The Lilliad Part 1

 Lilli gripped the dagger close to her chest. She could feel her heartbeat all the way down to her toes, reverberating with fear.   

Her mouth tasted like copper. She restrained the urge to swallow, lest she make noise.   

She looked down, past the ledge she stood on. In the distance below, she could make out guards going on their rounds. If she froze up here, all it would take is for one of them to have an itchy chin and she'd be caught.   

 The private guards had been expected, at least. This particular mansion was far from the rich part of town, with the high density of city guards and other security. This way she at least had a small chance. No way she was anywhere near competent enough to pull off a robbery in that part of town. She could barely pick pockets. 

 Her cloth-covered feet didn't provide much grip, but she quietly shuffled her way across the balcony and up a wall, covered with that kind of vine rich assholes loved to plant all over to produce the illusion that they were old money, instead of dastardly and somehow inferior new money.   

 Why someone would want to ruin their expensive mansion with overgrowth, she didn't understand. But at least the nails put into the walls to give the vines purchase provided her some as well. She worked her way up, using her daggers as better sources of stability in the various cracks in the stone.   

 It was slow going, carefully finding optimal slits between the stones and oh-so-quietly inserting and removing her daggers to avoid the telltale noise of steel on stone or dislodging of rubble. 

  
 This was, perhaps, not her best decision. But it was still going better than she had had any right to expect, in retrospect. She might even make it inside before she got slaughtered.   

 Maybe, just maybe, she might even be successful and live to (never) talk about it. She removed her dagger from its current position to climb up.   

 Then she stumbled. The flaky stone underneath her foot crumbled and gave way.   

 So much for surviving. 

 Her left hand was slipping- she was having a harder time supporting herself. Her other wrapped foot was slipping.   
 

 She couldn't scream. She gripped her toes, but they kept slipping. She was rapidly losing balance, and more pieces of stone started to give way.

  In an act of desperation, she stabbed the wall hard with her free dagger. Once- it glanced off, and chipped off bits of stone. But in the scraping, she found a hole. She reeled back and powered her dagger into it, as her other foot began to give way.   

  It took. She nearly cried, she was so relieved.

  She readjusted. So that had been horrible. But she was more than halfway up a wall now. She looked down. Somehow nobody had noticed. Were there only really the two guards at the front garden?

  She decided to move on, but her dagger was stuck. She tried to wedge it back and forth to get it out, eliciting a quiet grinding noise. She flinched, and waited. But no voices rung out, nothing seemed to change.   

  She'd likely been overreacting. There was no way that small of a sound could carry very far at all. So she tried working the blade out again, causing small pebbles to dislodge and catch on her clothes. The dust worked up into her face, irritating her eyes and nose.   

She tensed her muscle and pulled with a jerk- and the dagger didn't budge. She felt a frisson of panic. She tried again, straining until the muscles on the back of her arm shook.

She could scream. The damn thing was stuck good. Leaving it here was... a choice. Not a good one. She looked around. Would someone notice the grip protruding from the wall face? There weren't many windows up this high, it was too elevated for someone on the ground without incredible eyesight to notice... maybe it would be all right. The window she was aiming for was just close enough that she could reach it.  Hopefully she'd be long gone before someone happened to look out of it to examine the stonework and noted a shoddy iron dagger in the wall.

  Lilli used her other knife to gain more height, and carefully transitioned to step on the offending weapon. If she just reached out, she could grip the railing of the balcony and pull herself up.   

  She lodged her now lone dagger in between and checked how it would handle her weight. It would be all right... for a small amount of time.   

  She swung, back leg pushing off and providing momentum, while she yanked her other dagger back out of the wall with her. She caught the edge of the balcony with her right hand, and clambered up.   

  'Quick and quiet.' she thought to herself, slipping over the railing and against the wall.   

  A peek inside informed her that the room was ostensibly unoccupied.   

  Hopefully, her prize was not far.   

  Lilli snuck in, cautiously moving between shadows cast in the dark. Just because a room looked like it was empty, didn't mean it was. Any number of spells or magical items hid people from conventional senses. There could be a specific spell on the entire property. Nothing was for certain.   

  Her heartbeat picked up again, and she strained her senses for any input. A light that shouldn't be, an intake of breath.   

  Or, in this case, the shadow of a chest that didn't appear to exist.

  She picked her way around towards it, avoiding the most conventional approaches. Were there traps? She couldn't see any. And she didn't know any magic that would help her to check.   

  Lilli stilled her breath as she reached out to where something should be, and felt a jolt of *something when her fingers brushed smooth, lacquered wood. She felt around for the lock, but there was none. Oddly, there was only a typical latch.   

  Curiosity piqued, she quietly turned the latch and opened the lid.   

   There was... nothing? Rather, the chest was still invisible. She would have to step closer to see if anything visible was inside. If not, she might have to shove her hand in and hope that it wasn't enchanted to suck her in and trap her.   

