¨Lilia?" Connor called, sounding concerned. Not wanting him to think that she had fled, Lilia clattered down the unstable staircase and stopped in front of him and Azca.
"Hello," she said in the stunned silence that followed.
"So this is her?" Azca asked Connor, looking Lilia up and down, taking in every detail. She felt like a bug under a microscope and recalled that Star of Winter had portrayed Azca as being a rather unsettling man. She tried not to squirm.
"Yes. Give her the sword," Connor said shortly, obviously not in the mood for pleasantries.
"Come, sit down," Azca said after another silent moment of awkward scrutiny. Lilia sat in the chair she had formerly been occupying and curled her hands nervously in her lap. She tried to remember what Star of Winter had said about the Sword of Truth. It was a magic-infused katana blade that identified if people were lying or being truthful...did it hurt if someone lied while holding it? She couldn't remember - her apprehension was the centerpiece of her focus.
I have nothing to be worried about. I don't plan on lying, she reminded herself.
Azca reached underneath his cloak and unsheathed a katana blade. It was ordinary in every aspect besides the fact that it was incredibly clean, polished to the point of shining. It was so pristine that Lilia, in her disheveled state, felt unworthy to even touch it. However, when Azca held it out to her, she took ahold of the handle with both hands, taking a deep, calming breath as she did so.
"What is your name?" Azca asked.
"Lilia Well."
The sword remained still.
"How old is your soul?"
An oddly phrased question. It gave Lilia pause. Then she recalled that Azca himself was a little over a century old, but had frozen his body at the age of twenty nine. Maybe he believed her to also be a witch? Either way, whether it be referring to her body or mind, she only had one answer. "Um, sixteen as of today."
The sword remained still.
"What is your purpose here?"
This question really halted Lilia. She didn't quite know the answer. It wasn't like she had actively chosen to be transported into this book. Trying to forget her fear of the sword's power and her ever-increasing unease that none of this was a dream, she answered as honestly as possible. "Figuring out why the hell I'm here."
The sword shivered ever so slightly and Lilia's fingers tingled. Everyone noticed the movement and the men tensed. Lilia, heart rate increasing, tried again. "Seeing this through until the end." After all, I'll be forced to do that until I wake up.
The sword did nothing, but Connor did not relax. "What is 'this?'" he demanded, using air quotation marks.
"Whatever this situation is. This dream, this story. Whatever's going on," Lilia attempted to clarify, unsure of how else to phrase it. The sword seemed to accept this answer, however, for it remained still.
Azca took a deep breath and forged on with his questioning. "How did you get here?"
"A book," Lilia answered immediately. The sword stayed still and she sighed in relief - so the mysterious book had been the culprit. To clear up the confusion that was evident on Azca's and Connor's faces, she told a condensed version of her story.
"So you come from a different world?" Azca asked, all formality gone from his voice and excitement gleaming in his eyes.
"Yes. I don't know if it's just a different world or the real one or an alternate dimension or what - "
"Wait - the 'real one?'"
"She thinks that we exist in a novel," Connor said sarcastically, ignoring the fact that the sword had done nothing since its slight tremor.
"You do. It's called Star of Winter. I bought it three months ago and it's my favorite book."
The sword felt even more immobile than it had been. All of the color drained out of Azca's face and seemed to be transferred to Connor's.
"We're in a book," Azca breathed.
"She could just believe that. If she believes it, it's the truth to her, isn't it? And then the sword wouldn't move," Connor pointed out mulishly.
"No, the sword identifies what is the universal truth. It has special signals for unprovable things and opinions, and it hasn't shown either one. For just plain untruths, it does rather nasty things to the liar. If anything, that's the stillest I've seen it in years."
Connor cursed, running a hand through his hair. "You mean to tell me we're nothing but characters in a book? So we don't have control over anything we do?"
"Or maybe authors are actually just channelling real worlds!" Lilia exclaimed, and in her excitement it took her a second to notice the sword waving up and down.
"That's its opinions signal," Azca explained and she handed the sword back to him.
"Sorry."
"No, no, it's a legitimate theory. One that needs to be looked into." Azca's eyes gleamed at the prospect.
"Azca, pay attention! You're a character in a book. Everyone who reads it knows about you, about the sword, everything!"
"Not everything. He's not one of the main characters. You are."
Connor stared at Lilia, stopped in his tracks. "What?!"
"You and Theresa are the main characters. Well, really, you're more of a supporting character. Theresa's the real main character - but you're very important."
