The cacophony of insects backed by a chorus of frogs and the distant cries of waterfowl grew louder and louder as Lilliana made her way through the thick blanket of fog. She could hardly see where she was going, but the loudness of life made her believe she was close. But close to what? What fantastical world lay ahead of her, she wondered. Lilliana imagined a beautiful kingdom not unlike her own, ruled by a handsome prince that would sweep her off her feet. He would be the perfect gentleman, giving her roses by the dozen, reading her poetry, and then take her horseback riding along the shore. Then, as suddenly as she had entered the fog, Lilliana stepped out of it, pulling her out of her daydream and into a world wholly not her own.

  Great gnarled trees dotted a sandy shoreline, reaching skyward like groping hands, their fingers covered with thick blankets of Spanish moss. Lilliana gasped in wonder as she crossed the bridge into this fantastic new world. Soon she found herself standing at the edge of the bridge, where stone met sand. The strange crow circled overhead, swooping down to land on a branch ahead of her. It croaked and cawed, daring her to step over the border. She had already gone so far, that intrusive voice uttered, it would be a shame if she turned back now, especially when there were wonders to behold. Lilliana didn’t know when she got so very brave, but the voice in her head wasn’t wrong, she decided. This was a whole new world, with new things and she wanted to see them all.

  Lilliana crossed the border with a hop and a grin. She couldn’t wait to tell Cassandra all about this, she would have an absolute fit – the Council too, though them she didn’t care about. Cassandra would be mad at first, but Lilly was sure she would come around to her way of thinking. It was just like a story, she would tell her, adventure to a new land to explore and experience new fantastical things with new fantastical people. As Lilliana made her way up the sandy beach to the twisted trees, she wondered what the people of this kingdom would be like. Would they be cubi like her, or would they be something else entirely? Maybe they would be human, or mer, or a race of giants. The possibilities were endless.

  Lilliana crept her way through the woods, ducking below low hanging branches and stepping over twists of brambles. It seemed this side of the bridge was about as well taken care of as her side. After a few minutes of trekking, she found herself at the edge of the woodlands. She stepped out, shielding her eyes from the sun high in the sky. Lilliana gasped at what she saw – a vast wetland stretching out far into the distance. Pools of still dark water spread out before her, surrounding islands connected by a series of wood bridges, all leading to a large black manor in the near distance. So, someone did live here, she thought with wonder. And with a house like that, it had to be a prince! It was nearly as big as the Caerwyn, and just as impressive, if a bit foreboding.

  The crow circled overhead again before flying down across the wetlands towards the manor house. Lilliana followed, calling out, “Wait! Don’t leave me!” She ran to catch up, crossing the first, second, and third bridge without much thought. But on the fourth bridge, she stopped to peer over the side. The water was as still as glass, creating a perfect mirror. Lilliana saw herself and huffed – she was looking disheveled. “That won’t do,” she said, combing her hair with her fingers. “If I’m to meet this prince, I best look my best!”

  “There’s no prince here,” a seemingly disembodied voice would inform, nearly causing her to tumble over the railing in shock. “At least, not formerly anyways.”

  Lilliana spun around on her heels and with eyes wide. No one was there. “What…?” Lilliana uttered under her breath, eyes darting side to side. First the intrusive thoughts and now she was hearing things. Was she going mad?

  “Down here, Madam,” announced the voice, which gave the air of studious elegance. Lilliana’s eyes dropped and what she saw there assured her that she was full on bonkers. It was a toad, a particularly fat one the size of a dinnerplate. It stared up at her with strange amber eyes that had a human sense of knowing in them. Lilliana backed up against the railing and stuttered out a confused laugh. “H-hello…?” she uttered, eyes locked on the frog before her, and sure enough it responded, saying, “Yes, greetings. I’m sorry, but we haven’t the time for pleasantries, as you are already late.”

  “Are… are you a dream?” Lilliana asked meekly, having heard that some dreams and nightmares could talk. Did other worlds even have dreams, she wondered, never taking her eyes off the toad. The toad narrowed its bulbous eyes and then croaked out, “No, I assure you, madam, I am very much, in fact, real.”

