Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Keep it at bay? Oh, no. My daughter is suffering and I want that thing out! Cut it out if you have to."

Outside of Eda's room, Eda heard her mother speaking to the healing coven witch that was called to help cure her curse, and almost choked from the shock. Her mother was a psycho, no doubt. Thanks for the help, but no thanks, Eda had already been struggling with the curse enough as it is, and everything that her mother had tried so far wasn't very helpful. 

Eda rushed to escape the house through the backyard before her mother could think of something insane like dissecting her. Running outside, she stumbled on something… Strange. Some weird suitcase with a big eye on it? 

"Hmm, I don't remember we had something like that back here…" Eda mumbled to herself while she lifted the suitcase from the ground, dusting it off. In an instant, the suitcase spread in front of her and turned to be a door with a similar big eye on its center. The door had opened and seemed to be leading to… what was that? 

As the curious child she is, she walked through that door to the other side without hesitation, and arrived somewhere...else? 

She walked around the new territory and cast a spell to summon an apple blood juice box to her hand. 

A lady who passed by screamed, and Eda didn't understand why. What, has she never heard of Apple Blood for kids? Sheesh…

Something weird she did notice about her, was that her ears were circled. Why was that? Is it normal? 

The further she walked through town, the more strange things she noticed. Loud metal machines, wheels that move at an insane speed, and everyone around her had circled ears too and seemed quite frightened of each spell she did. 

She ran to the first store she saw to figure it out.

"Hey, you!" She shouted to the seller. "Do you know how to get back to Bonesborough? Or where am I?" Without any introduction, Eda jumped straight to the point. 

The seller was a bit startled and quite confused. "Bones… what? Kid, what kind of game are you playing? You're in Gravesfield's Cafe." He explained, still confused. 

"Wait…" Eda tried to recall, "I remember Lily told me about it! No way, this is real?" She mumbled before turning back to the seller. 

"So you're trying to tell me that I'm in the… Human realm?" She asked, sneaking a mini croissant into her mouth. 

"Umm… yes? Now go away, kid, I have other humans that want to order." The seller lost his patient. 

"Ahhh! No way! I gotta tell this to Lily!" Eda was so excited that she immediately ran to the door and back through it. When she was once again in the backyard she took the door - now back to its suitcase shape - and ran with it to Lilith's room.

"Lily, Lily, Lily! You wouldn't believe what I just found! Look!" She burst into the room, showing her the suitcase-door. 

Liith was deep in thoughts, like what happened a lot lately, ever since she got accepted to the Emperor's Coven. It was supposed to be the best day of her life, a day where everything could change and everyone will finally see how good and powerful she is, and they'll treat her better like that. 

She trained hard for years and waited patiently for that day, but the outcome of it was different.

She got into the coven, but the price for it was higher than expected, and nothing changed for good after that. 

If anything, it all got so much worse. 

Lilith knew it was only a matter of time before things will settle and everything will be okay again, better even. She knew that maybe right now she was inside a storm or inside a fire, but soon it'll all fade out and outside the boiling rain she'll see the painbow. After that fire, she'll see how new things can grow, and then she'll see how it was all for the greater good. 

After all, very soon she'll get to fulfill her dream, or at least part of that Emperor's Coven dream.

Lilith wasn't very optimistic, but she had to have something to believe in, because right now she couldn't stand anyone's appearance. And since the training for the coven tryouts has ended she didn't have much to do to keep herself preoccupied with, which only drove her mad. 

Before the tryouts, all the free time she had was dedicated to training. Days and nights she studied hard for that, along with doing her homework and having Grudgby practice here and there, but mostly for the tryouts. She didn't have much time to ponder what will happen when she'll get accepted, especially not about what she didn't know she would do - the curse. 

Now, however, Grudgby season was over and there wasn't much school work to do since the end of the year was fast approaching. Lilith found herself more and more deeply in her agonizing thoughts about the curse and the future she'll soon have, and she didn't like that at all.

Especially in times when her mother would be overbearing with her healing attempts, and Lilith didn't know what to do. She wanted to find a cure just as much as her mother, but she didn't believe in all the nonsense her mother tried, and it put her in a weird position whenever her mother tried to use her help for that. 

How can Lilith stand next to her mother, who she tried to get her attention all of her life, knowing she's the reason for it all? The one responsible for the mysterious curse her sister has? Of the injury of her father?

She can't.

And luckily, when she's isolating herself in her room no one comes to her at all. Not her mother, who was always so neglectful, and not her father who was still recovering from the beast's attack. The quiet was for the best, really, because she couldn't stand to be around anyone knowing it was all her fault.

Especially not her sister…

Her beloved sister, the one she spent all her life with, that until recently was the closest person to her. She was supposed to take care of her sister, and protect her, but instead, she hurt her in an irreversible way. 

Her sister, who trusted her and could never do that again, without even knowing why.

No, Lilith couldn't stand to be around her, knowing she doesn't deserve her sister's love anymore, her innocent sister that doesn't even know that all the things that are happening right now are because of Lilith. 

Unfortunately, the only person who did come to her room from time to time was Eda. 

Lilith would always get angry whenever Eda would startle her like that and cause her to accidentally spill ink on all of her homework, but now it was for a different reason.

She didn't understand how Eda can behave normally and keep being so cheerful with her. Even before that, Lilith wasn't always nice to her, but now she was twice as cold, and yet Eda wasn't bothered. 

"Edalyn, how many times did I tell you to not enter my room without knocking?!" Lilith spun around in her chair to face her sister as she yelled at her, frustrated. "I thought I was clear enough last time, wasn't I?! What do I need to to make you understand??? Lock the door? Cu- cast a spell on it? What?!"

She definitely didn't almost say curse. Definitely. She never wants to hear or say that word ever again, no matter what. 

"No, don't say anything. You always apologize and then do it again, so what's the point? Can't you at least one time listen and obey? You always have to mess around, right? Can't you just leave me alone?!" She burst on her, frowning and rushing to wipe out a few tears from her eyes. Eda would probably think it's from frustration, and not deepest regret. 

She wasn't even angry with her sister, only with herself. She was just trying to protect Eda from herself. 

Eda winced in front of her. Well, here it is, it happened again. She got too excited that it made her older sister mad and disappointed… Great, Eda. Good job.

Eda didn't understand what was going on with Lilith lately. Maybe it was the stress about the Emperor's Coven, now that she got accepted to it, because lately, Lilith got really mad at her. Yes, it's probably just because of the coven, Eda decided, and that's why she wanted to help calm her down and get her out of the room! Seriously, the room was suffocating now that Lilith was in it 24/7. 

"Lily," Eda stepped closer to place a hand on her shoulder, "I know you're completely stressed out lately, from all the studying and training and getting accepted to the coven, I mean, wow! I bet they put a lot of pressure on you even before you start, huh? So all I want is that you'd come out with me, because I have something incredible to show you. That way you'd calm down a bit because you'll be busy with these amazing things l I'm about to show you. Now, remember how you told me about the human realm?" She said, handing over the suitcase-door to Lilith while dragging her outside. "Believe me, this will make you happy. It can really help with your research! You could talk about it in the Emperor's Coven!"

Lilith sighed. She wanted to resist and keep being angry with her sister until she'll take the hint and leave her alone. Eda doesn't know anything, doesn't understand anything about her life, why does she insist to act like she does? 

But despite all that, Lilith certainly was curious to know what are her sister's means. And she definitely needs something new to be busy with. 

"I remember…" Lilith nodded in hesitation. It was hard to get any information about humans, and nothing seemed to have a trusty source, but Lilith liked to read about it from time to time. Not just that, but other urban tales of things whose existence was questionable, such as possums, time pools, and giraffes. But why did Eda suddenly talk about it now?

 "I don't understand you, Edalyn. What is this dirty suitcase? Couldn't you at least clean it up first?" She asked, holding the strange suitcase's handle with sheer disgust. She didn't like that at all, not the horrifying design of the suitcase nor the fact she was once again dragged after Edalyn, and not the other way around. It was always her going after Eda, whether by choice or not. 

By the time the girls arrived at the backyard Eda was bursting with excitement, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. 

"First of all, Lily," she turned to face Lilith and take the suitcase back from her, "it's not my fault this thing was buried here in the ground for who knows how long. But I do know that it leads to a place you'd very much like." Eda said, thrilled. It's been a long time since the last time the two of them went on an adventure together. It was time to get these old days back. 

"Prepare yourself, Lily, to see giraffes, circled ears, an engine metal that moves, and as I recall you told me, non-boiling rain! Welcome to…" Eda threw the suitcase to the air which made it turn into a door and open up to another place. "The Human Realm! Right in front of you!" Eda presented the door cheerfully and tried to drag Lilith with her to step inside it. "What do you say, 'Clawthirne sisters adventure in the Human Realm'! Let's take over that world! Go on an exciting adventure, like we used to!" She excalled. 

"Wow, wow, wow, slow down, sister. You're talking too fast and I don't understand." Lilith said, confused. "You expect us to just go through that… Suitcase?" She asked, eyebrows knitted. A suitcase that turned into a door seemed to her like a very unsafe thing to walk through, especially when it isn't clear where it leads to.

"I don't think the Human Realm is really approachable, Edalyn. It's just urban tales, you know that. Well, it may be real, but…" Lilith hesitated. On one hand, she knew the Human Realm existed, but on the other hand… She really didn't have many sources to affirm this, especially not the possibility of going to that realm. "If there was a way to get there I would've known it." She summoned. "But since we have yet to track the time pools, for one, I assume it's a similar case, the Human Realm. Just urban tales. Everything we heard of witches or demons from the Isles that visited it was a long, long time ago. You don't really believe it's possible, do you, Edalyn?" She said, a bit condescending. 

It wasn't a surprise for her that Eda would believe all sorts of nonsense, not bothering to do research or read about it first. She always preferred to run fast forward and do silly things instead of thinking deeply or studying.

Lilith sighed again, "In any case… Even if it is real… I… I really don't think we should. Emperor Belos wouldn't be happy to hear about it, I'm sure. There's a reason we know almost nothing about humans here, Edalyn. It feels like breaking his rules." She said, overruling her sister's want. Now, more than ever, Lilith should be careful. Actually, Eda should too, especially because of the curse, but it was hard to expect something like that to have an effect on her behavior. 

"Lily," Eda moved to stand in front of Lilith, holding her shoulders and looking straight into her eyes, "I've seen it. There were all sorts of technology devices there, and they worked without magic. They don't use magic there! They have circled ears, none of the adults had a sigil on their forearm, and one woman even almost passed out when she saw me taking someone else's food with my magic." Eda snorted at the last bit. "Point is, this is real. And you can see that I'm telling the truth if you'll just pass through this door. If you want, we can come back immediately, before the Emperor would know. It can be our little secret." She winked at her, gesturing at the door. "But of course, it doesn't have to be a secret." She added, "think about it, Lily. We'll explore this world together, think of all the information we could bring here to the Boiling Isles! You'll be known as the greatest realms explorer of all time! You'll bring the Isles knowledge that only a few heard of. I can't see any reason why the Emperor wouldn't like that."

Even though the idea did appeal to Lilith, she couldn't help but frown at Eda's description of her visit to the Human Realm. "Edalyn, if what you say is true and you're not pranking me again, are you saying that you used your magic while humans were watching you?!" She said, shocked. "Edalyn! You can't just go around humans and act like a witch! This is dangerous! You know that!" She said in worry.

Why does her sister always have to be so irresponsible?

Eda huffed in frustration. From all the things she said, Lilith had to address that Eda was being herself in the Human Realm? So she made one lady pass out, big deal. Okay, maybe it is a big deal, but she can learn from that mistake, can't she? 

"Yeah, mom, fine. I figured that out myself already." She rolled her eyes at her.

Lilith sighed into her hands while she considered the suggestion. 

It was… Tempting. Lilith always dreamed to be a historian and search unknown territories, and to be one of the few witches who got to visit the Human Realm would definitely be an impressive achievement for her!

But… Is it really smart to follow Eda into this thing? What if her sister is wrong and she thought she found the Human Realm but it's not that? What if they won't be able to come back from there? 

Nothing good ever happens when she let Eda drag her into all sorts of adventures. Wouldn't it be best for them to stay out of trouble? To at least consider it deeply before they do it?

"I don't know, Edalyn… What if something bad happens? There's probably a good reason why this thing was buried here for so long…"

Eda sensed her sister's hesitation, but it was expected. How could she think anything else, it's obvious Lilith wouldn't go blindly with her and instead check a thousand times if it's safe or whatever. Why can't she just go with it and enjoy herself?

"Okay, Lily, want to see that it's safe and nothing bad will happen to you? Here." She walked through the door, slowly, so that Lilith could see it was in fact safe. And then…

"Ahhhh! Lily, something caught me!" She pretended she was being dragged inside, just to mess with her sister, and then stopped. "Kidding! You believed it, didn't you?" She laughed, "anyway, it's totally safe. Just come with me, and- Woahh!"

This time it wasn't a prank.

Eda felt something pulling her inside that door, leaving Lilith alone on the other side while she was being kidnapped inside.

"Edalyn!" Lilith cried out, reaching her hand out to help her sister, but as always she was useless. Just like she's been during the coven tryouts. 

She'll come back soon… Right? She's just pulling another prank on her, thinking it's funny. This is probably what's happening now, and as always she's taking it too far. Classic Eda, always being irresponsible and then mocking her for acting like a mom, like she's leaving her any other choice. If it wasn't for Lilith Eda would've been hurt badly long ago!

Oh.

But she is hurt badly.

Because of Lilith. 

The door didn't look stable and Lilith stared at it worriedly. As the seconds passed, she began to fear Eda might be in actual trouble this time, and she was not just pranking her. This portal looked temporary, what will she do if it'll close? 

It's kind of her responsibility to save Eda if she's needing saving, isn't it? She owes it to her.

But what if something bad happens and they won't be able to return or they'll disappear for a long time? What if the humans there will recognize that they're witches and will try to hunt them? What if Eda's curse would take over her, or someone will try to harm them, or worst of all: by the time they'll return the recruitment date to the coven will pass, and she won't be there to officially join it, and then her life dream, all the sacrifices, what if it is all for nothing?

That won't happen… right? 

Eda said it will be a quick visit, and there's still plenty of time until her recruitment date...

She wanted to yell at her sister for putting her in a situation like that again, always forcing adventures and shenanigans on her. She's a responsible girl, she doesn't want to get in trouble like Eda! 

"Thanks a lot," she mumbled angrily, while she stepped carefully to the door. "on life and dea… No, only on life. Alright Edalyn, whatever it is, I hope it's worth it." She muttured before she stepped through the door.

And as soon as she disappeared inside it, the door closed behind her and disappeared as well.

Chapter Text

On the other side of the door, Eda was pulled by an unknown thing, to an unknown place, something that bothered the owl beast inside of her. Eda saw flashing lights, and it was either that or the owl beast fighting inside of her that caused feathers to grow on her. They grew more and more and Eda tried hard to free herself from whatever it is that pulling her. 

After a few minutes of this war between Eda, the owl beast, and the unknown thing that was pulling her, Eda found herself on… Sand? 

"What… Where am I..?" She mumbled and spat out a pile of sand and a lost crab that somehow was in her mouth. 

She slowly rose up to a sitting position, looking around her at the place she was taken to, and it looked like a beach but a very strange one. However, Eda didn't get to see that much of it, or even stand up at all, before Lilith had fallen from the sky and landed on her. Of all the places she could've landed on, it was on Eda. 

"Lily, you're here!" Despite the pain, Eda was happy that Lilith decided to tag along and go after her. Well, it's not like she really had a choice. "Can you get off of me now, please?" She asked, spitting out a few feathers. "Ugh, annoying curse." She sighed. 

"Ow!" Lilith grunted in pain from the fall. She didn't think the entrance to the Human Realm would be from the sky, but okay… 

"My apologies, Edalyn." She quickly moved aside and helped her sister stand up. 

The mentioning of the curse was a bit concerning to Lilith. The last thing she wants now is to have to deal with that damn owl beast. 

A cool breeze blew Lilith's messy hair to her face and brought her attention to the world around her. "Wow!"  Lilith exclaimed in amazement, "What a lovely beach, the water looks really clear and beautiful and cold, nothing like the boiling water in the Isles. I wonder if the water is safe to drink and has minerals in it or does it have fire saltines or citron saltines instead?" She approached the water with curiosity before a worrying thought crossed her mind.

"Wait, Edalyn, where is the door back? How did you come back before?" she asked urgently.

Eda shook all the sand off her. "What do you mean 'where'?" she asked. "The door is right there."  She pointed towards what looked like a forest on the other side, but more like a forest of kelps and corals as if they were underwater - but they weren't. In any case, no portal door was seen there, except perhaps a red door. Could it be that the inside of the door looks different, or is it just Eda's imagination?

"This is… Not where I've been before. Not even similar."  Eda started to get a little suspicious and worried. Something in this world felt terribly strange. She got wet when she touched the sand, but felt a sandy and muddy surface from the sea, and of course, instead of a normal forest on the shore, there was that coral forest.

Eda gazed at the clear water, and just as she suspected, she saw there normal trees that should have been in the forest.

"Say, Lily," she immediately turned to Lilith before something crazy would jump on them or something.  "Did you happen to read something that said people can hallucinate together? Because this place is strange... It's not the human world I've seen."

Lilith turned around quickly to look intensely at Eda, with widened eyes. "What do you mean this isn't where you were before?!"  she asked, and all the enthusiasm she had before was gone. "You said you could come back! You said we'd go in for a minute and come back! Where are all those technological things you mentioned???"

She gripped her sister's shoulders tightly and shook her, completely terrified. "Where have you brought us to, Edalyn?!"

Suddenly, she realized that she was wearing strange gray clothes and that a strange green light was shining from her right palm. "Ahaaa!"  She screamed in alarm, falling backward from the shock. The sand beneath her felt watery, which only made her more frightened.  What is going on here???

While Eda was trying to make sense of this place, Lilith was panicking like there was no tomorrow, which... Kinda felt like it. They don't know where they are, how to get back, and of course, Eda is the one who caused all this trouble...

"Okay, listen," she brushed off a few more feathers that were left on her, the stress didn't help and the curse was still new to her and she was yet to be able to control it. "I don't know what this place is and how we got here, but something in that portal door must have been broken because it just brought us to a completely different place and I don't know how it happened. So maybe instead of blaming me for everything, let's find a way out of here."  Eda gave Lilith a hand to help her up, suddenly noticing the uniform and the number on her palm as well. What's that, are they in a new coven now? The numbers coven?

According to all of Bellos's bullshit, it wouldn't be that hard to believe. Maybe Lilith is right and the Emperor is punishing them so he sent them to a stupid numbers coven? 

At least the uniforms are cool, that's noteworthy.

Despite the hand that Eda offered Lilith, she was still frightened. But if there's one thing that can get her out of a panic, it's anger. And right now she was pretty much pissed at her sister.

"Don't blame you? Edalyn, I told you this was a bad idea and look at where we are now! We must return right now, Edalyn! I won't miss the Emperor's Coven. Maybe you have nothing to lose by being stuck here but I haven't worked hard all my life just to be forgotten in this strange place of yours! It's not funny, Edalyn, I don't know what kind of a prank you're trying to pull on me now, but I demand that you take us back right that instant!"

Lilith stood up and shook off the sand from her clothes. She didn't like the stiff fabric of the uniform and the heavy shoes, nor the fact that her belongings from earlier disappeared as if they weren't there, but she especially detested the shining number that was glistening on her hand.

Eda took the yelling from her sister in silence. She was right, after all. 'Every prank has a limit', she told herself, 'and you completely crossed it.'

But it was for Lilith's benefit! She just wanted to show her the human world, she didn't know it would lead them to this place!

Maybe she shouldn't have done it to begin with.

Ugh, all of her sister's shouting, the thoughts running through her mind, the stress of how to get out of here... Her body was shaking, and slowly more and more feathers grew on her skin, which Eda tried to cover as much as possible. The number on her hand, which was 54 initially, began to increase as Lilith continued to yell at her. Now her number was 146.

Before Eda could comment something, or someone, responded instead.

"Hey, what's all this yelling about? Haven't you heard of beauty sleep?" A chirping sound came from the bushes near them and a very strange-looking creature appeared - it had the head and body of a teddy bear, the tail of a fish, and the wings of a bird. The creature rubbed its eyes, as it had just woken up from sleep, and flew straight to the sisters. "So I see that we have new guests in this car. Welcome, newbies. I'm Jave, nice to meet you."  Jave declared in its squeaky voice and shook its hands. "Now, if you could be a little quieter that would be wonderful, others are sleeping here. But if you have any questions then I will gladly answer them."

Lilith looked at the creature in front of her with a sealed expression. It didn't resemble any demon or creature on the Boiling Isles or anything she had read about.

"We are neither guests nor newbies, and we are leaving now!" She yelled decisively, not caring if she was shouting, until she looked worriedly at her stressed sister and realized that shouting was definitely not helping her curse, something that was her own fault, after all.

