It was the middle of the day. The weather was warm, but not too hot, and there were few clouds in the sky. The air smelled like grass and dust. It was quiet, unless one counted the sound of the wind or rustling leaves.
Lily stood still, her back turned to him for some dramatic reason.
Also, there was an elf politely hiding behind the tree.
Dennis was feeling a bit awkward. After his heroically reassuring speech, more than a few minutes passed. In silence. Without talking. Lily was just standing there… menacingly. He didn’t talk more because he was very proud of his speech, and adding to it carried too high a chance of blurting out something dumb.
Usually, he didn’t care that much about putting a foot in his mouth, but these were special circumstances.
So he was quiet.
But, seriously, just how long could someone stand there and look into the horizon like an action figure? Was she larping? There wasn’t even a horizon to look at, just abandoned houses and a parking lot. He could understand being lost in the coolness of the moment, but he was also thinking that he’d like to sit down, maybe. Or at least find better scenery to mysteriously stare at.
What was the girl thinking? Her emotion blasting was a bit muted. Numb would be the correct word. She wasn’t afraid, or building up courage to turn off her skill. Just standing there, all zen, like a monk who had reached enlightenment. But, like, a shitty one. Lily didn’t feel enlightened. Just… numb.
“Maybe we should climb onto a roof?” he muttered. “The view would be better from there.”
Under the numbness, an undercurrent of confusion appeared. Shock, and disbelief.
Lily turned sharply, looking straight at him, wide-eyed.
“W-what?”
“You know, for drama points,” he said, waving his hand at the parking lot she was looking at. “I mean, I assume that’s what we’re doing. It would be better if we were on a mountain, or in a forest under the moon, but a roof would also work. For one, the view would be better. But we would also look cooler. More wind to blow the hair and a cape. Though we don’t wear capes… You get it, right? If we're standing in a cool way, we need better scenery.”
Slowly, the shock and incomprehension turned into suspicion. Suspicion shifted into understanding, and understanding into hysterical relief.
Lily buried her face in her hands and started chuckling. It was raw, a proper Joker-type chuckling. Her body shook as she couldn’t stop.
He just stood there, a bit confused, looking at the girl. Even with the cheat of her literally blasting her emotions and thoughts around, sometimes he just couldn’t get her.
“What?” he asked. “I’m just suggesting. It would be better for–”
“D-dennis,” the girl choked out through laughter. “W-what do you think we are doing here?”
“Standing dramatically so when you turn off your skill it would look cooler?” he half-asked. “Or, I guess, you could also dramatically turn into wind after whispering a quiet ‘goodbye’, which– Don’t do that, I get it that it looks cool as a backstory, but I’d totally find a way to bring you back, but it would be a pain in the ass, and anyway the scenery is just not good enough for–”
Where before Lily had been trying to suppress her chuckling, now she completely lost it. She laughed, loudly, clutching her stomach, without reservation.
“Dennis,” she said, wiping off a tear from her face. “I turned my skill off f-five minutes ago.”
“What?” He took a step back. “No you didn’t.”
“I did!”
“But I’m still feeling your emotion aura and stuff,” he pointed out. Though, it was interesting that the aura didn’t feel as pronounced while she was laughing like a maniac.
“Not that! I need that. But I’m not ‘trustable’ anymore,” she said. “I thought… I was waiting for you to decide what to do. Now that you… You really just didn’t fucking notice?!”
Damn it was weird to hear Lily curse.
“So wait.” He raised his hand. “What the hell were we standing here for?!”
“I was waiting for you to get angry!” She pointed a finger at him in accusation. “Or disappointed. Or… I don’t know! To decide that I’m evil and kill me! To yell! I don’t– How the fuck did you not notice?! You had to trust me as much as if I was literally the Flash, standing in front of you. It has to be a very–fucking–noticable change!”
“Um…” Why did he feel like he had done something wrong? There was an urge in him to make excuses. “You should’ve announced it better, you know. Now I’m feeling really awkward.”
“I thought you were reevaluating your whole opinion of me! It was taking you so long!”
“I thought we were standing dramatically because you were larping!”
“I don’t know what that word means!”
“Oh, it’s–”
In a burst of motion, she hugged him.
Dennis forgot what he was trying to say.
His mind was blank. He… That had never happened. Was he supposed to do something? He didn’t move. He wasn’t sure if he was breathing.
“You really just… don’t feel any different?” she mumbled into his chest.
“I mean… It could be that I’m just not capable of feeling as much trust as your skill was trying to pull out of me?” he tried to justify it. “So my ‘top’ trust is more or less the same as how I trust the weather forecast?”
“You think so?” Lily was very, very quiet.
“Well… I do trust you more than a weather forecast.”
“Why?”
“I like your ideas about hero costumes.”
“That was your hallucination, not me.”
“Eh.” He shrugged. It was awkward, with the girl still hugging him. “Feels the same.”
“And you’re not angry about anything,” she asked into his chest. “You need to second-guess your decisions sometimes to spot the difference. You were supposed to do that. I can’t believe you were just… standing there. That’s so dumb.” She chuckled, and looked up at him. “Do it now. Please.”
Dennis scratched his chin, trying to come up with something evil that Lily did.
“Help me out a bit?” he said. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“I forced you to stay with us,” she said seriously. “After you came back, I mean. I told you to not run away. You are really bothered that you’re not running around the world saving people right now, and I’m pretty sure that’s because of me.”
Did she?
“Nah,” he said, shrugging. “Pretty sure that was me. You’re fine.”
She closed her eyes and released a shaky breath.