  She sheathed her lone dagger and crept up to the edge. The room was quiet and still. Hopefully that meant good things, such as: she was successful in being quiet and no one was looking for her, and thus not about to be run through or thrown in a dungeon or flayed alive or otherwise committed to a terrible fate that she entirely deserved for Breaking and Entering Some Rich Person's House. 

  In the chest were a series of pouches and boxes. Lilli delicately took a pouch and examined its contents. It appeared to be gemstones? Or just very shiny rocks. They looked expensive, to their credit.   

  'I am an awful criminal', she thought guiltily, tucking the pouch under her shirt and underclothes. 'Not just awful for being a criminal, but awful AT being a criminal. What kind of lowlife doesn't know if what they're stealing is even valuable?'

  Another pouch, blessedly, had coins in it. They were ones in larger denominations than Lilli had ever seen in her little life, but she could at least recognize that someone in the city would accept them as currency. She slipped that under her clothes, too.   

  A glimmer of light caught her eye as she moved another pouch. She gently moved around the little bags, now seeing that they were labeled in some way. It looked like someone had good handwriting, with strong lines and elegant swoops.   

  It was just damned unfortunate that she couldn't really read. The other bags seemed to be full to bursting with more gems and coins, which was something she could understand. And she wasn't robbing anyone blind, then. As she adjusted the pouches to see what shiny thing was underneath, she slowly realized that it was a case of some sort. Letters engraved on the top would probably provide her with more clues, but yeah. Illiteracy was a real pain in the ass. However, she didn't need  education to know what was inside. Probably? Unless it was enchanted. She pried it open after taking a quick glance back at the door. There was still absolutely nothing.   

  It was a set of daggers.   

  All that for daggers?   

  She looked closer, nose mere inches from the blades. It looked like smoother metal- definitely more expensive than hers. There were also, maybe, some etchings on the back of the blade that she could see sticking out of their sheathes. The leather was black, worn in the shape of a hand bigger than her own. It was cracking from lack of oiling, but she could still tell that it had been very nice not so far in the past. And maybe she could sharpen and clean them?

  She pulled her face back, and cautiously reached out her middle finger to brush the handle. She felt nothing but the stiffness of the neglected leather.   

  How long had she been gone? Long enough. She had to decide what else she was going to do and get out now.   

  She lowered the lid of the box a bit again, trying and failing to decipher what was written on the top.   

  'I already lost one dagger, I might as well take them.'   

  So she did, securing the daggers to her hips. Her old one stayed also at her side, chipped and rusty, but trusted.   

  Lilli readjusted the contents of the chest as close to how she had found it as possible, and closed and latched the lid.   

  She crept back out the window, scaled back down the tower wall, and fled the premises.
   
 
 Back down in the streets, the glowing torchlight seemed different than before. Maybe it was because she was less scared, but the fire seemed warmer, more inviting, and like her vision was less obscured by the darkness.   
 

She took it as a good omen. Lilli passed through the middle districts without any trouble, keeping to the sides of the streets.

  In the slums, a city guard walked by, and she brought her eyes down low. He saw her, but kept walking. The sword at his side stayed sheathed, and she was grateful.   

  After the clink of his armor had receded, she slipped to the side of the bridge and vaulted down into the aqueducts. The tunnels led all over the city and beyond its considerable walls, spreading out to places and carrying water all over the country.   

  It was also a convenient roadway, if you didn't mind getting your pants wet and avoided getting lost in the ass end of Miranthia.   

  She waded through the water and up to the side ledges, and follow the winding tunnels down to the docks.   

  Up ahead, she saw something bobbing in the water. She already knew what it was, but couldn't help but to stop and look.   

  Another body, face down. A big torso- a man, maybe a manual laborer? His clothes were soaked but didn't look either particularly nice or overly thin.   

  He might be like the others. Or maybe he was just some unfortunate who fell down a sewer hole and drowned.   

  Lilli weighed the possibilities in her mind. On the one hand, it was disgusting. On the other, a body in drinking water was also disgusting, and could spread disease if he had any. And if whatever it was that was inspiring people across the city to drop dead like flies was near her home... that was worth knowing.   

  So she waded in and, with great effort, hauled him out to the ledge. She rolled him over, onto his back.   

  Eyeless sockets stared back at her.   

  “Creepy.” She whispered, averted her gaze from his face. His clothes still weren't any help in providing information- they looked like clothes any laborer in the city might wear.   

  The soles of his boots looked thin, the daily wear showing his footprint. That had to have been uncomfortable.   

  She glanced down at her own feet, covered in soggy wrappings.   

  Could be worse. This dude had had shoes, and he was dead.   

  He didn't seem to have been attacked, in any way that she could tell. Sometimes she'd seen corpses from bar fights or gang disputes, but there were no big ugly bruises or clues like missing limbs or gaping holes.   