Great, so now Lilith can't get angry and stressed or she'll wake up Eda's beasts? How fun…

Jave looked at the two sisters and raised an eyebrow. "If you want to leave, the exit door is over there."  It pointed towards the kelp forest, where it came from. "But everyone is asleep there too, so your yelling won't help. You'll have to be, like, really quiet because if you wake them up... Well, it won't be pleasant."  it explained uncomfortably "I'm what's considered an 'exceptional case' here. The squeaky voice, the cute teddy bear face... You'll understand when you'll go through the forest. But seriously, you'll have to be as quiet as possible if you want the door to open for you."

Eda looked over at Lilith with a sour face and started walking toward Jave. "Yeah, let's just get this over with... After all, it's my fault we're stuck here, so obviously I have to get us out of here."  She walked with heavy steps and did not dare to glance at Lilith again. What's so bad about wanting to spend time with her sister who recently began to shut herself in her room without a warning anyway? What's wrong with showing her a different and new world? How was she supposed to know it would lead them to such a crazy place!

Lilith looked at Jave suspiciously. "And this door will lead us back to the demon realm?" She asked in a whisper, "And wait, why don't you have a number?"

"The realm of demons, you say?" Jave tried to think as they walked through the corals towards the door. "Well, who knows? This door will take you to the next car, and maybe the next car will be a world with demons. There are countless cars on this train, so you can't really know where the next car will take you." It shrugged and continued to fly alongside them.

"And I don't have a number since I'm not a passenger of the train. I see you're really new here, huh? Well, it's our honor to be the first car you landed in."

"Cars? Train? Where are we?!" Lilith whisper-shouted. She understood that they were not in the human realm but not why this strange creature was talking about going places and a train and… Whatever. "We're not looking for demons, we're looking for the door out. I have no intention of going through the car or… Or the… The train, you said?"  She looked at Jave with furrowed eyebrows, trying hard to understand what it meant, but unsuccessfully.

"And what do you mean by passengers? We're not passing through anything, we're supposed to go home ,"  she said, emphasizing the last word angrily.

She raised her hand and looked at the glowing number on it, then glanced at her sister's number. "Wait, Edalyn, why is your number lower?"

Oddly, Lilith was not happy about the significant difference between the numbers. Yes, she was a little proud of that, but she didn't understand the meaning of the numbers yet, and it didn't seem particularly relevant to her. What bothered her is that they don't have the same number, because who knows if this isn't some division that will soon separate them.

"Well, it's very simple," Jave realized that it would have to explain everything in detail. "You are on a train, and each door leads you to a different car, and the numbers on your hand symbolize how much you still need to learn about yourself and the other person in order to improve for the better. You will only get your exit to return home if the numbers on your hand reach zero. The conductor did not explain anything to you?"

"For the… Better...?"  Lilith stared blankly at the number on her hand. So that's why it's higher than Edalyn's. Probably no matter where she is, everyone will always prefer her sister over her because she's just so perfect, right?

It doesn't matter how hard Lilith works, she will never be as successful or worthy as Edalyn, simple as that, so what's the point in trying?

Lilith huffed angrily and lowered her hand, hiding it inside the sleeves of the rough clothes. "No, nothing was explained to us." She whispered angrily and aggressively, "But as I said before we really need to get back, so I'd love to know how to get that number to zero as quickly as possible so we can get out of the… Train you called it?"

She still found it hard to believe that it was a train, given the fact that the surroundings looked like a beach from some parallel world to theirs, but she was willing to go along with whatever Jave said if it meant they'd get home.

As the two talked and Lilith tried to find out what was going on and where they were, Eda continued walking forward in the forest. With the help of some plant magic she learned from peeking in the plant route classes at school, she cut through the kelps that got in her way. Each kelp that tore off made a strange scream and disappeared as if Eda had really... Killed them.

She decided to not question this and continued walking towards the door.

She did hear their entire conversation, about them being inside an endless train and the numbers that symbolize… Self-improvement? Great, so Eda took Lilith on an adventure about lessons? Just when she thought she managed to avoid her mother and school. How great.

She looked at the number in her hand and giggled, a little amused that, as usual, Eda gets less than Lilith, only this time it means a good thing. Could it be that Eda finally overtakes Lilith, the perfect prissy student in something?

She was so focused on the number on her hand that she didn't notice she bumped into something.  

"Hey, I think we've arrived!" she called happily and turned her face back to call for Lilith, while her other hand rested on the... Door? Quite a hairy door, she thought. One that also snores.

Huh.

Great. Maybe because it's not the door.

"Haaa!" Eda let out a startled little squeal and hurried to cover her mouth. She ran into one of those friends of Jave's, now able to understand what Jave meant when it said it was different. These guys were... Big. If Jave had the body and head of a small teddy bear, they had the face of real bears. Big fat bears with whale tails and eagle wings.

"Wait, no! Don't–" Jave hurried to warn Eda not to wake its "friends", but it was too late.

The bear-fish-eagle that Eda encountered rose up, and behind it, all the rest did so as well. They were huge.

"Wow," Eda looked up at the creatures and was amazed. "How mighty! I've never seen creatures like you. You are quite impressive, I must say. Do you have names?"

"Edalyn!" Lilith called out in a whisper. As always, her sister is unable to be careful and must immediately jump into the water and endanger everyone around her.

Lilith hurried after her worriedly and very unhappy with the strange creature that had woken up and looked quite threatening, but felt it was her duty to stand by Eda and protect her from trouble - as always.

"First of all, you're not supposed to mix magic, and you know that. We're not in the boiling Isles either, and there's no telling if using magic here isn't dangerous or what it will do, right, Edalyn? So please be at least a little careful!"  She scolded her.

The fish-bears got up, and they didn't look happy at all. They indeed looked very threatening, but when they opened their eyes, they fixated on someone else - Jave.  

"Jave, you walking disappointment, who else did you bring here this time? Two brats who kill our kelps and scream like crazy? Is this how you try to win our appreciation?" The gang scoffed, and Jave lowered its head in shame and trembled. "I-I told them! T-They just want to get out of here! S-so if you j-just let them out, they won't bother you anymore..."

The fish-bears crossed their arms and looked sullenly at Jave. The atmosphere was tense as if they were going to announce a death sentence for disturbing them.

"Then..." the fish-bear in the middle continued, "Let them apologize."

"I am not a brat!"  Lilith argued with the strange creatures. "... and neither does Edalyn, she just has a different way of doing things..."

She stood there in front of the creatures with crossed arms. She didn't know what they were or why they treated them and Jave that way, but she wouldn't let them talk badly about herself or her sister.

"And... that's when you stopped being cool. Great."  Eda made a sour face at the big creatures, staring at them in protest. She heard how her older sister rushed to protect... Herself and then her, but that in a certain place did comfort her, and a small mischievous smile formed on her lips. "Yeah, she's right. I definitely have my own way of doing things, like now, I'll make my own way to the door." She called recklessly and with a spell summoned a fireball.

This startled and literally raised the fish-bears temper, but before they could react, Jave rushed in and stopped everything. "Are you crazy?!" it whispered to Eda. "Ask for their forgiveness already before you worsen the situation!" It said, stressed. Not only was it born different and all the adult creatures treat it as a disappointment, but now the girls it brought will also prove that?! That's the last thing it needs.

"Apologize for what exactly?" Eda protested.

"For being loud and disturbing them, of course," Jave answered.

"What, now I have to apologize for all the yelling I got from Lily about something I didn't even do?" All at once all her anger returned.

"And also for the fact that you cut and killed a precious part of the forest kelps," Jave added.

Eda knew there was no way to avoid this part since she didn't know it was so important to them. "Okay, okay, sorry..." She sighed, a humiliated look on her face.

The fish-bears then turned to stare at Lilith, waiting for her apology as well.

"Me? But I have nothing to do with that..." Lilith complained. At first, when they demanded forgiveness Lilith assumed they were only demanding it from her sister since Eda really used her magic in a very unwise and irresponsible way that hurt them. Lilith, on the other hand, didn't even come close to them.

True, she made some noise, more than usual, but who cares? Anyone would make a noise like this if they were dragged into a stupid adventure to an unknown place with a strange glowing number and even stranger creatures.

She shrugged off Eda's comment for now, though she didn't agree with her on it. She wouldn't have had to yell at her if she hadn't dragged her to this place in the first place!

Lilith realized that everyone was looking at her and that they were really serious and expected her to apologize as well, just as they demanded of her sister, only that, unlike Edalyn, she didn't see where she had hurt them so that there would be anything to apologize for.

Then she understood.

"Oh, of course." She said quickly and cleared her throat, trying to sound as polite as possible. "I apologize on behalf of my sister, I believe she didn't mean to wake any of you up, and certainly not to destroy your beautiful forest. As I mentioned, Edalyn has another way of doing things and tends not to think deeply at times... However, she almost never does things with bad intentions. Please forgive her for that."  Lilith half-recited, as she was used to this from previous events where her sister played pranks and left Lilith alone to make amends between Eda and those who were hurt by her pranks.  "If that's all, I promise we won't bother you anymore, we were on our way to the exit."

"Wha– you– !"  

Wow, Jave thought to itself, of all the passengers who could get here, they had to be the most selfish ones? He glanced between the big fish-bears and Lilith, who were not at all pleased with her response, blocking the exit even more now. That's it, these girls will finish it off. It didn't have the strength for them anymore. Jave motioned for her to shut up as that wasn't what she should have said. "Please.... apologize on your behalf " It whispered to Lilith and emphasized the last word with gritted teeth.

Eda was angry as well, furious even, at Lilith's words. Well, yes, maybe in previous times Lilith had to apologize on her behalf, Eda was reckless at times and didn't always take responsibility for her actions, forcing the perfect prissy Lilith to fix things for her. But now Eda apologized! And it was so clear that everyone was waiting for Lilith's own apology, and not on behalf of Eda!

"Lily, what the hell!" Eda grumbled, and the anger obviously brought a few more feathers on her body. Mainly on her neck and hands. "Can't you admit for once that you did something wrong?! Just apologize so they can let us exit this car!"

"I can admit I'm wrong when I'm wrong, but we both know I'm not the one who led us here, right?" Lilith hissed stubbornly. "What's the point anyway, it's not like the Boiling Isles really are outside the door, and I'll remind you again that you're the one who begged to show me this place and forced me to come here with you, so excuse me, but that is not my fault."

"But you also made noise, didn't you?" Jave responded to Lilith, but Eda stopped it.  

"Okay," she said. "I'm sorry I ran away from mother's craziness of trying to cure my curse, I'm sorry I stumbled upon that strange portal door, I'm sorry I entered it, and I'm sorry I just wanted to have some more memories and adventures with my older sister before she goes to her coven after she locked herself in her room for a long time and I barely saw her!" Eda broke down, and as she continued apologizing, more and more feathers were added to her skin. She was on the edge of turning to the owl beast but she quickly finished talking, taking a deep breath to calm herself down before facing her sister again. "Alright, if you want to stay here, stay here. I don't care anymore. It's not like our numbers will go down to zero anyway..." She turned to walk back towards the beach to cool herself down.

Lilith reached out her hand towards Eda but regretted it a second later. She wanted to follow her sister, really, but she knew it wouldn't lead anywhere, and if anything, would only make things worse. For some reason, all she could think about was the day she was accepted into the Emperor's Coven and how even there she was supposed to follow Eda but didn't.

How easy it was to forget that Eda was actually not to blame for anything, no matter how much Lilith wanted to be angry with her - it was all because of her. 

Before Eda left, Lilith was still planning to disagree with Jave, because she really didn't like the fact that it scolded her as if it was her mother or something, only seeing her flaws and insisting on correcting her on stupid things.  She also didn't like Eda's complaints, and she definitely intended to bring up in front of her the fact that now it's also not clear if Lilith will even be able to go to the Coven because of the adventure that Eda forced on her. It's not like Eda needs to be concerned about the number anyway - hers is much lower!

But... Once Eda broke down Lilith couldn't do any of that, or anything else.

Eda has always been very strong, in every sense, so seeing her broken like this hurt Lilith, especially combined with the effect of the curse, the owl beast.

She couldn't stay angry with her.

It wasn't fair to Eda to begin with, Lilith was only upset because it was easier than feeling regret or guilt or anything else she's been dealing with since that day.

But it's not fair, because then she just puts more pressure on Eda and destroys her life even more. She should stop acting like the victim. After all, this whole Eda situation is her fault.

If they're already here, maybe they can take advantage of it. True, it's not the human realm, but it's an adventure, a new place to explore, and what kind of historian would Lilith be if she didn't take this opportunity to document another place, where perhaps there really wasn't a single witch or demon who visited it yet?

But wait, that's not what's important.

Eda is.

There may be things Lilith can never say to her, but that doesn't mean she can't bond with her sister and encourage her instead of weighing her down.

All she has to say is sorry.

But she can't.

Not to Eda.

If she asks Eda for forgiveness, it won't be for the right thing, the thing Lilith regrets the most.

She didn't have many options left. Those creatures seemed very eager to receive an apology, from the way they all looked at her, and it wasn't like she could go talk to her sister and isolate herself would much less work.

"I apologize from the bottom of my heart for waking you up, that I... I uh, I woke you up. By making noise. Sorry for disturbing your sleep."  She finally said in a weak voice, lowering her head.

The creatures did accept the apology and moved aside so that the two sisters could access the door. Eda heard this and turned around to face Lilith. "Finally." She muttered to herself and walked towards the door.

This whole situation definitely pissed her off, that now she got both her and her sister stuck in some kind of a crazy endless train or something, and she's probably holding back Lilith's life with the whole Emperor's Coven thing and all that, but complaining about it won't help, so it's better to just go with the flow and find another possible way out, right?

"Come on, Lily. Let's see what else this train has to offer."

Chapter Text

Outside the car, they saw for the first time that they were really on a train.

Lilith clung to the door from which they just exit, fearing the long bridge that connected the cars, as below it there was only sand and the huge train wheels.

"I don't understand where we are…" Lilith mumbled. All around the train was sand, as if they weren't traveling in a real place but some made-up world. She tried her best not to get mad at her sister again for bringing them here and instead went to examine the bridge.

 "Okay, it's probably stable…" she said, thinking out loud, as she tapped on the metal bridge. "I suggest we walk on it quickly. It doesn't seem safe to stay between the cars. I have no idea what we'll meet behind the next door, since there don't seem to be any clues for it, certainly not here, but it will be safer than staying in between and being in danger of falling from the train or to those wheels. Be really careful, Edalyn-"

Lilith turned back to look at her sister and seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Edalyn, I..." She wanted to tell her something, but didn't know what. Maybe she should apologize for what happened inside? Maybe she should ask if Eda's okay?

She watched her silently for a few seconds before shaking her head, "Never mind, let's just keep moving." she said.

Lilith's hesitation drew Eda's attention back to the current situation, and the semi-drama they had moments ago. She was so impressed, even mesmerized by the view of the train and the realization that they weren't kidding and they were on an actual train that she almost forgot about it all.

Well, almost. 

She found herself hoping Lilith would say she was sorry and agree to go on with this crazy adventure without complaining, but of course, that didn't happen.

Lilith? Apologizing for something in her life? Yeah, as if that could ever happen. Well, she does apologize to someone who is older than her and shows her as a mature and important figure because she is such a two-goody-shoes nerd, obviously. But to her sister? She will never admit that she was wrong, will she? 

Frankly, Eda didn't understand what Lilith was afraid of, as she had no problem walking on that bridge and watching her older sister rushing it. 

Lilith tried to cross the bridge quickly, as she recommended because she was afraid that it would break under her feet and they would both fall to their deaths.

In the middle of the bridge, as Lilith was about to take another big, quick step, something suddenly screamed underneath her, startling her to the core.

"Careful!" The voice was suddenly heard next to her right ear. Lilith looked to the sides and then at her sister in complete confusion. Who screamed and where did it come from?

"It's fine, I'm fine. Oh, that was close, you almost stepped on me!" The strange voice continued to say. Lilith suddenly noticed something moving in the air, but couldn't make out what it was.

"So what about you? Are you also on your way to find the conductor?"

Lilith blinked, trying to recognize what was in front of her and trying to find logic in the words of this voice. She suddenly spotted a floating shape and didn't understand what it was... it's... ehhh... a single pretzel snack?

 Lilith decided to ignore it, since this pretzel didn't seem to be connected to anything. She preferred to focus on her task instead - getting off the train. She wasn't entirely sure how to do it, but if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that being focused on a goal meant not getting distracted by any nonsense.

"What's that, someone forgot their Hex Mix and decided to revive it?" Eda started to giggle and snort when she saw the little pretzel. "Huh, it must be that nerd, Alador. It's so fitting for him to do that, he's addicted to that snack."

"It's not funny, Edalyn. Alador isn't even here, this isn't the Boiling Isles." Lilith grumbled. If there's anything that will prevent them from succeeding in their mission, she thought, it will be Eda, who is never straightforward. Everything always comes easily to her so she's not used to trying as hard as Lilith and can keep herself busy with nonsense all the time and ruining every opportunity for herself.

"What's a Hex Mix?"  The pretzel asked curiously.

"Lily, relax. I was only joking. You should search on Penstegram what it means to joke, it'll do you good."

To be honest, the arrival of this pretzel pretty much helped Eda to cut the tension. It doesn't hurt to have a little something to laugh about when you're bummed.

"Hex Mix is a snack... kind of like you but also not like you."  She answered the pretzel but her train of thought was cut, and she then realized this could be a great opportunity to make a deal. "Hey, little Hex Mix, how about you show us the way out of here and help us get off this crazy train, and then come with us and we can show you what Hex Mix is." 

If there is one very noticeable trait in Eda from birth, it is that she knows how to trick people well enough, which also includes making deals and negotiations. 

This little creature can be very helpful, considering it's a train creature.

"Kind of like me but also not like me... Why does this sound like the story of my life?"  The pretzel chirped, flipping in the air as she spoke.  "The way out is connected to your numbers, it's quite simple but can take some time. What are your numbers?" she asked, curiously, hovering close to them.

"What does it matter?" Lilith suddenly burst out, "There must be a normal way to get out of this train, isn't there? What do numbers have to do with anything, it's not mathic here! Isn't there someone who controls the train and can just get us off it?" She asked, making a fist with her right hand. She didn't like the fuss about it.

"Well... there's the conductor, it's responsible for everyone on the train, passengers and creatures alike! But only passengers can leave the train. I'm actually on my way there, I'm tired of being the only shapeshifter in my car!"  She flipped in the air, "I want to be myself! I want to be free to choose the form that suits me best! I want to be equal among everyone, and not be constantly fought or manipulated! I want to be who I am, Chips!"

"Eww, Lily!  You know math-ic makes me sick just from hearing it!" Eda grumbled. "But anyway, going to the conductor makes sense," she agreed after the pretzel explained. "But we were told that this train was, like, endless? So... how exactly are we supposed to get there?" She raised an eyebrow. The numbers on her hand didn't matter to her that much. If she understood it right, you need to become a better person and then the number will decrease? Excellent. Lilith needs it a lot.

But if it means breaking the train's rules and getting to the conductor instead? Eda is pleased. She was quite proud of Lilith for willing to break the rules like that.

"Even infinity has some sense and order to it."  The pretzel said, "If we keep going we'll get there at some point, I think. That's part of the fun of the adventure!"

Lilith sighed, "We're not here for adventures!"  she complained. "Isn't there a quick way to get there?"

"I don't think so…" The pretzel replied, "Besides, it's a bit against the train's rules, isn't it? You have to go through a process to get to your destination, whether it's getting your number to zero or getting to a certain car."

"There are... Rules for the train?" Lilith asked, a bit worried. She's only been here for a short time and couldn't really grasp what was going on, no one told her there were rules... she hoped she didn't accidentally break one of them.

"Actually, when you think about it, I'm not sure..." the pretzel pondered, "there are simply things that should and shouldn't be done in every car and area of the train, but nothing is specified here." She explained.

"But then how do you know what is forbidden and what is allowed?" Lilith tried to understand.  Why are there no regulations or rule books for the train?

"You can ask the conductor when we get to it," the pretzel replied, "but if you ask me, sometimes rules only do harm and limit creativity."

Lilith huffed in frustration. Edalyn would probably agree with the pretzel on this, but they are both wrong. The world is based on rules, and if everyone does what they want there will be permanent chaos. Rules are important, otherwise, how will you know what to do if you are not taught anything?

Next to her, Eda chuckled. So that's what felt wrong about Lilith wanting to break the rules, after all, she didn't know them! What a shame. At least there's this queen, that floating pretzel. "Mmm, did you hear that, Lily? It's a rule here to go through an entire journey until our numbers reach zero, which can take a long, long, long, loooong time. Or…" she said, "we can go directly to the conductor, which is quite against the rules of the train. Whichever suits you better." Eda teased, happy about this conversation. This pretzel creature was just the perfect thing Eda needed to lift her mood "It's… It's not like you have any other choices here.” She added quietly.

"Even getting to the conductor will take time." Lilith grumbled, "Precious time we don't have, who even knows if time doesn't pass differently between this train and the Boiling Isles? And how will we eat or drink or sleep here? I have to go home before the end of the school year!  Mom and Dad must be really worried.” She said thoughtfully, “Well, at least they're probably worried about you… Never mind.” Lilith shook her head before turning to the pretzel with determination.

"Isn't there a really quick way to get the numbers down? Something to do? Say? I can apologize again if I need to! Or...or...fix things, anything! I promise to be good from now on!" She said, upset.