  Lilliana shuffled on her feet, turning away from it to stare up at the sky in disbelief. “That’s it, I hit my head when the bird flew out. I must have knocked myself senseless.”

  “I cannot speak for your senses, but I must reiterate, I am as real as you are,” the toad would say, offense in its voice. “And again, you are late.”

  “Late for what?” Lilliana asked, turning to face the communicative amphibian once more. “Who ARE you?”

  “I am Tōd, if pleasantries are a must,” Tōd answered, aggravation lacing its words. “Majordomo to the honorable Lord Kelthazan Revnik, the master of this Isle.”

  “A toad named toad?” Lilliana questioned. “Fitting, I guess?” As for this Lord Kelthazan Revnik, she had never heard the name, but it sounded very lordly to her. “What am I late for?” she asked again.

  “Tea of course!” Tōd answered as if it had been most obvious.

  “Tea? But it’s nearly nightfall…” Lilliana muttered.

  “Well, we have been waiting for you for quite some time now,” Tōd stated in explanation. “You do take your sweet time with things, don’t you? Now, enough of the chatter or it’ll be dark – and you don’t want to be in the Fen after dark. It’s a dangerous place… once the sun goes down.” Lilliana made to speak but the toad quickly cut her off, saying, “Follow the road to the manor, then take a left into the labyrinth. At the center is our Lord.” Before Lilliana could protest or ask any more questions the toad was simply gone in a blink – a large rock where it once sat.

  Lilliana prodded the rock with her foot inquisitively. It was most assuredly just a rock. Lilly would stare at it for a moment before shifting her eyes to the manor in the distance. She swallowed. Her mouth was dry. Tea was sounding better and better, despite the odd hour. Lilliana looked up at the sun and thought about what the toad had said about not wanting to be caught there after dark. It was four o’clock, maybe five, she thought. Plenty of time to have tea and go back home. Lilliana pressed on, excitement welling up within her. She had never met a lord before – the Dreamscape didn’t have any, but she heard about them in her storybooks. If the stories had the right of it, he’d be a handsome young man, noble and pure. All the lords in her stories were honorable men that protected the weak and helpless by fighting against evil witches or frightful dragons. She was sure this Lord Kelthazan Revnik would be a charm to meet. Lilliana hurried along across the bog, pep in her step.

  The manor house was impressive to see, an old thing of Victorian design that Lilliana had never seen before. Ebony boards grew out of a foundation of dark gray river-rocks, hidden behind thick tendrils of ivy that reached all the way to the roof. It was almost the opposite of the Caerwyn in every respect. Where her home was bright and inviting, the manor was dark and dour in its make. No small part of her was excited that their meeting was outdoors rather inside the imposing place. It reminded Lilliana a little too much of a haunted house from one of her stories. It was beautiful, but in a shuddersome sort of way.

  After a few more bridges, Lilliana reached the main island and the house. The road was paved there with the same dark stone that made up the gloomy house’s foundation. For a breath Lilliana stood in front of the house. Tall black doors loomed over her from atop a wrought iron stoop. Up close it was plain to see that the manor had seen better days. The windows were shuttered and boarded up, and what used to be a frontal garden was overgrown with weeds. It would seem the lord had fallen on hard times. Lilliana turned away, following the road leftmost of the manor, as the toad had advised. The labyrinth was a short walk from the house, growing up out of the far reaches of the ruined garden. The hedges were wild and unmanaged, with the entrance overgrown to the point of obscurity.

  “This way please,” announced the voice of the toad. “Before the tea gets cold.” Lilliana wasn’t really sure if she wanted to delve into the forest of shrubberies, even for a handsome man and a spot of tea. “Hurry now, before nightfall.”

  “Where are you…?” Lilly wondered out loud, looking all around her, the voice seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. He didn’t answer.

