Lily - a TMF Fantasy AU

closing - a.n

I initially wanted to make it so there was a love triangle: Hailey liked Drew so she wanted to capture him, Drew liked Jake but he got taken, and Jake grew a liking to Hailey when he was taken. 

But then I realized I could use the opportunity to just exclude romance altogether! I've always wanted to write something without using any romance, so I did it here. Yes, I know the TMF fandom loves their romance and here I am still dangling it at you. But nope 

I ended up losing motivation early on, thus explaining the decrease in chapter quality and length :D 

- LILY TERMINOLOGY PT. 2 - 

Conduit - A creature that is a mix between a human and the mythical Siren. They have eyes that can glow on command and beautiful voices that can control a person's mind. They also have horns, soft, flowing hair that takes care of itself, unsaturated skin, and sharp marks scattered on their skin that resemble a sort of darkened vitiligo, or burn or frostnip scars. They always hold a specific Lily with them. 

They are also able to use their horns to transform between their original Conduit form, and a very convincing human form. As well as this, a Conduit's horns help them with hearing. [yes I know horns don't do that and it's actually antlers that do the hearing aid ear thing. yes I'm disappointed at my incompetence too >:( ] 

Using these strategies, they are typically successful at capturing. They use the native Boreal Lilies and endemic Lake Lethiferous to obtain their sole food and life source; the souls of the homo sapien. 

(intermission: the souls of the homo sapien reminds me of that vine with the souls of the innocent aha) 

Lake Lethiferous - This oligotrophic lake is poisonous to anyone who opens their eyes in the clear, fresh water. It has the ability to suck the soul out of the victim. Ironically, the water is safe to drink. The lake can kill anyone, but it is up to the Boreal Lilies if they want to take in that soul. 

Boreal Lily - Appear as regular white lilies, but can have a glowing or blue hue at times. Lilies start at the boreal willow trees and are buds until they open up and are ready for a new soul. They can a) turn a human to a conduit when they smell the lily and b) take the souls of those who have fallen to Lake Lethiferous. Each conduit has their own assigned lily. 

- CONDUIT RULES - [they're called rules because these are crucial things Conduits know] 

CHOICE - The captured human will have a choice given to them: smell the Lily in the Conduit's hand or fall in the lake. 

Lily: hunt for other souls—If the human decides they are willing to turn into a Conduit and leave their human life, they will smell their captor's lily and will undergo the lengthy and painful process of turning into a Conduit. The catch is: the wrong human will find these lilies poisonous and will die if they smell the flower. 

Lake: give in your own—Lilies can hold a soul if the human dies in Lake Lethiferous. If that specific person decides to go through the lake, their soul will rise and glow, much like a conduit's eyes, flowing into the captor's designated lily. 

FAILURE [UNSOUND SOUL] - A lily will only allow the exact person the Conduit was assigned to through and will not accept another soul. If anyone who was not assigned either smells a Lily or opens their eyes in the lake water, the Lily will close up and not accept the soul until the problem is resolved. 

Oftentimes this is accidental, where a human wanders too far in the forest and gets too curious. It could also be a mistake on behalf of the Conduit, where they find the wrong person [which was Hailey's case]. Lilies are very picky, and will know if a Conduit makes a mistake. A soul cannot be forced to be taken by the Lilies. 

If an assigned human dies outside of the forest [which is also considered accidental in the eyes of the Conduits], their soul cannot be obtained. 

What happens to this 'unsound soul'? It will hover around a lily, whether it be a random one or the lily of the Conduit who made the mistake. 

CONSEQUENCE/SACRIFICE [PROCESS OF TERMINATION] - There is one way to allow the Lily to open up and return to doing its job. 

Failure in regards to the wrong person dying will result in one Conduit's soul being sacrificed in exchange for allowing that human to come back to life. If the human death was accidental, one Conduit will have to volunteer to go. If a Conduit was the one to make the mistake, they will be the one to go. 

The 'Process of Termination', as the Conduits like to call it, goes as follows: The Conduit will take the unsound soul off their/the Lily, much like how one would pick berries off a bush. No humans other than Conduits can hold these souls in their hands like little balls, so only Conduits are able to perform the process of termination. 

They will throw the soul in the lake with all their might, proceeding to jump in afterwards. If these actions are done the wrong way around, it doesn't count. The Conduit would simply die and another would have to be sacrified. 

Through a process that no one—not even a Conduit—can see from in the lake, the human will swim up and out of the lake, in Conduit form. The Lily will now be designated to the new Conduit; opening up and ready to assign and serve them. 

WHY GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS OF OBTAINING HUMAN SOULS? - The Boreal Forest, and the life within it, require them to survive. They don't need food, water, or anything that we do. One soul is able to power everything for about one year in our time. If insufficient souls are taken, the forest and Conduits will start to die. Theoretically, they could go a few months without capturing anything. This has never come to happen [yet], what with the large number of Conduits. 

WHERE DID CONDUITS COME FROM? - My mind. I got the name idea from Minecraft, and the google definition of a conduit is something that allows something to move/transmit from one destination to another. From there I just assigned the name I guess. But lore/history wise, where did conduits come from? If you can answer me where Sirens came from, then I'll give you an answer. I'm kidding. I won't tell you it's a secret. 

I believe that's all the things that I've come up with. 

I don't really plan on making any huge stories with these ideas; honestly, the potential I see with this AU is in the form of oneshots or short stories [which is what I did]. I'm not a fantasy fanatic, but I see why one would like the genre so much. 

It was very fun to come up with this story, perhaps more fun than realistic fiction /hj 

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! That's all I got for this short story. 

This has been Ciel, 

and this has been his version of the 2019-predominant Lily GLMV. 

Thank you for reading :) 

- word count: 1247