Chapter 263 - The Mirror Stag ( Part 2 )

"Why did you let me die?"

Her voice echoed off the upside-down trees, off the silver leaves and into the heart of Jennie, making her wound ache once again.

In front of her stood the great white stag. With crystal antlers that reached up to the inverted sky and the human face, the stag gazed at her with eyes full of sorrow and blame. The same eyes that belonged to Lilia.

These were Lilia’s eyes. The eyes that followed Jennie everywhere from across the throne room in Seraiya, eyes full of warmth and curiosity. The eyes that watched Jennie in the sunset, reflecting gold and crimson and the hope of future together. The eyes that used to look at her with a heartbreaking trust, trusting that Jennie would protect her from anything that life could bring.

These eyes accused her.

"Why?" the stag asked again, voice trembling. "Why did you not save me?"

Jennie could not find the words to answer him. No excuses. No explanations. Nothing.

The stag lowered his head and the white light started flowing out of his body. He spread his light between the trees, covering the forest floor with the light and dissolving the moss and the mist that filled the forest. Branches above her bent down and formed the arches, while silver leaves became golden curtains. The pale mist was now polished marble.

The forest faded away.

Jennie was standing inside the royal palace of Seraiya.

Warm sunlight was shining through the high windows of the hall, creating long golden rectangles on the floor. Curtains swayed in a gentle breeze bringing fragrance of roses and jasmine. Above her chandeliers were sparkling with thousands of captured rays of sunlight. Floors were shining with perfect clarity.

It was beautiful. It was familiar. It was the place where Jennie failed to protect everything and everyone.

Standing at the end of the corridor was Lilia.

Her golden hair was shining on her shoulders, falling in soft curls. Her white dress was immaculate without a single stain. Next to her stood the Blade of Light.

She was just like she used to be, before Demon Emperor destroyed everything.

For a moment, Jennie forgot where she was. Celestial Battlefield, the forest and the stag—all of it seemed like a dream now. All that mattered was that Lilia was standing right in front of her.

"Lilia..."

The girl turned her head.

"You’re late."

Jennie held her breath. These words were so ordinary, so achingly familiar—the words that Lilia said to her a hundred times before, reprimanding her for missing their appointments, for breaking their plans, for being late for dinner that they planned together.

Her face was calm and disappointingly ordinary. She looked like she was ready to lecture Jennie about how she missed yet another appointment.

"I waited for you," Lilia said quietly. "I kept waiting, for you to save me ."

"No..."

"I trusted you."

Jennie’s knees went limp. Each word hit her painfully, with a deadly accuracy.

"You promised me that you would save me "

"I tried."

"Then why wasn’t I worth saving?"

The question hit her harder than any sword. Jennie looked at her, feeling her eyes burn, throat tightening, heart breaking into a million pieces.

The real Lilia never asked her such question. Even in the presence of their enemies, when she was terrified and all the world was against her—the real Lilia never doubted that Jennie would do anything to protect her.

But this was not the real Lilia.

Jennie knew that. She knew that as certainly as she knew that the sun will rise tomorrow, that the stars will dance their eternal dance across the heavens, that her right hand would never move again.

However, these words pierced through all the wounds that she had, through all the cracks in the armor around her heart.

"I tried," Jennie whispered. "I really did."

Lilia took one step closer to her. The sunlight became dimmer, and the shadows became longer.

"You were always strong. You had five Divine Swords. You defeated demon generals and survived battles that should have killed you."

Her eyes became cold. Colder than Jennie ever saw them, colder than the Lilia that she remembered could be.

"So why couldn’t you save me?"

Jennie bowed her head. She could not give her any answers to change what happened. She was too weak, too slow and too sure that she will be able to reach her in time.

And Lilia died in front of her. With her golden hair stained with blood. Blue eyes looking at nothing. Body lying beside the altar with Zuko’s sword piercing her.

"I know," Jennie whispered.

Lilia raised her hand, and Aurelia appeared with another flash of golden light. The sword glinted brightly; she knew that blade so well.

It shouldn’t have been possible.

