#stellamane

Lilia could feel everything that was happening; you didn't have to be a psychic to know that an actual celestial being had decided to get involved, or to feel the tension that was running through everyone. The trouble was that too many people felt that being a divination witch, or simply being clairvoyant, meant she had the answers, that she could prevent things, but if that were true, if it was that easy, she would have saved her original coven all those centuries ago.

Walking down the corridor, Lilia glimpsed him walking from the other direction, his body tight with repressed fury. She could See other things as well; heartbreak, grief, sorrow. And the imprint of someone who had just lashed out. Already Seeing what would happen, knowing the questions that would be asked, Lilia stopped mid-step, and turned around, heading in the opposite direction, determined to avoid him. If he hadn't seen her yet, she was fine. She would just leave until everything had settled down, until everyone had stopped asking her questions and wanting to know if--

"Argh!" Lilia yelped in fright as she walked right into him. Lucifer. Suddenly blocking her path when just moments ago he'd been several feet behind her. Swallowing a little, she forced a smile. "Hello...." she greeted nervously, her hand giving a half-hearted wave.

"Supposed to be?" Sabrina repeated back to him, giving him a look of daughterly exasperation as she did so. "You realise that's not actually a reason, right? It's the same as 'that's the way it's always been'. And, I'm sorry, but I'm never going to be on board with the idea of people being punished who don't deserve it." People like Jimmy, however? Oh yeah, they definitely deserved it.

"Snuffed out?" Sabrina winced, not entirely keen on the concept. Why couldn't their energy go into a new life, be reborn? Why did everything in have to be so...final? Wasn't there some nice, reincarnation option? Or, better yet, a test that someone could take to prove they didn't belong in Hell. "There's gotta be something better. You're telling me that in thousands and thousands of years none of you, not in Hell or Heaven, has ever thought that maybe the system is a little bit broken?"

And Heaven sounded just as bad as Hell. Judging people for what had happened to them, and rejecting them for their sexuality; how did that make them any different from Hell? They were all punishing people who didn't deserve it, not caring about which ones were actually bad people. It was awful, it was wrong, and it needed to change.

She was aware her father was trying to dig the infernal knife in with Lilith, trying to point her frustration and anger in that direction, but as many problems as she had had with the First Witch in the past, Sabrina couldn't deny that she'd also been helpful. And that she was generally more easily persuaded than her father. And, after all, she hadn't rejected the idea of a reformation of Hell when she'd been her regent...

"Sorry?" Sabrina realised she hadn't been listening, her mind consumed with other thoughts. She made herself quickly catch up "Yeah, it was a séance. The Weird Sisters and I, using my mother's wedding dress, why?"

It had been the one real time she'd ever gotten to speak to her mother, gotten to see her, to listen to her advice, and now her father was trying to taint that? Make it seem as if it had all be false, just some...what? Practical joke? A mean trick from the spirit world?

"She did got to Limbo, yeah, but she said that she could move on after..." Sabrina trailed off, frowning. "What do you mean someone would have used it for their own agenda? Pretending to be my Mom? Who would even do that? Who would even care that I wanted to talk to her about Harvey?" Why would it have even been a big deal? She wondered herself, unable to imagine it as important to anyone but a teenage girl. And who would known enough about Diana Spellman to pretend to be her? But then, Sabrina realised, she didn't really know her enough to challenge it.

"You'd do that? Bring my mom here, to Hell?"

In her long existence she had faced many challenges, and her life had hung in the balance more than once at the hands of some...self-important member of the celestial realm, fallen or otherwise. In all those times, she had never allowed herself to be defeated and she had never failed to...rise above whatever each God and angel had tried to impose upon her, and she had little to no intention of failing to rise now.

The worry for her son, however, was painfully distracting, and it was almost as if she felt his absence more keenly than even his presence, like a gaping hole that left an...inexplicable weight. And what was Lucifer doing with him? The Dark Lord was not exactly known for his softness, for a gentle touch...not for many millennia. Adam--Samael as he insisted on naming him-- might be born of something inexplicably powerful, but he was just a baby now, as painfully vulnerable as even a mortal one. If with a more...deliciously violent bite.

She had no doubt Lucifer intended to end her life, but he was not averse to changing his mind unpredictably, and as much as he liked to think himself beyond manipulation, she knew that wasn't true. He might be a fallen angel, but he was also a man, the False God had made all his pets that way-- to have some element, some representation of the very creatures they were supposed to watch over--and all men could be swayed no matter how much they might think themselves impervious.

As fear and worry beat in her heart, Lilith paced, forcing her mind to focus on plans and plots rather than any worrisome hypotheticals. If she could only convince Lucifer to pardon her a little longer, it might give her time to-- Sabrina. And if she failed, too self-absorbed to effect any real change, there was the girl's aunts. Under the protection of Hecate, Lilith didn't doubt the Spellman sisters would be all too willing to take and protect a child.

But then what of herself? Perhaps--

She stopped, mid-pace, and turned sharply as she heard the creak of the door. She heard Adam's fusses before she saw him. He was starting to stir, itching with discomfort. She instantly moved towards him, but then stopped mid-step, her eyes flickering guardedly to Lucifer, uncertain as to just why precisely he was here. He was capable of many things, but executing her while holding their son in his arms seemed beyond even his level of depravity.

Never taking her eyes off the pair of them, she forced herself to speak. "Yes?"

Leaves crunched beneath Bloom's boots as she made her way through the woods outside of Greendale. She had come way out there to clear her head a little and let her magic come out to play. The dragon flame didn't like being stifled and didn't always agree with her mother's lessons in control. It hadn't taken her long to realize she wasn't alone.

"Greatness must be earned."

Caliban took a deep breath through his nose, breathing in the heart and sulfur of the Inferno. The fires that blazed in front of him matched the one that currently raged deep inside of him. Was it in his soul? Could he even claim to have a soul?

No. Not anymore. Not after the loss of his beloved. She was his soul. His light. The one thing that had kept him leashed and tamed the flames inside of him. But now she was gone. They had taken her from him. Taken her from the being that stood beside him. They were allies in their grief and rage.

A dark wind blew from the caverns below and disrupted the leather of his demon hide vest. Allies yes, but how far that went the young prince did not know.

"And what did you have in mind to earn such greatness?" Caliban finally asked into the dark as The Dark Lord's words wrapped around his mind like the smoke that current enveloped them.

“I thought if I knocked you wouldn’t answer...”  Stepping out the shadows,  arms crossed over his chest,  Chuck wasn’t all that good at hiding that he was nervous.  Perhaps he didn’t think that he was in danger,  but he did think that his son should hate him for the rest of his life.  But when he’d sensed the child his heart had broken,  any decent father would have been there for his son.

He had to stay no matter the risks...

❝ You have no right! ❞ She stated, anger lacing her words. Even though she had signed her name in the book of the beast and had come to learn the true nature of their relationship she still did not agree with him interfering with her life— especially when he tried to tell her what to do. ❝ Last time I checked, I did not invite you in. ❞ She added with annoyance. It seemed to her that the more she tried and resist the callings of her so-called destiny the more she could not evade his presence in her life.