Tom's hands moved up and covered Lilith's, as the silence seemed to grow heavier, before he spoke up. "Thank you, for calming me down. That was unbecoming of me." Lilith shook her head into the back of his neck, keeping her mouth down and against his back. "You have every reason to be angry. Rituals to call the dead are not the most effective in relieving the stress of those who gave up so much, who have lost so much, hence why I still refuse to try it myself." Of course, Lilith had her own concerns as to what the von Schwarzwald family would say about how Lillian had taken their daughter's name as her own. Burying her own conflicting feelings, Lilith tightened her grip on Tom's chest. "If you are dead set on meeting your mother's spirit, there is something I could try. If it works, don't waste time. I don't know for how long I can sustain it, let alone how it can affect the spirit. And above all, you cannot tell anyone about this. There can be no physical record of what I am about to do. Understand?" Tom, pulling free from Lilith's arms, turned towards her, his expression guarded. Seeing Lilith's determination he nodded. "Very well. What are you going to do?" Lilith sighed, closing her eyes as she built up her magic inside of her. With midnight fast approaching, Lilith knew her time was limited regardless of what they did. She had to do this now.
With her magic built up as much as possible, Lilith gathered it all in the Resurrection Stone in her eye, feeling lightheaded as the foci built up with magic, before it seemed to open up, leaving behind a feeling as if Lilith's magic was flowing out of her, not unlike how her magic flowed into her experimental constructs. Only there was no looping return of magic, as hers felt as if it was vanishing into the void itself. "Merope Gaunt." Lilith's words felt heavy as the air again filled with a breeze, this one cold and chilling, cold enough that it made Tom shudder. "... Tom?" The young man froze, his body feeling heavy as he turned his gaze back to the ritual circle. There, standing in the center, was the small, fragile looking figure of a young woman. Her hair was a tangled mess tied back into a bun, with locks left hanging freely and haphazardly along the side of her head. Her eyes struggled to focus on Tom's face, even as they grew misty with tears. Tom, feeling cold inside, approached the woman, whose hands instantly reached up, caressing his face as soon as he was within reach. Her fingers felt rough against Tom's skin, calloused and dry. A soft smile grew on her face as tears spilled down her cheeks. "You're my Tom, aren't you? My baby boy. You are so handsome." Tom's shaking hands cupped his mother's, his eyes never leaving her face as he memorized every detail of her. "It's me. I… I have wanted to meet you for so long. I have so many questions."
Merope frowned, lowering her eyes. "I am sorry for not being there for you. From the moment that you were in my womb, I loved you so much. I had hoped to have held you in my arms for many years to come. Sadly, it was not meant to be. I commited a grave sin, my son. I forced myself on the man who is your father, using love potions and magic, to not only have what wasn't meant for me, but to conceive you within my very body." Tom stilled as Merope looked back up. "Please understand. My father and brother were awful to me. I… had no hope of a better life with them, as I feared that I would soon suffer my mother's fate. When the Ministry took them away, that was the first moment that I felt free. But I was no fool. I knew it wouldn't last. They would be back and the pain, the cursing, the spells would all start anew. I couldn't bear to live like that anymore. All I had was my magic… so… I used it… on the man that I had loved from afar for so many years. For a few months we were happy together in London. He had us staying at a townhouse of his father's family. Being away from the cold, vast lands of the Moors, surrounded by so many people, all the while I had the man of my dreams at my side. It was the best time of my life." Merope lowered her hands from Tom's face and wrapped them around her waist.
"As you grew inside of me… I began to want more. I wanted to feel love that wasn't held together by magic. I wanted to be loved. I wanted… I wanted you to be loved. So I eventually released your father from my spells. He refused to recognize you as his, or that I was his wife. He condemned me and fled back to Devon." Merope started shaking. "I couldn't go back there! If my family were there… they would have killed you… like father did to all the other babes that Morfin raped into the women of the nearby towns. You deserved better! But I was too tired… too heartbroken… I couldn't go on!" Merope looked up, her face covered in tears. "I am so sorry Tom… for leaving you at the orphanage, but it was the only place I was certain that they couldn't find you. If I had to die, I wouldn't take you with me. You deserved a better family, a better mother than me. You deserved to live!" Merope collapsed onto the floor upon her knees as Tom struggled with his emotions. There was a part of him that wanted to rage at her for abandoning him, for being so foolish as to trust that his father would not have abandoned them once freed from her magic. At the same time… he knew what it felt like to not have anyone care for him. How intoxicating it must have been to have someone devoted to them completely and how tempting it must have been… for that devotion to be real.
