Chapter 52 - Eiselation

Lillia lashed out, striking behind her with Hooke toward the voice. The blade whistled through the air as it fell short of hitting Eisel, who was casually leaning against the wall on the far side of the room. He raised his eyebrows as he watched the blade fall short.
“That was an aggressive reaction, Your Highness,” Eisel said. He was dressed differently than the previous two times Lillia had seen him. A princely doublet had replaced the armor he formerly wore. It was primarily purple, with silver thread running through bands of embroidery. The clasps were undone almost all the way down the front of the doublet. Sculpted muscle poked through the deep neckline the open jacket created.
Lillia caught up with her swing, turning with it until her feet found the floor beneath her. She held her blade toward as if she were ready for battle. He looked as if he were ready to climb into bed.
“Are you planning to hold that sword up all day? Through the entire conversation?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Your arms are going to get tired. Might as well drop it now.”
Lillia reaffirmed her grip on the sword. She knew what had happened last time with the Bramble Slasher. She wasn’t about to let Eisel disarm her.
The corner of his lip twitched up into a slight smirk. “Alright, if you insist on holding it, then I won’t stop you. You’ve more than proven that you’re capable of making your own decisions.”
The thump of the battering ram against the gate below them rang through Lillia’s feet as if the castle itself had a heartbeat.
Eisel looked to his left, almost as if he were distracted by someone else speaking to him. Lillia took her chance. And she lunged forward, blade first. It skewered the shelf beside him, piercing a bag of flour.
Lillia couldn’t tell if he had moved.
He sighed.
“So quick to violence. The dungeon is changing you, you know. You didn’t try to stab me the first time.”
Lillia bristled at the comment, but couldn’t quite pull Hooke out of the wood behind the bag of flour. “I was naked. And afraid and—”
“And dead,” Eisel finished for her. He stepped away with the casual ease of someone who understood they weren’t in danger. “If you’ll recall, I was very helpful.”
“You got what you wanted.”
“Did I?” Eisel asked. “All I got was you keeping silent about that meeting, but if that’s gonna pay off, I would love to know when.”
Lillia pulled Hooke free. She stumbled backward from the momentum. If Eisel was trying to take advantage of her vulnerability, it would have been the perfect opportunity. Instead, he waited for Lillia to find her footing.
“You received a powerful magic item, and you just needed to not tell anyone about meeting me.”
“Because you wanted to stay a secret.”
“I told you, Lillia. I have to make some kind of deal. If I wanted anything from you at that moment, it certainly wasn’t your silence.”
Eisel raised his voice. Lillia flinched. She hoped he didn’t see it, but knew he had.
“Do you think I care if you told a hobgoblin or the Huntsmaster about me?” he asked. “Lillia, they don’t scare me. They’re tutorial people.”
It was the way he said it that spurred Lillia into action: the icy disdain with which he referred to Havoc and Thorne that made her swing out again. This time, Hooke cleaved through his face.
Clean. Perfect. He was nothing but air.
“That’s quite rude, Lillia. Luckily, I’m not there.”
Lillia turned away from the illusion, facing the other corners of the room with her blade at the ready. The battering ram continued under them.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
She wheeled back to the illusory Eisel. “Where are you?”
Eisel chuckled and tossed his long blonde hair. “Back in the room where you found me, Lillia. Where else would I be?”
“Then how are you here?”
“You’ve seen what Cathria can do, and you’re going to question how I can make an illusion appear?”
“Cathria is better than you.”
“At Magic? Almost certainly.”
“And as a person.”
Eisel laughed. This time it wasn’t a condescending chuckle for conversation’s sake. “You don’t know Cathria well enough,” Eisel said. “Go back to her tower. Learn a little more history. Then come back and talk to me about who’s better.”
Eisel got close to Lillia again. This time she didn’t swing.
“But I didn’t come all the way to this ratty room to talk about Cathria. I came to talk to you.”
“I think we’re done talking.”
“Really?”
Lillia shoved Hooke through Eisel’s form to restate her point.
“That’s very childish,” he said.
“It’s more polite than anything I have to say.”
Eisel walked through Lillia, which was violating in a wonderful and novel way. She patted herself down to ensure everything was in place before turning to see him approach the corpse of the guard.
“Well, if you have nothing to say to me, you might as well run along and continue with your plans.” Eisel waved a hand toward the slumped guard, and the body fell over.
He either had immaculate timing or some sort of power over this space.
“Your plan after getting Havoc’s equipment was…”
He left the space for Lillia to prompt him and chuckled when she didn’t. He finally inserted himself into the silence by snapping his fingers as if he’d just come up with the answer. “To die. That’s it. Your plan was to die.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“Your plan is to die again, and again, and again, and hope you stay hopeful long enough that you can figure out a solution to one room.” Eisel sat on the windowsill, clearly unworried about getting shot by the mage within the invading army.
“I get a little farther every time.”
“It’s a commendable effort, Lillia, but you aren’t supposed to be here. This is a space for adventurers, not princesses, but,”—he dragged out the word until it stretched too thin and broke—“like I said, you’ve impressed me. Even more than I thought you could.”