Connor ran another hand through his hair and stormed over to a cabinet in the back of the house. He slammed open its doors, took out a shot glass and a bottle of bright brown liquid, poured himself a shot, and downed it in one practiced movement. Then he ran the back of his hand over his mouth, took another shot, and returned to the living room with the bottle in tow.
"How does the book end?" Azca urged. To Connor, he said, "Once the books ends, I imagine we are free!"
"Unless we just die," Connor said darkly. He returned to the cabinet for another shot.
"That's the thing," Lilia said slowly.
"We die?" exclaimed Azca.
"No, no, no! The second book is still being written and seeing as I transported into the end of this book, I have no idea what's supposed to happen next. Only the author knows at this point. Oh, and since Theresa's dead, the story's probably taking its own path at this point."
"Theresa's dead?" Azca exclaimed.
"What did you tell him?" Lilia demanded as Connor returned. "Whatever it was, you left out all of the important bits!"
"Well, sorry," Connor said angrily. "When a strange girl claiming to be from the 'real world' is sitting in my house right after she basically killed my housemate, I kind of forget to be sensical!"
"You killed Theresa?" Azca's incredulous voice rose to even higher volumes.
"Shut up!" Lilia and Connor chorused, turning on him. He flinched and drew back into himself.
"Wait, wait, wait. I know how to see if this is all in my head!" Lilia said happily. "In a few seconds, I'll be right and you'll be figments of my imagination. Azca, give me the Sword."
Azca obeyed, still in too much shock to question her actions.
Lilia gripped the hilt of the Sword until her knuckles turned white and her hands ached. "I am dreaming," she said slowly.
A quick, horrible jolt of electricity shot through her and she screamed from both the pain and what it meant. Azca pried the sword from her fingers as she jumped from the chair and dashed across the house to flatten herself against the opposite wall.
"I'm not dreaming!" she shrieked. "This is real! You're real! He's real! It's all real!"
"Lilia," Azca said gently, sheathing the Sword.
"Don't talk to me! You're supposed to be fake!"
"That's a bit hurtful," Azca muttered.
Connor crossed the room to her and handed her the bottle that he had been taking shots from. "Here. Drink."
No longer caring, Lilia seized the bottle from him and took a swig. The drink was bitter yet rejuvenating as it went down. It sharpened her senses, calmed her down, and burned the disgusting taste out of the back of her mouth from the reappearance of her morning muffin.
"This is amazing," she said calmly and took another drink. Then another.
"Woah, woah, woah," Connor protested, wresting the drink from her. "This stuff is expensive."
"Thank you, Connor," Lilia said quietly. She sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around herself.
So the little voice in the back of her head had been right. That book, whatever it was, had transported her here, in the midst of the final battle of Star of Winter. The course of the book was obviously thrown off. And Lilia was trapped, far from home. Whether that was far as in miles, far as in years, or far as in dimensions, she had no clue. All she knew was that the book had been her gateway, and the book was back on Earth.
Connor returned to the living room. He and Azca talked quietly. Lilia could only hear a few words: "crazy," "Lilia," and "wizard."
Finally, Connor clapped Azca on the shoulder and returned to Lilia. He crouched down and offered her the bottle, only allowing her one drink before taking it back. "Lilia," he said gently.
"I'm talking to Connor," Lilia said dreamily and giggled.
"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have given you that last drink." Connor sighed and glanced down at the bottle, twirling it in a circle to cause a small whirlpool in the liquid. "Listen, Azca has an idea for getting you home."
"Home?" Lilia stared at him. "I don't want to go home!"
"Wh - what?"
"Well, not yet, at least. Although it would be nice to get a message back to Earth...let them know I'm safe. But back to the point - no! I wanna look around, explore! I'm in a book, for crying out loud! When else am I going to get this opportunity?"
Connor ran a hand over his face. "Lilia..."
Lila stood and crossed her arms. "I'm not leaving."
"Wait until the drink's out of your system."
"Come on, you could take me sightseeing! Show me this world!"
"You want to see this world?" Connor suddenly shouted, strangely angry, making Lilia flinch. Over his shoulder, she saw Azca dropping his head as if in defeat. "Let me show you this world!"
He grabbed her forearm and propelled her to the front door. Lilia began to protest out of fear for their safety but then listened closely - the battle had stopped. The world was calm once more.
At least, it was until Connor shoved the door open.
Not that it opened all the way at first. A corpse stopped it.
