Lilia Calderu

Now she was standing by the tarot table, a paper map spread out and a crystal in hand. All she could think about was Lilia, the anxiousness rising with each second the crystal was circling above the map with no clear direction.

“ What does that mean? ” Mulder was standing right beside her, his forehead wrinkled in thought and curiosity of watching the process.

“ That she's probably further away or… in another dimension. ” Vivi finished her thought, trying to hold herself from spiraling further and imagining the darkest scenario. She wouldn't even speak it out loud, wouldn't dare to think that Lilia might be gone.

She'd go to hell and back just to find her sassy sicilian witch. 

Suddenly a breakthrough, the crystal tugged at her hand and fell in the corner of the map, in the middle of nowhere, a field. With a peak of hope Vivi locked on the point, memorizing the details… and sprinted out like a little gepard.

“ Vivi! ” Mulder called out, but all that heard his words were opened door and chiming bells. “ We could've just taken the car. ” He sighed, marking the spot on the map and picked it up, giving it to Scully where it's the safest. “ Let's go. ”

The girl didn't care about passing through people's premises, over fences or across roads. When she got to the field, Vivi chaotically searched it until her eyes caught a mud covered figure in the distance.

“ Lilia! ” She sprinted to her, falling to her knees by her side. Everything was covered in mud, not only the marvelous coat, but also Lilia's iconic curls. None of that mattered in that moment. “ No no no. ” Vivi wasn't sure if Lilia was breathing, but she checked the pulse on her neck and thought she could sense a faint beat.

“ If you die on me, I promise I'll go wherever you are and drag you back just so I can kill you myself. ”

"Hold on, Scully," Mulder warned her as they came to the field and, instead of stopping, he drove right through it, coming to a chaotic stop just short of where they saw Vivienne reaching a muddy form on the ground which, on first glimpse, looked like a dead body.

"Oh no," Scully whispered, but at the sound of Vivienne yelling for her, she grabbed her medical bag from the back seat and ran as fast as she could. "I'm here, I'm here," she promised as she got to her knees, immediately looking at Lilia and the state she was in. "Vivi, do you know what happened?"

Working fast, she turned the woman on her side and began checking her vitals, listening close for heartbeat and breathing. "There's a pulse, and she seems to be breathing steadily, but it's shallow." Not waiting to check if the woman was conscious enough to ask for consent, Scully worked fast at unbuttoning the mud-stained shirt and pushing it aside. It was then that she saw the wounds.

"She's been stabbed. Twice." They seemed to have come straight through the back and just barely piercing her stomach, though, thankfully, both seemed to have missed her vitals. "Luckily, all this mud helped staunch the bleeding." Scully frowned as she got out the things she needed from her bag, seeing the disturbed patch of grass beside them. "Did she climb out of a hole in the ground?"

"Or from somewhere else," Mulder added knowingly, thinking on what Vivienne had said while she was scrying.

Scully began cleaning the wound, which prompted Lilia to be shocked back into consciousness, coughing and spluttering with pain and dirt and blood, the bliss of temporary oblivion fading so fast the only thing stopping her from yelling out in pain was a lack of energy.

"What are you all doing?" she asked in instinctive protest, though her voice was much weaker than usual. Coughing again, Lilia attempted to turn over in order to sit up but Scully pushed her back down as she worked.

"Saving your life. Do you remember where you were, where this happened?" Her tone was the epitome of the professional medical doctor.

"The Road," Lilia managed, feeling exhausted, another cough of pain threatening in her throat as she lay on the ground.

"You were on a road?" Mulder asked.

Beck took a seat across from the older witch and drummed her fingers anxiously on the palm of the chair. How old was she? It was hard to tell with magical types. She'd once met a wizard with a long gray beard that reached all the way to his knees who hadn't even hit his thirtieth birthday. Magic could preserve life, but it could drain it too. At the end of the day, witches weren't trees; you couldn't tell how old a witch was from counting the wrinkles on their face. But there was something to be said for the look in a witch's eye, and the way she spoke. Lilia's confidence spoke to her experience.

"Your grandmother's future?" Lilia repeated. She couldn't say that was a common request, or one she'd ever had before for that matter. Generally, people just wanted to know about their own future. "Alright," she accepted simply with an incline of the head. It was the girl's session and she could ask whatever she wanted, but two futures meant two fees.

"$22," she told her. "I take card."

She placed her work cell on the table, the one set up to accept tap payments, and shifted a little in her seat as she waited, adjusting the celestial shawl around her shoulders in preparation.

"And which grandmother's future am I looking into? Elea or Alma?" Lilia asked, a knowing spark in her expression.

Sometimes it was just the scientific types. The white coats with their samples and devices. She doubted that SHIELD or SWORD or whoever was still around would leave them to their devices, given the scale of everything that had happened, though.

