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Lilith doesn’t have time to take on a student.
Being head of the Emperor’s Coven is not a small job. It’s the kind of career that requires you give up the frivolous things, like food and sleep. It’s the kind of job where you have to be perfect.
She can’t deny that that’s the way she likes it. Being head of the Emperor’s Coven keeps her busy enough that she can forget all the things that make her hate herself, even if she only did half those things in the first place for the sake of the coven. That’s just the price of excellence, she supposes.
Lilith is busy enough already. She has negative free time, all of which she spends trying to solve the problem of her sister. There is absolutely no way she could take the time out of her schedule to train a young witch, and even if she could she would never have enough time to train someone well and Lilith is a firm believer that if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing right.
All of those things are true, but then she meets Amity, and decides that she should probably ignore them all anyway.
Amity is the most promising young witch Lilith has ever seen, maybe even more so than Eda. Lilith didn’t think that was even possible. She works harder than everyone else and has all the right friends in all the right places. She’s the youngest daughter of the Blight family, all of that prestige and none of it tying her down. She’s mean and smart and perfect and is the first person aside from the Emperor Lilith simply can’t find flaw with.
She’s also desperate to do something great, to be something great. Her fervency reminds Lilith of her younger self, also her current self if she’s being honest, and it pulls at something in Lilith’s chest.
Within a week of someone mentioning this particularly promising Hexside student Lilith has decided that this one’s going to be hers.
~
From the second Amity bows to Lilith and assumes a casting stance, Lilith knows that she’s made the right choice.
Amity is fantastic. She hangs off of every word of advice and is ruthless in tearing apart her technique to integrate what Lilith suggests. She’s right on time for every lesson and always has poignant questions about reading far beyond anything Lilith sets her. Her pace doesn’t slow down either. If anything her eagerness increases as time goes on, never growing tired of improvement.
Lilith has been training the girl for two months when she sees Amity with her parents for the first time.
Lilith has, of course, met Mr. and Mrs. Blight before. They’re important people who hold significant political and social power in the Boiling Isles and the head of the Emperor's Coven has to know everyone with power in the Boiling Isles. Something about them has always rubbed her the wrong way though. She isn’t quite sure what; they’re hard working people who value power and excellence and all of those things make them just like her.
She understands when she sees them with Amity.
They ask to sit in on a lesson between her and Amity. It’s a very reasonable request so Lilith says ‘of course you can’ and only mentions it to Amity in passing. When she does, instead of nodding in understanding Amity stiffens, eyes going a little too wide.
“Did they not tell you?” Lilith asks, cautious.
“I’m sure I just wasn’t listening when they did.”
Amity never forgets anything that matters. Her memory’s near perfect and even if it wasn’t Lilith would be able to tell that she’s lying from the set of her jaw. The lesson ends with the both of them still a little on edge and Lilith tries to ignore why.
The next lesson comes and Amity’s parents are exactly how Lilith hoped they wouldn’t be. They greet Lilith politely and ignore their daughter, then move to pick seats that will just keep them just within Amity’s periphery.
It’s a lesson, and Lilith refuses for that time to be wasted with showing off, but she makes sure that they focus on the areas that make Amity look even more impressive than she already is. Making the girl look good isn’t a hard task considering the amount of work she puts in, but from the way Mr and Mrs Blight sit, expressions perfectly neutral for the whole lesson, Lilith understands that it’s important.
At the end of the lesson the Blights come down from their seats to talk to Lilith. They say all the right things using all the right words with a practised ease, which makes sense. Lilith knows they do this all the time. Lilith tries to say the things she should back to them while keeping her white-knuckled grip on her staff as hidden as she can.
Finally, after exchanging unnecessary pleasantries, they turn to Amity. She’s a stiff as Lilith’s ever seen her, braced for some sort of blow. Whether it’s physical or mental Lilith is yet to figure out. Instead, Mr. Blight gives the slightest inclination of his head and Amity relaxes into a posture that might be considered normal, the corners of her mouth ticking up the tiniest bit.
The family walk out together in silence.
I hate them. Lilith thinks. It’s an odd sensation. She thinks that the only person she’s hated before is Eda, and even that hatred has always been tempered by an intense mixture of love and guilt. This hatred isn’t softened by any of that, it’s just raw and protective and hard.
I hate them, she thinks, and goes back to work.
