly say that I don't know, but I am sure that if it happens again." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I think that I'll die."
******
"Sister Agatha, will you take Marie inside to see her quarters, I would like to have a word with Lexie here." Ordered Pyria the nun who Lex and her mother had been talking to for the past ten minutes or so. The look her mother leveled on Lex with those narrowed eyes told her just how much she didn't want to be here. Of course, she herself had expressed that fact already now at least one hundred times, and that was just in the hour walk it had taken to get here. Lex had had to explain each time why this was absolutely necessary and how it was the best thing for her, but their mother was just as stubborn as her children. It had gotten to the point that in Lex's want to not have the same conversation over again, she had mistakenly asked for Kaerons help, and Kaeron being the child he is had simply stated that "it was either here or in the dirt." Which promptly set off their mother and Lex had had to deal with a hysterical Marie while battling through the chilly morning air with nothing but a stupid t-shirt that had got pooped on by a bird halfway through their walk, the insensitive asshole.
Lex just smiled at her and waved goodbye as she was whisked away by the short, stocky nun, who seemingly appeared out of thin air.
"You love your mother." Pyria smiled.
"I do." Lex said, facing her. "So sorry if my brothers recommendation of this place isn't enough to convince me that you won't betray us the second we leave. I don't know you, and I'll need to be more thoroughly convinced that I can trust you before I make my decision." Lex said, folding her arms, leveling a look on the nun that would even put Kaeron to shame.
The woman didn't so much as flinch. "I expected as much. You are a smart, intuitive woman, after all. I would expect no less. Men think they rule the world, but really. It's only because we allow them to think that, come. Let us walk while we chat."
Lex nodded, first looking back to where Lily and Kaeron stood engrossed in a conversation and decided that letting the two of them work it out by themselves may be beneficial for their relationship (if that's what you could call them constantly arguing and insulting each other). Besides, he wouldn't just snap and kill her... probably.
She followed after the nun catching up in two long strides.
"As you know, Solaris history is split by great eras." Pyria began, and Lex nodded.
"The era of the old gods, though, besides the single bone that dates back further than any recorded history, that's kept locked away in the hidden archives in Corrin, nobody can really prove that there isn't only three eras, seeing as nothing else from that so called era has ever been discovered." Lex stated.
Pyria nodded in approval and continued where Lex had left off. "The era of the old gods, The Birth, The Great Rebirth, and the current era, The Divide."
Lex smiled at a bird that was singing its song on a pretty tree that had yet to start losing its golden leaves. The trees that surrounded this place were gorgeous and ginormous, stretching all the way into the clouds, acting like a natural occurring wall hiding the even more beautiful lavender roses that grew wildly, down the side of the trees the deeper into the woods you went, and it all made Lex feel so... tiny.
"Each changing of an era was caused by a major event." She continued. "The era of the old gods end is self-explanatory, the end of The Birth was caused by The Reimagining, but what is most commonly known as The Great Shattering." She said, and Lex noted more than a little venom at the name for the ancient witch Beatrices pointless war.
"You're a follower?" Lex guessed. She had never met one in person. The little she did know of them came from books or teachers or Kaeron, but Pyria seemed relatively normal, and she definitely didn't look like the type to eat the flesh from off her bones.
Pyria looked at Lex, her smile dimmer now than before. "No, I do not worship the ancient witch queen like some kind of goddess, but I do believe in what she was trying to achieve. We all do." She said, gesturing back toward the church.
"What she was trying to achieve." Lex repeated, scowling, but before she could argue further, Pyria held up a hand.
"Arguing about it would be pointless. You have been lied to all of your life, and I doubt you'd be able to accept the truth if I showed you it on a crystal ball."
Lex scoffed, mainly at audacity of this woman putting her hand up to silence her, but also at the fact that she just insinuated that somehow the witch who slaughtered countless individuals was in the right.
"Besides," Pyria said, ignoring her, "we're getting off track. The Ard Church was founded back during the end of The Reimagining, for one purpose."
"And what would that be?" Lex huffed a breath, still a little annoyed by the hand thing.
"To help hide and relocate Necromancers, and people like you from the people who'd seek to erase history."
Lex stopped moving, and confusion rippled throughout her body. "What does that mean?"
Pyria stopped a few steps ahead of her but didn't turn around. "The Necromancers had turned their backs on the..."
"The World Covenant and were hunted almost to extinction, I know this already!" Lex snapped. "Tell me about the second part, the part about people like me. Do you mean Dragon Shifters?"
Slowly, Pyria shook her head, still not turning to face her. "You're only partially correct.." She suddenly whipped around and moved so fast that Lex wouldn't have believed it if not for the fact that the nuns face was now only a few inches from her own. "But that's all I can say, the church has grown soft in the years since its founding and has forbidden us from speaking about it to those still yet to have awakened even though in my opinion its a waste of gifted ones like yourself, but the grand master the arrogant fool, is not keen on his authority being challenged." She hissed in a whisper.
Lex took a step back, but Pyria followed her retreat and grabbed her by the arm.
"You can trust that we will keep your mother safe of this, I can assure you, but you have a much more pressing matter to deal with and even telling you this much could have more banished or worse, but you need to know if you are to have a chance at survival. Do not give in. It wants you to be afraid, and it will try everything that it can to make you afraid, and you will feel like you're about to break. Don't." Worry was basically pulsing from out of every pore of the woman, and Lex couldn't help the sinking panic that had begun to takeover her mind.
What the hell was this woman going on about? Lex opened her mouth to try and get some answers.
"Pyria, Myron needs your help tending to the goats. He says Missy is giving him trouble again." Somebody called from behind Lex, interrupting her.
"Don't tell anybody about this conversation or more than just my life will be in danger, do you understand?" Pyria said, staring at Lex with a fear in her brown eyes that matched her own.
"Pyria!" The person insisted, but Pyria held Lex's gaze for a heartbeat, two. She didn't look away until Lex finally nodded.
"Good." Pyria looked past Lex and shouted back at the person. "I'm coming!" Before turning her attention back onto Lex. "Come and seek us out if you survive... once you survive the awakening." She held onto Lex's hand for a moment longer, looking at her with a mixture of fear and sadness before letting her go and rushing back toward the church, leaving Lex speechless where she stood.
What the fuck was that.