  Reluctantly Lilliana pressed onward into the labyrinth, parting the encroaching walls of shrubs with her hands. It was dark in the labyrinth with the overgrowth blocking out the evening sun. Luckily there was no way to get lost, Lilliana thought to herself as she began the journey to its center. Labyrinths differed from mazes having only a single path to the heart of them. It might turn this way and that, but if she just kept following the path she would end up at its center. At least, that’s how labyrinths were supposed to work. Lilliana walked for what felt like just about forever. Every turn she took looked like more of what came before, a long curving stretch of hedges that led on and on to more and more hedges. Lilliana was getting tired, tired and angry and done with the whole experience. The labyrinth was infinite! Some strange magical game to keep her there forever lost in that rundown circle of hedges. She had half a mind to turn back and leave, but that was when she heard it - a growl.

  Instantly the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. It was a deep bestial thing that radiated from the shadowed path behind her. Lilliana stared rearward, eyes wide, no mistake in her mind that whatever it was meant danger. “Hello?” She uttered softly. “Tōd?” There was no reply. Maybe the lord had a dog, she rationalized, a rather large dog. The growl rang out again, a dull chthonic drone that most definitely didn’t come from a dog, no matter how big it was. Lilliana stepped back, heart beginning to race in her chest. She looked up at the sky. When did it become so dark? The stars were out. It was nearly nightfall! Lilliana didn’t understand, there was no way she had been there that long. The dusking sun cast the world into a twilit haze, filling the labyrinth with reaching shadows.

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  Lilliana took a few more steps back as something peered around the bend. It was tall, nearly as tall as the hedges, with six bulging amber eyes. Thin lips parted in a sneer, exposing a mouth full of jagged yellow fangs. Lilliana didn’t wait for the rest of it to show before turning tail to run. Whatever it was, it roared behind her – a baleful bellow that froze her heart in her chest. Lilliana screamed, running as fast as she could down the winding path. She didn’t dare look back, not until she had to. A root caught her foot, sending her tumbling face first in the dirt. Lilly groaned and her head swam with the pain. She touched her face, finding a busted lip with her fingers. Blood trickled down her chin. Lilliana had never really bled before, and she could feel the panic rising up within her at the sight of it. A resounding roar pulled her back into the now and she looked back, sorely wishing she hadn’t.

  The creature was humanoid in form, but wholly inhuman in design. A tall stretch of leathery mottled flesh, it towered over her. Long arms reached the floor, clawed fingers digging trenches as it lumbered forward towards her. Lilliana screamed and kicked wildly as she forced herself back to her feet, the creature very nearly upon her. The looming thing reared up and brought low its claws, rending the earth where she had been but a heartbeat before. Lilliana ran and ran, using the leafy walls as a guide as she threw herself forward around the bend, that horrible thing so close behind her she could swear that she could feel its breath on the nape of her neck. But where was she running? To the center of the labyrinth where she’d be trapped? There was no apparent escape, and yet she ran as if it were just around the corner. The monster shrieked, feeling closer than it had ever been. This was it, Lilliana thought, she was about to die, and no one would ever know. She hadn’t told anyone about her escape. No one knew where she was. It would be the mystery of the ages, Queen-to-be disappeared on her coronation day, never to be seen again, eaten alive by some nightmarish thing. She shut her eyes, hoping mercifully that it’d be quick and painless.

  She could just feel it, the monsters claws wrapping around her, digging into her flesh like a hot knife through butter. She could smell its breath it was so close. It was sour like rot. But she could smell something else too – something sweet, familiar. The sweet smell blossomed around her, overpowering the acrid stench of impending doom. And then, Lilliana tripped over something hard, sending her tumbling over it, head over heels. Lilliana sobbed as she curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her head to protect her face. There would be no escape this time, the monster would get her for sure. But as she laid there, the brutal death she was sure was in store for her never came. She waited and waited, waiting for those sickle-like claws to tear her lavender flesh to ribbons. When the pain never came, she dared to open her eyes.