"Government organizations - you know, the ones with all the acronyms in their names like - " The single word murmured cut through her sentence like a sharp blade. It wasn't just the interruption, but the word itself. It didn't belong in this conversation, and she fumbled for her own words for a second as it awoke some memories she would rather not revisit.

"What was that?" Charlie looked at her, eyebrows raising as she tried to decide if her ears were playing tricks on her or if this eccentric woman had just happened to land on that word by coincidence.

"What was what?" Lilia asked, blinking at the other woman, unsure whether her own thoughts had distracted her or it was another gap. Although, since The Road those gaps had been less confusing, and she was able to navigate time a little better.

Lilia at the end of her centric episode:

Although the words were accusatory, his tone was anything but. His demeanour casual and his body language relaxed, as he once more offered her a small smile.

“Forgive me, but from my own personal experience, it would seem that most people are.”

Frauds. Liars. Fakes.

Everyone pretending to be something they’re not, while donning a mask of benevolence. Wolves in sheeps clothing. Friends with daggers hidden behind their backs waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

“The boy is stubborn and willful. I am beginning to think this is a familial trait. I do not need for you to tell me where he is. I am already aware. I am also of the mind that someone is putting thoughts and ideas in his head.

Not literally. The old fashioned way.”

It seemed important that he make that part very clear.

“Manipulating him with lies and stories. I thought perhaps that it might have been you. I am very glad that my suspicions turned out to be incorrect.”

The twenty dollar reading was all but forgotten, now that everything had been laid out on the proverbial table. The future be damned. He was much more concerned about the present.

"The boy's a teenager," Lilia pointed out emphatically. "What do you expect him to be? Calm and reasonable? It's been centuries since I was his age, but even I remember what it's like to feel that way, and trust me; no one can put ideas in his head that he isn't already thinking about."

Though Lilia suspected she knew who might be the one having the greatest influence over Teen's direction. Agatha might be a ghost now, but her presence was as heavily felt as ever...but the truth was she had the potential to be a good mentor; if only she could get over her own shadow instincts.

Lilia remembered the first time she had ever met Billy, before he became who he was now, before he had his powers, before he defied death itself, and the feeling she'd felt tugging at her heart when she'd Seen what lay in his future.

"When I first met him, I Saw what he would become, I Saw what was going to happen to him, and who would want to find him. I knew he'd need time to process what he was going through, so I hid him. From everyone," Lilia explained. "When I met him again, I didn't know him-- an effect of the spell. A sigil also works on the witch who casts it-- but what I saw was a kid trying to find his place, to learn things, who wants to believe the best of people. I wanted to protect that in him." She took a deep breath. "He's part of our coven. Small as it is."

A coven lost forever, warnings entirely useless against the fates, and then, survival, transformed from a blessing into a burden.

There are griefs that wear different faces yet speak the same language, and thunderer recognizes this one immediately. Beloved mother had carried the same burden; always seeing a hollow seat left at a table she could prevent from becoming so, expecting a long gone voice in a room, suffering the cruel knowledge that foresight and power alike can break upon inevitability.

Expression softens further, rugged features somehow turning even more gentle and solemn.

' I am truly sorry for your loss milady,' and there is no ceremony to it, no godly grandeur in the deep bass.

' To watch those you love walk toward a darkness you can see approach, and still be unable to stop them...' The exhale that follows is languid, gaze lowering for a moment to the lines of his hands as his fingers unfurl. Some wounds were not meant to heal perhaps, perhaps they were only meant to become a part of one's being.

And a nod in acknowledgement is offered after her comment, awareness he was asking for something far too grand already present before he had entered her domain.

' It is.... And I would think less of you if you pretended otherwise.'

Gaze rises to meet hers once more, steady and earnest eyes regarding the Seer as a faint smile emerges, small as the first glimmer of dawn beyond a mountain ridge. The ghost of what has the potential to become wide and beaming, under different circumstances.

' I am not asking for a vow, or a sacrifice. New Asgard has had enough of both. I am extending an invitation, because I believe you might find something there worth having. Community and purpose, perhaps even belonging.'

At last the hand is removed, thumb brushing absentmindedly over the line that represented life.

True, it had curated a lonely existence, she'd had fewer and fewer friends over the centuries because of it, but at least she was alive, and at least she could go to bed and have a sound sleep with a cat curled at her feet every night.

Now, she had a god sat at her table asking her to throw all that way and put herself right at the heart of something again.

"If you were asking for either of those things, you wouldn't be getting them," Lilia answered honestly through a snort of a laugh. Vows had never been her thing, and sacrifice; well, she'd had enough of that to last several lifetimes. Taking a pause, she looked at Thor, her brown eyes flickering over him with a perception that had nothing to do with her Sight and all to do with a natural gift for reading people.

She only wished she was as good at reading herself.

"Community," she repeated, mulling over the concept, wondering how much she truly missed that or how much she needed it. She was fine here, wasn't she? Sure, she couldn't always pay her bills, but she had freedom, and she did fine on her own. It certainly felt less complicated.