"I see I'm a very good influence on you, huh, Lily? Looking for ways to escape, shortcuts, not following the rules... I'm so proud.” Eda said, hugging her older sister.

"But yeah, Mom must be worried sick right now."  She grumbled and left the hug. "At least I managed to escape from her..." She looked at the number on her hand, thinking. Her mother was always very concerned about her considering she was the youngest, and always ensured she was well. But since the curse it has doubled and her mother has become really overprotective. Even with the behavior of Lilith's dissatisfaction, maybe she really needs this journey, a little bit of freedom from all the stress and her mother's cure methods. Who knows, maybe she can even find a cure for her curse and get rid of it all for good!

"I'm not breaking the rules, I'm just looking for sensible ways to get out of here!"  Lilith tried to defend herself. If there are no written rules, it doesn't count as breaking them, right?

She couldn't see the train in any way other than a punishment.

"Well, then I'm not breaking the rules either, I'm just looking for more logical and fun ways to learn or do things," Eda responded to Lilith's statement in the same coin and crossed her arms, smirking. 

The pretzel waited for the two to quit bantering before reassuring them. "Hey, it's okay. Everything's fine." She floated close to her, "You will get off the train and see that everything is for the best, that's how it always is with passengers." She promised, "As for the number... It is designed to help the passenger go through a process of acceptance and self-improvement. Passengers aboard this train are here because there is some kind of crisis they need to accept, or behavior they need to change. If you can identify the reasons for your arrival, maybe you can get to the root of the problem faster and solve it. What are your numbers at the moment?"

"If my number is 146, how much more does that mean I need to learn?" Eda responded to the pretzel's question with one of her own.

"Why does the number matter, if we're going to the conductor we don't even have to deal with it." Lilith protested.

"But the number is part of the process."  The pretzel insisted, "It's meant to guide and direct you, it's not a grade."

"If it was, we would definitely pass the test…" Lilith muttered before giving in, "Okay, whatever. It doesn't mean anything but it's, um... 212..."

"Woah, 146 and 212.. these are very high numbers!"  The pretzel marveled in surprise and Lilith frowned in front of her, "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean it that way, it's just weird that those are the numbers you got when boarding the train, but that's okay, we can change it!"

"Marvellous..." Lilith muttered in annoyance.  The only time she overtakes Edalyn and it's not even in something positive.

Her sister seemed to have the same worries. She didn't know whether to blame herself or not for the fact that they would probably be stuck here for a long while. Well, yeah, she's the one who dragged Lilith to the door, but maybe… maybe something put them here and gave them those numbers for a reason... right?

"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's start this journey toward that conductor already. It's not like we have anything to lose at this point, right?"

It was at this point that Lilith chose to keep their earlier argument, as if Eda's agreement to go to the conductor reminded her of that.

"I just want to state that while we are going to the conductor, doing so really is the smarter option and has nothing to do with breaking the rules. Because I am logical. You, on the other hand, run away from logic like fairies run away from pies! What you're doing isn't called looking for logical ways. Your ways of having fun are always at the expense of others, you always jump into the water without even caring about the consequences, or if the water you splash is going to ruin things for someone else.  You just don't think, so it's really not the same thing. I'm not breaking any rules by preferring to talk to the conductor, which makes a lot more sense than trying to get down those numbers! You heard what the pretzel said, there aren't really any rules here, at least not written ones, so it's not called breaking the rules.” She scolded her sister, trying to protect her reputation. Maybe she shouldn't have opened this discussion again, but she felt like her sister was judging her for the worse, and it was important for her to prove that she was not like that. 

"Wow, you two really don't get along..." the pretzel chuckled, "You don't have to go through this together, you know. Passengers sometimes prefer to team up with other passengers because it's comforting, but in the end, each passenger gets on the train from a different door, there's no obligation to go around in pairs."

"Hmph." Eda turned her back to her sister. She wasn't wrong in what she said, but she's not 100% right either. It's true that most times Eda doesn't really think about what she's doing, because after all, she likes to do whatever is on her mind and not have to stop every second to think - it just ruins the fun. But if Eda really was insensible, she would leave her sister without a problem and leave her on the train alone. 

That's what that pretzel just said, right? That they don't have to be together, and Lilith will probably just yell at her the whole journey anyway.

But doing so would be wrong. She brought her sister with her so that they could have one last adventure together, and even though it wasn't the human realm they could still enjoy this place and bond again. She can't leave her sister alone on this endless train. 

"No," Eda answered the pretzel after some thought. "My sister and I came here together, and we will return together. That's it." She announced as she hugged Lilith's shoulder.  "Now, let's get moving already and start this journey!"

"Yes, we are to stay together." Lilith placed her hand on Eda's hugging arms, "We're fine, just normal sister's fights, nothing special…" she muttered.

Eda didn't remember when was the last time Lilith agreed with her on something, and it made her happy that she didn't flinch from the hug. It was a warm feeling and for a moment she almost felt again as if they returned to the relationship they once had - Clawthorn sisters forever!

Without even noticing, her number dropped to 103, but who knows how long it will stay that way.

"Okay," the pretzel floated forward, "then maybe we should really move on to the next car. I'm Chips, by the way. And you're… Lilly? Edalil?" Chips introduced herself formally and tried to remember the names of the sisters from the previous conversation.

"Lilith, my name is Lilith." Lilith corrected her, "And this is my sister, Edalyn."

"My friends call me Eda." She fixed Lilith's correction of their names. "And I have to tell you, your name is amazing."

"Thank you!" Chips said happily and began to float towards the next car. The two sisters followed her curiously, and Lilith opened the door with slight hesitation, understanding there was no other choice than to go through another car.

Chapter Text

The two sisters and the floating pretzel entered the car, and immediately had to shield their eyes from how shiny this car was. It sparkled so much that it really hurt Lilith's sensitive eyes.

Unlike the previous car, which looked huge and with an open horizon, this one seemed small and suffocating, and closed.

It was a car made entirely of shining gemstones, which gave it the appearance of the inside of a kaleidoscope, with all the brightness and colors radiating from it. It was also shaped like a roll, and as they carefully stepped to the other side of the car, towards the door, it felt as if the roll-shaped car was rolling, turning in place, and the stones underneath were moving.

"Wow!" Eda excalled as they entered. The car full of glittering gems was pleasant to her. Eda being typical Eda, jumped up and quietly began to collect gems from around her, stealing them. "Do you realize how much snails these things are worth???" she called Lilith, "This car is awesome."

"This place makes me claustrophobic..." Lilith muttered.  The stones looked strange, like they were… Alive?

About halfway through the room, when Lilith already had the hope that this time they would be able to pass through the other door without a problem, she suddenly noticed that the center of the room was made of a semi-transparent square, which was very much in contrast to the roll shape of the car. Lilith didn't understand at all how it was even possible that suddenly the shape of the carriage changed - there was no logic in it. This square contained three large diamonds within it, two on the sides and one on top, and there seemed to be room for another diamond below, but it was missing, which bothered Lilith a bit, to see something that should be completed but missing. But what really bothered her the most was that this square prevented them from going to the other side.

Eda didn't notice that until she bumped head-first into the square wall. "Hey, what's that?" She rubbed her head in protest. "Um... Why is there a square here blocking our way? And… Why does it look like someone stole my idea and stole one of the diamonds here before I did?”

"Lovely..." Lilith sighed in frustration and knocked on the square wall.  She had no idea how to get through it, and she could barely see anything with how radiant this car was. Who knew gems could hurt so much?

It seems that Chips decided to lend a hand, or, well, just help and bang against the square wall with her body, since she didn't have hands. Lilith glanced at her and realized that she was... A stick?

"Weren't you in an original pretzel shape?" She asked in confusion.

"Ha, yes, but I got bored. You see, in my car, I'm the-"

Suddenly small cries and shouts were heard from all around them, like the calls of crows. It seemed that the knocking on the square did change something, but maybe not for the best, because now every single gem in the car was revived.

"Help! They're standing on me!" Someone was crying under the sisters' feet. Lilith immediately moved aside in panic, only for another stone to cry, "I don't want to die!"

"Help me I'm upside down!" Another stone from the ceiling complained.

"Dirty hands are holding me! I'll lose all my shine!" The stones in Eda's hands wept.

"It doesn't look good." The pretzel, Chips, grinned. 

All of the screamings startled Eda. Along with the echo and the acoustics of this car, it... It wasn't pleasant to the ear. "Whoah, whoah!"  She suddenly noticed that indeed all the gems came to life, and all the ones she stole for herself kept whining. The ones she kept in her hair started to jump and run away.

"Hey, where do you think you are-" she started to say before the ones on her hand started to whine as well, like some newborn baby. "Wow, hey!" Startled, she released the ones she had in her hands, defending herself. "My hands are dirty from hard work, so please don't underestimate it. And it's not like there's anywhere to wash your hands on the train, or in this car..." She protested and simply took her ears out of her head, to stop hearing the screams from all sides. "Wow, one of the first times I'm actually enjoying the side effects of the curse." she giggled. "If it weren't for the shrill screams of those gemstones, these things would be worth a lot more snails than I thought! Witches and demons would die to have these!"

Upon noticing her sister detached her ears, Lilith began to scream as well. She had no idea this was something her sister was capable of and she didn't like it at all. Has she broken her sister to the point that she can just tear parts of her apart like that out of nowhere?!

Her screams didn't help much, because now the car space was twice as loud.

Chips, next to her, started screaming too, and her screams ranged from screams of fear to screams of joy and enthusiasm, as if she was trying to count all the types of screams that exist in the world.

Eda looked from the side at this whole amazing show. As she already took her ears out, she was unable to hear anything, and from the side, it looked pretty funny. Gems, the floating Pretzel, and Lilith all freak out without a sound. 

Eda took one gem in her hand, put one ear back in its place, and brought the gem closer to her ear. "Okay, now calm down, can you tell all your other gem friends to shut up and explain what's going on here? Who are you and how do we get out of here?"

"Yeah! And why is everyone screaming? I want to know that too!" Chips floated closer to Eda's hand.

The gem held there, a red-purple almandine stone, looked quite frightened. She trembled in Eda's hand, but before she could open her mouth and explain or burst into tears, Lilith snapped out of the shock and began to bombard Eda with questions.

"Edalyn! What in the Titan's name was that?!" She shrieked, still frightened. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Injured? Was it a failed spell? Has this happened before? Do Mom and Dad know about it? Oh dear Titan, please don't do it again!"

Eda was taken aback by those questions. Just when it looked like there would be an answer from the gem and some quiet and peace, Lilith had to burst out with a million questions about what Eda was currently doing. The thing is, she came from the side where Eda hadn't returned her ear yet, so Eda didn't really hear her well.

"Huh? Did you say something?" She put the other ear back in place and turned to Lilith. "Not to do what? This?" she asked, taking her ear out again. "Or this one?" She put her ear back and took her leg out for a moment, just to freak her sister out even more. She saw Lilith's reaction and giggled. "Calm down, I'm just kidding. It's one of the side effects of the curse. Me and mom found out about it a month ago when she dragged me to one of her psychopathic doctors. It's not that bad once you get used to it, really." She explained and reattached her foot.

"Anyway, Lily, I was just asking this little gem why everyone is freaking out and if they know how to get out of here." 

Lilith was not yet convinced that it was okay.

"O-Oh, yes, makes perfect sense, of course.  What reason is there not to be calm..." Lilith muttered worriedly, "My sister can take out her own limbs easily and without any harm but it's nothing to worry about of course... I must be really lacking a sense of humor if I can't see how this thing is nothing but a joke...” She continued to mumble at this and looked like she was having nausea.

Chips was getting impatient. She watched Lilith for a bit before returning her focus to the Almandine gem. "So, what's the deal with all the screaming?" She asked.

"You are stepping on us, Duh!" The stone said with obvious irritation, and appeared to be rolling her eyes. "Let's see how you would react if you were stepped on!"

"Huh, what would really happen if someone stepped on me...?" Chips wondered to herself.  "Aww, maybe I'd discover a new form to change into! Or... I'd split in two! Yes! Double chips!" She giggled, ignoring her surroundings for a moment.

"Umm... Well, you're pretty much everywhere here. We just want to move to the next car, but the whole car here is full of you, and... It's a little hard not to step on you. Do you understand me?" She tried as much as possible to calm the stones. "Maybe just... Help us get out of here, and then we won't be here to step on you or bother you anymore. Deal?"

"The snack here manages to pass the car without stepping on us." Almandine pointed out, "You can also pass without stepping on us, but it seems to me that you enjoy hurting us." she complained in a hostile voice. "And I don't know how to get out of here. Why would I want to get out of here? This is my home. You're the ones who need to leave."  She spitted, not understanding what Eda wanted from her.

"You must find the missing diamond." A black onyx stone suddenly said. She was located in the wall behind Lilith, startling her even more than the shock she was still in. Lilith turned to look at the gem, who continued to speak when it saw that it had their attention.

"See the square wall? There's room for four diamonds there but one diamond got lost here somewhere in the car."

Lilith stared at that strange wall. In the center of it was a huge diamond that was divided into four small diamonds - white at the top, blue and yellow at the sides, and... Yes, one is missing at the bottom.

It still didn't solve their problem.

"This entire car is filled with dazzling, sparkling gems, how are we supposed to know where that lost diamond is? It's like finding a needle in a haystack!" Lilith complained.

"If I knew the answer, it wouldn't be a mystery." The onyx said, trying to sound wise, "Sometimes the things we need the most are right within our reach. We're just too blinded to notice."

Eda listened to the onyx's words, but only when she raised her head towards the square with the diamonds did she understand. "The diamond... Wow." Her eyes already hurt badly. "It's so shiny and dazzling..." She muttered as if hypnotized.

Okay, concentrate, Eda. Concentrate.

"The last time I had my sunglasses on, I brought them to Raine. Dang it!" She sighed and nervously kicked one gem, like she would kick ordinary stones, only this time she forgot that these stones were alive. Oops

"Well, if it's within our reach, then maybe…" Eda tried to think, pushing Lilith forward. "Lily, you're the genius here. Remind me what diamonds are made of. Is there, like, a possibility that if we put some gems together we can create diamonds or something?"

Near them, the stone that Eda had kicked cursed her with a variety of creative words, although most of them were not very understandable.

"From... Carbon?" Lilith looked at Eda, not quite understanding what her plan was. "You can't make a diamond out of gems, Edalyn. A diamond is a mineral that forms in nature over years..." She said simply, as if she couldn't believe her sister didn't know all this already.

"Ah yes," Eda agreed with what Lilith said. "I must have fallen asleep in that lesson, if we were even taught that." She shrugged.

"Maybe it's a really small diamond, and it's hidden here somewhere?" Lilith offered, trying to examine the wall next to her, "But no, that doesn't make sense. That diamond wall is bigger than the stones on the floor here… The diamond should be big as well."

Lilith pondered what the Onyx said. "What does it mean that sometimes the things we need the most are within our reach?"

"Well, if it's within our reach, it must be around us. Somewhere in this area.” Eda suggested and looked in every possible direction. Despite how blinding it was, she resisted the strong and alluring hypnosis of those glittering lights the gemstones reflected.

"Chips!" Eda called. "Could you fly higher to see if there is anything around us that you see? Or maybe you, gemstones, are hiding the diamond? This whole car is full of you, but have you ever bothered to check what is below you?"

Chips responded to Eda's idea by floating higher to examine the ceiling of the car, even searching in the small spaces between the stones, thanks to her stick shape.

The gemstones did not appreciate Eda's statement. "Have you ever bothered to check what's under you ?" One of the stones retorted.

"Maybe you shouldn't upset them," Lilith advised her. "I think we should just try to search on our own. We'll do a really thorough search, we'll move stones, we'll examine things in depth, you know, we'll think. " She said, already trying to think where the diamond had the best chance of hiding, given its chemical composition. The search was frustrating, especially since the annoying sentences of the gemstone from before bothered her. She didn't know if they had any meaning or if the gems were just trying to get back at them for continuing to step on them.

Stupid train, trying to punish her with all kinds of strange tasks. Even if Lilith liked repetitive tasks, or finding hidden things like the Rusty Smidge, it wasn't the same. Here she is stuck, far from home, barely able to see anything, and with gemstones that never stop shouting and complaining. Besides, she liked those things in tasks just because it was easy for her to succeed in them. Here, however, the task was impossible. What does it even mean to check if something is underneath them? She has been looking for the diamond on the floor for a long time now! And what's the deal with the Onyx's sentence, that the things they need the most are hidden because of the blinding light..?

Wait.

If the train is designed to help them then maybe it's like a logic puzzle where every given piece of information is necessary, even if it doesn't seem like it. 

"Edalyn, the purpose of the train is to teach us all kinds of life lessons, isn't it? So maybe there is a meaning to what the stones say!" She came to a sudden conclusion. Not that it helped, because she still didn't understand what the stones meant, but the search was getting tiring, and her eyes really hurt.

Eda had suffered from this as well. The shining lights, the glittering… It was hard to resist getting lost in it, so she didn't really pay attention to whatever lesson the gems were trying to teach them.

And the fact that everywhere around there were stones that kept complaining about being stepped on, didn't help. Like, come on, gemstones, you're everywhere, how do you expect not to be stepped on?

"I don't enjoy stepping on you either, okay? None of us here enjoy it. So maybe you'll just help us find the diamond so we can exit the car and then we won't step on you anymore?" Eda sighed and decided to jump on her sister's back, hanging on her, so that she won't step on the stones anymore.

"What do you mean, Lily?" Eda asked her while hanging on her back. "That we're gonna find out now that we've been the diamond all this time? Like in those weird series where you suddenly find out that the main character was a diamond all this time? Like, what does that mean it's within our reach?"

"Eeek–  Edalyn! Get off me!" Lilith could barely concentrate or breathe with her sister on her back, and she quickly brushed her off as if she was a pesky little bug. "You can't just jump on me like that, you're not a little girl! Haven't you heard of personal space? Really Edalyn, it's just unbearable that you can't respect simple things like that!" Lilith, unsurprisingly, was irritated by her sister's behavior.

The gemstones in the room kept complaining about being stepped on, which only made the room noisier.

"Besides, start being serious, stop taking everything you're told as a joke! We're probably not the diamond, but maybe we should come to some conclusion about ourselves to see the answer? Who knows how this stupid train works!" Lilith said, annoyed. "What's for sure is that it really has nothing to do with those series, who even have time to watch the crystal ball when - Oh, wait a crystal! But not a crystal ball, there's no way a waste of time like crystal shows is our answer..." She chuckled, a little mockingly, "Hmmm... What about concealment stones? These are stones that are used specifically to hide things, maybe it's like this?"

Eda only grumbled. Not only did Lilith push her off her back but she also didn't spare with complaints about her. "Okay, first of all - rude. I was just trying to find a way to be considerate towards these gems and not step on them, so thank you very much," Eda said. Sometimes it felt to her like Lilith has some kind of complaints file in her mind, and chose each time what to complain about regarding Eda. Like some sort of mother who supposedly tries to educate Eda and only show her how she doesn't behave well and is inconsiderate. "Second thing, we're not on the boiling islands here, so I doubt if there are the same things here. We're not in the Illusion coven, there's nothing here that would hide something so big." She added, twirling her finger in the air to create a vanishing spell for a second to illustrate her point.

"Edalyn!" Lilith yelled at her again, "You just said we're not in the Boiling Isles, right? So you shouldn't be using magic here!"

Lilith was shocked by her sister's behavior. After all, she knows about the dangers of using magic around non-witches, and she also knows about the dangers of using wild magic and not the track of magic taught in school. Is it too much of a demand to ask that she'll be a little more serious and responsible? "But it's nice to know you don't mind stepping on me, compared to the stones..." she added dryly, then regretted it a little. Yes, Eda always does stupid things and many times at her own expense, but... Lilith still did something worse than that.

Chips seemed amazed by Eda's little trick. "What was that?! You disappeared for a moment!" She quickly floated towards her.

Eda rolled her eyes at Lilith's reaction. 

Great, again, she thought. It's not enough that in the Boiling Isles it's not acceptable to use any type of magic since it's considered "wild magic", so your magic is limited to just one type of magic because it "angers the titan" or whatever Belos says, but even now when they aren't in the Boiling Isles there is a magic limit?

"I don't understand," Eda protested. "What's so bad about using magic here? It's not like some Titan is going to get mad at us or the Emperor himself is going to come after us. Just let loose for once. Look, Chips is enjoying it." She said, showing another little magic trick to the floating pretzel. 

"Look! One moment I'm here," she said, twirling her finger, "and the next I'm here." She appeared behind chips. "I also do events and weddings, call me."  She felt the need to add, as if she had just done a show of a lifetime. "Anyway, we need to get back to focusing on finding the missing diamond, or our ears will go deaf because of all these gems, and then it won't make any difference if I take them out or put them back in. And that's the worst part."

Chips was still mesmerized by Eda's tricks. "Wow, and I thought I was talented!" She excalled, "Now this, I have to learn this too!" She responded enthusiastically.

Eda was glad to do so. She stopped her search for the missing diamond, as she couldn't resist showing more tricks to Chips. "Okay listen, it's actually quite easy..." She began to explain, although technically it's not physically possible for Chips since she's not a witch or a demon, so she doesn't have a bilesack.