~
“Thank you” Amity says at the start of their next lesson.
Her smile is no more real than when she’s moving onto a new area of study or when she gets the spell she’s been practising just right. It’s far softer than those other smiles though, and Lilith thinks something about it may be significant.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, instead of any of that, “now get back to work. I want you ready to duel Rexus by the end of the month”
~
Lilith has been training Amity for almost a year the first time she wants something Lilith can’t understand.
So far all the things Lilith has seen her want have made sense. She wants to be better, faster, smarter. She wants to work with the best witches in the world and be counted, not just as one of them, but as the best of them. Lilith understands that, she’s always wanted all those things too. Amity wants to stay in her parents’ good graces because it might be the only way for her to survive. Lilith has to stay in the Emperor's good graces because that’s definitely the only way for her to survive.
Everything Amity’s ever wanted has made perfect sense to Lilith, so when the girl’s leaving with a grin on her face saying, “I’m going to the grudgby game with Luz”, it throws her.
To Amity’s credit, she realises the mistake as soon as she’s made it. She clamps both hands over her mouth a second too late and looks to Lilith, braced for some reprimand Lilith doesn’t know how to give.
It doesn’t help that the girl looks eerily like when she was waiting for her parents to pass judgement on her lessons with Lilith.
“Wouldn’t you prefer to go with your other friends?” Lilith says, because she has to ask, even if she doesn’t want to.
The question is a test and they both know it.
It’s an open secret that Amity’s friends are picked for the sake of power and social capital, a very sensible way of picking friends Lilith has always thought. Amity’s face may twist into annoyance ever time she mentions having to spend time with them but the connections she’s building for her future are well worth any irritation she might have to suffer now.
To be friends with the human is not a sensible choice. It’s a very, very, risky choice that has the potential to ruin everything that Amity’s worked so hard for.
“No,” Amity says shakily, “I’d rather go with Luz.”
The certainty in her voice is practically a death wish.
“I hope it’s worth it.” Lilith says.
Amity leaves, tension melting away as she turns her back to Lilith.
I have to fix this, Lilith thinks, and decides to do something drastic.
~
For their next lesson Lilith meets Amity outside the doors of the room they’ve claimed for her training, something that’s never happened before.
Amity’s face falls the second they see each other. She must think that something bad is going to happen because of last time. She really is lucky that Lilith likes her too much to let her suffer with Eda and her folk.
“The Emperor's in the training room.” Lilith says. From the way Amity chokes on nothing, it’s clearly not what she was expecting. “He’s going to be assessing you today, so make sure you do your best.” She leans in a little to emphasise her next words. “This is what everything has been leading up to.”
Normally it would be a bad idea to put a student under this much pressure but Amity’s better than most. Even if wreaks havoc on her mental health, the girl’s performance improves drastically when the stakes are high.
“Okay.” Amity says after a moment. “I’m ready.”
“Of course you are,” Lilith smiles, “how could you not be?”
Lilith knows she’s the only person to really understand how smart Amity is. How well deserved her arrogance is. Lilith may understand Amity better than anyone else on the Boiling Isles, so when they enter the room they bow to the Emperor together.
Then the show begins.
~
They pull all the same tricks as when the Blights sat in on one of Amity’s earlier lessons, but better this time. Amity is better this time. She knows she has to be more perfect than she’s ever been before so she is. The lesson lasts an hour and she never falters, just does everything asked of her and makes it look easy. All while wearing the mask of indifference she knows the Emperor prefers on those that serve him.
When they’re done Amity should be panting. She should be collapsed in a puddle on the floor, her heart in overdrive after the amount of magic she just used up. Instead, she stands up straight and bows low to the Emperor, awaiting her judgement.
He stands and walk down to them. Putting himself on their level.
Lilith worries for a moment, wondering if maybe Amity wasn’t ready yet, even if she just performed better than she’s sure half her colleagues in the coven would. The Emperor reaches out with his staff and raises Amity’s chin with its end.
“Flawless.” he says, and melts into the ground.
Once it’s clear that he’s gone Amity finally collapses. The shear willpower she’d been using to stay on her feet run out at long last. Lilith leans over, casting Amity’s face into shadow.
“You know I’m your boss now?” she says, smiling. Amity starts to giggle. It quickly turns into full belly laughter until she’s even more exhausted than she was already and Lilith is forced to help her stand up.