Kneeling down in front of his mother, Tom reached out and caressed Merope's cheek, her brown eyes meeting his blue once more. Tom gave her a soft smile. "While I can't condone what you did, neither can I blame you for what followed. I was not there and I would not be here were it not for the actions that you took, good and bad. All I can say, all I can say to you is… thank you." Tears started spilling from Tom's eyes. "Thank you for giving birth to me, thank you for protecting me and thank you… for loving me, despite everything that happened. My life may not have been easy, nor the one I would have wanted, but now I know that it was possibly the only life I could have had. That is enough for me." Merope smiled at him, crooked and misaligned teeth peeking out of her cracked lips. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Thank you! Thank you! I love you Tom. If you must remember anything from this night, please, remember that." Tom nodded as the figure of his mother began to fade away, a soft wind filling the room before the wind died, the ritual circle left empty once more. Tom, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his heart, stood up, his hand still damp with his mother's tears, and sighed in contentment. "Thank you, Lilith. You have no idea how much this has meant to me." Getting no response, Tom turned around. "Lilith?"
As Tom had spoken with his mother, Lilith had fallen back onto the sofa, her heart beating quickly. As time passed, the green eyed girl noticed that her vision grew dark. The corners of the room became filled with shadows as her heart continued to beat louder and harder in her ears, the beat like a drum that drowned out all other sound, her feelings running out of control despite her best efforts. Gripping her chest, Lilith had eyed the clock on the wall, noting that it wasn't midnight yet, but she still felt as if her body were about to suffer an attack. As her eyes focused on Tom's back, silently pleading with him to finish, she spotted movement out of the corner of her vision. She swore that her heart stopped and started over and over again as a black cloaked figure approached her, its face nothing but a black void, as a long, skeleton-like hand reached out her, the cold fingers touching her cheek. Panicking, Lilith severed the connection to the Resurrection Stone quickly. Her magic recoiled, tearing into her as she tried to scream in pain. She vaguely heard someone speaking her name, as beautiful blue eyes looked down at her with terror, before a soft and gentle magic wrapped around her, pulling her away. Her mind and flesh were filled with pain and agony until finally, the cold embrace of unconsciousness brought an end to all thoughts.
-✦-
"Vati?" Young eleven year old Lilith felt uneasy as her father took her deep into woods surrounding the Schwarzwald Estate. She had a little trouble separating the fact that while the family name and the forest were one and the same, her mother's geography books placed the forest inside of Germany, far from their home. Her father had taken her to the library and had shown her the oldest tomes and scrolls in the collection. Back in the time of the Romans, when the region was heavily populated by Celtic and Germanic tribes, the old maps referred to the forest and the mountains as one in the same, with their family being born and gaining strength and infamy within the German region. Years later, the family had decided to leave the Schwarzwald and settled east in a far more remote and mountainous area, the estate sitting in a valley well hidden from the rest of the world. She had been told it was to keep the family and its magical knowledge safe from the religious zealots and the jealous magical families that had developed as the Holy Roman Empire and its later incarnations grew over much of the region, neither of which could be trusted to leave the family alone if they were to discover what they had uncovered. In time, the name von Schwarzwald became associated with Magical Austria, not their ancient home in Germany, though the name was prone to cause a great deal of confusion. While the forests, the people and even kingdoms rose and fell, the von Schwarzwald family endured, like the mountains, the Estate barely feeling the passage of time, guarding a secret that he had now deemed she was ready to know.
Her father turned around, his sandy blonde hair combed back, his green eyes looking at her, frowning softly. " There is nothing to be afraid of, little Mara. What lies beyond will not harm you so long as I am by your side. Come now. " Taking her father's hand, Lilith blushed lightly at her father's nickname for her. Her mother had taken a while to be convinced that he wasn't insulting Lilith by calling her a nightmare, though her grandmother swore to her that the debate on the name Lilith had been far more heated. It was a family tradition to name the first born children after demons, with her father insisting that she should take the honor of having the same name as the mother of all demons, as a tribute to her unusual red hair and green eyes. Her mother, who had been raised a Roman Catholic, had taken much convincing in her youth that being a witch wasn't a curse and that the magic within her needed to be nurtured. The fact that the von Schwarzwald family embraced the infamy of being supposed descendants of demons had taken her quite a while to accept as well, though she certainly didn't have any issues with the fact that the second born children tended to be named after angels or saints. Despite all these issues that tended to rise between her parents, Lilith was always loved by her mother, regardless of the family eccentricities. Her parents' discussions had always captivated Lilith as they never turned heated but did involve some weird moments of quotes from obscure books or sources. She loved those moments of civil discourse.