  Roses, that was the sweet smell that overwhelmed all else. Lilliana found herself surrounded by roses, large ruby red ones as beautiful as any she had ever seen before. She wiped the tears from her eyes and frantically looked around. The monster, as suddenly as it had appeared, was gone, nowhere to be seen. What she did see was the chair she had run into in her mad dash to escape. A man was righting it, resetting it at a small round table set for tea. He was human, it appeared, with long black hair and a chinstrap goatee. He was dressed as fine as any king: an embroidered black suit over a white silk shirt, with fanciful Cuban heels and black leather gloves. This must be the lord Tōd had told her awaited her at the center of the labyrinth. Lilliana’s first thoughts were that he didn’t know about the monster chasing her. “R-run, it’s right behind me!” She sputtered out. “There’s something in the labyrinth!”

  “And he’ll be there tomorrow,” the man said casually as he took his seat at the table. Lilliana struggled to her hands and knees, not understanding. “We need to go, before it comes back,” she warned, tears still streaming from her eyes. The man looked less than worried, in fact he looked bored. “What we need to do, love, is enjoy this fine blend before it gets cold,” he said, pouring himself a cup.

  All Lilliana could do was stare, half thinking the man mad and half thinking she was. Had she just imagined the monster? It had felt so real, but she couldn’t tell, not for sure. Lilliana sat up and sobbed confusedly, saying, “I… I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “You’re late, that’s what’s going on,” the man answered scoldingly. “Didn’t my Majordomo tell you? I sent my underlings to see you here in a timely fashion – but I see they’ve been lax in their work. Tsk-tsk. They know how important this meeting is. Good help these days and all that… What can you do?”

  Lilliana mouthed a few words and just looked at the man defeated. She didn’t know what to do or what to say. All she wanted was to go home, but with that monster out there, she didn’t even know if that was possible. The man would sigh and take to his feet once more before walking over to her with a hop and a stride. He knelt down and grabbed her by the arm and then pulled her to her feet. “There we go,” he said, waving his arm out to the chair in invitation. “Come on now, sit – sit! As you can see, there’s no need to grovel and sob.”

  For a moment, Lilliana just stood and stared, the man smiling at her from his seat at the table. “I don’t want to sit!” Lilliana snapped at moment’s end. “I want to go home!”

  “And home you shall go!” exclaimed the man assuredly. “But first there’s a little business we’ve got to deal with. After all, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. I’d hate to see you go without my gift.”

  “Gift? What gift…?” Lilliana asked, mistrust plain in her voice. The man would shake his head and motion for her to sit. Nervously, eyes darting between him and the dark opening into the labyrinth, Lilliana inched forward towards the chair. “If I accept this gift, will you take me home?” She asked softly.

  “Safety guaranteed!” The Lord would say, same disarming smile stretched across his face. “Nothing will harm you in my presence, of that I assure you. Now – sit! Come on now. You must be tired and thirsty from your walk.”

  Suddenly Lilliana was acutely aware of how thirsty she was, with how her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Surely a few more minutes here wouldn’t harm, she thought, taking a deep calming breath. “Okay,” she said, pulling out her chair then sitting down. “Then you’ll take me home?”

  “Lord’s honor,” he answered, placing a gloved hand over his heart.

  “So, you are the Lord of this land?” Lilliana asked. “The one the toad spoke of?”

  “Lord Kelthazan Revnik – the one and only,” he answered with a flourish of his hands. “Lord of the Fen, this beautiful bog you find yourself in. And today is a special day!”

  “Special how?” asked Lilliana, eyeing her empty cup. The Lord smirked quietly to himself as he reached for the tea kettle. He poured himself a cup and then poured hers, saying all the while, “One sugar or two?”

  “Two, please,” Lilliana answered, trying her best to echo his smile. Using a pair of silver tongs, he dropped two cubes of sugar into the brew – then, much to her surprised, stirred it with but a wag of his finger.

