Flicking the cork off the top, Lilith drank one of her potions, wiped her lips with her sleeves, and threw the empty vial into the void. Her eyes were heavy, and the night was dark. Only a bit longer, Lilith constantly reminded herself, as she trekked her way through the last stretch. Being alone meant that she couldn’t take any breaks or risks, and because of the emptiness of the roads, there were way more lower tiered demons hanging around, waiting to strike. The barrier from Alex helped, allowing her to continue moving, but in return, it meant that she needed to stay constantly awake and aware, since sleeping out in the open wasn't an option.

If traveling alone with no one in sight, the normal thing to do would be to hire a mercenary group, but Lilith didn’t have that luxury. She had money, but not enough to hire an entire group for that long. Plus, there wasn’t a single soul willing to go to the Holy Empire. She was also lucky to meet anyone while traveling, only coming across people at the Inns early on, but the farther she traveled, the fewer people she came across. It was a weird phenomenon since in recent years smaller towns and villages appeared and the east was no exception. Yet, no one was even traveling to or from them..

With a heavy sigh, Lilith yawned and chugged down another vial. They were quickly becoming more useless the longer she traveled, and it was becoming scary as soon enough, they will no longer have any effect, causing her to fall over and become dinner for the demons.

“This is worse than that one village down south,” she grinned and laughed, slightly disillusioned while reminiscing about the past. It was good practice for the north at the very least.

The bright yellow eyes that hid in the shadows of the bushes on the off-road slowly disappeared and the road underneath her feet became more developed. There was no sign, but it was a good indicator that the barrier for the city was within reach. Smacking her cheeks to keep herself awake, Lilith took out one of her hair dyes and poured it over her head, causing her hair to turn brown. She then grabbed the decoy bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Alright,” Lilith said with a deep breath, and kept moving.

Before entering the barrier, she removed her own portable one and tossed it away and peaked her head into the barrier to look around. Everything seemed fine. Unlike the other mega cities, the Holy Empire's city was much smaller, but there were farms and cottages scattered around outside. These farms scattered around had both animals and crops and while some houses had all their lights out, others had a reddish glow from the inside, with an occasional shadow walking by and a chimney spewing smoke even though it wasn’t cold out. It seemed peaceful, contrary to what Lilith had been told.

“Who are you!?” A guard yelled, squinting his eyes and holding up the lantern towards Lilith, who made her way closer to the gate.

Lilith put her hands up, signaling she was no threat, and as soon as she got into range, allowing the guards to fully assess who she was, they sheathed their weapons and greeted her normally.

“My apologies. We normally don’t expect any travelers this late at night.”

Lilith smiled. A weak smile and hazy eyes that were hard to discern if they were looking at the guards or not. Lilith lifted her bag, making sure they could see it. “I have several deliveries that need to be made and since I was alone, I had to travel nonstop.”

“Please hand over your pass and the bag so we may go through the contents of it. We must check each package-”

Taking the pass out of the bag, Lilith handed both of them over, shoving them in the guard's face. The potion was wearing off, meaning she needed to hurry. Drowsiness wouldn’t kick in immediately, but she had been abusing the potions far too much in such a small time frame, so  she knew it wouldn’t be pretty.

 The guard took a quick look at Lilith. His face went from annoyance to understanding when he realised the state she was in. “We will be as quick as possible.” The guard handed the bag over to a different guard, and they both disappeared past the gate and around the corner.

“Are you alright?” A younger guard asked with worry.

Lilith stood there, giving a thumbs up and a smile. “Do you, by chance, know any inns with rooms still available?”

“You should be fine with any inn,” the other remaining guard said. “I don’t think any of them are currently busy.”

“Which one is the closest, then?”

“That would be Cat’s Paw. If you follow the main road, you’ll see it on your right.”

“How’s the food there?” Lilith asked, keeping up the small talk to keep herself busy.

“It’s good!” The younger guard nodded his head while his eyes sparkled.

“We go there often after work and it’s quite popular with the locals.”

“Is it the beer?”

“That and the food. It’s cheap and good.”

The three of them continued their conversation, talking about the food on the menu, what kind of beer to get, and what else there was to eat. It was nice the guards were going along with her conversation, which allowed her to stay awake and alert enough to not topple over and fall asleep. The conversations continued until the two guards who left to check her bag came back. There were no issues, which was a breath of fresh air, and after receiving her pass and bag back, she thanked them for their information and entered the city.

There were very few people walking about the city during the middle of the night. Some people still seemed to enjoy their nightly outage, going for drinks and living the nightlife or at least what the city offered, which was pale compared to Tarrin and its nightlife.

“Cat’s Paw,” Lilith said, reading the sign. Greeted by loud chatter and light that made her squirm, she covered her eyes and made her way to the back, slamming down several silver onto the counter. “Room for one!” Lilith shouted, so her voice could carry over the cheering and talking in the background.

“Ma’am, this is far too much for a room,” the older lady replied.

“I won’t be down for a few days, so I would like to pay in advance.”

The lady looked her over, narrowing her eyes at Lilith. “Normally, people don’t come in here saying they’ll hole up in their room.”

“Please,” Lilith pleaded, feeling the drowsiness taking over.

“Alright,” the lady said with a suspicious undertone, but after noticing her uniform, she handed the key to the room. “Up the stairs to the left. The room number is on the key.”

“Thank you,” Lilith took the key, and squinted her eyes in an attempt to read the number.

“Room 128,” the lady said.