And if she’s grinning as she does so then, well, it’s not like anyone but Amity’s going to see it.
~
The moment Amity walks into the coven’s main hall, eyes hidden by the mask their coven wears, Lilith figures that the problem is solved. She ends up being wrong, of course, but it’s a nice thing to believe while it lasts.
Things certainly start off well. A lot of the coven member’s don’t like Amity, they’re the best of the best and it feels like some sort of cruel joke for a child to be placed at their level. Because of this they’re mean to Amity. What they don’t expect is for Amity to be coming straight from the depths of high school social politics and hence perfectly capable of being even meaner back. Some of the others are smarter. They can see that Amity isn’t the best of them yet, but they know that one day she will be. They see the way that even as a child she’s beating trained members of the coven, they see the way Lilith’s setting the girl up as her protege.
Amity is young and inexperienced but those things are more than outweighed by her power and intelligence and that’s enough for her to excel. She progresses even faster than when she first came under Lilith’s tutelage, mastering new spells at a rate that Lilith can see surprises even the other coven members.
Lilith never expected to be so proud of someone.
The dream comes to an end one day when Amity goes on a mission.
It was a fairly simple one, just apprehending a demon the Emperor had decided was causing the wrong kind of havoc. It all would have been fine if, as the group of coven members were escorting the demon to the palace, one of them hadn’t spotted Eda.
They fail to apprehend her, of course. Lilith doesn’t quite get the full details of the fight but she knows that it isn’t just ego talking when Eda calls herself the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles.
(Sometimes Lilith wonders what would happen if Eda were to duel the Emperor. She always comes to the conclusion that the Emperor would win, of course, it would be treason to think otherwise. But sometimes she wonders.)
Either way, that isn’t the bit that matters to her. What matters to her is the look on Amity’s face when she gets back from the mission. Lilith had picked her for this one specifically because she thought it may appeal to the girl’s newfound sense of morality. Now all of that has been ruined and Amity looks nothing like herself.
She looks fragile. One of the few things Lilith is confident Amity is not is fragile.
Lilith takes her aside once she had the chance, once no one will make too many comments about her playing favourites.
“The next mission will be better, don’t worry. It’s not all hunting for Eda.” Lilith says, aiming for reassuring.
Something in her tone must not reach it. Amity looks at her, more piercing than Lilith’s ever seen her.
“Are you sure about that?” Her eyes widen a little, surprised at her own daring. She doesn’t back down though. “Are you sure about any of that?”
“Be careful how you speak to your betters.” Lilith snaps, because while she knows how to be cutting and sharp and mean, she has no idea how to tell the little girl she’s been teaching magic that she’s wrong when she isn’t.
Amity walks away. Lilith tries not to worry about what she’s walking to.
~
Things get worse after that.
Dissent is being spread throughout the Boiling Isles. Lilith knows it must be Eda, with her power and her intelligence and her wildness. The things that the Emperor asks of his coven become more forceful, more aggressive. Lilith can tell that Amity hates it, even if the girl has her mask down well enough now that no one else knows. Lilith wants to tell her that she hates it too. She wants to tell Amity that this isn’t what things were meant to be like, she was meant to love this.
Instead, Amity has a brokenness in her eyes and Lilith tries not to think about where the girl sneaks off to when no one’s looking.
(She already knows. She knows that their missions have been going too badly for there not to be someone feeding their enemy information. She knows that Amity isn’t one of hers any more but maybe if she never says so she can pretend everything’s okay for just a little longer.)
~
Things come to a head a few months later when five of the coven’s more competent members drag in the human.
She’s fighting them. Kicking and screaming and casting like her life depends on it, because it does, but their holds on her are strong and she can’t get away. She’s brought in front of the Emperor to face his judgement because that’s what happens to the kind of people who consort with Eda.
The whole coven is there, the sentencing of the only human to reach the Boiling Isles being the event of the century. The room is hanging on the edge of the Emperor’s every word but Lilith can barely hear him. The only thing she can focus on is Amity.
Lilith knows she cares about the human. Lilith knows that Amity might care about the human more than her reputation, her future, everything she’s worked for. Lilith can deal with those things. What she’s scared of is that Amity cares about the human more than her own life. That’s what’s at stake here. If Amity says something, if she shows that she would circumvent the will of the Emperor, the will of the Titan, to keep this human safe and sound, it would be a death sentence.