Lilia might not have thrown up. After all, her mother worked in the local hospital's morgue and had no qualms with showing her children gore. Lilia herself had seen some pretty bloody wounds from both movies and her mother's informational videos, and a dead body or two on the news.
So she might not have puked if it had just been the countless dead bodies slumped against buildings, face planted into the ground, or piled on top of one another. There was a slim chance that she might not have thrown up if she had just seen the gaping wounds and the gallons-worth of blood staining the brown ground a much darker shade.
But then there was the smell.
The smell that reeked beyond anything that Lilia had ever experienced or imagined. The smell that stank of sorrow and loss, of battle and blood.
Of death.
Lilia leaned out of the house, trying in those few sudden seconds to avoid the unfortunate soul who had fallen to rest in front of Connor's door, and threw up the drink that she had been given.
For Connor's credit, he left her alone to sob and throw up and came back with some more of that wonderful drink.
After Lilia had swallowed more in one chug than she had her entire first round of drinks, she turned to the two men and declared. "You are going to take me home right now. Right now."
Connor and Azca exchanged glances. Connor looked ever so hopeful. Then, Azca shrugged. "I'm not taking you, Lilia. I'll give you directions, but for now, the king needs every wizard he can get. I'm going to head to the castle."
"But you hate the idea of working for someone!" Lilia exclaimed, thinking of how much safer she would be if Azca was with her.
"True, but I hate that more," Azca said softly, not seeming very put out by her knowledge of his personality, gesturing toward the still-open door. Lilia reached behind her and closed it quietly.
"So how do I get home?" she asked.
Azca took a deep breath. "There's this wizard."
*
This wizard specialized in strange occurrences - and Connor, Azca, and even Lilia could agree that she was a strange occurrence.
He was the only one who had any hope of knowing about the book, and in fact, Azca suspected that he may have had something to do with its creation. After all, the book was an anomaly, both in his world and Lilia's - "And if there's something this wizard loves more than strange happenings in this world," Azca had said, "it's anomalies in another."
The plan was this: Connor would accompany Lilia to the wizard, seeing as his hometown was coated in blood and corpses and was surely to soon be overrun by enemy soldiers, so he didn't have much reason to stick about anyhow. The duo would travel to the wizard's home, which Azca estimated would take about two weeks.
"Two weeks?" Lilia had exclaimed incredulously when Azca shared this approximation. "I have to wait two whole weeks to get home?"
"Trust me, I'm not thrilled about it, either," Connor retorted, frowning.
"The time will fly," Azca promised dryly.
"Whatever," Lilia muttered, crossing her arms and trying to keep herself from looking in the direction of Connor's soothing drink.
"Before we go," Connor said softly after a moment of tense silence, "we need to bury Theresa."
Lilia felt a wave of guilt washing over her, erasing her anger at the thought of the next two weeks. "I'm sorry," she whispered to nobody in particular. Connor ignored her while Azca shot her a sympathetic look.
"You didn't kill her directly," the latter man said gently. "And there's no way you could have known what that book did."
Lilia nodded in agreement, biting her lip and raising her face to the ceiling so the hot tears pooling in her eyes wouldn't fall.
"I would say that, as punishment, you should come with me to fetch her body," Connor said darkly, "but I don't want you throwing up on her corpse."
After he and Azca left, Lilia was unsure what to do. So much was happening so quickly, and she had been forced to absorb it in a little over an hour.
Not knowing where else to go, she returned to Theresa's bed. Sitting on top of the covers, Lilia sat facing the miscellaneous objects obscuring the bed rather than the window she had previously watched a little the battle out of. There was nothing to see now but corpse upon bloodstain.
She tried to think about everything that had happened. Her brain seemed to be working on tucking it all into a corner to address later, so it was hard to force herself to face it.
Lilia was in a book. She was in a book. She had talked to the characters. She was going to travel with one of them. She was going home. She would survive this, with an adept fighter like Connor at her side.
But it was too late for Theresa. Lilia had been the reason for that.
Finally, the tears fell.
Connor and Azca returned to find Lilia sobbing in the loft. She hurriedly tried to wipe at her tears and hide her blotchy face from them.
Connor tried to hand her the drink, but Azca stopped him. "You might want to stay up here," he advised quietly. "We're preparing the body for burial."
"No," Lilia said vehemently, starting to cry once more. "I have to face her," she explained in a broken whisper.
Connor ran a hand through his hair, but nodded in agreement. "I think you're right."
Summoning her strength, Lilia followed the men down the stairs.