“So you… forgive me?”
“I wasn’t angry in the first place,” he said quietly. “A bit annoyed by the whole thing, maybe. With Mary running away and whatnot. But we did get a car out of it, so I think it evens out. I don’t think it’s me you should be asking forgiveness from.”
“R-right.” She nodded shakily and stepped away, glancing in the direction of a very specific tree. Dennis tried really hard not to think that he was just hugged by another person, on their own volition. “Do you think she’s…”
Dennis looked at the same tree. No elf bits stuck out.
“She’s not throwing any lightning bolts at you,” he said. “I think five minutes should’ve been more than enough for her to form her opinion, and since there’s no lightning or fireballs, I’d say that’s a good sign.”
“Maybe she ran away?” Lily muttered quietly. “Like Mary?”
“Nah, she needs me because otherwise some kind of holy inquisition will hunt her down,” he said. “Because she has that ‘heretic’ title, I mean. The one that you controlled her into obtaining. I think she was something like a magic police before that happened? You know, now that I think about it, it’s weird that there’s no lightning.”
Lily hid her face in her hands and groaned.
“On a scale of one to ten, how evil would it be to control her back into being okay with it?” he asked casually. “Feels kinda wrong to me, but my moral compass is of questionable trustworthiness, and this sounds like a very convenient way to fix that problem.”
“About eight, I think,” she muttered, looking at the ground through her fingers. “I won’t do that. You shouldn’t ask people to do that. And you shouldn’t use me as your moral compass. Better ask Ellie.”
“I bet those Laws she is so hardcore about have some nazi rules or something.”
“Mary,” Lily said stiffly. “When in doubt, ask Mary.”
“Want me to check out how El’el is doing?”
“Please.”
Dennis nodded, and slowly walked towards the elf-obscuring tree. Lily quietly sat back at the bench, seemingly just realizing that there was more than one person who could have problems with her skill. Her robotness and emotion-projection aura was coming back up. She was nervous again, though he noted that the nervousness was now suppressed a bit by the reassurance that there was at least someone in her corner. Her fear wasn’t overwhelming anymore.
Dennis walked around the tree.
El’el was sitting on the ground with her back leaning against the bark. Her eyes were empty as she stared at some random building. Though, to be fair, she was probably just staring straight ahead at nothing in particular, and the building was just on the way.
He crouched nearby.
It didn’t take much for her to start talking.
“I do not know how to heal with vibration,” she said. “In the same vein, I do not believe it to be possible to throw red lightning by vibrating your hands. That skill just doesn’t exist, and the possibility of it is distant, if it exists at all.”
“Skill?”
She nodded.
“Wizardry, after all, is just a temporary call for a skill,” she said. “There are as many of them as stars in the sky, and if you can’t find the one you need, you may try to temporarily create one.” She looked at him. “I don’t have enough mastery to create what you seek. I am sorry.”
“No worries, I guess,” he muttered. “So, about Lily…”
“I have given a promise to forgive her,” El’el said dryly.
“You can take it back,” he said. “I don’t think it counts. Just… don’t throw any lightning. Or do, if that helps you, but I’ll be saving her in the process. Is magical lightning as fast as real one? How fast is the real lightning anyway? You know, maybe throw fireballs instead.”
“It is… unfortunate,” she said. “But I do not think Lily is the one at fault. Truly, it’s me. If there is anyone I should aim my fury at, it’s myself.”
“Huh?”
“It was unlawful of me to claim the mantle of High Authority, even if I did it for just a moment. But… with the mantle of the Overseer, I should’ve had that right. No.” She shook her head. “All of it should not have happened in the first place. Tar’en abusing his authority… it was my job to prevent it in the first place. Everything that happened after that… was the consequence of my incompetence. Inexperience.” Her eyes narrowed. “Naivety. I was played like a fool, long before you and Lily arrived.” She sighed. “I do not blame her for fixing my mistakes, even if the price is… that high. It is fitting, really. I was not ready for the responsibility, despite my eagerness.”
“Haven't been an Overseer for long?”
“This world is my first one. A great honor, to be granted a mantle so young,” she said bitterly.
Oh, so she was like… really green.
“Having a mantle is like being a god or something?” he asked.
“Law is a God,” she said. “Bearing a mantle means being its representative, and borrowing its powers. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
She sighed, and looked at him.
“Tell Lily that my stance is unchanged. She may have pushed my hand, but it was my choice nonetheless, and I stand by it. I hope that I would’ve made the same choice without her whispering in my ear. After all, there is no shame in fixing a wrong, regardless of the Law.” She gave him a weak smile. “Such a heretical statement. I really wasn't ready, huh… Regardless, just… ask her not to influence me in such a way in the future, please.”
“You can ask her herself.”
She nodded shakily.
“Maybe, in a few moments,” she said. “To tell the truth, I am still a bit shaken. What is her skill, to pass my defences so? It is a shameful question, but I feel that I have the right to pry, and you seem close with her. Do you know?”
“Some kind of super-acting.”
“Of what path?”
“Dunno.” He poked his head out from behind the tree. “Lily! What’s your skill called? I mean, it’s a part of what?”
The girl looked at him with worry. He gave her a smile and a thumbs up. He felt her hope.
“O-Omnipresent Mimic!” she shouted back.
Damn that sounded cool.
He looked back at El’el. She was pale as a ghost.
“Changed your mind?” he asked quietly.
“N-no–” she replied shakily. “No. I guess it’s not as bad as being a heretic?” She smiled nervously.
He smiled back in heretical camaraderie.
They heard the sound of an engine.