Hesitating, Lilia pursed her lips as her hand hovered over her nearby deck of cards. With a flash of forceful determination, she cut the deck with one hand and drew a card. The message of what she turned over was more confirmation than revelation, but she still felt her five hundred year old heart thud regardless.

"Okay," she eventually said, lifting her gaze as she placed the card back on the table face down. "A visit. But just a visit," she added pointedly.

But his upset was still there. Not quite anger, though the energy still thrummed under his skin. Bitter and eager and wanting, her words didn't do much to soothe. The riddled, needing to do something about it right freaking now desperation dissipated with her assurances, but nothing else did.

"It doesn't feel like I'm taking control," Billy said quietly. "It's like I found him and now I'm just waiting. Doing nothing, except messing up."

The woman was a ghost now, which meant information could travel a hell of a lot faster if she wanted it to. Enough to keep Billy updated when his brother was findable, and when he was reachable.

"Well, for one, our cities don't look like this." She gestured in the general direction of the Emerald City. "And generally we don't have posters advertising witches or wizards. A lot of the world doesn't believe we exist, which is a slight improvement on when they used to believe in us and would try to kill us," Lilia added emphatically, sounding more than a little irritated.

Even when it came to the mutant struggle there were those who preferred to stay hidden and others who liked to work from the shadows, behind the scenes.

“Someone has to man the front line.”

His gaze never left her, as he listened to her explanation, genuinely interested in the method. She must have chosen to go with the future because she already knew about his past. Or at the very least, the parts of it that were more or less public knowledge.

The generalizations she spouted were characteristic of seers and fortune tellers. Built on a foundation of what she had seen in the news or read in the papers. All freedom fighters were passionate. It was practically a requirement for revolution.

He had not expected her to be genuine. The way she immediately voiced the connection was much more of a pleasant surprise than any kind of shock.

The crooked smile grew a little wider as he held her gaze from across the table; his right hand still held within hers.

She was just surprised that the likes of the painfully infamous 'Magneto' would attempt to waste his time with a fortune teller he doubted could actually tell fortunes. Unless he'd already known her connection to Billy. Inwardly Lilia cursed herself for not Reading him fully the moment he had walked into her shop, and letting her ego enjoy the dance of their exchange instead.

"I read people, I read time, but I don't read minds." No, that was Teen's particular gift and one that was as unsettling as his ability to control minds. Though she knew he had been blinded by grief and anger, Lilia still couldn't quite shake the memory of that sensation, of her limbs moving against her will, of being nothing more than a puppet for someone else's whims.

To say she didn't care for it was an understatement.

"If you're here to discuss how to find him, then you've had a wasted journey. I am not going to share that boy's location if he doesn't want me to." She told him firmly, taking a deep steadying breath as she held the other's gaze. She was keenly aware of the kind of power he had, the things he was capable of, and she could See how his experiences, tragedy after tragedy, suffering cruelty after cruelty, had made him willing to break rules and bend morals for a larger goal. "Not even to his grandfather."

Vivi hadn't expected the woman to come nearer, to close this distance between them and grab her arms. Jumping in shock, all the lights in the shop turned on, flickered and shut down with a loud zap of an electric surge. The biggest lightbulb in the room broke, its pieces falling to the floor.

“ What was that?! Did you do it? ” Her eyes were wide and hands started shaking until she took a step back away from Lilia, overwhelmed by all the revelations. The fact that the woman knew her so well while Vivi had no idea who she was didn't help either. There was this unsettling feeling being watched by this older woman, Vivi couldn't describe it, she was sure she didn't like it.

“ It's not possible that someone took my memories. ” She replied, refusing to consider it. Vivi ran her hand through her hair again, stopping at the back of her head one more time. There was a swelling that hurt when she touched it.

For a moment, Lilia was uncertain of the cause of the surge of power within the shop, knowing that they both could have that effect when their powers acted beyond their own control or knowledge, but the hum of electricity in the air and the fact her own gifts were focused entirely on Vivienne's situation, Lilia had a strong suspicion she knew which of them was responsible.

Telling the girl she had exploded the light bulb with powers she didn't even remember she had, however, seemed like a bad idea when she already looked on the edge of being ready to bolt.

"Of course it's possible someone took your memories. You don't remember anything," Lilia pointed out frankly. "You don't know who you are, who I am, you recognise nothing here. Or have you also forgotten how amnesia works?" Though of course this wasn't the kind of amnesia caused by shock or trauma or even injury, but by something else. Squinting with suspicion at the way Vivienne touched the back of her head, Lilia resisted the urge to grab the girl again in order to take a better look herself.

"I know someone took them because that's what I do. I See things. 'Madame Calderu'," she quoted with a dramatic, wry delivery. "I create all this to make a living, but my gifts are real; I read people, and I read time. That's how we met," she explained. "And how you came to live here. We're both witches."