לִילִית: Lilith's Story

Chapter Four

Lilith had no idea how long she'd been buried but it felt like eternity. Her mouth was parched, her stomach growled in protest at its hunger, and her stab wound throbbed. It must have been several days at this point - she didn't even have the energy to raise her hands and press them against the walls of her prison. Instead, she slept and she dreamed. Transported back to a moment in Time that she remembered well, the moment when she lost her freedom and became tyrranized by Lucifer.

Lucifer Morningstar yanked Lilith down to the ground by his grip on her wrist, she fell to her knees and sobbed, reaching towards the large clay bowl in his other hand. The bowl was surprisingly large, depicting Lilith in the center highlighted in blue, her arms crossed with a circle drawn around her feet. Two serpents surround her, the first formed a circle around her. This ancient symbol, the ouroboros, shows a serpent or dragon eating its tail, thus forming a complete circle. Another serpent is pictured inside the ouroboros; this serpent appears on three sides of Lilith, but not the bottom. The text scrawled on the inside of the bowl in spiral concentric circles mentioned Lilith and other evil spirits in ancient Aramaic.

Aramaic Incantation bowls were used to expel demons and protect houses. In Sasanian Mesopotamia from the fifth to seventh centuries CE, they were produced by scribes who wrote incantations, divine names, curses and spells in ink on the surface of the bowl. Later, the bowl was buried upside down, usually in the home of the client who commissioned it. The bowl in Lucifer's hand had been found by Lilith when she'd been seeking out human children to exact her revenge upon, buried on the edge of a nearby village. When she felt it, she quickly dug it up but couldn't touch it. Understanding its importance, Lucifer quickly unearthed it and brought it back with them. Ever since they'd uncovered the incantation bowl, Lucifer's attitude towards Lilith had changed.

"Please Dark Lord, destroy it!" Lilith sobbed over the fallen Angel's feet, curling her body around them in supplication, begging to be released from the pain caused by the bowl. Even being in its presence felt like she was laying on simmering coals, on fire and always burning.

"My darling Lilith. I am truly sorry but you understand that I cannot do that. Before this bowl, I had very little power over you. You who have been graced by God Himself, born of Earth alongside the first Man, as the first Woman, the Mother of Demons, a Harbinger of Death. I may be an Angel, darling Demoness, but I have fallen and in your naivety you never saw me as a threat." The dark Angel kicked Lilith off of his feet and she fell back in the dust. "But now, you shall live for eternity serving as my concubine, bending to my will. You shall be my most deadly weapon and my most exacting executioner. You will help me gain the throne in Hell and become Ruler of the Underworld."

As Lucifer walked away, Lilith buried her face in her hands and sobbed. Anger flowed through her at the fatal mistake she had made in trusting Lucifer's promises. In trusting that he was nothing like the first Man, Adam; that he wanted to revel in their equality rather than rise above as a patriarch. With that bowl in his possession, Lilith was magically bound to him, her free will stripped from her as easily as the leather sack she wore to cover her body could be taken from her. She was left utterly bereft.

Lilith awoke from her dream with a start and reached up to brush away the tear on her cheek with a weak flick of her wrist. Lucifer Morningstar had carried that incantation bowl with him through the centuries until, eventually, Lilith nearly forgot it existed. She simply became a servant to the Dark Lord's whims. At his beck and call, the Mistress of Hell was given authority over her demons, humans, and any other creatures she happened upon, but never was she truly given free will. Lucifer gave her just enough power to keep her compliant, continuing to promise her a place on the throne for her loyalty, but never actually following through.

Soon after finding Lilith's bowl, Lucifer descended into Hell, dragging her along. After living more or less peacefully above ground, Lilith found the endless sounds of torture and torment weighed on her. Eventually, her environment and circumstances hardened her and she made a decision to live up to the titles given to her - shifting comfortably into the Most Feared. Manipulating her trauma and turning it into a tool of torment, the Mother of Demons began making demons again. They were far crueler, far more vicious, far more unforgiving than any demons she'd made before and each time she watched one hundred of them perish, the following one hundred were created with even more malice.

Lucifer praised Lilith for her actions, giving her the accolades she so desperately wished for. And over time, his charm and encouragement led her to return to the feelings she held for him before he'd found the bowl. She fell in love with her captor and that, even more so than the Aramaic Incantation bowl, chained her to him even more fiercely. Centuries passed in relative peace; Lilith followed the Dark Lord's guidance and became invaluable to him. With her at his side, Lucifer barely had to lift a finger to rule in Hell - she was his guard dog and his firing squad. No one dared cross Lilith and so, no one got near enough to Lucifer to challenge his reign of Hell.

Lilith's deep sigh echoed within the small space and she nearly startled at the sound, her own voice becoming unfamiliar as days and nights dragged on. Her human form was wasting away, she needed water at very least, but there was no way to get it. Her thoughts moving from Lucifer to Zelda - a strong woman, Lilith had been watching her not just in order to get closer to her niece, but because she was intriguing. Allured by her classic beauty but ensnared by her strength and will, Lilith was drawn to the Mortuary's matriarch convinced that if anyone could help her break her bonds to the Dark Lord, it was Zelda Spellman.