kweenjaded

For as long as the stars have burned, she has existed. She has been called many names—Gaia, Lilith, the First, the Eternal Witness—but time has eroded meaning, leaving only silence. When the sun finally devoured itself and Earth drifted into the abyss, she closed her eyes, expecting oblivion.

But she did not die.

Eons passed, and Earth—no longer Earth—was reborn in a distant galaxy, reshaped by her unconscious will. Now a training ground for civilizations across the cosmos, the planet teems with life once more. And she, no longer Lilith yet not fully something else, awakens in a body that is hers but unfamiliar. She knows everything yet feels nothing. Memories exist as echoes, not experiences.

When a young explorer, Tilana, stumbles upon her, she is given a name—Lily—a word tied to a flower that no longer exists. As Lily navigates a world both familiar and alien, she must relearn what it means to feel, to connect, and to exist. But something lingers in the depths of this reborn world, something that calls to the remnants of who she was.

To see tomorrow, one must kill yesterday. But what if yesterday refuses to die?.

Lily: The last lily of a forgotten world.

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."

Not in the literal sense—though, given its advanced architecture, one could argue otherwise—but in the way it pulsed with the weight of thousands of minds, each occupied with their own ambitions, fears, and desires.

Lily walked through the grand corridors of Vatra Prime Academy, her footsteps silent against the polished floors. Around her, students moved in calculated chaos, their voices blending into a layered hum of conversations, laughter, and the occasional burst of competitive debate.

Not invisible, no—people saw her. But they saw her in the way one sees a passing shadow. A thing to register, acknowledge, and then forget.

Her mind drifted back to her encounter with Zane.

She had seen it immediately—the way his smile was a construct, carefully balanced to be approachable but not too familiar, warm but not deeply felt. It was a well-practiced expression, honed over years of social expectation.

Zane was curious about her, though he had tried to hide it. His curiosity wasn't malicious, nor was it purely academic. It was personal. He wanted to understand her, just as he understood everyone else.

But Zane's understanding relied on people wearing the masks they had chosen.

Or rather, she had never learned how.

She continued her slow exploration, her eyes cataloging every detail—the way students grouped themselves based on silent hierarchies, the slight shifts in posture that indicated authority, the subtle tension in some conversations that hinted at unspoken rivalries.

Zane's was simply more refined than most.

She passed through the Hall of Ascension, a vast corridor lined with floating holographic banners depicting past prodigies of the academy. Their faces were frozen in time, each name etched below their image, a permanent reminder of excellence.

Some students stopped to admire them.

She arrived at the Sky Bridge, pausing at its center.

Below, the academy sprawled in all directions, a city within a structure, its architecture both ancient and impossibly advanced. Beyond the transparent safety field, Vatra's skies stretched endlessly, painted in shades of deep indigo and molten gold.

For a brief moment, something inside her stirred.

Her gaze flickered downward, watching the shifting mass of students below.

She could learn to blend in. To navigate their unspoken rules, their expectations, their carefully constructed social games.

But she would never be one of them.

Her thoughts drifted back to Zane's final expression—the moment his carefully crafted persona had slipped, just for an instant.

Would he seek to unravel her the way he did others?

A whisper of curiosity curled at the edge of her mind.

Perhaps, she mused, she would let him try.

Chapter 12 : A World of Masks