As Nicholas walked his daughter deeper into the part of the forest that he had expressly forbidden Lilith from ever visiting on her own, the woods themselves began to change. The pines gave way to older trees, many leafless, twisted and bent. The air itself lost any of the comforts of the scent of fresh pine, turning musty and at times putrid. Lilith pressed herself into her father's side, wishing that her schattenwolf was with her, though she doubted her pet would have enjoyed being here. If it felt wrong to her, it was probably worse for her friend. Soon the ground started becoming inclined, as they started walking up the slope of the mountain to the back of the Estate. " We are here ." Lilith looked ahead and felt her heart beating wildly. Before her eyes was a cavern. Except the way that the light, what little filtered through the treeline, warped around the opening made of stone made it clear that the place was more than some natural formation. " What is that, Vati? " Her father ran his hand through her curly red hair, easing her nerves. " This is the other reason our family hid within these mountains. There are places in the world that are fonts of magic, no different than leylines, except that these can have a magic all their own. This cave has been here possibly since the dawn of magic itself, a time beyond human memory ."
Lilith stared into the darkness and felt something within it speak to her. Except it didn't use words, but feelings. She felt a thirst that seemed to defy reason, a hunger that no family feast could come close to saiting. Worst of all, she felt the presence within the shadows looking at her, aware that they were there, aware of what she was. Aware that she was afraid. Black tendrils began to slither across the ground, reaching out to her before her father spoke in a deep voice filled with magic. " Leave her be. She is not ready for the trials. I brought her here as my father brought me, so that she might know what you are, to understand the responsibility that comes with our blood and name. She will face you when she is ready ." The tendrils retreated and the presence turned its attention away from the pair. "Lilith." The little girl looked up at her father, feeling cold inside. He caressed her head gently. " It is our family's duty to protect and contain this magic. In the hands of the capable, it serves our duties and secures our legacy. In the hands of the untrained, the greedy and the violent without purpose, this magic is akin to a plague. It would spread, person to person, beast to beast, changing them to better suit its needs, as it has done many times before in the past. I, like a few others who know the secret, believe that the origins of the vile creatures of the world are tied to fonts like this, at least when not the products of human created curses, as the magics way of containing the rampant population of our kind. One day, the responsibility of protecting and hiding this place will fall onto you ." Lilith stammered. " Will… will it change me the same way as it does the others? Will I become someone else? "
Nicholas knelt down and took her chin in his hands. " Yes and no. Embracing this magic will change you physically, there is no escaping that. It could alter your mind as well. That is why I will do everything in my power to prepare you. One day this magic will be made a part of you, but it will not define you unless you let it. We are the von Schwarzwald, the descendants of the Dark Forest and this Darkness is our legacy and our responsibility. There is more for me to tell you but not here and not until you are ready. Until then, you must keep this place in mind. Run in the fields, laugh with your mother and love your grandmother's memory, but never forget this place. Never forget what must be hidden, at all costs. " Lilith nodded and her father returned her to their home. That night Lilith struggled to be cheerful, choosing to bury herself in her books. The monsters in the stories no longer seemed so scary on their own compared to that overwhelming darkness that called out to her. The dragons and villains were a part of the world, evils and dangers of the mundane. Even to her young mind, she knew that the Darkness within that cave was something deeper, primal and all consuming. She turned the page and stared at a representation of death, a black cloaked skeleton with black feathered wings and wondered. Was the Darkness that she saw in that Cave Death itself… or something else entirely?
-✦-
…
"Lily, it's him! Get to the babes! Do it now!"
"So this is where you were hiding, little girl."
"Would you happen to be my sworn enemy, Lillian Potter?"
"Such a shame, really. My master could use a servant with your pedigree. But you are worth more to us dead. No hard feelings."
"All things must die, Lillian, no matter how we might wish otherwise."
" Avada Kedavra!"