Lilith, of course, was not pleased.

"We'll focus on finding the diamond once you stop playing." She said decisively. "You need to start taking things seriously, otherwise we'll never get out of here!" Lilith looked at her, despairing. "I'm really sorry I'm not "loosen up", are you trying to kill yourself? You're not in the Boiling Isles, Edalyn, you don't know if the person in front of you isn't some psychopath who thinks witchcraft is bad and wants to kill witches. After all, I told you everything I found in the books about the human realm, and this thing used to be common there. Really, if you're going to continue like this then maybe we shouldn't go together, you're just... Just embarrassing me." She said, frustrated.

Lilith felt a little bad about that but didn't know how else she could make her sister understand that she needed to be serious and not get them into trouble with her wild behavior. After all, that's what got them here in the first place.

Eda was already used to these words, but she couldn't ignore the last sentence Lilith said.  Her heart in one moment just broke when she heard that. Oh, that's a hit right below the belt, Lily, she thought.

Lilith was everything to Eda since she was born. Her older sister who looks after her and plays with her. They used to be best friends, and she was basically Eda's only friend until Raine. But Eda hasn't noticed how far they've drifted away since Lilith was accepted into the Emperor's Coven, that now her older sister says she embarrasses her?! Ahh, what an amazing thing to discover.

"Okay," after a few moments of silence and tension, Eda crossed her arms and sighed in despair. "Let's do it your way. That's how we'll stay alive and stay together..."

Despite all the nerves and tension, Eda did not want to say goodbye to her sister. Just before they entered the car Eda told Chips that they would not separate, Clawthorn sisters forever… Right?

Splitting up wouldn't help either of them and would only make the situation worse, so Eda realized she had no choice but just... Stop being herself so that she wouldn't embarrass her sister…

"Good," Lilith said with relief, but for some reason, it didn't make her happy. She saw how it upset Eda and wondered if it was really worth it, that is, if neither of them were happy or satisfied working like this.

No, Lilith decided. It doesn't matter. She won't be happy or satisfied about anything on this train anyway, but if something happens to her or her sister it will be a disaster. Even so, it's time for Eda to understand that she has to be serious in life in order to survive and move forward, because really, she can't keep doing nonsense all the time.

"Good," Lilith said again, "I suggest we split up and each search in a different corner. Maybe it's like a puzzle where each stone gives a different message, or... I'll think of something! We just have to keep searching and work hard for it, okay?" She half said, half asked. Even though she was standing in front of her sister, her gaze was slightly lowered and she looked at the floor, avoiding her sister's eyes for fear of finding sadness or despair or any negative emotion that was Lilith's fault.

Something caught her attention at the bottom of the car next to Eda.

"Oh, of course," Lilith said suddenly. She bent down and took something from under Eda's feet, before rising to show what she had found. "I believe this is a piece of a diamond, the shine is completely different on it." She explained, showing the piece to Eda. 

It looked like pink glass, since the piece was flat and not particularly large, the size of Lilith's palm compared to the huge wall in the center of the car.

"And of course, of course, it was on you," Lilith said accusingly. "So where are the rest of the pieces, Edalyn? I'm not mad, it's fine. I just need you to tell me so we can put the diamond back together."

"...Huh? What?" Eda was a bit preoccupied with her thoughts and not really listening to Lilith. "Ah... Is this supposed to be part of the diamond? What is it? Where did you find it?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, pointing to the part in Lilith's hand.

She looked down at her feet, trying to figure out how Lilith had found it on her. "What's that supposed to mean that I'll obviously have it?" Eda suddenly picked up on what her sister had said. She searched under her feet, didn't notice, and stumbled back on what was instead of a floor, was a bunch of gems. "And how do I know where the other pieces are? You found the first one!"

"Owwww!" the gemstones that Eda tripped over started screaming behind her.

Lilith shook her head, clearly unsatisfied. 

"Well, you're the one who as soon as we got into the car started collecting gems for herself, it's not that hard to believe that you also took the diamond, isn't it?" She said, explaining to Eda what was obvious to her. "But alright, if you don't want to tell where the rest of the pieces are, we'll probably just have to keep looking..." She rolled her eyes a little and reached out her hand to Eda to help her stand up.

Eda looked at Lilith, blinked for a few moments, confused, and only then understood. "Oh, so you think I stole the diamond?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

She shook her hair like a wet dog shaking its fur to dry off, took out a few more gems that were stuck in her hair, and even a half-eaten sandwich came out. "Huh, I forgot I saved that for later!" She took a bite of the sandwich before tossing it aside.

"Well, no diamond." Eda finally was done. "You're welcome to look more in my hair or be like those annoying guards who check my pockets, but according to my self-examination I don't have any diamond parts on me."

"I...I'd rather not check in there. Who knows what other moldy sandwiches might be hiding inside..." Lilith muttered breathlessly.

She wanted to believe her sister that she really didn't have the diamond, since it also seemed logical - otherwise, she would have taken it out of her hair. But the diamond was supposed to be somewhere, and if the first piece was so close to Eda then it makes sense that the rest was with her as well.

"Are you sure you didn't take the diamond?" She tried again, “It's the most logical option after all…"

"Your loss." Eda shrugged and was about to continue eating the sandwich until she remembered that she had just thrown it away. "I'm pretty sure I didn't take the diamond since it's not on me, so I don't see how that's the best option..." Eda stopped herself, thinking she was onto something. "That's it, Lily! It makes sense! Nothing on this train makes sense! I love it! You have to think outside the box to find the diamond, you understand?" In one moment she simply moved to stand on her hands. "It must be in a place where we least expect it, in a hidden way, one that is not visible to the naked eye."

"By that logic, there's no way it's on you..." Lilith muttered, "But there's no way I'm doing a handstand. If the diamond was here somewhere we would have already noticed. It's probably like a puzzle, there must be more pieces hidden here somewhere, only... It's hard to see them."

Eda's attempt to be serious and not fool around lasted, how long? A minute? two minutes?

Lilith sighed and turned to Chips, "Did you find anything on the ceiling? Maybe there are pieces there?"

"All I saw was gems, gems, and more gems." Chips reported, "Oh, and a small gold coin, but I'm keeping that for myself!"

"It doesn't help, the rest of the pieces should be here somewhere, right?" She pondered and approached the square wall to at least put the piece she had found there in the meantime.

"Wow, that feeling of actually being innocent." Eda stood back up from the handstand and felt... Strange. Of all the times she got into trouble and was blamed, was she finally able to prove herself innocent of something?

As Lilith continued to search, Eda tried to think too and seemed to have come up with something. "Hey Lily," she turned to her. "I think I found something there, but it's the other way around. And my head is already dizzy from the old sandwich I ate. Is there any chance you'll do a handstand to try and see what's there?" She asked. 'Why should only Lilith have the right to suspect her?' Eda thought. Maybe it's like one of those plot twists that actually the suspect is the one who's guilty, so Eda tried a little trick to test it. After all, they were told it was within their reach, so if it could be on Eda, there's no reason why it couldn't be on Lilith.

"You shouldn't have eaten that sandwich," Lilith commented on the least important part. "But no, I'm not going to do a handstand. We have a task to do, can't you concentrate on it? Just keep looking in some other part of the room, okay? If Chips is looking at the ceiling and I'm looking at the side by the wall why don't you go towards the front door?"

"But I do concentrate on that!" Eda insisted. "Sometimes the solution comes in a creative way, so maybe if you try a different method from your own, we'll find the solution?" She stopped Lilith and looked at her, but her sister's cold look broke her. "A-If it doesn't embarrass you... I-I'll go look near the door." Eda had just promised not to mess around, and already she's doing it again? Lilith is the responsible and older sister, after all, maybe her methods are really smarter…

Lilith's heart shrank at the sight of her sister walking away, realizing that the sentence she just said was probably related to what Lilith told her earlier, about embarrassing her. It must have hurt her.

Lilith didn't mean it that way, not really. Her sister's silly behavior annoyed her at times but it wasn't that Eda herself embarrassed her. Lilith just wanted them to make it home safely. If she was alone it would be something else, she would be fine. But being with Eda meant she always had to be double careful and responsible, and even if she was good at it, there was something annoying about always being the one who had to be responsible and take care of things. Especially when her sister only did things that made it even more difficult for Lilith and she didn't even appreciate everything she does for her.

Whenever she started thinking like that she knew she was being victimized and acting like she was some kind of martyred saint. 

Yes, Eda can be difficult, but Lilith is no better. She knew she was no better and yet she couldn't behave any other way.

"Edalyn..." Lilith sighed and softened a little, "If you want to do a handstand that's fine, you can. But my methods are to work and explore, not fool around. I really prefer to just keep looking for the rest of the diamond pieces myself." She said softly.

"Excellent!" Eda was so happy to receive her older sister's approval that even a mischievous little grin appeared on her face. Embarrassing or not, if Lilith has the right to do her own methods, so does Eda.

"You know Lily," She said. "There are several ways to work and research. And since I've got your permission, you can't stop me from doing it!" she called maliciously, as if in a second all her reckless and mischievous confidence returned, and with magic, she lifted Lilith into the air and turned her around. She really wanted to see if the pieces of the diamond are on Lilith.

"Edalyn! Put me down right now! I absolutely didn't give you permission to do that!!!" Lilith screamed at Eda. She really didn't enjoy being upside down in the air, and although she could undo the spell herself she was afraid of getting in trouble with the train or the titan or whoever was in charge of things.

Chips hovered excitedly next to her, "How did you learn to hover like me?" She asked in surprise, "Do you also know how to turn into different shapes of pretzels?"

 Lilith ignored her and glared at her sister, "Edalyn, I swear if you don't take me down this second, this won't end well for you."

"Huh, weird." Eda examined Lilith. No diamond pieces came off her. "Well, I guess it's not what I thought."

She shrugged and stopped the spell causing Lilith to fall directly to the ground. "And when did you learn to threaten like that? I'm impressed with you, sister." She came to Lilith and gave her a hand to get up.

"Whoop!" Lilith was surprised to land back on the ground, where the stones she fell on began to scream. She stood up quickly, hastily shaking off her clothes in an attempt to maintain self-respect, ignoring her sister's outstretched hand.

Eda may be acting nice now, but flipping her in the air was very uncool and Lilith wasn't going to forget that anytime soon.

Instead of answering her, she moved away from her to the other side of the car, to the front door, and began to examine the stones there instead of answering Eda. She felt as if something was stabbing her in the back of the head, but did not pay much attention to it. She just fell to the floor, and was apparently covered in a lot of dirt and bits of rock, so it must be nothing. Besides, she couldn't put anything in her hair like Edalyn that stores garbage from sandwiches and potion ingredients to teeth and small animals. Lilith's curly and tangled hair just didn't allow it. It must be nothing, she was convinced of that, but it still bothered her. 

At that moment she really wanted to go home, where there is a shower and a comfortable bed.

'Don't pamper yourself, Lilith,' she thought to herself, 'in the Emperor's Coven you'll probably have to go through something like this in your training, so it's good getting used to it. Especially because in the coven it will be much easier without Edalyn being there and getting in the way.' She thought sourly.

Chapter Text

Eda looked at her sister, a bit surprised.

'Wow, and all this time I thought Lilith was the mature one between us two.' Eda thought to herself, 'Ignoring me just because I lifted her in the air and making such drama about it is so childish.'

"Hey, Chips," Eda whispered to her. "Please tell me you have the ability to actually turn her into a pretzel. That way she'll be less sour and more... Salty? Okay, no. Turn her into something sweeter. Just make her stop being so sour-salty all the time." She grumbled, looking at Lilith and not understanding why she was itching so much. She focused better and finally noticed something shiny that caught her eye on Lilith's back. It was for a moment that her eyes became the eyes of the owl monster drawn to anything that glistened. but she snapped out of it.

"I knew it!" she called happily. "Yo, Lily, can you show me what's itchy on your back?" she asked from behind her in a condescending tone.

"Hmp." Lilith huffed angrily. She had no intention of giving any attention to Eda again so quickly, but she recognized the condescension in her voice and immediately became defensive. "I don't have anything on my back, I'm sure it's just itching because my sister just dropped me on a floor full of stones, it's quite painful." She said sharply, not bothering to look at Eda. Instead, she continued her search of the walls of the car.

She tried to focus on the repetitive task of scanning the area for the pink glint of diamond pieces but found it difficult knowing her sister must be watching her. She sighed deeply and tried to curl up and dig into her hair. It wasn't good for storing things, but it was puffy and long enough that she could partially hide in it herself.

Only this time she totally felt something there.

With trembling fingers she fumbled through the tangled curls of her hair, trying to find what was poking her. She hated when things got caught in her hair - it always took forever to get them out.

"Oh!" She exclaimed in surprise as she finally managed to pull out of her hair what turned out to be another pink piece of the pink diamond. It was more jagged this time and it gave her a small cut on her finger. "Ouch," Lilith hissed in pain, but quickly shook it off.

"Okay, Edalyn, I don't know why you thought this was funny, but seriously, don't go near my hair." She turned to look at her sister angrily, waving the piece of diamond she had just found.

"I knew it!" Eda said smugly. "I knew! I knew! I knew!" With a complete lack of tact, she pointed an accusing finger at Lilith. "For your information, I did not touch a single strand of your hair. I can swear on all the snails I don't have that I wasn't the one who stored it there." She said and started doing silly victory dances around Lilith. "So… Who's the little thief now?”

To prove that Lilith was the guilty one for a change, after she accused Eda of it - that was the most satisfying feeling Eda had experienced lately.

"I'm not a thief! How dare you even call me that?! I wasn't greedy and tried to steal gemstones, and I didn't cheat and I didn't act irresponsibly while we were trying to find a way out of here! If I had found the diamond, I would have put it in its place, not in my hair, because unlike you, I'm trying to get off of the train and not stay stuck here forever!" Lilith snapped at her sister. "You have nothing to lose by stalling us here, so it actually seems logical to me that you decided to sneak the pieces into my hair, isn't that right, Edalyn? Because unlike you, I can swear on all the snails that I do have that I didn't put it there, because unlike you, my hair is not silk and easy to maintain so I can't afford to store things in it or they will be lost forever." She added through gritted teeth.

"Okay, fine. Obviously, you didn't steal it, it just got lost in your hair somehow. No need to heat up." Eda stopped her victory dance and touched Lilith's forehead. She quickly moved her hand away from her as if she had touched a boiling kettle, to illustrate Lilith's warming temper. "At least we found another piece… How many more do we need to find to get out of here?"

"I don't know..." Lilith huffed in frustration, trying to calm down. Eda always had a special way of making her angry, even when she didn't mean it at all. Since the whole curse and coven tryouts, it only increased. "But if the rest of the pieces are in my hair somehow, it's going to take us forever to get them out of there!"

She crossed her arms, frustrated by the situation. When that gem said that things were sometimes within reach and that the train lacked logic she didn't think it meant that magically and strangely the missing diamond would be on her, and worst of all, stuck in her hair!

"Hey, maybe I can go into the hair and get the pieces out!" Chips offered, eager to help.

Lilith looked at her worriedly, as if considering the idea of a floating pretzel settling in her hair.  "I don't think that's a good idea... You'll probably get stuck in there."

Lilith imagined it vividly: Chips forever stuck in her hair, watching and following her everywhere.

"I think Edalyn and I better get the pieces out by ourselves."

"Ohohoh!" Eda started to get excited. She summoned a pair of scissors into her hands with a spell, but before she could do anything she stopped herself. Maybe... Instead of making Lilith... Bald or something, there's some other way to check her hair to see if there are actually diamond pieces in there? Like… With a spell that only the Illusion track can do, but luckily, Eda didn't listen to the coven system at all, so she occasionally peeked into the other tracks' classes at school.

"Well," Eda looked at the scissors in her hand, then back at Lilith. "Before we do something rash that will make you hate me forever... How about a little… Lice check?" She snickered, and with the other hand, she made a circle in the air, ready to perform the spell.

"You have to make sure the suspicions are true before you are accused of murder. I speak from experience." She said, and it took her a while to realize how bad that sounded. "Huh… Let's get started with this, okay?" Eda cleared her throat and tried to smooth over what she had just said.

"Whoa, whoa, no, absolutely not!" Lilith quickly moved aside, looking at her sister in disbelief.  "You're not coming near me with those scissors! That's not what I meant at all." She said, sighing into her hand and hurrying to put the scissors away from her sister's reach.

"And no magic either" She took Eda's hands down, "We already agreed that magic should not be used outside of the Boiling Isles, right? Especially not wild magic." She said, "The Titan and the Emperor won't be happy... No, we'll use our hands instead. It might take longer, but we'll eventually manage to get the rest of the pieces out, assuming there really are more pieces in my hair..." She explained as she continued searching for more pieces through her strands of hair.

"Hm, yeah, there's probably more of those in there…" she said in defeat after pulling out another pink piece.

Then she processed what else her sister had said.

"Wait a moment, Edalyn, who did you kill?!"

"It was an accident, okay???" Eda blurted and quickly moved on. Was it her fault that some jelly idiot demon startled her and her first instinct was to throw him off of a cliff? No, so, moving on.

"Besides, Lily, how many times do I have to tell you this? There is no Titan and no Emperor here to tell you what to do or punish you if you break some of their stupid rules." She dropped her hands back from Lilith's hold. "I understand that it's dangerous and others might be startled by it, but we're still stuck in the same car, and it's not like someone will suddenly come in here and stop us if we use "wild" magic, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. So, how do you even want us to get the diamond pieces out of your hair?"

"With our hands..?" Lilith said slowly, not understanding how Eda didn't realize that this was her plan to begin with. She tried not to think too deeply about the disturbing fact that her sister was apparently involved in a murder case. It wasn't particularly surprising, just a little... Disturbing.

"The Titan has eyes everywhere." Lilith recited, "And the Emperor is in close contact with the Titan, so he'd know as well. Trust me, we don't need to mess with them." She insisted. "The laws have logic in them, even if you don't understand it because you always have to create chaos, there is a reason for the existence of laws and we have to obey them because it is in our best interest."

The more Lilith continued to talk about the Titan and Belos and how much rules are a good thing, Eda made a talking hand gesture, to show her disparagement for the nonsense her sister was talking. Eda didn't understand how the Emperor was able to get into Lilith's head like that. This whole Emperor and Titan thing sounds completely absurd, why is only Eda seeing it?

But now is absolutely not the time or place to have a conversation about this, because just like Lilith has no proof of the Titan's existence, Eda has no proof either, so it's pointless.

"Ahhh, okay..." Eda finally sighed. "Let's go poke around in my big sister's puffy hair. Dream of my life, what a pleasure."

Lilith rolled her eyes, "Trust me, I'm not enjoying this either." She told her. Eda has no right to complain. It's really not Lilith's fault that her hair is so puffy and annoying, and especially not her fault that they're even on the train. Besides, what got into her sister that she is so against the Titan and the Emperor? Wasn't it also her dream up until recently to join the Emperor's Coven too?

Lilith huffed in frustration, pulling out another piece she found.

"Chips, can you maybe put these pieces in plac- oh, right, you can't," Lilith remembered then that the floating pretzel didn't exactly have... Limbs.

"I can help cheer," Chips offered and didn't wait for an answer before she started chirping, "Woohooo! Go Eda! Go Lilith!" Her stick-shaped body moved from side to side in the air with enthusiasm.

"It's really not necessary…" Lilith muttered, "Okay then, come on Edalyn, let's go put the pieces in their place," she said and walked over to the square wall to try to arrange the pieces in order inside the missing diamond pattern.  "Stupid train..."

Eda looked at the work they did - finding a piece, putting it on the wall… Just like a puzzle!  

But it was a bit… Exhausting, to do both. Maybe it'll be better to split the work between them. 

"Okay, Lily. How many more pieces are left for us to find? Let's make it simple and easy like we've always done it - I'm the strength, you're the brain. I'll take the pieces out of your hair, however tangled it may be, and you'll put together the puzzle of the missing diamond!" She suggested and took out another piece of diamond, which she gave to Lilith.

"That would be nice." Lilith agreed, giving her a small smile and remembering all the times the two combined forces for equal teamwork, which was both fair and fun.

"Alright, Edalyn," she said, leaning forward to look closely at the diamond wall and place the new piece on it, "according to my calculations we have already placed, or rather, I have placed, four diamond-pieces. They are not very large, I would say, and according to the size of the wall we'll need exactly twenty-one more diamond pieces to complete the puzzle- I mean, the diamond. So if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not, that's the number. It… Will take a while to complete this..." She mumbled. "But it'll be fun..?" Lilith added half questioningly.

Working with her sister can lead to two results: either she enjoys the cooperation and the shared effort and generally spending time with her sister. Or, she ends up doing everything because Eda doesn't listen. So far on the train, the second option was what happened, but Lilith had a feeling that this time it would go smoothly. Maybe she'll even enjoy it. As her sister said, it'll be just like they used to do in the past.