“What a lovely backhanded compliment.”
“Oh, I’m sure I have nothing on the court.” Eisel flashed his perfect smile.
Lillia, for obvious reasons, didn’t match.
“Come now, one little argument and now it’s all frowns with you.”
Lillia turned to the door. Eisel was there too.
“Your plan is to walk out there and die over and over and over, Lillia. You believe you’ll do that until you find a way out. I know you’ll do that until you accept I can help you.”
Lillia hesitated before she walked through Eisel. That was a change in tone. “That’s not what you said before.”
“I already told you, Your Highness, you impressed me. Now, I think this all turns out better if we just agree that you want my help.”
“I don’t want your help.”
“Maybe not yet, but you will. How about we skip to that part?”
Eisel took a step forward. Lillia stepped back to keep her distance. Behind her, she heard the second Eisel hopping off the windowsill. The two spoke in unison.
“How many times do you want to feel the glow of Wheat and Silk before you accept that this is beyond you, Lillia Ashvalin?”
Both Eisels took a step forward, which left Lillia no way to maintain her personal space.
“I can save you so much pain. I can save you from needing to give up after trying so hard. We can help each other.”
Another half step. Lillia held her ground.
“You’ve changed your tone since last time, Eisel. I see some dedicated self-reflection was good for you.”
He grinned. “See, that’s a line that belongs in the council. I just want to help you get back there.”
“Too late.”
“This is impossible, Lillia.”
The system text that Lillia was staring past to look at Eisel changed. She brought it back into focus.
[You are an INVADER: Quests Changed!]
“Look at me,” Eisel said. He waved his hand, and the text went out of focus.
What had that meant?
“The third floor is too much for one girl. Let me help you, and then you can help me. Why are you acting like I’m saying something unreasonable?”
“You showed me what you were about.”
Eisel almost growled. He almost hid it. After a deep breath, he ran his fingers through his long blond hair and closed his eyes. “You’re right. I went too far before. The prospect of working together excited me, and I got overeager trying to force your hand.”
Eisel sighed. It was the same way Lillia’s aunt had always played remorse after scolding her in front of the other nobles.
“Lillia, Your Highness, I’m trying to make amends here. I treated you like a dumb, scared little girl, and you are clearly a worthy, independent heir to the throne.”
A single bead of sweat ran down Lillia’s brow.
“Take that compliment for what it is. It’s more than what Havoc sees you as. There’s a reason he calls you kid.”
Lillia lashed out, slashing through the Eisel in front of her. Hooke bit into something within the illusion, but it was gone before the sword could finish cutting.
“God, you’re being so unreasonable,” Eisel said. It was just the illusion behind her now. The one that had been sitting in the window.
Lillia glared at him. He stared back, passive and neutral against her anger.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump-crack.
“Fine, how about I show you I’m serious about making this a partnership?”
Eisel reached down to the dead guard and drew the sword at the corpse’s side. It came free as dull, ordinary steel. Then Eisel ran his fingers along the blade, and the metal remembered another shape. Silver light bled through the iron. The edge narrowed. The fuller changed.
The broken tip of Vianaffir separated from the rest of the blade and clattered to the floor.
Lillia gasped.
Eisel left the other half of the blade on top of the guard’s corpse, then turned back to Lillia.
Thump.
Thump-crack.
Thump.
“Nothing freely given,” Eisel said. “Once again, I can offer a bargain. You can pick up Vianaffir here and now. All I ask in return is another conversation.”
Another conversation. Not a friendly one. Not an honest one. A bargain-shaped conversation, which meant he had left the sharpest parts unnamed.
“That’s all?”
Eisel shrugged. “I can hardly ask for less, Lillia. I hope you listen to reason if I give you more time to cool off.”
Lillia looked from Eisel to the broken pieces of Vianaffir. By the time she looked back up, he was gone.
Vianaffir’s silver blade was so bright it seemed to almost shine in the room. A beacon of hope in the cycle of death Lillia had slogged through over the past days.
She would not take his help. Lillia had dealt with enough people like Eisel. He’d shown his true colors, and now he would say anything to convince her it was all her fault.
He would try to convince her he needed her, that she needed him, that it would all be better if they ignored reality and just worked together.
That it would just be better if she forgot about her parents and played the good little girl at her aunt’s…
Lillia put Hooke back into her inventory.
The knight, Sir Nobody, had entrusted her with the blade. Lillia understood Eisel’s offer for what it was in that moment: a rose with poisoned thorns.
Another conversation was another chance for Eisel to get in. Don’t grab the poisoned rose.
Thump. Crack.
Thump. Crack.
Thump.
The floor gave out under Lillia as the gate below them collapsed inward. She closed her eyes. Removed all of her equipment. She fell.
In her last breath, Lillia lunged forward and wrapped her hand around Vianaffir’s pommel.
She was a princess, and she’d always liked pretty things. She’d learn to deal with the poison.