  After all the weirdness she had witness so far, she ought to have been less shocked that he too was something magical – a wizard perhaps. “You’re a magician?” Lilliana asked, as he slid the cup towards her. The tea smelled sweet like flowers. Lilliana took a sip and felt her aches and pains wash away with it. “Good huh?” he said, ignoring her previous question. “My own special brew. Calms the nerves without addling the mind too much.” Lilliana stared down at the dark liquid and sighed – she did feel better already. Maybe it was magical too? It felt as if a heavy black cloud had been lifted, as if all her fears and worries had just been a distant dream. “What’s in this tea?” she asked. “Jasmine?”

  “Just something to make us more agreeable,” he said casually, drinking from his cup. “After all, my gift isn’t always well received.”

  “What is this gift?” Lilliana pressed. “Why have you been waiting for me?”

  “The gift is power,” Kelthazan offered with that same warm smile. “As for the why of it… Well, to put things simple: I want you to kill me.”

  Lilliana snorted and shook her head, saying, “What? Kill you? Surely you jest!”

  “Nope, not at all,” he said firmly. “It’s fate in fact. You’ve basically already done it – just hasn’t caught up with us yet.”

  “No – no no no,” Lilliana denied, throwing her hands up. “I – I don’t want to hurt anyone! Least of all… kill them!”

  “That’ll change, I assure you,” the man said with a knowing huff. “You see, I’ve seen the future – you a great warrior, a god slayer.”

  “What… what if I don’t accept your gift?” Lilliana offered.

  “You will,” he stated as if it were set in stone. “You already have.”

  Lilliana huffed and lifted the cup to her lips but fumbled and dropped it as the world began to churn. Her head swam and everything faded in and out of focus. She stared down at the overturned cup on the table, at a strange ink-like liquid pooling around it. “W-what did you put in my cup?” She uttered with a dizzy moan.

  “Just my blood,” the Lord answered casually, tugging off the glove on one hand to show her a cut across his palm. “Not enough to kill you, I hope, but just enough to get the ball rolling.” Lilliana struggled to her feet, knocking over the chair once more as she staggered back away from the obviously mad man. “You poisoned me?!” Lilliana exclaimed in horror. “You poisoned me! Why?!”

  “I told you. I need you to kill me,” Kelthazan said in a dismissive tone. “But you’re too weak as you are. By design, I’m sure. Your father would really do anything to stop the prophecy – but, with this, I think I’ve gotten things back on track.”

  Lilliana gagged and tried shoving her fingers down her throat in a bid to throw up the poison. The man just watched with a neutral expression on his face. “It’s too late,” he said, standing up. He’d brush his vest off and sigh before saying, “I am sorry about this – I am… but it’s just how things are supposed to be. The Necromancer, much to my dismay, is never wrong in his prophecies. It has to be you.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head with a cringe. “Don’t fight it, you’ll make it worse for yourself. Accept that things are about to change – for the better, I’d say.”

  Lilly looked up with pleading eyes, scared eyes, terrified that she was breathing her last. Her stomach was in knots, painful twisting knots. She began to sweat and sway, unable to keep still as a fever washed over her. With a muted thud, she fell down backwards, eyes up to the sky. She could feel something was wrong, something was changing within her at an agonizing pace. Kelthazan squatted down beside her and stroked her hair soothingly. “It’s okay,” he said neutrally. “The change is painful, I know… but the barrier is broken now and a whole new world awaits you. That’s what you wanted, right? A break to the loathsomely boring day-to-day?” He chuckled to himself and stood up. “Well, girl, you’ve got it. Your days will never be boring again.”

  Lilliana stared up at him, eyes wide and tormented. She couldn’t catch her breath. She felt like she was on fire as the pain in her stomach spread to every corner of her body. Lilliana had never felt such agony before. She couldn’t struggle through, feeling the darkness of unconsciousness enveloping her. She choked on bile as her body fell still and unresponsive. She was dying, she just knew it. The world around her faded to black. The last thing she saw was the blackbird circling above her and the man. It landed upon his shoulder and croaked worriedly. “Oh, ye of little faith – it’ll work,” he told it reassuringly. “It has to…”