Chapter 27: Chapter 25: An Awkward Explanation

Lilith woke up with a start, a moment of panic gripping her as she stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.” Raphael said, pausing the TV.

“Not this again.” Lilith groaned.

“What are you talking about?” Raphael asked, giving her a frown. “Anyway, do you know where we are or why we’re here?”

“Yeah, but…your reaction to waking in an unknown place was to just start watching TV?” Lilith asked, a little taken aback.

Raphael shrugged. “Why not? All the doors are locked, and we wouldn’t be given this stuff if we weren’t allowed to use it.”

“I…suppose that makes sense” Lilith admitted. “Still…” She trailed off as she heard one of the doors open, a sound that was followed by Kali stepping into the room.

“Hey there, good to see you’re awake.” She said. “Means we can finally get started with this.” She paused, giving Raphael a look. “Um…look, long story short, Lilith and I are working on a big project. I’m sort of…uh…an overseer for the universe, and I’m working towards reunifying the people of Haven and Earth, as well as overhauling magic.”

Raphael gave her an incredulous look. “You expect me to believe that?”

Kali gave Raphael an oddly relieved look in return. “No, actually. I can prove it to you in detail later, I want to brief Lilith on what exactly we’re going to be doing today first.”

She turned back to Lilith. “I’ve done a bit of finagling and got the system to accept you and Siph as being in a party together. Think of those as like…well, as easy ways to share effects between a group of people, as well as a way to share experience. You can turn off the experience sharing if you want, but only once this thing is really live. When experience is shared, everyone in a party gets an equal share, and since Siph can’t receive any right now, you’re going to get all of it.”

“So…where is mama?” Lilith asked.

“Out gathering up a bunch of monsters to kill and get you a bunch of experience.” Kali explained. “We need to get you to level one hundred once before your stats and Skills get properly unlocked, so that’s the priority for now. Fortunately, with the caliber of things Siph is killing, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes once she starts in earnest.”

“And…what do I do? Just sit here while she does the work?”

“Pretty much.” Kali said. “I have to teach you some things, so all the level stuff is going to be happening in the background. Well…and I had another idea as well, but I would also prefer to wait on that until I’ve verified the stability of the new system. I should be able to have enough data for that once you hit level one hundred, though.”

“So, we just waiting for Siph, then?”

Kali nodded. “Yeah. I have a kitchen where you can get breakfast, if you’d like.”

“That’d be good, I guess.” Raphael said. “I still want to see this proof you’re talking about, though.”

Kali smiled. “After breakfast, okay? “

“And besides, what am I doing here, anyway? I’m completely unnecessary for this plan.” Raphael asked. “Why bother kidnapping me like this? Do you want some sort of ransom from my grandma?”

Kali shook her head vigorously. “Nothing of the sort!” She said. “We’re…well, um…” She floundered a bit. “How to put this…”

“You remember what I said a couple weeks back about the way your grandma treats you being awful?” Lilith said. “Well, we decided that we couldn’t stand it anymore, so we’re…well, for the time being we’re taking you away from her. Back on Earth we have something called ‘child protective services’, and that’s what we’re doing, since no one else would be able to.”

Raphael frowned. “And if I said I wanted to go back, what would you do?”

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Lilith paused. “Well, this is only for a month or two, I think we would make you wait it out here. If you really hate it, then we’ll let you go, but we’ll have to wipe your memory.”

A conflicted look crossed Raphael’s face. “You know Grandma’s gonna freak out, right?”

“We’re blocking everyone’s memories of you. Same with Siph, and kind of the same for Carmen, everyone’s just gonna think she’s Lilith.” Kali replied, having composed herself a little more. “If you would like, I can let you check in on Elenoa from time to time, see how things are going. Probably won’t be anything too interesting happening, but that’s just how things are.”

“Fine. Let’s just go eat.” Raphael said, moving towards the door.

“Ah, not that way, that’s somewhere entirely different.” Kali said. “I’ll take you there when I’m proving things, but the kitchen is through that door.” She motioned to the door on the other end of the room. “This place is kind of a maze if you’re not used to it, since I occasionally change the room layouts to make things more convenient for me and that doesn’t always end up with the most logical floor plan.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow, waiting for Kali to go over to the door and open it before following her into the space beyond. They went through some sort of room with a large window looking out on blackness before going through another door and entering what looked to be a kitchen.

“What do you two want?” Kali asked, opening up a door to what appeared to be a pantry of sorts before pulling out a box of cereal. “We’ve got most breakfast-y type stuff, so don’t feel shy about asking for something.”

“I’ll have some cereal, I guess.” Lilith said.

Kali stepped to the side. “Third shelf, I’ll get you a bowl and a spoon. What about you, Raphael?”

“Uh, I dunno. Toast?” Raphael responded.

Lilith pulled out a box of cereal that looked good, pausing for a moment to scan the pantry for bread. When she located it, she took it out and passed it to Raphael. “You want jam or something? Looks like there’s some in here.”

“Yeah, give me strawberry.”

Lilith grabbed a jar of strawberry jam and passed it to Raphael before shutting the pantry.

“Toaster’s over there.” Kali said, pointing at the toaster. “Let me get you a knife.”

A few minutes later, everyone had prepared their breakfast, and were sitting down to eat at a small table when Kali perked up. “Siph’s ready.” She said. “Just give her the okay and we can get started.”

Lilith nodded, putting down her spoon. “Alright. I’ll do that now.” She took a moment to focus, reaching out for her mother mentally. Alright, mama, I’m ready. Go ahead!

Sure thing, sweetie! Siph replied. Let me know if anything starts feeling weird and I’ll stop, alright?

Immediately, her vision began to fill with windows, which she hastily moved to the side so she could focus on one at a time.

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