With two beings now bound under contract, Liliana could finally begin moving toward her true aims: the steady expansion of the Dark Hold and the quiet gathering of every useful truth about Cylas and the distant world of Loreua.
She remained seated at the black table, the empty chamber still carrying the faint metallic sweetness of the blood in her glass.
After a moment, she set the glass aside and activated another innate power.
[Goddess’ Edit (God)]
HUMMMM!!!!
A deep, resonant surge of divinity rolled through the room.
In the same breath, an ancient grimoire of pure black leather appeared in her hands, its cover etched with shifting crimson runes.
The pages turned themselves until they settled on a fresh spread.
There, word for word, the contract she had just offered the couple manifested in the same red lettering.
Liliana’s smile stretched wider, slow and laced with a hint of mischief.
"Well then," she murmured into the stillness, "time for the fine print."
She had, of course, left it out of the original contract on purpose—why risk letting others discover her true intentions?
That would be reckless.
Now, with deliberate care, she began to speak, each syllable curling into the air before sinking into the page in vivid, pulsing red script, as though the grimoire itself leaned in to listen.
"When that man returns to his clan, every fragment of knowledge... the clan holds—memories, records, secrets, and spoken truths—shall pass silently through the contract and into my possession."
The letters settled, glowing once before sinking into the page.
"When the human returns to her clan, a small black bird shall appear unseen among them. It will carry word of the Dark Hold to the nearest faction, planting the first seed without leaving a single trace of its origin."
The letters glowed briefly before sinking into the page with a faint sound.
Liliana shut the grimoire, the heavy cover meeting the pages with a soft thud, and the book dissolved into drifting specks of dark light that vanished before reaching the table.
She leaned back in the chair, the blood-red coat draping around her as if it had a will of its own, and raised the wine glass once more.
The dark liquid caught the faint twin-sunlight that slipped through the narrow windows.
She took a slow sip, but the smile that had lingered on her lips gradually softened into something quieter, heavier.
Her gaze drifted toward the far wall without truly seeing it.
’Father...’
The thought arrived unbidden, carrying the memory of him on the Underside battlefield.
Her fingers tightened around the stem of the glass until the crystal threatened to creak.
She was genuinely more than worried about his condition, even though he’d been fully healed when he left.
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder... had he made it to safety after she left him?
The uncertainty sat in her chest like a cold weight she could not fully push away.
’And Mother...’
She missed her mother perhaps more than anything else in this moment.
For the past years... she’d only clung to the distant memory she had of the woman in her mind.
Liliana’s free hand curled slowly into a fist against the black wood of the table.
’Just... what had become of mother in all this time?’ She thought, wondering about her mother’s situation.
She exhaled through her nose, a soft, controlled sound, and forced her shoulders to loosen.
The thought of Akasha came to mind next, an ever-present pull toward him that never really disappeared, just lingered quietly beneath everything else.
’Ugh... I really need to finish my work on this world... fast,’ she mused, knowing that right after her mother, Akasha was the one she missed most.
Even more than Amber.
Her thumb idly traced the rim of the glass once, twice, before she stopped, letting her mind finally drift to thoughts of Amber.
A genuine, low laugh escaped her, surprising even herself in the empty chamber.
She shook her head slightly, the wide brim of the blood-hat shifting with the motion, and the earlier tension in her posture eased by a fraction.
"I truly wonder... what kind of reckless adventure that girl has gotten herself into this time?"
She knew perfectly well that Akasha hadn’t given Amber any specific task, and if she knew her daughter, she was sure Amber was already throwing herself into something delightfully chaotic.
Taking another sip of the dark blood, her smile returned with a subtler edge.
"Alright... I’ll be done with this world in a single year."
With that, she didn’t move. All she had to do was wait, and once she had enough contracts, everything else would naturally fall into place.
-----
In the world of Loreua, a carriage rolled steadily along a wide stone road, its wheels producing a continuous low rumble against the road.
Outside the narrow windows, rolling hills of deep green stretched toward distant mountains, broken only by occasional clusters of ancient stone ruins half-swallowed by moss.
Inside the carriage, Amber sat with one shoulder angled toward the window, her posture relaxed yet never fully at ease.
For the past three weeks... she had taken on the role of being a bodyguard... simply for the fun of it all.
Across from her sat a young royal of one of Loreua’s kingdoms—dressed in fine but practical travel clothes, posture carefully composed, expression trained to reveal little.
Amber had learned the pattern of his breathing, the way his fingers occasionally tightened against the edge of the seat whenever the road grew uneven.
Guarding him had been straightforward enough, but far duller than she’d anticipated.
She sat watching the scenery roll by, brown eyes half-lidded, letting her mind wander.
’Tsk, if I’d known it would be this... boring, I would have done something else,’ she thought with mild irritation.
Her fingers tapped once against her knee before falling still, a restless energy simmering beneath the surface.
Surely, something worthwhile was bound to happen soon—something that might actually make her little self-assignment feel worth the time.
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