Chapter 24: Lucy's Legacy
The moment that Lucy stepped foot outside of Lynn's apartment, her thoughts on her brother cut off instantly. She wasn't stupid; she knew where Luan was going with all of this. She chose not to enable Luan, but rather, to give Lincoln a choice... As she always did. The discrepancy with her brother was thus; whenever allowing him a distinct choice, she could never see the outcome. This simple fact kept her constantly curious to see where things went, but as her bright blue eyes darted under those long bangs to her athletic sister, the corner of her mouth tweaked up slowly.
"I can't believe this," Lynn breathed, as they stood in the elevator, Lucy's arms behind her back but Lynn's crossed heavily over her own chest. Her hair was down, washing over the plain white shirt she'd borrowed from Lincoln's clothes. This had always been a frequent thing with her, since her brother was roughly the same size, just with a boyish wardrobe, she had cherry-picked it all their lives for anything she felt was comfortable. Lucy's small smile bent backward when her mind suddenly flashed through the entire history of that shirt.
Made in some foreign country by workers who were beaten if they didn't go fast enough... Brought here by undernourished sailors on some rusted tanker, bought at a store by an overweight alcoholic, never worn, then given to a Good Will before Lincoln picked it up.
Strange, she thought, how similar such a history was to most other objects they surrounded themselves with.
"Where the hell could Lily have gone?" The chime of the elevator hitting the ground floor filled their ears, and they stepped out and through the lobby to the back door, the entrance to the parking garage. Lynn's truck was right next to the entrance, Lucy understood that she always parked closer to things because sometimes she was just tired of being active. How very much like everyone else.
"She could've gone to the Underworld," Lucy stated matter-of-factly, considering it was the truth, and Lynn grimaced at her.
"Lucy, this is serious. If your sister is dead, why wouldn't you be upset?" Lucy felt a pang of guilt at the face Lynn gave her, they'd grown up together and she knew it when she saw it, this really was messing Lynn up inside.
"Relax, Lynn. Lily is the toughest Loud. On top of that, I still shouldn't have to remind you about the Lana incident... She's not dead, anyway." The final statement sounded so convicting that Lynn nodded slowly, even as she started up the truck.
"Yeah... You know, I'm probably just overthinking things... But still, Dad seemed so worried, I just don't know..."
Lucy sighed in the typical manner, crossing her arms, and while Lynn didn't notice, she hadn't buckled her seatbelt. There were no eventualities in which this trip would end in a crash, and she preferred her mobility not be hampered... Just in case.
As they pulled out of the garage, Lucy gasped softly, drowned out by Lynn's words...
"-just don't understand," she was saying, "why run away now? We had so much fun together, even if she never gets to see Lincoln..."
Lucy wasn't paying her any mind, anymore, however, as she saw the omen perched ever so precariously upon the sidewalk just outside of the parking garage entrance. A long-beaked ibis sat, much like a crane might, watching her slowly as they drove passed. Lynn didn't seem to notice at all, but Lucy never missed a sign from Thoth.
"Why is he here now?" she wondered out loud, and Lynn paused in her monologue.
"Hey, are you listening?" she questioned, glancing over, and Lucy's mouth, agape as it was, didn't form a response. After a moment of silence, Lynn's frown growing slowly, she looked back to her darkened sister, trying to keep one eye on the road.
"Lucy? What is it? You're creeping me out," she stated, and Lucy shook her head, snapping out of her thoughts, back to reality.
"Oh, uh... Nothing... Just remembering I forgot to set the DVR back home to record Vampires of Melancholia." That show hadn't even been running for the last five years, but Lynn, none the wiser, accepted this statement and went back to her rambling. Lucy couldn't possibly care about this situation any less, it was just best that Lincoln not have to deal with even more of the mess she'd caused than he already did.
It was fairly risky, but Lucy tried to act like she was staring into the distance, out the window, while the glyph on her forehead gingerly glowed from under her hair. Inside of her mind, she was no longer there, inside the Book of Thoth, traveling with her incorporeal soul to the places she sought. Anything Lynn said now would be completely lost on her, but it wasn't as if her siblings weren't used to her silence. Lynn was used to it above all of her siblings, so she simply kept rambling, expecting that Lucy heard her or perhaps didn't... It didn't matter, what mattered was that it was calming her nerves to talk to a brick wall like this.
However, for Lucy, the truck was no more. The road, the trees, and the landscape abound had vanished before her, replaced instead by a place she'd seen before, a place she only went in the oddest of times. She considered herself an ally of the Gods, and so to sense an omen that worried her this fiercely, she simply needed some council.
As she approached Thoth's throne room, the colorful expanse about her shimmering and shifting as she walked, it was only natural that the moment she entered the chamber, she dropped to her knees in respect. Thoth, however, was not before her. Instead, as she looked up from her place on the floor, long, black robes strewn about herself on the ground, the product of her own mind, she saw only one figure; a tall woman, huge compared to her, considering her Godly stature...
"Ma'at," Lucy gasped softly, recognizing the woman as Thoth's wife, the patron deity of truth and all that was right in the cosmos at large. Such a meeting was completely unexpected, she sat upon the smaller seat beside the throne of the God of Knowledge, and as she gazed across the expanse at Lucy, her thin eyes one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever witnessed, a cold sense of dread flooded the girl and she slowly stood, gathering the flowing robes from the floor.