Lilith honestly can’t think of anything worse.
From what Lilith can see of her she’s keeping her reactions under control so far. The only movement Lilith can see is a slight trembling, it’s lucky that the girl has had so much practice with keeping secrets over the past few months.
Lilith is almost entirely focussed on Amity until the air in the room shifts and the Emperor turns towards her.
“Kill the girl.” he says.
Lilith knows she should do it. It would keep her safe, it might even keep Amity safe. It’s obviously the correct course of action and to do anything else would be tantamount to suicide.
She would hate you, Lilith thinks, she would hate you forever.
She isn’t sure if she’s thinking about Amity or Eda. Maybe both.
The thought makes her hesitate a moment too long and the Emperor does something that makes the room turn hot. She’s sure he’s about to smite her, sure this is the moment he decides she’s no longer worth using despite a lifetime of faithful service. Then a voice breaks the moment.
“Forgive me, my lord, but I would be honoured to have the task of killing the human.” says Mrs. Blight.
Lilith has just enough of her wits about her to notice Amity go very still out of the corner of her eye.
“Very well.” says the Emperor, relaxing back into his throne.
The human struggles harder. Twisting and writhing against her restraints. She yells at them, telling them to stop. Telling them that Eda will destroy them if they do this to her. She’s right, of course, but the Emperor will destroy them if they don’t.
(Lilith thinks back to all those times she’d wondered if maybe, maybe, Eda could win in a duel against the Emperor. She thinks back to the conclusion she came to again and again because it was always too dangerous to think otherwise. She wonders if she might have come to a different conclusion if she allowed herself to. She wonders if she might have come to a different conclusion had she imagined herself at Eda’s side.)
Lilith runs the calculations in her mind, allowing herself to think the things she never had before just in case they were true. She thinks of herself and the human and Amity up against the coven, the element of surprise in their favour. Three desperate prodigies against a room full to the brim of the best witches in the Boiling Isles. A room containing the best witch in the Boiling Isles.
“Eda’s the best witch in the Boiling Isles!” the human yells, all anger and faith and love.
Decision made, Lilith summons a spike of ice that drives itself through Mrs. Blight’s heart.
She doesn’t have time to look at Amity, to see if the girl hates her now or something else, all she has time to do is start the fight. Mrs. Blight’s body hasn’t even hit the floor before Lilith is flinging her next spell, going for the huge moves she knows none of the witches in the room, bar one, would ever be able to pull off. She weaves magic more powerfully, more desperately, than she has in her whole life.
She thinks of how she’ll start to tire soon. Then Amity and her human are guarding her back, both of them casting better than any of the members of the coven they’re fighting, and suddenly Lilith doesn’t particularly care.
“No.” says the Emperor, before melting into the floor. He doesn’t resurface immediately and they’re in the heat of battle so Lilith classifies their deadliest opponent as a later problem.
A minute or so later she wraps Kikimora in vines, the thorns gouging into her skin, and the satisfaction of it makes her let her guard down the tiniest bit. She senses something coming towards her just as it’s too late to move and although she doesn’t want her last thought to be ‘did I make the right choice?’ there’s not a lot she can do about that.
Then, shockingly, Lilith doesn’t die.
Something cuts across her calf. Something sharp and pointy and that would definitely have gone straight though her chest if Amity hadn’t grasped it in a hand made of abomination and pulled it from its true course. Lilith's relief is quickly tempered by the knowledge that the redish glow of the magic marks it as the Emperor's.
For a moment, Lilith is certain that Amity’s about to die. She knows it in her bones like she knows that she’s the best of the Emperor’s Coven but the Emperor is far, far more powerful than her.
But then Eda comes in on a wave of fire and turns the tide of the fight.
She slices through the roof in a chariot of flames. A chariot that doesn’t stop until it’s made its way to the ground and straight through the Emperor before he can lift a finger against Amity. Turns out that he can’t do his melting into the floor trick when the floor is made of fire.
Eda looks at the room and nods in approval. She turns so that she and Lilith are back to back, Amity and Luz their mirrors next to them.
“Good to see you, sis” Eda says.
In the midst of a battlefield, her protege beside her and sister guarding her back, Lilith smiles.