The Kiss

Her gaze felt like a bullet tearing through my skull. This wasn’t an impostor, the result of mind control or any other kind of magic. Lilly, of her own free will, was the perpetrator.

“Why…”

“Nice of you to finally show up, Rin.” Lilly scowled.

“I’ve been looking for you this entire time, Lilly! When they told me you committed regicide, I didn’t believe it but–”

“It’s true.” She shrugged, keeping a serious tone I had not once heard from her lips. “I killed every one, and I won’t stop until every king in Sarai is dead.”

“Lilly…” This was Lilly, yet not the Lilly I knew. Where she would smile this version could only scowl, at most giving a self-hating laugh. It’d been barely a month or so since we arrived! This wasn’t a simple month’s worth of change.

“Rin!” Before I could retort, Thien's footsteps came from behind me. “Are you okay?”

“Never been better,” I scowled. “She saw through the plan.”

“Plan?” At Thien’s arrival, what remained of Lilly’s neutral face morphed into one of hatred. “You call that a plan? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Don’t worry, this will be the last kill you will commit,” Thien grinned. “In the name of his royal majesty, I hereby place you under arrest for regicide.”

“Kill yourself,” a burst of mist appeared at Lilly’s feet, followed by the sound of a dagger moving through the air.

SWISH

Thien leaped into the air, avoiding the dagger flying towards his back. I trust myself around, nearly collapsing as Lilly dashed towards us, covered in grey mist. “You can teleport too!?”

“In a way,” she grimaced, letting her dagger fly back toward her hand.

Thien landed gracefully next to me, his cape making him look like a superhero. “I was hoping to handle this peacefully. You chose this fate, Lilly. Remember that.”

He snapped. Simultaneously, the grand stained-glass windows around the room broke, glimmering blue water crashing onto the ground. A tidal wave rose and rose, waterfalls covering every bit of the stone. In mere seconds, the room transformed into an ocean–one completely under Thien’s control.

He casually walked upon the water like solid ground. Rays of light shone upon him as he walked toward Lilly, who had carved a small hole in the waves with her mist.

Yet just as he leaned back to strike, she leaped into the air, using the hidden stone like a springboard as she launched toward him.

“Pity,” Lilly struck, an explosion of shadow hiding her strike.

Yet when the air cleared Thien stood strong. Lilly’s dagger and his forearm met, her knife having torn through his uniform where shining armor set sparks flying from the impact.

She flew back, pulling out a second knife. “Not bad, better than letting Rin do the work for you.”

That brought me back to reality. If I wanted to save Lilly, I had to take part too.

“You should be grateful, Lilly the assassin, not many get the privilege of facing me in a fight,” Thien said.

“Lilly!” I called out. “We can talk this through. I know–”

“Shut it, Rin,” Lilly launched herself back toward Thien. “I don’t know where the hell you’ve been all this time, but clearly you don’t know shit!”

“I don’t know shit?” That was the last straw. “Thien, let me in.”

He nodded, and I took my first steps on the waves. Light covered my fist as I ran. Her dull gray mist and my pale white counterpart swirled together, dancing like birds facing a moonlit sky. “After this, let's talk, okay?”

SWOOSH

I ducked as a dagger flew where my head had been seconds before. “You’ve had years in this world, don’t pity me now.”

“Years?” I charged towards her and threw a punch. Water and stone both scattered from the punch, yet before I got the chance to throw it, she had already vanished into a pile of smoke. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Patience, Rin, don’t let her trick you.” Thien heard steady, tracking Lilly as she teleported around the room. “What god could have…”

Before Thien could finish, Lilly gave one final kick to the leftmost wall. The building shook as the dull gray stones started to tumble to the ground, letting even more water pool in and threatening to drown the entire room.

“She’s trying to escape! Rin, corner her!”

“On it, general!” I ran up the waterfall like gravity didn’t exist. It was like the water itself became gravity, letting me run into the sky.

Just one more time, one more punch. I could feel the white mist start to form from my wrists.

“Shit!” A wave of pain shot from my back. The mist faded, my bones cracked, and I plummeted to the floor as Lilly’s kick took me down. I’d barely had time to comprehend it. She’d teleported instantaneously before I could blink! Somehow, she was matching even Aila’s speed.

Water rose and cushioned my fall. Yet it still wasn’t enough to stop the impact as I plummeted into it.

I grimaced, holding my back as I sank into the water. The wave felt like a wall of wet bricks. No water could stop a hit like that.

“Stay down, Rin,” Thien’s voice floated through the water.

“Stay down? She’s right there! I’m fine! I–”

“Your back is broken, soldier. Let me finish this.” Thien tensed his muscles. “I’ve been watching you, assassin. His majesty ordered me to not show the full extent of my powers, but as he has sadly left this world, I am forced to take matters into my own hands.”

A shield of ice began to form from the crystallized water around me. If it wasn't for the pockets of air he formed, I would have drowned in the abyss.

And then, the water began to rise.

Slow at first, spikes of crystallized ice formed on the wars and the torrents rose in waves.

Lilly launched herself at the broken wall, yet somehow a wall of ice had formed behind it, one she couldn’t simply kick down.

BAM BAM BAM

She pounded on the wall to no avail. Her daggers didn’t make a dent, much less any of her limbs. The walls were spiked, the ceiling deadly, and below her, all she had was the rapidly rising tide.

She realized it before I did. There was no way out.

But that wasn’t enough for Thien. Even as the look on her face made the result clear, he kept the tide rising with a vindictive grin on his face.

“She’s done!” I yelled. Muffled, desperate. “Let her surrender!”

“Surender? Soldier, this is the assassin that killed his majesty, that has caused chaos and succession wars all across the continent, and you want me to spare her?”

“Yes.”

“As soldiers, we live to remove evil from the world. She is that evil!”

The black and white of Thien’s words hit me like a truck. It felt so out of character for the man. How was this the same person who had looked so kindly for that child's parents, now thirsting for Lilly’s death?

“So what?” I clawed at the ice wall, hands stained in blood. “If you want to eradicate evil, shouldn’t you be better?”

“Not all evils can be destroyed with good. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.”

“And?” I scoffed. “Lilly isn’t this irredeemable evil! I can promise you that!”

He hesitated as the water rose to Lilly’s head. “Fine. Her judgment will be carried out by the kingdom.”

With a snap, the water retreated in seconds, leaving a wet, dilapidated room with Lilly collapsed at the center.

“Guards!”

In second,s soldiers marched in en masse and roughly hoisted Lilly in the air and put her in handcuffs.

“Let me go!” she writhed as she shoved her on her feet. “You’re all fucking yourselves! Don’t listen to that man!”

“I see… I’ve never liked this kind of desperation.” Thien said.

“Lilly, give up.” I walked towards her one step at a time. “It’s–”

“Shut up, Rin! Why now, why bother to show up and be on their side?”

“What do you mean, Lilly!?”

“Two years, Rin!” She collapsed on the ground, the last bit of strength leaving her. “Two fucking years I looked for you in this hell. Don’t come here pitying me.”

“I–” Yet I couldn't find a single word to say.