"O-oh, oh... Wow, Lily..." Eda found a few more diamond pieces, but when she heard that she had many more of them to find... She stopped. "A-Are you sure you don't want to use a little magic? Maybe we'll find ingredients for the shrinking potion we learned? Or maybe chips will help? Maybe we'll smooth your hair with magic? Are you sure you don't want a little shortcut? Tiny tinnie? I promise you that... In whatever dimension this train is, there is no Titan who watches you." She was really determined to take some shortcuts. Because as much as it's fun to dig through Lilith's frizzy hair, it's better to just get it over with... A little help. "We will continue to work as we do now, only that your little sister here will be happy for some help, ya know?" She continued to say as her fingers searched through Lilith's hair.

Lilith considered Eda's ideas but quite quickly rejected them. "It can certainly be more effective with some help, but nothing you suggested." She answered, "I do not see how the shrinking potion will help, and you don't even have the ingredients not for that and not for a hair smoothing potion - which is the only way to smooth hair with magic, but of course, you wouldn't know that this is a potion and not a spell with that straight slick hair of yours..." She added with a slight sigh and continued to point out the cons of Eda's plans. "Chips would only get lost inside my hair if she'll try to help, and using wild magic… What exactly is the plan for this?" She hesitantly asked, adding to the diamond-puzzle the few pieces Eda managed to find in the meantime.

All the while, her sister found more and more diamond pieces, and even felt that she had found a big piece until… "Haa, Lily!" Eda got dragged forcefully into the tangled mess of Lilith's curly hair while trying to take out the big piece of diamond. Kind of like when fishers try to catch a big fish but the resistance is so strong that the fishermen themselves almost fall into the water. Eda tried to resist, but her head was pulled right into Lilith's hair, and... Let's just say that wasn't very pretty, considering it was just hair. "Yack!" When Eda managed to get out of the mess, she spat out hair strands. "Lily, when did you last take a shower?" She added in questioning, spitting out more hair strands. "Okay, okay, here it comes ..." Eda used all her power, and managed to catch a large piece of diamond. No wonder it was hard to take it out of all this mess called Lilith's hair. "Well, how many pieces are left?" She wiped her sweat, short-breathed.

Lilith ignored Eda's comments, because it's not like her sister could ever understand the struggles of having curly hair. Instead, she focused on arranging the pieces Eda found. "Umm ... Nine?" She answered, distracted, while placing diamond pieces on the diamond board. "No, wait, with that huge piece, which I have no idea how it managed to sneak into my hair, it's... Seven pieces left!"

"Oooo, the diamond's starting to get a shape!" Eda was excited when she saw how the diamond puzzle was beginning to look whole. She took another piece, and another, It felt to her as if she was in a really close competition with Odelia, and her honor was at stake because it was clear that Odelia always had to mock her, but this time Eda would win and crush her once and for all.

It was hard to miss how competitive Eda is.

Only two pieces remained now, and Eda was searching every possible area of Lilith's hair, but couldn't find anything. "Hey, Chips!" She called out for the floating pretzel, "Say, is there any chance you can turn into a smaller or bigger pretzel so you could move inside Lilith's hair  without getting stuck in it, and so you'd help me get the remaining pieces out so we'll finish this puzzle?" She whispered to her.

"Oh, I can turn into any pretzel shape!" Chips explained, going into detail about the shapes, the divided pretzel tribes in her home car, and when she discovered she could transform into any of her shapes. "...Even into a weird criss-cross shape, although that tribe is pretty small in the car. My... Wait, what did you ask?" She suddenly realized that she's been talking for minutes, and already forgotten what Eda had asked of her.

"Ha! Yes!" She recalled, "I think that this stick shape is the most suitable." She decided and did a spin in the air, "Then I'll gladly help, yay!"  She chirped before diving determinedly into Lilith's hair, going deeper than where Eda's fingers dug.  She definitely miscalculated how tangled and dim the mess of hair was on the inside. On the outside it looked nice and tidy, she didn't think how scary it might look on the inside.

"Why do I feel like this was a mistake?" She muttered to herself, a little scared, as she tried to make her way through the mess.

She was no longer sure whether she should try to go deeper or try to get out, and what were the chances of success of each choice. "Okay, you're small, Chips. Just try looking for sharp pieces of diamond in a hair forest full of darkness and evilness..." She muttered to herself, trying to calm down. 

"Flying between hair strands, a place so cold and faint, looking for diamond shreds, what a dangerous… State?" Chips tried to sing to herself. She lost all sense of direction and had no idea where to fly to, so she tried in vain to fly slowly in some random direction, but could barely move without getting tangled in an unruly curl.

"And... I'm stuck."  She said in semi-defeat as she realized she was in a tight, suffocating knot created by a tangle of curls.

All this time, Lilith was so focused on completing the diamond-puzzle on the wall, that she didn't notice that Chips was no longer hovering next to her. She didn't give it much thought until she suddenly remembered that Eda had called Chips and asked her for something, and she hadn't heard from the floating pretzel ever since. Well, you don't have to be a genius to complete this puzzle and understand that Eda apparently asked Chips for exactly what Lilith didn't want her to.

Lilith frowned and panicked, but finished arranging all the diamond pieces in place before turning to her sister.

"Edalyn, you didn't ask Chips to get into my hair, did you? You didn't do exactly the opposite of what I asked, even though I explained very well why not to do it, did you? You didn't go behind my back and decide to mess around at my expense just because you're unable to listen to instructions and respect others, right???"

Lilith wanted to turn around completely to face Eda, but couldn't as her sister's hands were deep in Lilith's hair. She, therefore, continued talking to her with her back turned, but in a loud and trembling voice that failed to mask the panic she felt. After all, Lilith had dealt with her hair for her entire life, and she knew very well what happened when things got stuck in it. She already had quite a few scary times where something was stuck, trapped, in her hair and she couldn't get it out for hours and days. Scary times when she didn't even know something was stuck in her hair until it found its way out.

She told Chips that she didn't want her to go in there, she specifically asked Eda not to do it, so why isn't anyone listening to her?

Why do they both act as if they know better than Lilith and decide things that affect her and not them?

"Teamwork, Edalyn, means cooperation!" She yelled at her, "Cooperation means you don't do things unless everyone agrees on them! Cooperation means everyone does their part! What wasn't clear about that? Why can't you ever listen and do what you're told?! Is it so hard to do what you're asked? That was a simple request, Edalyn!!!"

Lilith's words echoed with how loud she shouted them. Even Chips could hear them from inside the hair - she felt a little bad about it, but only a little since right now she was mostly worried about being stuck.

Outside, the stones also began to complain about the noise Lilith was making, which... Kind of pissed her off more, since the stones were behaving exactly like the fish-bears in the previous car.

"Oh, of course. I'm always to blame, right? Edalyn is allowed to cause chaos, allowed to decide things, allowed to act carelessly even if it hurts others, allowed to make noise... But no, as soon as I do it, it's no longer okay!" She complained to herself in a loud whisper.

Even here, on the strange train, everyone seems to prefer Eda.

"Huh, of course, I can't do anything by myself and every little thing needs the approval of the eldest Lilith?!" Eda rolled her eyes, annoyed by Lilith's complaints. 

So she sent Chips to help, Big Deal. Eda is no longer a 7-year-old who needs to be told what to do, she can make her own decisions. 

But of course, Lilith doesn't see it...

She took her hands out of Lilith's hair and crossed her arms in protest. Yet something still felt wrong. Where is Chips anyway? How long does it take her to take two pieces out? And also... The fact that everyone is yelling at Lilith suddenly doesn't feel good... How is it that whether she's the one who's wrong or others are to blame, she feels bad in either situation? Is it not possible to have any situation without anyone being blamed?

And why does in every drama the owl beast have to jump on her as if she doesn't have enough on her head???

Before something erupts violently in the place, and that something includes the owl beast from Eda's body, Eda decides to put an end to it.

"Can you all please shut up?!" She shouted.

She really wanted to end it quickly, because the stress and tension were slowly awakening the beast inside her and Eda had no way to deal with it all. "Lily yelled at me because I didn't do what she asked, which is understandable because I'm pretty sure Chips is stuck in there and we have to get her out. So can all of you gems just shut your mouths and let us finish our work so we can get out of here as soon as possible?!" She yelled, hoping it would work.

With the feathers on her trembling hand, she hurried back to digging through Lilith's hair, to quickly find Chips and free her, and to find the last remaining pieces of the diamond.

Lilith flinched slightly uncomfortably at Eda's shouts, which echoed throughout the car. But it helped, since the gemstones were silent now, and Lilith with them. 

Even though she was still angry with Eda for speaking out, she knew that yelling at her would definitely not help. She knows her sister, she knows she doesn't mean to hurt and just sometimes doesn't understand the importance of things. And it seems that this time at least Eda does understand the mistake she made.

Lilith turned and pulled Eda's hands from her hair, holding them as she looked into her eyes and felt her trembling. "Edalyn..." she said, not quite sure how to continue.

The only reason Lilith could've relaxed so quickly this time was because she felt that Eda was stressed by all the noise and that she needed her, and if her sister needed her then she would be there for her, as much as she could. But she didn't know what she could do to improve everything when she herself felt so down.

"I didn't mean to yell," she finally said, "it's just frustrating, because there was a good reason why I said not to do it. My hair isn't a good storage place and things get lost in it, and I knew that would happen with Chips too. I… I'm not really sure how we'll find her now, but I guess we'll just... Keep looking? I'll help too, and if we find the remaining two pieces first we'll just get out of the car and continue the search after that. I'm completely sick of this place."

'And it's not like Chips can disappear forever…' Lilith thought to herself, 'we'll find her eventually.'

Eda looked at her older sister, pleasantly surprised. Lilith just stopped everything to apologize?

Well, the magic word hasn't been said, but it's a bit of an improvement. Eda was happy about it. Lilith's angry but still explains things to her sister calmly as a big sister should? It started to remind her of the good relationship they really had, and how they balanced each other. When they didn't think only of themselves.

"Lily, I..." She almost couldn't get words out of her mouth. "...Thank you. Sometimes my hyperactivity gets the better of me and I make rash decisions, but I can assure you that no matter how much of a mess I make, I always have ways to fix it." She announced to her confidently. "Let's get this tiny hex mix and the remaining diamond pieces out of here."

"Y-yeah." Lilith nodded, slightly confused. She couldn't recall a single time her sister admitted that her behavior was destructive or disruptive, and certainly never heard her try to take responsibility for it. As Lord Calamity she would deny any damage she caused to things, claiming the prank was successful or such nonsense, so Lilith definitely didn't know how to react to that or what to think about her sister acting mature right now.

Since she had nothing more to say, she focused on searching for the diamond pieces and Chips, and fumbled with trembling fingers through her curls. She never thought that her hair was so big that it could hide 25 pieces of a huge diamond in it, but... The magic of the train can do that, apparently.

At one point her hand closed on another jagged piece and she hurriedly pulled it out with cheers, placing it on the wall, proudly showing that there was only one last piece of the diamond left to find.

If Lilith had put her fingers a little deeper in her hair, she would have found Chips, who was excited to see the light from the car outside seeping in, but immediately disappointed when she saw Lilith's hand pull back with that piece of diamond.

"At least I was close to finding one…" Chips muttered to herself with a grin, then sighed. She was getting bored there pretty quickly, and to be honest, she was also quite worried that the two sisters would decide to abandon her forever in that evil clump of hair as some sort of punishment for not helping them much so far.

"Come on, they'll surely rescue me. You can't forget or abandon a cool personality like me!" She tried to comfort herself.

To keep herself busy, she decided to count to a million and see how far she would get before she would be able to breathe fresh air again.

"Oh, yes! Well done, Lily! We have one piece left to find!" Eda happily called out too. Both didn't notice, but it is not at all unnecessary to note that the numbers on their hands decreased.

Eda tried to keep searching all over Lilith's hair but couldn't find the last piece. It's always like that with the last part of something - you can't find it. That's its whole point, to be hidden and never to be found. While searching, deep deep, she sensed that she touched something quite... spiky?  No... But it's kind of like stabs of salt... Like a Pretzel! Chips!

Her face was already so completely in Lilith's hair that Eda couldn't breathe, but she kept digging to try to hold Chips and pull her out.  

On the outside, it looked pretty silly that Eda was just putting herself inside her sister's hair, but on the inside it looked quite a dramatic life-and-death situation, reaching out with no air, limited time, desperately searching for the lost pretzel. 

'Hex mix.' Eda snickered, before shifting her attention back to the mission of saving Chips, maybe she has the last part too!

It was in the last moments for Eda's lungs to hold her breath, but at that last second, Eda, without noticing, grabbed Chips and quickly pulled out to breathe. 

The floating pretzel flew out of Lilith's hair, looking extremely startled, as if she hadn't yet realized that she managed to get out and was no longer stuck inside.

"So this is the feeling of being traumatized..." Chips muttered to herself and sat down silently on Eda's shoulder, continuing to mumble strange songs to herself, and changing her shapes, trying to find peace within herself.

"I think you broke her, Edalyn." Lilith shook her head, smirking.

"It's harder than 'catch an apple in the apple blood pool!" Eda exclaimed, panting.

After a few more moments of panting and catching her breath, Eda announced that she was never getting close to Lilith's evil hair again.

So, the last piece was still missing, but Eda refused to go into that hair again.

So Lilith continued to poke through her hair, trying to reach as deep as she could, from every possible direction to maybe still find the last piece.

"Now we'll probably be stuck here forever until we find the p- Oh! I think I caught something!"

Lilith pulled out one hand and revealed a shaggy quill in her hand. "Oh..." She blurted out, embarrassed, "So this is where it disappeared to..."

She threw the ruined quill aside and with her other hand, she continued to search until she finally found the missing piece, the only thing separating them from their exit.

Lilith huffed happily as she placed the last piece of diamond in its place on the wall.

Now alongside the three large diamonds was also a pink diamond, although it still looked shattered into pieces. In her heart, Lilith desperately wanted to use a repair spell on it, but of course, she didn't - it's not allowed!

"Ugh, wow, that took a lot of time! I'm sure it's already dark outside or we've been gone a whole day actually, yes that sounds reasonable, I feel like we've been here all night! We should sleep before the next car or- Hey, why doesn't it give us the exit?" Lilith noticed that while she was talking nothing happened, even though the puzzle was complete and accurate. She immediately frowned but tried to think of what could activate the exit.

"Hmm, how did I activate that wall before we found the pieces?" Lilith muttered to herself, then remembered, "Oh, yes! We must knock on it!"

She raised her hand, a little apprehensively. What if the knock causes the puzzle to fall and they have to find all the pieces again? Maybe new pieces will be created and then it will take forever to put everything back together! There must be another way to operate the door...

Lilith looked at the diamond wall worriedly before turning to her sister, "Maybe it's not a good idea… What do you think?" She asked her, looking in wonder at her right hand when she suddenly realized something - her number had changed.

"Oh mighty Titan, Edalyn, look! The number went down!" She was enthusiastic and presented her hand to Eda.

Her sister, however, was busy talking to the still-traumatized pretzel. "Yeah, tell me about it..." Eda agreed with Chips and whispered to her, "This hair must be tamed. When we get home, the first thing I do is give Lily a shower." A shiver ran through her body just at the thought of what she had experienced so far. At least they finally found all the parts and can move to the next car... Right?

Eda looked up, confused, and heard Lilith's hesitation, but luckily for Lilith, Eda spared her the hesitation and just kicked it, without thinking.

"Open up already, diamond wall!" She called, as if the wall was also talking like the gems, and would hear her and listen to her.

Okay, maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but if the question is whether to hit or not, Eda's answer is very clear.

After kicking it, she turned back to her sister and asked, "Did you say something?" Completely oblivious as she was engrossed in her rash decisions and didn't notice her sister's enthusiasm.

"Edalyn!"

All the joy that Lilith had from the number dropping disappeared the second her sister decided to do something reckless again and act without consulting her, without thinking about the consequences of her actions, and certainly without thinking about how it would affect others.

It didn't matter to her that the door behind them did open, because it was the principle of the thing that bothered her.

It seemed to her that her sister was doing it on purpose, trying to upset her. Just when Lilith managed to get used to the idea of the train and get a little closer to her sister, she just had to destroy it, right?

Or maybe this was actually her plan all this time? Maybe she wants their numbers to not drop down so they'll be stuck forever on the train? Maybe... Maybe she knows about the curse and this is her revenge for it?

It's not possible, is it?

Lilith didn't know.

Instead, she glared at her sister and got mad at her.

"I really, truly, don't understand you, Edalyn! I thought you already understood that decisions should be made carefully! Everything you told me less than half an hour ago was just lies? Meaningless words? Do you even think about things or are you all just casual and destructive actions? Are you even able to think before you act? Because I don't think so, or we wouldn't be stuck here. You're lucky that door worked this time." She turned her back on her sister and strode towards the door, pausing angrily at the exit.

She wanted to get out of there in protest, or continue the journey alone even, but of course, she didn't. No matter what, she can't leave her sister alone in the car. Who knows if it will open again after that.

One stone in the wall stuck out her tongue.

Lilith stared at the purple amethyst, frowning, "What exactly are you looking at?" she asked angrily.

In Eda's mind, she thought she would show her older sister that she could make the right decisions, and that sometimes her method works. Because it did! The door opened! Eda already imagined the cheers and applause in her head, 'Well done to you, Eda!', 'What a hero!', 'You got us out of here, kudos to you! You were right, I can be happy about your decisions, Edalyn!'

And then everything...

Broke in a second.

Eda didn't understand what Lilith could yell at her about now, after all, she succeeded and got them out of there.

She looked at her hand and realized Lilith was excited and wanted to celebrate with her that their numbers had finally gone down, but it didn't matter, because now it would surely go back up... Because of Eda's stupid decision...

'Why can't you just change? You make promises to Lilith and then break them the second time, because you're such... Such an Eda!' She scolded herself and clenched her fist tightly, watching the number on her hand rise.

She looked at her sister, who was waiting for her outside the door, with her cold gaze.

She wanted to approach her, apologize, say something... But she couldn't.

She just walked behind her with a humiliated face and didn't say a word.

Chapter Text

Lilith led them both outside the car, including Chips who was still changing shapes and looking quite troubled.

She took one last look at the car, feeling a little sour. Under other circumstances, she would probably enjoy being in such a place, talking to the various gemstones and researching it all. She recognized some of the gems, such as pearls, lapis lazuli, and jaspers, or other stones she remembered having an important use in oracle magic. Even though she didn't study in this track, she read everything she could about it as well, as part of the preparations for the coven exams.

She sighed sadly and let the door close behind them, looking at the bridge in front of them in frustration.

Where to now?

Should they enter another car, despite the dangers that might be in it?  Or maybe they should rest out here? 

After all, they have to sleep at some point...

But, on the other hand, here in the open air they can quite easily fall to their death, so maybe it's better to get into the car and just hope for the best.

Lilith looked at the sky above them and assumed that dawn would soon come and they would officially be gone for a whole night and the entire evening and afternoon before it... Maybe even another whole day - Lilith wasn't sure how long they were in each car.

'I wonder if Mom and Dad even noticed we were gone...' She thought to herself. She assumed their father didn't know, he had barely been with them lately since his... Injury. Lilith couldn't blame him, his rehabilitation wasn't simple, and... She preferred not to think about it.

Thinking about their mother wasn't fun either.  Lilith was convinced that their mother did notice Eda's absence, but probably not hers. She's probably not trying to find them but is still busy looking for a cure for Eda.

Eda...

Eda is all Lilith has now. 

She doesn't deserve it, not after everything she's done, but she's the only person left by her side, and here on this endless train she needs her more than ever.

Lilith looked at her sister in wonder. Eda was always talkative and always talked back. It usually only got her into more problems, just like all her rash actions did, but that was Eda.

So why is she quiet now?

She watched as Eda followed her, slowly, seemingly not interested in any closeness to her at the moment, or rather... Lilith probably isn't interested in her sister's closeness at the moment, so that's why Eda prefers to keep her distance.

"Don't you have anything to say? This is new..." Lilith mumbled and immediately got angry with herself.

Why can't she be nice to her sister? Why is she always so mean to her? And why after a day or two on the train and after two exhausting cars they still haven't been able to permanently lower their number, and are constantly fighting, unable to talk about things properly?

Lilith was afraid to look at her palm and be disappointed to find that the number had indeed returned to 212, or even higher. Instead, she continued to watch her sister, hoping she hadn't hurt her too much.

At Lilith's words, Eda immediately turned her gaze toward the horizon of the train's dimension. She leaned on the rail, the safety rail of the bridge between the cars, and huffed. "Me? Not saying anything? W-what, look! The view is beautiful, we got out of the car, and… A beautiful view, did I mention it already?" She was trying the method of suppressing her anger, but it failed the moment she looked up into Lilith's eyes, the gloomy, disappointed ones... Quite reminiscent of Eda's teachers' faces, to be honest. Their grim faces, not understanding how Eda misses so many classes, create chaos, but somehow get pretty good grades. It always seemed like the teachers weren't happy with her, and Eda always wondered how much they must detest her. Well, it's pretty much mutual.

"Okay, fine…" Eda rolled her eyes and continued walking, passing Lilith towards the door of the other car. "Let's keep going, so I can keep screwing up and disappoint you, and then I'll find out that all I have to do is act like some perfectly programmed robot that doesn't make mistakes, so that my big sister will be happy with me, okay? The fun car is right this way." 