  His skin, though, looked odd. The lilac- tint of his face was splotchy with black and blue dots. And now that she was looking at his face again, she could see that the normally black tongue was grey.   

  Some of that could be a past disease, or being born without eyes- atypical mouth coloring.   

  All together, it seemed freaky and drastically increased the likelihood that this man's life had ended extremely poorly, even by Yolathan standards. Usually you just starved to death.   

  Something caught her eye on his chest. Was she right? Was he... breathing? His mouth hadn't been moving at all. Gradually, she realized that it wasn't his whole chest that was moving. Just a small, hand-sized part. It began to move more intensely, lifting up his wet clothes and stretching the skin.   

  She had a bad feeling.

  The frequency picked up, it was a frenzied seizing. She could swear she heard something crack.   

  Then something else.   

  His ribs.   

  She bolted, slipping on the wet, uneven stone. Her feet couldn't grip with the wrappings, but she just scrambled harder. Away from whatever the hell was happening back with that body.   

  Lilli made the mistake of looking back. The entire body was shaking, bashing the man's head into the stone. Thick blood glopped out onto the pavement.   

  She felt something hit her foot, and turned back to try to catch her fall. She fell to the ground and heard a crack from her knee, propelling her face-first into the water.   

  Lilli felt her arm and back hit something on the way down. She felt her belt for the daggers, and found that they were still there. The weight on her chest let her know that the pouches hadn't fallen out, either.   

  She hit the bottom and pushed herself back up, wincing at the pain emanating from her knee. She swum to the top to face the corpse.   

  As she broke through the surface of the water, something warm hit her face. Her hand rose to wipe it off, and found chunks of viscera and blood on her fingers.   

  And something breaking free of the dead man's chest.   

  Lilli's hand scrambled for her dagger. She found one of her new daggers with her right hand, and used her other hand to swim back to the ledge.   

  A wave of the smell of rot hit her nostrils, but she kept her eye on her goal. She pulled closer and up onto the ledge. Once she pulled herself up, she flipped over to face whatever the hell was happening with that corpse.   

  And found herself face-to-face with a nightmare.   

  
 She found herself taking it in piece by horrifying piece.

  Beady, iridescent eyes were set in what looked like a scale-plated skull.   

  Wings with sharp talons attached to a grey, scaly body. Six legs, all with sharp claws. And a grinning mouth, full of teeth.   

  Worst of all was the feeling coming off the creature. It felt like it saw into her soul and wanted to eat it.

  Lilli opened her mouth to scream, but the Thing flapped its wings and launched at her.   

  She pushed herself back with her legs and held up her arms to guard her face, dagger in hand.   

  The dagger struck, cutting a little of the scales. The Thing flew backwards, behinds the corpse, and hissed.

  Then it haunched its shoulders and screeched.   

  The sound made her ears ring. She felt dizzy, and like maybe she should lie down. She'd had such a hard day, she deserved a rest. Didn't she want to relax?

  Through her haze she vaguely recognized that the creature was moving back towards her, with purpose. That was nice.   
 It opened its mouth, and she noted that it had rows upon rows of teeth. 'That must make it easier to eat' she thought with some mild envy. Stale bread and tough meat were so difficult to get down.   

  It opened its wings, its talons pointed at her belly.   

  The haze lifted.   

  She punched at it with her dagger, fiddling with the other sheath to arm her left hand. The blade came away with black blood that reeked and burned at her hands.   

  She wrestled the other dagger out, never taking her eyes off of the Thing. It bared its teeth again and screeched.   

  This time, it  didn't make her feel fuzzy and tired. Now she just felt angry.   

  “Fuck you!” She shrieked, swinging daggers at and into its flesh. Its wings, its head, its body. “Fuck off!” She had no idea where to aim, so she just kept cutting. It flapped and cut at her, tearing her already worn clothes.   Lilli struggled to get on her feet. The Thing took the opportunity to slash at her arm before flapping away on one tattered wing.

  It burned. Oh, god, it felt like fire was raging up her arm and into her heart. She rushed at it and raised both daggers, before burying both of them squarely into its head.   

  It screamed. She screamed.   

  She twisted both daggers around in its skull. The wings flapped around her, trying to dislodge her and disrupt her balance. Instead, she flung herself onto it with her chest and twisted again.   

  She yanked out her right hand and stabbed again, in its torso. It wheezed. The flapping lessened in intensity.   

  So that worked.   

  She pulled the dagger out again and stabbed the same spot on the other side. There was a gasp. The wings collapsed and so  did she.  Which blood was hers, or that Things, or the corpses... she didn't know.

She burned all over. Her hands, her chest. 

Lilli dropped her daggers and dove forward into the water, letting the current rinse her body clean. She floated there, exhausted and overwhelmed.

Then she stared at the domed ceiling and tried not to cry.