Encounter: Witches of Sin

Encounter: Witch of Mirage

They say that Witches are the incarnation of evil, and that under no circumstances are we to interact with them. And yet, they freely let one roam around the palace as they please, as if it's their own home...

But frankly though, I, or any of the staff here for that matter, don't really mind at all. The Witch of Mirage, Lilith Nivanie, is a tame and docile Witch, despite what we've been taught. She has free roam of the entire palace save for the king's quarters and the restricted section of the library. She's also rather kind, and whenever one of us passes her, she's very polite and greets us. We also greet her, of course. She also has her own room and a servant attending to her. You'd expect a Witch like her to be acting more like a prisoner of war, but it's quite the opposite, as if she's a distinguished guest.

That said though, she's not allowed in the main halls whenever an event is on-going, and although all the servants in the palace knows about her, her existence is supposed to be kept a secret. Basically, she's living here somewhat as the king's secret illegitimate child.

Today, I happened upon her in the library while I was on duty there. She often goes to the library and reads books by a world-famous author from nearly a hundred years ago that went by "Nel". His books were, to say it in a single word, incredible. However, nearly half of his books have burned to the ground when his home did the same. It was an unfortunate event, and after that, Nel never published another book. In other words, the books that Ms. Lilith are reading right now are one of the few remaining copies of Nel's books.

“Good morning, Ms. Lilith.”

I called out to her, but she didn't reply. Well, I guess that's to be expected considering she's so focused in her reading. Though, I was rather interested in which of Nel's books she was reading, so I casually move towards her.

“Ms. Lilith?”

I called out to her when I got closer, but still no response. Now that I take a close look at her, I have to say that she's really beautiful. She looks so fragile, yet so strong. Her bright blue hair worn down, with her black dress, all of that paired with her posture while reading, it's like I'm seeing a goddess right in front of me.

I move a bit closer, but when I took the step, the world around me suddenly changed. The high shelves full of books, the table and chairs, and even Ms. Lilith disappeared, and what was in front of me was instead a burning house, with two children crying in front of it. I couldn't hear anything, but from their lip movement, I think they're saying "mama" or something along those lines.

“This is...”

This is the setting of one of Nel's books, a story about two kids losing their mother in a housefire. Still, this looks so realistic... Everything around me was a burning hell, yet nothing feels hot, the fire is raging, yet there's no sound. I tried to walk forward, but my foot hit something. I'm assuming it was the table from before. Which means, this is one of Ms. Lilith's illusions. I heard that Ms. Lilith can create powerful illusions, but I didn't think they could be so realistic. Shortly afterwards, I heard a loud clap as the world around me returned back to the library, and there I saw Ms. Lilith closing the book she was reading, and the moving on to pick up another book. I tried calling out to her again, but before I was able to, she opened the book and everything around us became a large, raging storm at sea. Of course, I know it's an illusion, but it just feels so real. I was standing on top of a stormy sea, but in reality I was simply standing on a marble floor.

I know this is an illusion made by Ms. Lilith, maybe to make her reading feel immersive. However, I don't recognise this setting. I've read all of Nel's books that were available in this library, but this setting doesn't belong to one of them. I'm also fairly certain that Ms. Lilith only picked up the Nel books, which means this has to be one of his books, but as I thought, I just can't figure out which one.