She didn't plan to let it all out, and certainly not with such strong words, but Eda didn't care anymore. She moved aside to let Lilith open the door first as if it were some kind of entrance to a special event. "Ladies first, ma'am." She added to Lilith with forced politeness and the addition of bowing down as if she were some kind of honorable waitress, emphasizing the disrespect she felt about it all, and how she couldn't tolerate the expectations her sister has of her, as if she wanted to turn her into some kind of first rank royalty. Good thing she doesn't flatter the Emperor like that, oh wait, she does.

Eda couldn't stand it.

Next to her, Lilith sighed. "You don't-" She huffed. Since when does Eda talk to her like that? Aware of what bothers Lilith in her behavior but treats it with disdain, as if Lilith is wrong about her basic expectations from her sister?

"You don't have to be so hostile."

Oh, look who's talking. But Lilith didn't care if she came off as a hypocrite, she had a reason to be hostile - she didn't want to be here, and she's the one who suffers more than Eda, especially since she's the one who always has to find a way to fix everything Eda destroys.

Although... Eda was fine in the first car. She was pretty good in the second one as well, if you take away the whole part with Chips and realize that Eda can't help fooling around here and there... She hasn't done any damage so far, has she?

Okay, so it's unfair of Lilith to treat her like that.  So what. It's better that way, Eda should hate her. Eda needs to stay away from her. That's what will happen if she ever finds out about the curse.

And it's not like anything she says will change Eda anyway. Just because she's talking about being perfect now doesn't mean she can really act like that and be normal. It's also not at all what Lilith wants, because then it wouldn't be Eda, and she loves Eda the way she is.

"However you want." Lilith finally said, stepping forward and swinging the heavy gray door, leading them into a new car.

Chapter Text

Eda didn't know what to expect, but she regretted acting like that now. Lilith's sharp reaction stabbed right in her stomach like an ice crystal, the last thing she wanted was to continue the tension between them.

…Ugh! How is it that no matter what Eda tries and does, things will always get worse? 

Is Lilith still mad at her for putting them on that train? Well, of course she's mad... But get over it! They're already here, so... Let them get it right! Ugh.

When the door opened, Eda tried to peek and see what the car looked like, quite scared. After all, everything could be there. 

But... She was quite impressed.

In a flick of a second, she forgot all about the drama from before, and her eyes sparkled at the sight of this sweet car, or... Sour?

She doubted it existed in the Boiling Isles, but the whole car, and really, the whole car, was made of sour candies.

Right in front of them, a few kilometers from where they stood, a sour candy villa was created, as if the car had read their thoughts for their desire to sleep and prepared a mini villa for them.

It's amazing how all of a sudden all of Eda's energy came back just when she saw the car they were getting into. Could it be that the land of fun really is here, and did Eda really foresee it? Wow. Eda is wasting her time on the potions track, she needs to go to the oracle one!

…

On second thought, no, Odelia is there.

It doesn't matter anyway. Eda finds ways to learn everything from her shortcut room.

Eda took a piece of the sour candy floor and tasted it. "Wow, Lily, you have to try this! It's so sour, like you!" She laughed and started running towards the villa. "I'm gonna get there before you!" She teased and didn't wait for her sister before sprinting towards the villa.

Lilith didn't understand how Eda, that a second ago was all frustrated and angry with her with that mocking and apathetic attitude, could suddenly be happy like that and act as if nothing happened. How a second ago she underestimated Lilith, roughly, and treated her with annoyance and tension, and now she's all cheerful and lighthearted as if they hadn't just fought.

Lilith didn't answer. Instead, she walked carefully on the floor of the car covered in sour sugar and tried to calculate whether or not there was any risk in them entering the sour candy villa.

"I think we should sleep outside the villa," Lilith said, settling down on the floor outside, who was, as expected, very uncomfortable with all those sour-sugar grains.

She knew Eda would argue with her but she didn't care. They just go through the train cars without a real purpose. They don't have a real plan, and they don't even try to lower the number.

If they fight again, it won't change anything anyway.

Eda, of course, stopped when she realized Lilith wasn't going to compete with her. Well, it's not really what happened... It was Chips who pulled her back to stop her. 

"Hey Chips, what's up?" Eda asked in protest.

Chips was shaking in the air, hiccoughing, changing shapes like crazy, barely able to speak. "Closed space... Trapped... Danger.... No..." she mumbled and stammered. She tried to hide behind Eda's hair, but quickly moved away because she was afraid of getting trapped in it as well, so she quickly hid in her cloak, but then started to fear she’ll get trapped inside the fabric too.

So she ran, not knowing where to hide. "M-maybe it's better if I stay in the open air. Y-Yeah. Better." She kept muttering to herself.

Eda didn't understand what was happening, she watched it quite confused. "Chips? Everything okay?" she asked, looking at the shape-shifter pretzel in confusion.

"M-me? I'm great! I'm good! Totally nothing to worry about! Looks like you two are having problems, so try to solve yours first. I'm fine!" Chips said quickly and stubbornly.

Chips was too strange for Eda to have the strength to deal with right now. And she was right, maybe Eda should try to solve her own problems first.

Eda looked over at Lilith, who was sitting in the corner she had chosen, and decided to sit next to her. "Hey," she said, without further ado. Just hi. She didn't know whether to try and start a conversation, fight again, reconcile and then mess everything up again or what. Maybe they're just tired and exhausted and need rest. 

Eda decided to wait for Lilith's response, whatever it’ll be.

But Lilith only glanced at her, confused. "Hey..?" She returned to Eda, not understanding why she was trying to start a conversation with her in this way.

Unexpectedly, Eda sat down on her knees and looked at Lilith. She stared at her for a while, and then started to work.

She began to take pieces of sour straws from the floor, with the help of magic, of course, and began to build a statue of sour candy, little by little Lilith could see that she was building it to look like her, sour-Lilith statue.

"And...final touch…" Eda added, shoving a sour straw in Lilith’s mouth.

"Wow, I wish Raine was here," she muttered. "They'd know how to make these things tastier...I think. Well, it's not liquid, but...They can do anything, they're amazing." She concluded to herself while talking out loud.

"Anyway, Lily," she returned to sit next to her. "I'm… Sorry for disrespecting your method earlier. I shouldn't have done it like that." In a complete surprise, she took responsibility and apologized. Maybe instead of them staying in tension, and then waiting for some danger that will make them get along, only for Eda to do something stupid that will lead them back to fighting... Maybe it's worth taking advantage of this temporary peace.

Lilith silently chewed the sour straw in her mouth. She didn't plan to eat that, but if Eda insists, then… Fine.

She looked at the sour candy statue that Eda had created until she realized that it was supposed to be her. Who knew Eda was so talented in sculpting, too?

(Lilith. Lilith knew it. Owlbert looked a lot more well-sculpted than Lilith's Palisman, Mike Socks, but Lilith would never admit it out loud. She doesn't envy Eda for it anyway because she loves Mike Socks and wouldn't trade him for anything.)

Eda created this statue to make her happy, but it did the exact opposite because here, as always, Eda is the better sister. The considerate, forgiving, caring sister.

Why can't Lilith be like that too?

Why does she only cause pain and guilt to her little sister when she's supposed to protect and care for her?

No wonder that all this time Eda preferred to spend time with Raine and not study with her.  Raine must be nice to her. Well, they're obviously nice, even Lilith could tell they both liked each other quite a bit...

But still.

Lilith is her sister, she's also supposed to be nice to her.

So why can't she do it?

"You... You don't have to apologize." Lilith answered her quietly and hesitantly. "It doesn't really matter."

She knew that they would fight again and make up and fight… And she's leaving for the coven soon anyway.

And besides, Lilith was just as wrong as Eda, even much, much more, so... Maybe no one should apologize, and that's it.

"What?" Eda raised an eyebrow. "Of course it matters!" She protested and took Lilith's hand, the hand with the number on it. "So… Apparently ever since we arrived... I mean, I brought us on this train, we only fight and argue. But, well, we have to learn how to get along so that the numbers go down and we can get home. So we can fight and make up and fight and make up a million times, but we won't move forward, or..." Before Eda could continue, it started raining, and candy sours poured from the sour clouds in the pink-yellow sky above them. 

"Huh, weird." Eda giggled, the rain distracting her. It was quite funny considering it was neither liquid nor boiling. "So... where was I...?"  She muttered to herself and looked at Lilith.  "Ah, yes! So we can keep fighting, or we'll try what I tried from the beginning when I brought us here, and we'll get along like we used to! What happened to our strong friendship? We were best friends, inseparable! So... Why don't we try to get it back? 'Nothing can stop the Clawthorn sisters'...? 'The titan will tremble with fear'? What do you say, Lily?"

If none of them take this step, they will never get anywhere. Eda was determined that they get back together, that's the reason she brought them to the train to begin with. Now she just needs to understand what Lilith's problem is. Was Eda herself the problem? Maybe…  Well, Lilith made it clear to her that she was. But there's no way that only Eda is the problem... Right?

Meanwhile, Chips was trying to catch some sour straws with her mouth. After all, it's raining, and everyone always tries to catch drops with their mouths, so what's different here that it's sour candy rain? Even better.

Lilith, however, didn’t like the sour straws' rain. She had never seen such a thing before, and could only figure out what it was by the texture of it. Weird edible gummy of some sort. It made her think of snakes, but she didn’t understand why have candy snakes when it could be a real edible snake?

She bowed her head to try to shield herself from the rain and fought the urge to cast a protective spell.

At least it's not boiling rain.

"Right... We need to learn to get along to get home... Like we used to be, best friends..." Lilith muttered, repeating Eda's explanation. She wanted it with all her heart, but knew it was wrong of her to want it. Not after what she did. Eda will never forgive her, she will never forgive herself. She can't do that to Eda. No, what needs to happen is for Eda to forget about her.

"But it still wouldn't change anything." Lilith continued, "I mean, I'm leaving for the coven soon, and you... Who knows. It's better that way, isn't it? You don't... You don't have to be with me, you understand?" She tried to explain herself carefully, dancing around the subject of the curse that she was too afraid to mention.

Eda watched her carefully before casting a protective spell as an umbrella. No matter how much Lilith resists it, Eda will continue to insist on the rightness of using wild magic. Especially here on the train, when there isn't some kind of Imperial government forces or school system to stop her from doing whatever magic she wants.

"Good joke, Lily. Good one. I didn't know you had a sense of humor." Eda smirked, not wanting to believe what Lilith was saying, because it was nonsense. Eda would always want to be with Lilith, even if they were miles apart.

But to Eda's sorrow, Lilith looked serious, well, as usual, but it was definitely not a joking face. "You... you really mean it?" 

She lowered the shield spell and stood up to face Lilith.

"Lily, I didn't give up our duel so that after it we would just fall apart. It upset us both when we were told we couldn't be together in the coven, but I knew it was your big dream, so I gave it to you." 

Suddenly, when Eda started to speak, the rain of sour candy got stronger, and a thunderstorm started. "I brought us on this train intending to show you the world of humans, and to have fun together before you go to the coven. But everything we've done so far is to fight, and if we want to get off this train, we have to work together. No matter what silly thoughts cross your mind about how I don’t need you, I do. If you ever want to get off this train and make it to your acceptance to the Emperor's Coven, we need to work together." Eda insisted with all her heart. She didn’t understand what was going on with Lilith, that she thinks all of these delusional things? And she also says that Eda is the crazy sister between them…

"I… I know…" Lilith said hesitantly. She didn't comment on Eda casting a spell on the train again, because she knew it would just lead to another unnecessary argument. She's actually quite happy that they have shelter from the rain, and it's not like she hasn't done magic before, so if the Emperor or the Titan are aware of this, they might be... Okay with that?

Lilith tensed, wondering how to explain to Eda why they can't be close to eachother without actually telling her why.

"You shouldn't have given up on our duel like that. I…I wouldn't do that," she said, bitterly remembering the night she cursed her sister and changed her life forever by doing so. It wasn't a good wording, and Lilith knew it, because it sounded like she was blaming Eda, and the last thing she wanted was for her to think it was her fault.

But Eda seemed fine. "What do you mean?” She snorted, “Of course you wouldn't do that, it's your dream."

"Which coven are you even planning to go to now?" Lilith blurted out, in an attempt to quickly change the subject.

Eda sat back next to her sister and before replaying. "I told you back then in a duel, I decided covens weren't my thing. Letting someone decide for me what one type of magic I could use for the rest of my life just because it would piss off some dead corpse we live on? That doesn't make sense at all," she explained. "I choose to decide for myself what my life will look like, and what types of magic I will use. That's why I don't plan to go to a coven at all, and I let you fulfill your dream, along with the disappointment that we weren't allowed to be accepted together."

"Dead corpse? Edalyn! This is the Titan you're talking about!" Lilith was shocked by this attitude of her sister's to the whole thing. "Besides, Emperor Belos can communicate with him. Just because you don't understand the reason for limiting magic doesn't mean there isn't a logical reason for the necessity to join covens. You didn't live in the Deadwardian era, you don't know what horrors were there when witches had free magic. Laws exist to protect us, Edalyn. You can't decide to ignore them, unless you want to spend your life in prison." Lilith scolded her lightly, looking at her sister with seriousness, before her expression softened slightly in sadness.

"And what about the Titan?" Eda continued Lilith. "A corpse is a dead body. That we really live on. That guy's dead if you haven't noticed! And besides, you didn't live in the Dead-What-You-Didn't-Say era either. How do you know the wild witches only caused trouble? Maybe they're actually hiding the good things they did? And believe me, Lily, if I’ll ever get sent to prison, you'll be the first to know about it. You know why? Because it will never happen!" She continued to explain confidently. "I'm a master of escaping, it’s my art, Lily. When did you ever see Faust catch me for real? Maybe once, twice… And that's only because he needed something from me! Nothing can stop this Clawthorne!" Eda excelled, pointing two thumbs at her, but immediately stopped when she saw Lilith starting to talk seriously again.

"Besides…” Lilith spoke in a hunched voice, “It was also your dream to be accepted into the coven, wasn't it? And now, because of me, it will never happen. You were ready to give up your dream, while I was ready to fight you, sister. I was ready for much more than that… You don't understand, Edalyn? You shouldn't be with me. It's not fair to you."

"Well…" Eda hugged her knees. "My dream was to be accepted into the coven with you. I knew it was always your dream, and I was afraid that if it really happened, it would separate us. My main dream was to stay with you, so that we would be together. Of course, being accepted into the biggest coven in the boiling isles sounds amazing, but it's not worth it if I'm not there with you. So I realized that if we can't be together, it's better to give it... To you, you understand?" 

Slowly, the rain began to weaken. 

"You were ready for much more to be accepted into your dream coven, I get that, and it's clear that if you had to fight me, you'd have done that too. You're just like that, you'll do anything to achieve your goals, no matter the cost. I'm not mad at you for trying to fight me. That's what they wanted, and like the Lilith that you are, you do what you're told. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be with you or that it's unfair to me. I'll always be here to bring some sense to your head, understand?" Eda didn't realize how deep she got in, but apparently these things had to come out sometime. She doesn't understand what nonsense Lilith has put into her head since the exams, but at least Eda is here with her to help her get out of it.  

Lilith remained quiet for a moment, feeling sick with the thoughts she had.

Eda wanted to be accepted into a coven with Lilith.

She didn't care about the coven.

She just wanted to be with Lilith.

And Lilith destroyed it.

"Deadwardian era, Edalyn." Lilith corrected her, referring to the most unimportant thing that was said and trying to ignore her sister's confession. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of this era. A lot of great things happened in it that still affect us today, especially in terms of architecture, but not only. You see, in this era..." Lilith began to tell all kinds of random facts she read about the theDeadwardian era, starting from the way they began to design staircases there to the accepted form of houses at that time. All the while, she thought about what her sister had said, about how there were maybe good things from that time. Lilith didn't think like her, because she knew a lot about that era, both good and bad things, so for her, there couldn't be anything more she didn't know.

Her sister is the one who doesn't know. And there are things she will never know either.

Lilith bit her lip as she realized she was talking too much. Although Eda listened to her, she was still determined that nothing would separate them, and she did not realize that the thing that separates them had already happened - and of all people, it happened because of Lilith.

But somewhere Eda surely knows that it's too late for them, doesn't she? That their paths have already parted, and now all is lost.

Eda said it herself, she said that 'nothing will stop this Clawthorn' on herself, the same way she once said about both of them. It means she understands that they are no longer going to be together... Right?

She must understand that.

She can't possibly not know.

"You're right, Edalyn. I was willing to fight you to be accepted to the coven. I was willing to do anything to achieve this dream. And that's what I did, and that's exactly why you can't be with me anymore. I don't deserve you. If that was your dream, you wouldn't do what I did." Lilith got up from the ground and began to move slowly further into the car. "We'll work together to get the number down to zero, but don't expect things to stay like this even outside the train. I... I'm sor..." she hesitated for a moment before stiffening, "serving the coven, after all. And with everything I've done, I can't keep hanging out with you like nothing."

Lilith turned her back to Eda and continued to walk slowly along the sour candy path.

Unfortunately or not, Eda's attention problems kind of made it difficult for her to listen to Lilith's rumbles at the time. Yes. Even after Lilith corrected her, Eda didn't care enough to remember the correction. "Tell me, how strong was the hit you got when we fell here into the train?" Eda finally asked, after throwing a sour candy ball at Lilith, like it was some kind of snowball. "Because the logic in your head has gone missing." 

After getting her sister's attention back from the shot she threw, she added to the question and giggled. "Want us to go to the trash to look for it like a trash slug? Because your huge lack of logic here could lead us into bad situations." And she continued with it, not realizing how strong meaning there is to what she just said.

"This is it? Just because you agreed to fight me, you decide for me that I should be angry with you, and then you distance yourself from me? Lily, what's going on? You're the smartest person I know, but it feels like someone got into your brain and burned all your judgment out of it." Eda insisted on understanding what Lilith was going through, and narrowed the gap of the walk to reach Lilith.

Lilith huffed angrily. Of course, Eda won't listen to her. Of course, she will insist and continue her annoying way, throw things at her to get her attention, and then disregard everything she said just because she is so convinced that what doesn't make sense to her doesn't make sense to everyone else.

"I'm not unreasonable," she said harshly.

If anything, just the opposite. Lilith was always looking for logic and did not tolerate random things that lacked foundation or explanation.

She needed logic as much as she needed the exact ingredients for making a potion.

Even the whole curse thing made sense to her. She knew why she did it, she knew there was a logical reason for it, even if a stupid one in retrospect. If she could, she would change it, of course. The logical act she did had more logical solutions, and she knew that now, but that didn't mean what she did didn't make sense either.

"If anything, your logic is the one that was lost the moment you decided that bringing me to the train would be wise. Or to the human world. Or in general, the moment you decided to keep coming and harassing me, even though you saw that I was angry. I have logic. There's a reason why I'm angry." she said in anger. "I don't want to be mad at you, Edalyn, I really don't. But I am mad. And you would be mad too if you knew what really happened in..." She took a deep breath before continuing, changing the subject, "I think we should go to bed. Tomorrow we will try to plan how to get to the cundoctor, because we don't seem to be able to  lower the number ourselves.”

Eda ignored it. "Lily, my logic is always lost." She responded, throwing a lump of sour candy into her mouth. "Okay, no, I'm kidding. My logic can work... Sometimes. And deciding to bring you on the train/human world was one of my most logical decisions. Like, what's so irrational about me wanting to hang out with my sister, huh?" As she spoke, she continued to play with candies, making herself sour fangs and a sour tongue. "I got it." In the most unrelated moment, Eda decided to show Lilith a funny face before she swallowed the candies.

She chose to ignore what Lilith said about how she would be mad at her if she knew that... something. Well, okay, it's really intriguing when you put it that way. But Eda responded differently. 

"But what were you angry about? And how was I supposed to know you were angry? What? For interrupting you to prepare... for... huh." She cut herself off before finishing the sentence. "Okay, but you can't say that wanting to spend time with your sister is unreasonable." She finally insisted, referring to the last thing her sister had said. "But fine, Chips will lead us to the conductor, maybe we'll find some shortcuts to pass countless cars in a short time, and... yes. Who knows?" Eda concluded, shrugging and continuing to follow Lilith.

"Hmph," Lilith huffed and continued to walk in silence. She didn't know what else to say, since she didn't want to continue this conversation with her sister. It wouldn't get them anywhere, and to be honest, she also preferred that Eda didn't follow her, but she didn't want to hurt her again by discarding her.

"I think I'll try to sleep here." Lilith stopped and pointed to a pile of soft sour candies formed by the rain.

She carefully lay down on the pile, which was, frankly, a bit sticky, and tried to collect her hair so that it would get as little dirty as possible from the slippery, wet candies. 'It would have been easier if I had the cape from the school uniform on...' she thought to herself sadly.

"Um… you can sleep wherever you want…" Lilith muttered to Eda. She felt a little bad that she wasn't trying to find a place for her to sleep, but hey, she'd be fine. She always manages. Maybe this thing will finally prove to Eda that she should keep her distance from her sister. 

Lilith was exhausted, after two whole days on the train without really sleeping, she assumed that she would be able to fall asleep quickly and sleep deeply throughout the night (if it was night at all, it was hard to tell and follow the changing time from car to car), but that's not what happened.