It shouldn’t have happened.

Jennie did nothing.

The blow hit her shoulder. Fire spread across her entire body, making her scream. She went down to her knees, spilling blood on the illusion’s floor which should have remained perfectly white.

The illusion watched mercilessly.

"Does it hurt?"

Jennie didn’t answer.

"Good."

Aurelia struck again. Jennie fell on the floor, her useless right hand flailing along with her. Her left hand pressed against cold stone while she tried to keep herself up.

She could have resisted. She could have conjured some wind even if it wasn’t strong enough anymore. She could have broken the illusion with her determination and creative mind that took her through all previous trials.

But she didn’t.

Perhaps she deserved such treatment. Every strike was but a fragment of what she should’ve endured for her failures to protect the people she loved.

Lilia approached her. She moved silently on the marble floor.

"Look at me, Jennie."

With reluctance, Jennie looked up.

The girl standing in front of her was so familiar. The golden hair, the blue eyes, the features...everything was exactly as it used to be before.

But the expression was wrong.

The real Lilia had been stubborn and proud. Sometimes so unbearably arrogant. She had a skill to start an argument out of any conversation and to make Jennie responsible for everything. She had been frightening when she was mad and childish when she was jealous. And impossible when she had already made up her mind.

And once she had looked at her under a beautiful sunset sky and told her that she wanted to spend more time together. That she wanted to see another sunrise. That she wanted to stay by Jennie’s side until the end of the world.

The real Lilia had wanted to live.

To live.

That thing just wanted to punish her.

"Lilia wouldn’t ask me to die here," Jennie said.

The illusion was frozen in shock. "What?"

Slowly, Jennie got up to her feet despite the pain in her shoulder and the shaky left hand.

"You are not Lilia."

The words were barely audible first, then she repeated it, getting more confident.

"You are not Lilia."

The illusion was angered by those words. "How dare you?"

"You have her face and her voice. You even remember the things she said to me."

Jennie raised her left hand, looking directly in her golden eyes.

"But you don’t understand her."

The false queen screamed. The whole illusion palace shattered.

Windows exploded in thousands of golden sparks. The curtains disappeared in ashes. The floor started to crack beneath Jennie’s feet and Aurelia became a raging storm of golden light, hitting the illusion hard enough to destroy it.

Jennie waited till the last possible moment.

And let the wind go.

It was pathetic in comparison with her powers before. Nothing like the storms she could conjure with Tempest or oceans created by Leviathan.

But it was hers.

It hit the illusion in her chest. It broke Lilia’s image not destroying it but cracking it like glass that was hit by stone. Jennie saw for a split second how the illusion looked like a white stag under her borrowed face with her crystal antlers breaking into pieces.

Then it all disappeared.

Jennie was alone in the woods.

Her shoulder did not hurt anymore; there was no trace of blood on her clothing. The burning pain was gone, leaving the empty pain of sorrow in its wake.

She dropped her head down and put her hand up against her eyes.

"I’m sorry," she said.

The woods made no response.

"I’m sorry, Lilia."

Her voice was shaky. She wanted to say something more, that she had tried and done all she could possibly do to help Lilia. But explanations wouldn’t bring Lilia back.

So Jennie stood under the trees growing in an upside down position and allowed herself to mourn. She cried until her breath calmed, until the shaking of her legs ceased.

And then, when she finally removed her hand from her face, the woods were changed.

The trees were standing still. The air around her had turned cold – not the coolness of fall, but something deeper, something which touched her bones and spoke of endings. No leaves were moving.

Then, the laugh. Cheery, light-hearted and totally out-of-place in such surroundings.

"Heh. Seriously? Are you crying again?"

Jennie froze. Her heart stopped beating for a second.

No.

That laugh couldn’t come from this spot. The one who laughed was dead – his body was covered in blood which ran across the floors of the Black Capital and who was killed before her very eyes.

The laughter filled the air once more.

"Honestly, Leo. How many times are you going to give me that silly look?"

Jennie parted her lips slightly. Her voice was so faint.

"Rudy?"