…
Sucking in a deep breath, Lilith snapped awake as her mind filled her vision with the bright green light of the Killing Curse. She regretted sitting up instantly as her hands and legs reacted as they usually did after a magical backlash, feeling as if every muscle had been cramped. Stifling a whine of pain didn't seem enough to keep Madam Prewett from showing up at Lilith's side, her wand being waved all over her body. The woman looked at Lilith in the eyes, pressing a hand against the girl's forehead. "How are you feeling, dear?" Lilith grunted as she tried and failed to lift up her legs. "My muscles are all stiff." Teresa nodded. "That they are. When the elf dropped you off, you were convulsing. If I didn't know any better I thought you were having a seizure. Your magics did a far greater number on you today than any other time, literally tearing not only into your skin, but also your muscles. I have had you on potions for the entire night, trying to repair the damage." Teresa must have seen the panic in Lilith's eyes. "None of the damage is permanent, I assure you. You should be able to walk out of the Hospital Wing by lunch. That said, you won't be at peak physical performance for a few days and you will be seeing me every day in the morning and at night for the next week. Is that clear?"
Lilith cringed at the fire in Teresa's eye, nodding softly. "Whatever you say, ma'am." The Matron's face softened. "You gave us quite the scare, dear." Lilith blinked at her in confusion, before noticing the figure slumped in the chair nearby, his body covered in a blanket. Teresa tapped Lilith's shoulder gently. "He arrived as soon as he could and hasn't left your side since. Quite the loyal young man you have looking after you." Lilith blushed lightly. "No one better, I believe. Teresa, could I have some parchment? I need to send out a few letters. I need to inform my patron as to this latest incident." Teresa looked at Lilith carefully. "Very well, but I want you to go back to sleep afterwards. You haven't gotten a full night's rest yet. Informing your guardian is all well and good, but until we know more, rest is the only thing that will help you recover." After dropping off the parchments and ink, as well as a cup of tea, Teresa returned to her office, with Lilith looking at Tom sleeping. She smiled softly, hoping that the meeting between mother and son, however brief and ethereal, was enough to ease some of his burden. What little she heard had made Lilith's heart ache. A young woman so desperate for love, both romantic and familial, driven to the edge by the violence of her own family that she had felt that there was no choice but to forcefully claim it from another.
Merope Gaunt had indeed made a serious crime, one that had gotten many a woman murdered in the days of the Witch Hunts, very few of said women being witches at all. At the same time, the young woman had clearly only ever learned that the only way that she could obtain something was by force, a lesson imparted onto her by the very violence of her own flesh and blood. Lilith frowned. Tom had learned that same lesson in the Orphanage, relying on his magic to survive in a throng of other children, otherwise suffering at the hands of the adults who were supposed to care for him. Was it any surprise to anyone who knew his life what he could become if he weren't treated as a human being? Lilith hoped that her own actions over the last year had shown him that violence was better left as a last resort, when tack and bartering no longer served as a way of gaining what he desires, and especially when the very people around him have also abandoned civility and embraced fear and violence. Not wishing to wake him and fearing that she will not be well enough to join him for breakfast, Lilith wrote her first letter addressed to him, absolved him of any blame for how their night ended. He didn't need to carry the guilt of her condition anymore than he should be carrying the guilt of his mother's actions. Leaving the letter on the bedside table beside him, she tapped the quill against her lip, before writing a letter to Alexander.
The Last of the Peverells had warned her of the beings that lingered within the Veil between the world of the living and the Void beyond, but something within Lilith warned her that the thing that she encountered wasn't some nameless creature that existed beyond the gaze of all living beings. The memory that surfaced of Lilith's own youth, of the Font of Dark Magic that was hidden behind the von Schwarzwald Estate, made her wonder if the two were related. Lilith knew that many of the Dark Creatures that continued to reside in the world were somehow created if not sustained by these Fonts of Magic that retained some dark presence within them. The image of the cloaked figure, however, felt different. It wasn't like the Schattenwolves, Irklings, Hags or even the Barghests. Searching her memories, the closest thing she could compare it to was that consciousness she felt in the Cave. As a child the entity had felt like Death itself. Now, having encountered the figure, she wondered if Death wasn't just something lying, waiting in some dark cave. Lilith's eyes searched the dark corners of the Hospital Wing, worried that at some point her imagination would play tricks on her. It wasn't as if Death itself was hunting her… Right?