She had a hard time falling asleep, lying on a pile of gummies and not in her cozy bed, staring at the ceiling of the car, away from the boiling islands. It didn't feel like a vacation, and despite the adventurous atmosphere on the train and everything she'd already been through with Eda, it still felt like a punishment to her.

It's okay, she thought to herself. Tomorrow we will find a way to get to the conductor. Tomorrow we'll be able to get our numbers to zero. Tomorrow we might already be home.

She didn't believe it, but tried to convince herself that it was possible. 'Think about the future, think about how good you will do in the coven. You'll be able to return home in time, and you'll still get far. You'll get far and it won't be all for nothing.'

The sacrifice she made, the selfish sacrifice she made - it will not be in vain.

She didn't remember falling asleep.

In her dream, Lilith was in a place that changed everything, where her thoughts always wander to.

The doorway of Eda's room, in front of her bed.

She stood there, clutching the curse card tightly in her hands as the black cloak covered her. All through that evening, she had a lot of time to think and reflect on her plan and how moral and right it was. 

She thought about that as she walked away from her sister after a coven guard informed them that there was only one place available. A storm of emotions and thoughts overwhelmed her, and she couldn't concentrate on anything. She knew she had to do everything to be accepted into the coven, since this was her biggest dream. She wanted it more than to be a historian, and even more than to be closer to her family, who never really paid attention to her or understood her anyway. If she can find a way to weaken Eda for one day, the battle will only become fair. It will not guarantee her victory, so it's not cheating, it'll only make things even, and that's exactly what she needs. She thought of it as she hung in her room that day, refusing to talk to her sister and trying to find a solution to her problem. She can talk about it with Eda, but Eda will not understand. It's a dream of Eda as well, to be in the coven, even if not at the same level of importance. And besides, when have Eda ever really listened to her and done what she asked for? No, talking to Eda won’t help. She should find a solution alone, and the solution will be to disrupt her sister's magic for the day of the duel without anyone knowing. 

She thought about this as she walked to the night market after the sun had set, taking determined steps and trying to shake off the fear that gripped her. She was never in the night market before, but she knew she had to do it. It is now or never, it's now or never, and every second she delays might mean it'll be too late for her. In the night market, there are all kinds of things that can weaken one's strength. In the night market, she will find the solution to her problem. 

She thought about this as she stared intently at a curse scroll she found in one of the stalls. The curse promised to disrupt the magic of whoever it was cast on, which was exactly what she needed. She chose one with a painting of an owl on it, because it was like Eda’s palisman, Owlbert. There was something slightly twisted about it, like she was choosing a birthday present for her sister, something she knew she would love, and not a curse that would hurt her in the end, even if only for one day. But... It's worth it, isn't it? It will be temporary, and it will give Lilith a chance. 

She stood in the doorway in front of Eda, and thought about it again. Eda, her little sister, her beloved sister, who all her life was only worried about her older sister, was now sleeping peacefully and with a sweet smile on her face, knowing nothing of the agonizing dilemma Lilith went through. 

She doesn't have to do that. This is a mistake. She should turn around and go, forget all this, and let what's supposed to happen happen. What if Eda suddenly wakes up? What if her parents find out? They will never forgive her. She can go to sleep and forget about all this. Lilith trained a lot, she's smart, she's strong, she can succeed even without this curse… Right?

but.

but.

What if she isn't? 

What if Eda wins, and then their mother never pays attention to Lilith ever again? She will win, and Lilith won't even be able to spend her time with Eda, because Eda will be in the coven, and Lilith will be left all alone to live a mediocre life.

No. It will not happen.

Lilith walked over to her sleeping sister and came to remove the curse from the scroll, when suddenly she heard her sister waking up.

"Huh, what are you doing here, Lilith? It's a little creepy of you to watch me sleep, isn't it?" she giggled.

"I..." Lilith was about to cry. She will not be able to carry out her plan; she will fail tomorrow, and everyone will be watching. She's lost, she's finished, that's the end of it all.

Eda must have noticed her distress. She rose in her bed and motioned for her sister to sit next to her. Obedient Lilith carefully sat down on Eda's bed, hurrying to hide the scroll.

"You're worried about the tests tomorrow, huh?" Eda said compassionately, "Me too. But not because of me, I'm worried about you."

"I-I…" Lilith stammered again. She didn't know what to say.

"It's okay, Lily. You'll win tomorrow, I promise." Eda hugged her, "And you don't have to hide from me. I know what you planned to do. I know you, I understand you. I know what you planned to do if I didn't wake up, but I still love you. And I forgive you."

I forgive you.

With these words, Lilith woke up, her head throbbing in pain and a feeling of suffocation gripping her.

It wasn't real, obviously it wasn't real. Oh, Titan, why couldn't this be real?

Why couldn't Eda wake up and stop her?

Why did Lilith have to be so selfish and carry out that plan?

Eda will never, ever forgive her.

Lilith flinched and tried to suppress the sobs that threatened to break out of her. What is she crying about anyway? It's her fault, she has no right to cry about it.

The strange weather in the trailer made it difficult for her to know how long she had slept, so she didn't know if she should go back to sleep or not.

and this dream was one of her nicer nightmares. Who knows what else she'll dream about if she falls asleep again - that she misses the deadline to join the coven? That Eda attacks her with justified anger after finding out about the curse? That her family completely abandons her and reveals to her how disappointed they have always been in her?

No, she probably won't dream about all this, after all, dreams are supposed to be imaginations, not real things.

Lilith knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep, so instead she stared at the ceiling of the car, both hands clutching desperately at the collar of her train uniform as she tried not to think about the duel against her sister and everything that happened after.

Maybe Eda is right.

Maybe the train is a good opportunity to fix things. Even if it's temporary, it still counts doesn't it?

Maybe they'll be able to create enough good memories together that it’ll help cover all the years to come when they'll have to separate.

Chapter Text

When Lilith went to sleep, Eda followed.

She looked up at the sky of the car, and then at the floor at Lilith, who had already settled down and was sleeping. It helped her realize how tired she was. It's only a matter of time before the owl beast decides to break out of her again... It's very random and weird, and that's the most annoying part, that Eda can't control it. It's still considered new to her, quite very new, she doesn't know how to deal with it.

"Hey Chips," Eda whispered to her, as she laid down next to Lilith, unable to fall asleep. She noticed how much Chips was still shaking, so she took a piece of sour candy and covered the shaking little pretzel, assuming it was from the cold. "In the pretzels car - that is, in your home car, do you also have brothers or sisters? Do you fight sometimes? Do you have some tips for sibling fights?" She whispered to her, hoping Lilith was already in deep sleep and wouldn't hear her.

"O-oh, um... ummm, t-this... It's more complicated than that..." Chips mumbled, laying down next to her as well. Finally on the ground for a bit. She took a deep breath, leaving her trauma aside, and covered herself a little more with the candy. "The thing with us in the car is that there is a war between all the tribes. Each tribe is a different shape of pretzel, and everyone fights to see whos the best. It's not exactly like how it is with you, that you have a structured family, but it's more... Well, in tribes." She explained. "I'm not in any of them, since I hate choosing only one shape, given my ability. That's why I... I want to go to the conductor and try to solve it. That's why I..." She hiccupped, changing her shape into a hoop pretzel. "I change myself into a different pretzel shape every time, to try to fit in with everyone. I don't want this division..." Chips didn't notice, but started crying tears of coarse salt. She's only been with these sisters for two days, and she's already experienced the trauma of Lilith's hair, and now she's unraveling her life story...

Eda.

was.

Shocked.

"Wow..." She looked at her palm, the one that had the number on it, but... also on her forearm where she should have a coven symbol once she'll graduate. She then turned her gaze back to Lilith and back to Chips. "It's just like covens…" she mumbled, then giggled. "You and I have a lot in common, you know, Chips?" Eda smiled at her.

"What... What do you mean?" The pretzel raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Well, you're having a hard time choosing which of your tribes to be in, because that's how they tell you, you have to choose only one, and well... That's kind of my situation too, you know? At school, and later in adult life as well, the Emperor ordered to learn only one type of magic, and forbidden to learn other types, since it would 'enrage the Titan' and all that...” She sighed, making quotation marks with her hands as she emphasized the disdain for the whole bit about Belos bragging about the Titan being angry and the Titan this and the Titan that… Who cares what the Titan is thinking? What gives him the right to decide what type of magic she'll use for the rest of her life?

"I wanted to be in the Emperor's Coven together with Lily, but then I quickly realized that covens are not my thing. I don't want to choose just one type of magic, I want them all! Maybe even to be the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles! Why doesn't Lily understand that ...?" She continued to explain, sighing at the last part. "At least some of us woke up to these problems…" She giggled a little, which quickly turned into a sigh.

"Don't worry, Chips. We'll get to the conductor very soon and help you find... the... solution... to..." As Eda tried to cheer Chips, her eyes began to close as she fell asleep.

In Eda's dream, Eda was again asleep in her bed, the same night she was cursed. She hears the door to her room open, in which appears a mysterious figure that Eda doesn't recognize. She tries to get close to the figure but doesn't succeed. Tries to find out their identity, and…

Eda wakes up a moment before discovering the identity of her curse-r.

Seconds later, by complete coincidence, Lilith woke up as well.

"Hey," Eda came behind Lilith. "You can't sleep either, huh?" she asked, sitting next to Lilith. "You don't understand, I keep dreaming over and over again about the day I was cursed, trying to figure out who the damn curser is, but every time I come to find out, I wake up anew. Ugh, it's getting annoying..."

To that, Lilith couldn't hide her crying anymore, and tears began to flow from her eyes freely.  Just like her, Eda also dreams of the night she was cursed, only she has a valid reason to dream about it. Her life became a nightmare after that, and it's all Lilith's fault, who still dares to dream and cry about it as if it wasn't what she chose to do.

The last thing she wanted was to start crying and break down next to Eda, and even more so about something like that!

Lilith covered her mouth with her hands, desperately trying to stifle the sobs, and turned her back on her sister. "It- it's okay- everything- is- okay..." she tried to say, but the words came out slurred. 'Mighty Titan, please, just once make Eda not ask anything...' she thought to herself in frustration.

But of course she did.

"...So what did you dream about that woke you…" Eda hugged her knees, looking at Lilith, "...U-up?"

Eda was trying to understand if she was still in a dream, or if this was the actual reality, because... When has she ever seen her older sister... Cry???

Wow. Of all the times Lilith helped Eda as a big sister who takes care of her little sister, Eda can't remember when they ever came to a situation where Lilith broke down next to Eda. "Lily?" She tried to get closer, but Lilith turned her back on her. 

As much as the Titan would like to help Lilith in moments like this, Eda can't just let it slip by.  "What did you dream about? Was the nightmare that bad?"  She tried to ask, to understand, and... somehow not to go into too personal details. Well, this is her sister, what other personal things can they keep from each other? 

"N-no" Lilith could barely say through short breaths. She tried to wipe out the tears, but they just kept pouring out. "It's o-okay, I- I’m- o-okay-" She murmured. 

Pathetic, she thought to herself, What are you even crying about? Eda is the one who gets to cry! It's your fault! Eda should not try to comfort her. She would not have done it if she knew the reason, but Lilith would never say the reason. 

Still, she couldn't control the crying or the tears this time, though she really tried to repress them. Why did she have to break down now, here, all alone next to her sister?

"Lily, that whiner from the bard track who only writes depressing songs looks finer than you," Eda said sarcastically.

"I heard that the Illusions track has a trick where you can enter someone's dream, but it's too complicated a spell and I haven't been observing enough classes to really know it…" she muttered to herself, then immediately turned back to Lilith. "Come on, Lily. Maybe you'll let me try to help you once? Or else there will be a flood of your tears here. What happened?" She came closer to Lilith, trying to put a hand on her shoulder, but it felt as if Lilith had surrounded herself with walls.

Lilith's tears only kept pouring, as if her body was doing it on purpose. Eda wanted to help Lilith so badly, but it did exactly the opposite. 'Why does she care about me? After what I did?' Lilith didn't understand it. If it were the opposite, would she try to find out what happened to Eda if she cried? Probably not, right? Because Lilith, unlike Eda, wasn't thoughtful and noble. She is the lesser Clawthorne, and it's known to everyone. No one else would do what she did to the family. She felt Eda trying to approach her, trying to reach the root of the problem. It couldn't happen, Lilith can't let her secret be exposed. Not here, not now, not ever. 

Lilith needed something to shelter her, something that would prevent Eda from approaching her, something to keep her - and her secret - far away from the threat Eda presented. 

"Stay away from me!" Lilith shouted, shaking, creating a protective shield around her. Her eyes opened in alarm when she understood what she had done and what disaster was expected to happen now. She did magic outside The Boiling Isles, she did magic when she wasn't allowed. She's not fit to be in the coven if she failed this test that the train had set for her. Lilith dropped back on the soury ground of the car, lacking the energy to resist everything that was now going outside of her control. Instead, she let out her cries, too tired to fight it. At least now she's protected within the orange protective bubble.

Eda was starting to get annoyed by that. Lilith is keeping something that she deeply doesn't want to share, and Eda was fine with that - her sister was allowed to have privacy - but whatever it was she was keeping, it was hurting Lilith. It's not good to bottle things up, Eda knows that well. That's how her curse takes over her. When Eda tries to resist the curse, while being stressed or angry, it only continue to grow, until the owl beast just breaks out.

So Eda decided she must help her sister with that.

"Okay, Lily, if you don't tell me now what goes on you-" She began, then Lilith casted the magic magic shield. "Lily, what the heck?!" She protested. After all the things she said against it, Lilith had finally used her magic on the train, and it comfort Eda, although she saw how it affects Lilith. At least now she'll see that the Titan wouldn't do anything if she use a spell where he doesn't even have access to. 

But, Eda wasn't happy with that, because that magic was against her . "Alright," Eda frowned and turn her back to Lilith. "Close yourself off in your shell, whatever. I don't need to insist helping you when you so clearly think you don't need it. I'll go search for the door, you… you should sleep more, you need that."

And with that, Eda walked away, kicking tiny sour gummies on her way.

Chips, who heard everything, didn't like what was happening. She really wanted to help, and she thought that maybe if she talked to Lilith, she might hear her out. Well, it was at least worth a try, wasn't it?

“H-hey” she mumbled, flying closer to the shield in hopes that Lilith could hear her. “Umm… So… I see you’re going through something, and… Maybe if it’s too hard for you to share this with your sister, you could share with me and I could… Help you?” she offered nervously. Lilith was scary when she was angry. And Chips already knew it was better to stay away from her at those times.

But now it seemed rather important to try and help. “Whatever it is, it seems to keep standing between you and your sister, and, I mean, you too need to get along with each other if you want to get your exits from the train. So… Maybe if you tell me, I could help you with that? It’s harder to deal with things on your own.”

Lilith didn’t appreciate her attempt.

'What's wrong with this train, why’s no one here willing to give me peace?' she thought to herself, frowning. Even when she crosses a line, breaks the rules and cast a spell around herself, even then they try to approach her?

Why does Eda have to be so pushy? Really, she shouldn't insist on helping her, because Lilith doesn't want that help. She doesn't need it, especially not from Eda.

And Chips... Eda must have sent her as a spy. But if Lilith wanted to tell them, she would, wouldn't she?

Nothing will force the truth out of her. Eda will be the last to know.

"Leave me be already!" She hissed angrily, ignoring Chips presence. She knew the floating pretzel was watching her, which made it a little harder for her to cry freely, and she could basically feel her sour expression. “I didn't do anything to you, why are you angry with me too?" She asked in the same way a child protests: "Hey, why did he get it and I didn't?"

"Hey, Chips! What are you doing? Can you help me? We better leave her alone for a bit!" Eda called Chips from afar, looking for the car’s exit.

Chips, however, didn't listen to Eda and stayed with Lilith. This was probably not the best choice since Lilith clearly needed some time alone, but Chips wanted to show Lilith that she cares about her, too, regardless of Eda or anything. "I’ll come soon!" She called back and stayed with Lilith. "If you need your time alone, just say so. But this thing you're hiding inside of you will probably only grow and find its way out in a bigger explosion than that. Like, look at me! My difficulty of choosing which pretzel tribe I want to be in my car resulted in me turning into a mutation of a pretzel that changes itself into all the forms that exist." She finished the sentence, sighing. Chips spoke... more mature, and serious, than ever before.

"So if you want to talk, I promise you that if it's so important to you, I won't tell Eda anything. After this train, we'll be… poof! We won't see each other again. So just pour out what you've been bottling to someone who won't tell it because I'm the number one champion of secret keeping. Try me. Champion of secrets!" She made her mouth look like it was locked and closed, and she floated in front of her cheerfully.

"Enough."  Lilith said harshly.

Chips was nice, but does she really think Lilith is just going to reveal her secrets to some random pretzel on a weird train that Lilith shouldn't even be on? Chips doesn't know anything about them, not where they're from, not the fact that they're witches, and not the whole curse thing... probably… And she didn't need to know that either, because even if they won't meet after they find their exit, Lilith didn't want to say her secret out loud, nor reveal anything of what she felt.

And besides, opening up to people means getting attached, and Lilith didn't want to do that. Such relationships will not advance her or lead anywhere and are only likely to end too quickly to be worth it.

Chips got the hint and let Lilith be alone.  "Okay, sorry for trying to help… I… I won't bother you anymore."  She muttered and flew back to Eda, who continued to look for the exit door from the trailer.

'The girl is more solid than a flat pretzel, the most solid pretzel,' Chips thought, 'or maybe a stick pretzel because it doesn't have a hole..?' 

It was clear to her that the girl is going through a lot and refuses to get help.

"Hey, Chips. Good to have you back." Eda casually said, concentrating on solving the mystery of the car's door location, taking a piece from the floor and sticking it in her mouth, like some cowboy who holds a branch in his mouth for an unknown reason but still looks cool.

Lilith closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing. 4 seconds to inhale, 2 seconds to hold, and 6 seconds to exhale.

She repeated the action several times, repeatedly wiping the tears from her eyes until she felt she had managed to relax a bit.  Although her throat was still strangled, her head was pounding, and she was shaking a little, but it doesn't matter as long as she can stand on her feet again and move forward. Waiting and waiting is never good, and every second she doesn't spend looking for a way out is a complete waste of time.

With a sour face, she removed the spell around her. She didn't know what to think about the fact that she cast a real spell on this train, which, according to the laws of the Isles, was quite... forbidden. On the one hand, it wasn't her fault since the spell was created from her emotion, and this is a known thing that happens sometimes. But on the other hand, it was her fault that she couldn't control her emotions, wasn't it?

Either way, Lilith decided that the Titan probably knew she needed that shield, and so that spell was fine. If anything, she mostly regretted canceling it because she knew that now she would have to deal with Chips and her sister without a shield to separate them, but at least she wasn't crying anymore. 

'Tears are such a silly thing,' she thought to herself sourly as she tried to locate the exit door of the car, joining Eda's search but keeping her distance.

"Doors are usually red, aren't they? Because I found this path of those red sour candies, do you think that's a sign?"  Eda quietly asked the floating pretzel beside her. "Usually Lily would help me with logical things like this, but let's leave her alone for now." She examined the red trail. "...Okay, let's go this route. Red probably means it leads to a door. Nothing to lose with this logic." Eda decided and started walking on the red trail, failing to notice that a few meters near it, there was a path of yellow-greenish, sour candy, like the signs of "true" or "false".  

And red usually means... False…

 So…

 Oops.

A few more meters of walking and Eda realized it herself, that it may not lead her to what she was looking for.

"Huh... Eda?" Chips began to understand as well, but as Eda turned to look at Chips behind her, a huge wave of red candies had formed and was coming to swallow her. "B.. B-behind you!" Chips could barely get a word out, and Eda didn't understand her. "What's behind me?" Eda managed to ask, still having her back to the wave, right before the sour-candy wave swallowed her.

"Edalyn?!" Lilith shouted, confused. It was hard to miss the huge wave of sours, so even Lilith, who was a bit distant, noticed. 

She didn't quite understand what had just happened.  

Her sister created a wave of sour candies? Or is it the nonsense of the train?

Both options made sense, although Lilith assumed the first was more correct. And if so, Eda will be out of there soon, won't she?

Well, just to be safe, she needs to make sure that she's right and not just jumping to conclusions...

"Umm, Chips, what did Edalyn just do?" She asked the floating pretzel, wondering what Chips was thinking they are based on all those spells Eda was casting...

"Ah! Eda!" Chips exclaimed in a panic, getting stressed that something might happen to her, since the ground literally swallowed her. "Huh! Lilith! Lilith! Lilith Lilith Lili–" She came to call Lilith for help, but it seemed Lilith preceded her.  "E-E-Eda just wanted to look for the exit door, and she started walking down this red path and... Suddenly, whoosh! The ground swallowed her!" Chips explained in fear.

"What? What do you mean?" Lilith asked urgently. She assumed it was all Eda's doing, that she just created a spell that got out of control or something. This has happened too many times in the past that it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that this is the case here as well. "Are you sure that's not something Eda did?"  Lilith asked in confusion.

