Oakbrook - The Portal

Asking Questions, and Lilith

Asking Questions

Half term seemed to be over before Kate could blink, and then another Monday morning came far too fast, and Tom and Susan were back in school.

There was a knock at the front door. Kate frowned. No-one ever used the front door. It was covered with a heavy curtain and kept permanently locked. She opened the back door, pulled a face at the weather outside, and yelled.

"Come round the back!" she heaved a sigh when the uniformed figures looked round the corner of the house. There was no escaping the inevitable questions.

"Mrs Kate Morgan?" the one in front asked, it was a WPC, slim and delicate looking but not quite hiding a wiry strength and hard attitude to life. Her male companion towered over her with a hand on his belt for easy access to equipment. They stayed for what seemed to be forever, but Kate stuck to her story. A phone message, going to meet Sam in the woods. They asked if Kate already had a social worker for the kids and took Rebekah's full name and the case reference number and seemed to know her.

"Ms Brewer is currently staying with Mrs Lily McPhearson?" the female officer asked.

Kate nodded. "We thought it best for now, to give Sam and Susan a chance to sort things out, and so Susan has some continuity."

Lilith

Sam found herself in the kitchen after midnight, nursing a mug of tea. She sat in a chair by the fire and idly poked the embers under the logs with a stick. The pair of chairs in front of Lily's kitchen fire were deeply upholstered, soft and incredibly comfortable, and they didn't match. As Sam sat and scowled at the dancing flames in one chair, Lily came to sit in the other. The house was quiet now. Andrew asleep in bed, and only the occasional owl to be heard outside.

"It's hard isn't it?" Lily began, staring into the fire, not looking at Sam. "Life over there is so different. Living here again can be hard work. Adjusting will take time you know." Sam raised her head, scowl melting away in amazement.

"You lived there?" She asked incredulously. "Really?" Lily nodded, still staring unblinking into the flames.

"Yes, and it's past time that you knew." Lily began slowly, "I was born there, grew up there, for many years I lived there. I.... I ruled there. Kokare was my consort." Lily's voice was quiet. She paused, waiting.

"You!" Sam half rose from the chair, her hands white knuckled on the arms. "You?" she whispered. "You are Mistress Lilith??" She forced herself to sit down, still gripping the arms of the chair tightly, fear slowly crossing her face. "They fear you and yet love you at the same time. You are all powerful. Opener of Gateways, Giver and Taker of Life, Creator and Destroyer. Why?" The question hung between them.

"Why did I rule? Why do they fear? Or Why did I leave? Why didn't I tell you? Why doesn't Kate know?" Lily locked her piercing blue gaze on Sam's and held her there until she asked.

"All of them I guess. But why did you leave all that behind?" Sam was intrigued, but the revelation of Lily's other identity was mind blowing. She was nothing like Sam had imagined Mistress Lilith to be.

Mistress Lilith had cruel hard eyes with a gaze like ice. Lily's eyes, while piercing blue were warm and understanding.

Mistress Lilith was a bully, vindictive and all powerful. Lily was kind, considerate and laughed when things went wrong.

Sam was having a hard time reconciling the two, and believing her friend was the same person.

Watching the conflict on Sam's face, Lily stood, magic blazing, towering above Sam, still sitting in the chair. Sam found herself unable to move, and stared helplessly at the power above her. Lily glowed with energy, her hair fanned out from her head, light blazed from her eyes. Sam cowered back into the chair.

"I left none of it behind." The voice was Lily's but the tone was definitely Mistress Lilith, her hand raised and pulsating with magic. "The power is still mine to command. I choose to be here."

Lily deflated to herself once more and sank into the chair, her face and voice normal again. "Had I known where you had been taken I would have come for you." she sighed, "But I had no idea. His strength must have passed mine even then, and he hid you, he hid what he'd done. I'm sorry, Sam. I could have spared you this and I failed you." Lily's face fell and the heartfelt apology was plain and painful in her clear blue eyes. She reached out to take Sam by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Can you forgive me?" Lily asked. Sam couldn't find her voice to answer clearly and her mouth worked like a stranded fish as Lily's pain filled, apologetic piercing blue eyes remained locked tight on her own. Eventually she managed a weak smile, gently lifted Lily's hands from her shoulders and still saying nothing she walked slowly to the back door, opened it and stood taking deep breaths of the icy cold night air.