With a nod, Lilith went upstairs and to her room. Locking the door behind her, she tossed the bag into the abyss, and left a trail of clothes as she changed into something more comfortable before laying down on the bed.

The moment her head hit her pillow, her eyes closed, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. 

The backlash felt stronger than she originally thought, and no amount of noise woke her up. She was so deep into her sleep that to an outside eye, it may seem like she was dead or cursed and unable to wake up.

………………………

Slowly, Lilith woke up groggy, hungry, thirsty, and weak. Her body shut down for several days, and now that the cogs were moving, every other issue surfaced at once. After a while, she slowly used her arms to sit up, leaning her back against the wall. Her lips were dry, her stomach was growing, and her eyesight was as bad as it was before. She sat there for even longer, and after attempting to rebalance herself mentally, she tossed a pair of slippers onto the floor, sat at the edge of the bed and slid her feet inside them.

“1… 2… 3…” Lilith counted down before slowly standing up. Only after making sure she could balance herself properly did she slowly slide her feet towards the door, opening it and peeking out into the hallway. “No one,” Lilith said in a hoarse voice. Using the walls as support, she shuffled her feet down the hallway.

Taking it one slide at a time, she glued herself to the wall while shuffling her way down the hallway. It wasn’t difficult. A flat surface with no obstacles, something even a baby could do. However, what scared her the most and made her stop were the stairs. The best way to describe it was as if she was looking at a mountain, even though she was looking down and not up. Lilith strained her eyes to get them to focus as much as she could, and after hyping herself up and making sure she was ready, she took her first step down and stopped immediately while grasping onto the railing.

The steps felt far larger than they actually were, and her mind played tricks on her as she took her first step. It looked like Lilith was weirdly hovering her foot outwards, making exaggerated motions to the people watching from downstairs, but for her, she was doing everything in her power to reach the next step. She continued this with each step and as she made her way down; the watchers grew worried as they slowly realized the person in front of them wasn’t making an attempt at a joke and as one or two of them got out of their seats to go help, Lilith fumbled over her own foot, falling down the last two steps of stairs but miraculously catching herself with the help of the railing.

The patrons who got up to help froze in place by the sudden tumble. It was as if the world froze for a split second as the voices died down and people looked over in Lilith's direction. The fall wasn’t too loud, but it was loud enough to pull the attention away from their conversations to see what happened.

“I’m fine,” Lilith reassured the onlookers with a smile, as one of the waitresses who seemed to be Lilith’s age rushed over to help. Grabbing a hold of her arm, she slung it over her shoulder and brought her over to an empty table.

“Please sit here,” the waitress said as she helped lower Lilith onto the chair. “Water!” She yelled out. Snapping the other onlookers into action.

“Some soup, too,” Lilith added.

“Soup, too!”

Wetting her lips with the glass of water that was placed in front of Lilith, she took several small sips while the waitress, who helped her to the table, pulled up a chair and sat right next to her. Besides the eyes staring daggers at her, making sure she was alright, the attention she received faded as the patrons who were watching went back to their meals and conversations. Lilith slowly sipped away at her water, and after the soup arrived with visible steam radiating off the bowl, she gingerly blew on each spoonful.

The pair of unblinking eyes never looked away. It felt like she was burning a hole in her as Lilith tried to eat. However, it wasn’t the only pair of eyes looking at her. The older lady who gave her the keys a few days ago stood behind the counter in the back and, just like the server sitting down, she was staring daggers into the back of her head. Only when Lilith finished her bowl of soup did she walk over with arms crossed.

“Thank you for the food,” Lilith finally said, her voice still slightly hoarse as she reached into her pocket. She used it as a fake and to obstruct vision while reaching into the void to grab coins to pay for the meal. 

“Do you mind explaining yourself now?” The older lady who was behind the counter now stood next to Lilith, and after shooing the younger one watching her, sat down in the chair. “I understand who you are after checking in with the mailroom, but how are you even alive?”

“Magic does wonders,” Lilith said. 

Although the lady might not be a mage, mana flowed inside everyone and there were some facts that everyone knew regardless if they were a mage or not. Although a person needed to be gifted with an abundance of mana and the ability to wield mana in some shape or form to be considered a mage, there was a natural order to mana. The more a person has, the longer they live alongside being capable of sustaining themselves without a need of the basics to live. This helps mages not only stay awake longer than possible but also survive without food and water. This doesn’t make a mage immortal, but it helps stall the inevitable. That stalling, however, can be the difference between life and death.

“So you’re a mage?” she asked in an uncertain tone.

“To an extent. I’m not a proper mage or anything, but it’s just enough for situations like this,” Lilith lied. She had to keep who she really was a secret, so the best way to go about this situation was to tell a small white lie. “Since no one was on the roads, I had to travel alone, which meant I had to chug potions to keep myself awake during the travel.”

The lady sighed, “my name is Amanda. The owner of this dingy bar and inn called the Cat’s Paw. A place where we hope no one dies on us.” 

“My apologies.”

“Next time, give a warning if you can to get someone to check up on you.”

“Will do.”

Amanda stood up and placed the chair back in its original spot. “You should eat some more and relax. You don’t seem to be in the best condition.”

“I’ll take your words to heart. How long has it been?”

“Five days.”

“Longer than I thought,” Lilith mumbled to herself. “Is it the middle of the day?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I see. I see. Is there anything solid I can eat?”

“Of course, I’ll go get something ready.”

“Thank you,”

“That’s enough of the thank you’s for the day.” Amanda swatted it away like a bug before heading back to the kitchen.