"Something that Eda did? Why would you think Eda did the… Oh."  At first, Chips didn't understand how Lilith could think Eda would be able to make the earth swallow her, but then remembered that these girls aren't human like, um, most passengers, and can do magic like she's seen a few times already. Lilith had indeed warned Eda many times not to use it. But it's not like Chips hasn't seen far more ridiculous things than this in other cars, so it didn't bother her.

"Um, no, no, this time it's not something Eda did. She turned to me because I called her and she didn't notice it, and BOOM! She got swallowed."

"Oh,"  Lilith said, not sure what she was supposed to do. It's been a few minutes since Eda was swallowed, and if she hasn't come back yet, that means she's in trouble, right?

But… If Lilith goes in after her, like she did when they got into the train, she might also get stuck there, right? Then it won't benefit either of them. She... She could use magic to get Eda out, but it's magic, and they're on the train, and it's not allowed.

'Nothing happened when you used magic earlier.'  She reminded herself, still not entirely convinced. That spell was out of her control, which is completely different than consciously casting a spell. She's not like Eda, she doesn't want to break the rules and piss off the Titan or the Emperor or anyone, really.  She still felt bad about everything she had already done; she didn't want to add to it using magic when forbidden.

 ...

 She doesn't really have a choice, does she?

 "This better not be another prank of yours, Edalyn..." Lilith muttered to herself angrily, gesturing a circle in the air with a trembling finger.

 The spell hit the acid wave, and Lilith hoped it was enough for that wave to spit Eda out.

Meanwhile, inside the wave, there was all darkness. Eda was unable to see anything, except for one specific figure approaching her. The area looked familiar, so dark, as she ran into the unknown, running away...

Running away from the owl beast that is chasing her. This probably only shows one thing -

Eda is unconscious, and when Eda is not on the surface, the owl beast is celebrating.

Lilith, for the time being, was hesitantly busy trying to fight this sour wave, and it sort of helped, because it opened a hole big enough for the owl beast to get out through.

Not even a second later, the owl beast flew into the sky of the car, unleashed. You could say she was flying a little too high, but it was for the best... or was it?

The good news is that she found the car's door, but the bad news… Eda had no control over this situation, so she didn't know.

From the air, you could clearly see that the combination of the red candies, with the yellow-greenish ones, formed the shape of the exit door.

The beast was running in circles, or rather flying in circles, restlessly. Finally, after a few minutes, the monster weakened, and Eda came back to herself, still unconscious.

Great timing, to turn back when still in the air, about to fall hard on the ground.

Lilith watched it all in horror. It wasn't Eda. It was the curse. The owl beast. Lilith already knew what this creature was capable of. She saw it tearing her sheets, breaking her glasses, and of course ... Wounding their father... She was afraid to know what the creature could do here, when there was nothing to stop it. 

Seemed like the owl beast enjoyed the lack of restrictions in the car, its open and empty space, because it didn't even come close to Lilith or Chips, which was a relief. Maybe that's all that this beast ever wanted or needed, because unlike the other times that the curse had been taken over Eda, this time it didn't take long before she changed back. The only problem was that it happened while Owl Beast/Eda was high in the air, so now Lilith was watching her sister in horror, as she quickly dropped from the sky. 

A good sister would've probably been quick to cast a spell that would soften the crash or slow the fall. Lilith wasn't like that, so instead she hurried to where Eda was about to land, knowing that she wouldn't make it in time, but she could at least help her get up and make sure she was all right.

When Eda crushed hard on the floor, she realized it wasn't exactly the floor, but rather... She landed right onto the sour candies that marked the door. It made a white light as she was swallowed into it. When Lilith gets there herself, she will understand why. She would realize that Eda landed right in the middle of the yellow parts of the door, which pulled her out of the car.  

It took her a few moments to recover and regain consciousness. She coughed out some feathers, realizing that she had turned into the owl beast. "What, again? Really…?" she sighed and brushed some feathers from her hand. She soon realized that she was no longer in the car. "Hey, Lily! You did it! You got us out of the..." She got up, turned around, only to realize that her sister wasn't with her. "...car?"  

It was very strange to her. Did Lilith move forward without her? Where's Chips? Both moved on without her and left her there?  

"Lily? Chips? Anyone?" She walked on the bridge between the cars, looking around.

She came back to the door of the car she had just left and tried to look through it. Yes! She saw Chips' back running and flying towards the door, which was quite strange to see from a lower perspective. "Lily! Chips! Come here!"  She tried to call them, but it was pointless because they weren't able to hear her.

All Lilith could do was wonder if she blinked and in this time Eda somehow managed to cast a teleportation or disappearance spell, because in a fraction, she was no longer there. 

She didn't leave the car without her ... Right? No, it can't be. It's Eda, after all. She's always insisting that they remain together, even if it's a mistake. She must be here somewhere, right?

Lilith stopped for a moment to look forward to the point where Eda was supposed to crash, confused. Maybe she disappeared into it? Like what happened with the entrance to the train? Like what happened with the sour candy wave? How many times can Eda pull the same trick and force Lilith to follow her? Does she not understand that their relationship can never be repaired, and soon Lilith would no longer be able to follow her even if she'd want to? 

Lilith knew she once again had no choice but to follow Eda. That's how things always have been, and even if everything would soon change when Lilith goes to the coven, here on the train, she has no choice but to stay with her sister, no matter what. She can't just go home alone. 

Therefore, she slowly walked toward the point of Eda's disappearance, slightly afraid of what was going to happen. The fear was right, because as soon as she stepped on that place she felt herself being pulled into the unknown. 'Maybe it's another sour candy wave?' She thought to herself, a second before she discovered that she was on a cross-bridge between cars and understood that the disappearance point was actually the door. 

She rose slowly, rubbing her arm that was slightly bruised from the land, before she scanned her surroundings, looking for her sister. 

"Edalyn!" She called with relief when she saw her standing next to her. "Are you all right?"

Chapter Text

From her place, outside the car, Eda noticed Lilith approaching her direction, and a moment later, she reached the exit! Eda was quick to move aside - otherwise, Lilith would crash onto her.

"Lily! Are you okay?" She called out happily, and at the same time, Lilith asked the same question.

 "Me?" Eda was confused, "Ma'am, a few moments ago you cried, and you're asking if I'm okay?" She quipped back, pulling the last few feathers out of her hair. "But great, at least you're here, we got out of the car together, and we can continue to the next car straight towards the conductor."

"I wasn't-" Lilith was annoyed that Eda was still bringing up the whole crying thing, but decided it was best to leave it be. "It was nothing. I'm not the one who turned into the owl beast again and then crashed through the door. But nothing happened to you, right?"

"Ah yeah, that part." Eda, who had already turned towards the next car, stopped herself and turned back to Lilith. "I'm not... I'm fine, I'm fine. It's over, I'm back to myself, I'm not a disgusting monster anymore... So it's all good."  

Maybe she hid it well by complaining all the time, but the truth was that Eda didn't tolerate the curse, and didn't get used to it enough. Somehow, out of all of them, Lilith is the one she feels most open to talking about the curse with, but now that the beast took over her, for the first time since they got on the train, it made her uncertain. Here and there she had feathers sprouting out of her, and she hid them by complaining that they annoyed her  - but the thought that she had just turned into this repulsive monster... She didn't want to be a monster; she never knew what she did when the beast took over her. In previous times, only bad things happened, like… with her father. She doesn't even want to remember it.  Who knows if she did any damage now?

She noticed Lilith was rubbing her arm in pain. "You... weren't hurt, were you? I... I mean the Owl Beast didn't hurt you or Chips, right?"  

This is the part that Eda despised the most about the curse - the fact that she can easily hurt her loved ones without control.  

"What? Of course not!" Lilith was surprised by the question. She was so absorbed in her perspective on the whole curse thing that she forgot how Eda felt. Just as Lilith was afraid of what the Owl Beast would do, so was Eda, and for her it's much harder because she feels that she is to blame for this, since she doesn't know that Lilith is the one who cursed her.

And she will never know that either. That's what Lilith decided a long time ago, and nothing would change it.

At least Eda agrees not to talk about it, which is already progress considering how much she tried to talk about things before. 

What are the chances that the next car will be nice and won't force them to talk about anything?

All Lilith hoped for was to get to the conductor already, or at least to be in a nice car, where no one screams at you or forces you to talk about feelings.

 Lilith turned the red door until it opened, and she entered the car in confusion...

 Empty.

 It was empty.

Chapter Text

A white landscape was seen before the sisters and the pretzel, like an endless field of clouds. 

Lilith's curious side wanted to start inspecting what, if anything, was behind all that cloudy whiteness. 

"Um..." Chips stammered, unsure what's with this car, and definitely not enjoying this strange tension between the sisters. She thought she was joining something fun and adventurous. After all, these were among her reasons for leaving her home car! Instead, she's... Here. 

Still, she felt connected to them. Especially to Eda, but not only, because like Lilith, she also knew what it was like when something weighs on you and no one seems to understand it. 

"I'm so tired of this train," Lilith muttered, angry. "It's like there aren't any... uh- humans here! Is it so hard to take care of some basic needs like food? How about some sandwiches for the passengers?" 

As if by magic, a small triangular sandwich popped out of thin air into Lilith's hands, who feared that it was indeed magic. She looked at it in confusion, then looked around at Chips and her sister, unsure if they were responsible for this. "You haven't cast a spell now, have you?" She whispered to Eda, but before her sister could respond, their surroundings changed a little.

Now, instead of standing in an empty cloud area, the trio looked ahead at the Hexide's… Cafeteria.

'What's going on here?' Lilith thought to herself in panic as she watched a memory she was trying to repress. 

A younger Lilith appeared before them, standing in line with some snails in her hand to buy a sandwich, one identical to the sandwich she was holding in her hand at this moment on the train. 

Memory-Lilith moved towards the seller, but before she could do anything, a student from the Beast Keeping track snatched the money from her hand. Lilith never bothered to remember his full name, but this was neither the first nor the second time he had bullied her. This student made it his goal to hurt her every chance he could, and Lilith never even fought back. It's not like he hurt her physically... How terrible is it really to steal work or take your money... Right? 

No, it wasn't the first time, but it was the last, because to Lilith's dismay, it was the first time that Eda was present in the room while that student was bullying her.  And of course Eda couldn't let that happen, because Eda always liked to push her nose into others' business and help even when she wasn't asked to. Just like at all those Grudgeby games or that Grom event, Eda never let go of things, even if Lilith was okay with them. 

Lilith knew it wasn't fair to complain about it - Eda cares about her, and that's why she does it.  And yet... Sometimes, Lilith wished her sister would let her deal with things her own way.  Even if this way is to give up to bullies.

Lilith watched Eda from the memory confidently raise an army of living abominations that, instead of attacking the student or making him return the money, they began throwing sandwiches and fruit at everyone around them, starting the most brutal food war in Hexide's history. 

Lilith watched with a frown as the memory continued to exist, and in her younger form, yelling at her sister that she shouldn't be doing an abomination spell at all, since that's not her track, and that's exactly why they don't mix magic. 

It was a painful reminder for Lilith on the train that even before the whole curse thing, she was prone to such arguments with her sister, while Eda was only trying to protect her. 

Lilith remembered how the event ended. She, Eda, and the bully student had to join forces, since they were the only ones who weren't seriously injured due to their position next to the abominations. She had to work in cooperation with that annoying student and her sister, who she was just as angry with at that moment, to defeat the abominations before they'd destroy the whole school. And of course, all three got into trouble eventually. So true, Headmaster Faust let Lilith go with just a warning, while Eda got another entry on her student file, but still. This whole situation could have been avoided if Eda had only listened to her. 

Somehow, Lilith couldn't help but smile at the memory. She doesn't give enough credit to her sister's wisdom and resourcefulness, which, while often leading to trouble, are still quite impressive. Lilith stared at the sandwich in her hands for a few moments before muttering to her sister, "I don't think I ever thanked you for that day… It was… Nice."

"Huh, yes. Yes, it was," Eda replied with amusement. She wasn't expecting a flashback-giving car, but who knows, maybe watching some old memories would lighten the mood between the two? In any case, a HUGE stone fell from Eda's heart when she heard the owl beast didn't hurt anyone in the previous car, which gave some room for fun and relaxation. "You don't have to thank me, sis. I know you would do the same for me!" She patted Lilith on the shoulder. Lilith didn't answer that. What's to say, she wouldn't have done the same thing since she wasn't even defending herself? That, if anything, is there a better chance she would have done it differently? She wanted to be as good as Eda, but it wasn't in her nature. At least she could try to be nice, because even if after they got out of this train, their relationship was likely to grow distant, it didn't have to be like that right now. That's what Eda said, right?

"Edalyn Clawthorne wouldn't even come to this situation," Lilith chuckled, smiling softly at her sister. She tried to cut the sandwich to give Eda some, but the sandwich refused to be cut. "Weird," Lilith thought to herself, but assumed it was the train's trick. "Maybe we can ask for another sandwich later, for us all to eat," Lilith said before she started to nibble on the sandwich. It seemed that the train really wanted Lilith to be the one to use what was given to her, the sandwich, and no one else. "Hmm, not bad." She said, almost relishing. It had been too long since she had eaten anything normal, and not sweets, so this sandwich was just what she needed. She finished the last piece, shaking her hands of imaginary crumbs, when the look in her eyes suddenly changed. She looked around in slight confusion, "Huh, this is a strange new car." She said, "I don't remember coming here." 

Chips happily flew through the air, "I wonder what's behind this cloudy whiteness, probably nothing important, it's so much fun here!"

How typical of this train. getting the two sisters back together and having fun, then having it all gone, just like the memory.

Eda looked at the car in confusion. "Yes, it definitely is a strange car..." she agreed with Lilith. The car was simply empty. A huge empty white space. "...and cool!" She continued, starting to run and dash around in the huge empty space. "Woohoo!!" she exclaimed with delight, returning to Chips and Lilith. "Okay, watch this:" She took a deep breath and started screaming. "FAUST IS AN ASS OF A PRINCIPAL!!" She screamed across the space. That amused her very much. "THE EMPEROR GOT A PEANUT HEAD WITH HORNS!!" She continued and started to burst out laughing. "Wow, this is hilarious. You've got to try too, Lily." She wiped a tear of laughter from her eye, and that was the moment when all of her energy ended.

"Whoa, I... I have to sit down for a minute. I wish there was a chair in here..." She muttered as panting, coming to sit on the floor, but instead sat down on... What is this? A scorpion chair? A chair shaped like a scorpion? It's strange... And yet familiar. Where does Eda remember it from?

Suddenly, the girls found themselves in Principal Faust's office in Hexside. "What the—" Eda called out in shock. At the principal's desk stood, of course, Faust. On the desk were piles of Eda's crime files, and in front of him sat memory-Eda.

"... Because to fight evil, you must understand evil," Faust explained, starting to ramble on about all sorts of nonsense explaining how much of a corrupt mind Eda has and yada yada yada... Until he mentioned Lilith. "You're close with your sister, Lilith, I see." Faust said, holding one of the files.

Eda remembered that moment, but now Lilith sees it too. Faust talked about how impressive it is that they were planning to get into the Emperor's Coven together, but still, he just kept showing how much he hated Eda and wanted to make her life miserable. "... Too bad you'll be unable to when I EXPELL YOU."

Memory-Eda was shocked; she didn't care if she was expelled from school, but only that it wouldn't affect her chances of being accepted into the coven with Lilith. "Y-you can't do that! I'll be separated from Lily!" Memory-Eda protested. "Please, Principal Faust, I-I'll do anything!" She was begging; there was no way she was going to let anything ruin her and Lilith's dream.

At this point, the memory faded and ended, leaving them all back in the empty white car. Eda was shocked. What had she asked for, really? A chair? And the train just decided to show this memory? She looked at Lilith, rather embarrassed, and continued to explain. "After that, that was when Faust forced me to come to the seminar-conference-competition... Whatever it was. This 'Heck' of Terra, the head witch of the Plant Coven. Where I first met Raine." For some reason, she was quite embarrassed talking about it. "I explained it to them there too, that... you're kind of the only friend I've ever had, and I don't want us to be separated. Right, I have Raine now, but it still won't be the same without you... It, it sucks that it actually happened in the end..." She sighed, sniffled, and wiped away a few tears. She turned her chair so that her back was to Lilith, trying to hide the tears. Now, after more than six months since this memory's time, when they know that only Lilith got accepted to the Emperor's Coven and that they will finally be separated... it didn't make it any easier to know that in the end, this is definitely what happened. Ugh, why did this annoying car suddenly decide to show this? What gives?

"Ugh, stupid chair!" Eda cried in anger and frustration. "Stupid car! Of all things, you decided to show this?" She hadn't gotten up from the chair yet, but was raging inside it, wanting to kick it in the face, causing the chair to tip over, when Eda's still in the seat, but it is upside down, and Eda sees Lilith upside down, swallowing saliva in fear. There was no way of hiding this; she was afraid of her sister's reaction. It probably wouldn't be good, and now that she was in front of her eyes, Eda still refused to get off the chair.

Lilith stared at her sister worriedly. She didn't understand what had just happened. The car had just brought Eda a chair? Brought her what she asked for and then... Presented this strange memory? Is it because Eda had insulted the principal and the Emperor? Is it some kind of punishment? And this memory of Eda's... Lilith had no idea that Principal Faust had threatened to expel her sister from school, and that her sister was even willing to do anything to stay with Lilith and not ruin their chances of being accepted into the coven, or... their relationship. 'And both of those things were ruined because of me.' Lilith suddenly understood. That's why Eda was so afraid of her sister's reaction. Lilith supposed she thought it was her fault, because she didn't know...

"Hey," Lilith leaned next to her sister, looking down at her but closer, "It's okay. You don't have to go crazy about it, it's just a memory. It's..." She didn't really know what to say. Right, this is just a memory, but it's something that Eda must have tried to forget and something she herself didn't know. How could she tell her it was okay, when they both knew things would be different after they get out of the train? "It's just the way things are sometimes. That's life." Lilith finally said, trying to sound less harsh.

Eda stared at Lilith with an unhappy face for a few moments. How could she just accept the fact that they were being separated forever? Why did it seem so acceptable to her and so logical and okay? She took a swing and set the chair back up, climbing to the top of the scorpion's tail, which was folded upwards. "Well, if life leads to me being separated from my sister, then they haven't heard of Eda Clawthorne yet!" she declared. She knew that in some way what Lilith said had made sense, but it just... Sucked. Sucked that it was like this. Eda hasn't agreed to accept it yet. "I'll find a way for us to keep in contact, and meet while you're in the coven, and..." She continued, getting off the chair as she went. The moment both of her feet touched the cloudy floor, the chair disappeared, and her gaze changed. "Wow... are we in a dream or did we just land on a giant rotten candy?" She looked at the car in a huge daze, trying to pick up some clouds from the floor, but with great failure. "Okay, this is a disappointing piece of rotten candy."

“What's rotten candy?” Chips asked Eda, hovering cautiously towards the floor of the car. Lilith ignored them both and walked further down the car, moving forward towards an unknown destination. She didn't remember when they'd even arrived at this car or what they were doing there, but it seemed logical to her to keep walking. Anything was better than standing still, because then nothing would change. "Hmmm... this white space seems to go on infinite."

"Just like the train!" Chips chuckled, flying towards Lilith, who tilted her head in confusion before she realized. "...That's right! We're on this train here!" It was strange that she had forgotten about it, since she really wanted to get out of here and get home, and she frowned, trying to understand the purpose of the train. “There don’t seem to be any people here,” she decided, “and no life lessons to learn, or things to solve, or… I don’t know. I can’t make sense of this car!” Lilith got angry. She didn't like it when she didn't know things or couldn't understand them. "What do you think, Edalyn?" she turned to her sister.

Eda still tried to grab some of the cloudy floor so she could eat from it, but it was like trying to grab water in your hand! Only that this water turned into steam... "If we're on a train, isn't there some kind of customer service or something? I'm hungry." After she remembered that they were on a train, Eda stood up and held her rumbling stomach. "Should I start stealing? This empty space is too empty, and it doesn't look like there will ever be food in it." She complained, starting to follow Lilith, staring at the chips. "Hey," she giggled to herself, looking rather dazed. "You look like some kind of round, delicious thing..." she muttered to herself, drawing a circle in the air because she was trying to draw the shape of Chips, a bagel. And obviously, being the witch she is, a spell happened. Bamm! Eda unconsciously created a fireball that passed right between Lilith and Chips and continued into the unknown of the car. "Wow!" she exclaimed in surprise. "That's right! Spell! Magic!" she was starting to remember.

The vagueness of the car was definitely affecting them. At least now that Eda remembered being a witch, she allowed herself to summon a cardboard can of apple blood juice with a spell and continued walking towards Lilith. "Well, I don't really know." She finally answered Lilith. "We came from..." She tried to point out where they came from, but was completely lost. "... and we'll get out from...!" She didn't know. "Don't worry, Lily. We'll find a way out of the car, like we found in the other cars." Despite also being at a loss, Eda tried to hide it and remain optimistic about the matter.

"Oh... okay..." Lilith muttered to her sister. Normally, she would be angry if a fire spell passed her by like it had, but this thing mostly confused her because she couldn't think clearly about how a fire spell could even be created here.