Lilith: Blackened Blood

Chapter 1: Preparation

The sound of her chair scraping against the floor filled the room after Lilith jolted up from her sleep. Her vision blurred and drool escaping her lips. Her eyes darted around, searching for the origin of the unexpected sound. Followed by a soft sigh and a long yawn, she rubbed her wet eyes awake and narrowed her vision to the book that had fallen from the pile on her desk.

"Ah," she muttered while moving her chair closer to slide down and extend her foot close enough to retrieve the fallen book. Inching it closer to an arm's reach, Lilith grabbed it, muttering curse words of annoyance, and placed it back on the mountain she piled up on her desk.

Taking a few minutes to fully wake up, she adjusted her posture and stretched her limbs. Lilith had a busy day ahead after two long weeks being glued to this desk, and an even longer two months of study and preparation. She stood up and looked around. It was far too dark to see anything and the only light was the bits that seeped in from the cracks of the window.

After opening the window, Lilith ducked underneath the windowsill, covering her eyes with her hands. The mixture of light and the pollution of sound from the busy streets overwhelmed her senses. It took for a minute, but adjusting to the sound was easy. The brightness, though, was the hard part. It was far brighter than she could've guessed after hiding away to read. Every time she peaked through the gaps in between her fingers, she would quickly close them.

Lilith let out a sigh. "I have to go visit Alex." she said. After giving herself a minute to hide, she stood up, her back against the window, allowing the sunlight to seep into the room around her. Every corner was a mess, clothes strewn across the floor, books piled up on the desk, and papers scattered haphazardly everywhere. As a mail carrier, going above and beyond is necessary for successful deliveries, and this time was no different. The necessity to plot a path to her destination and the knowledge of what she would run into was a matter of life and death. Half way through her travels, she would enter the unknown and she had to be ready.

A black visible trail traveled from Lilith's core to the tip of her index finger, causing it to become completely black. With the now mana infused finger, she lazily sliced through the air like swinging down a sword, causing a wound like cut to form and an abyss not even Lilith could see through. Counting each book, Lilith slowly tossed each one into the wound, and after making sure she collected them all, she closed up the cut and let her mana return to normal.

"Bath and food," Lilith said, ignoring the mess around the room. It was going to be an exhausting day, and the cleaning wasn't something she planned to add to that.

................

In comfortable clothing, Lilith stood in the shaded street in front of the building that engulfed its surroundings. The Mailroom, five stories and larger than any other building around it, sat at the heart of the city. It was the core infrastructure for packages both large and small and letters that needed to go to their rightful owner, be it to citizens of the city Tarrin, or anywhere else around the world.

Split into two sections, the lobby welcomed both people who wanted to make a delivery or collect their mail on the left and the carriers who took on missions on the right. People hustled back and forth, and Lilith shuffled her way through the mob. The sound of chatter was deafening to Lilith, and she had no intention of hanging around to listen. Waving to the people she knew, her quickened steps took her past the counters and to the stairway in the back. The chattering became a distant memory as it faded away and disappearing completely when entering the stairway.

Lilith stood in front of a door marked with a painted five. People in suits shuffled around, filing paperwork or going through stacks of papers at desks. They moved swiftly, each step deliberate, as Lilith maneuvered through the crowd, careful not to disrupt their rhythm. She finally reached the door in the back. The intricate designs adorned a large, dark wooden door twice her size. However, the two long bodied serpents that met at the rounded top of the door always caused her to stop and stare. Alex called them water dragons, yet no one had ever seen such things before, nor were there any records of them from the past.