"Miss Lucy. To what do I owe the pleasure?" the Goddess asked, ever cordial, however it was evident as it had been with Thoth that her tone of voice was clearly indifferent. Gods didn't really care for mortals much, on an individual basis, so she took it simply as the honor of this amazing deity knowing her first name.
"Miss Ma'at," she replied, using the titles of her given language, as was customary for anybody who followed Thoth to do. Languages were granted by Thoth, it made no sense to use the one you were given, as each word was considered a gift...
"I come to thee today with a terrible fear within myself," Lucy said, her poetic language not lost on Ma'at, whom brought a finger to her own chin, leaning forward curiously.
"Tell me, Lucy Loud... Tell me of your sister, do you know the truth of your actions?" she suddenly questioned, Lucy shifted her weight as she grew guarded, the realm she inhabited now caused such a simple motion to feel similar to what it might be like to become a sloshing bowl of pudding... It was like her body no longer existed, and essentially, she figured, it didn't. Briefly the thought of what might happen when she died played through her mind, perhaps she'd become one of the permanent residents of the Duat?
"Lily Loud is her own woman, now," Lucy replied, crossing her hands over one another and placing them gently along her abdomen.
"True," Ma'at said, but the way she was eying Lucy still set her on edge... She'd never had an experience with this entity before, and the piercing gaze was probably one of the most unnerving things she'd ever experienced. It was hard to decipher, like she could see right through you, however it transfixed one's mind to want to stare at them... Like they showed simply everything you needed to know, beautiful and clear, yet always dangled just out of reach...
"But your actions cannot be disregarded. You've placed a great curse upon your sister, Little One, a burden she must bear the likes of which no mortal has ever prescribed to." She regarded her own finger nails, the large feather atop her head dress glowed brightly, so brightly, in fact, that Lucy had to look away briefly. The power of the goddess... Lucy bristled a little at the use of her nickname... The Gods called her Little One, a testament to the fact she had been the youngest soul to ever grace their presence at the tender age of eleven. She hated the name, but it was her title and her true name; once the Gods gave you your name, there was no hiding from it. Little One she was, and forever would be. She supposed there were worse names out there.
"If I'm not mistaken," Lucy said, knowing that petty things such as social norms didn't apply to the Gods. One was allowed to be rude.
"Your feather will weigh her heart accordingly no matter what I've done. It only matters what she does, and we both know the truth of Lily Loud. Or did Thoth not tell you I have the Book?" As she spoke, it was more than evident she did indeed have it marked to her soul, the hint of insanity played on the edge of those words, the eye peeking through parted bangs spoke of realities far beyond a mortal's normal comprehension. Ma'at saw the truth, and the truth was Lucy Loud knew what she was talking about.
"Do you believe yourself above the law?" Ma'at questioned, and Lucy frowned at her, shaking her head.
"Not even you are above ma'at, Ma'at," she stated, using in this case her name as the word itself; ma'at represented justice, order, truth, rightness, and many other English words that simply weren't covered by the seriousness of ma'at itself. Ma'at, while the goddess was named the same, was the law above all other laws in this Universe... Ma'at herself, however, was the guardian of that law. This meant she was still held to it, just as everybody was, except for one...
"The truth is simple," Ma'at told her, her face somehow turning grave and fearful, despite her expression not changing what so ever.
"Apophis has returned," came the words, and the resulting gasp shocked her so badly that it contorted her physical muscles; all at once Lucy felt herself ripped from the realm of the Gods and back to her mortal flesh, the jolt causing her to jump so wildly that without her seatbelt she practically flopped onto the dashboard. Lynn swerved slightly with the sudden movement, in the road, tires screeching slightly as she righted their path.
"Jesus, Luce, what the hell was that?" she asked, and the girl, clutching at her chest as she was, breathed heavily, but didn't answer right away, letting herself rest for a moment. It was always an incredibly unnerving experience to have your spirit suddenly forced straight back into your corpse of a body. All of her muscles ached ever so slightly.
"It's... I just thought... What if a vampire got Lily? What if she's undead now?" The lie actually wasn't really impossible, considering her experiment on Geo, she was certain that if Lily had passed away, somebody could probably reanimate her. But vampires, now that was just a silly thought. She loved the concept of them, but they certainly weren't real. Just mythical. Perhaps that's why she loved them so much?
"Okay, now I thought I was overthinking things, but that's just ridiculous..." Lynn had a chuckle to herself, the mood slightly lightened by her percieved incredulous statement.
Lucy, though, wasn't laughing in the slightest. She was, instead, wringing her hands, biting her lip, her eyes darted all about the road before them... Of course, this was all hidden from Lynn as best she could, and it wasn't long before they pulled up to their parent's house.
"Y-you go inside," Lucy insisted to Lynn, "I'll catch up. I need to make a phone call, Haiku has been waiting to hear from me today," she said, citing the name of her childhood friend. Of course, it was a rouse... there wasn't a phone call to be made in any case. However, Haiku was just the woman she needed to see right now.
When Lynn shrugged and left her alone, she stepped around the side of the house, and finally unwound her tension, breathing heavily, pacing back and forth, her hands clenching, unclenching.
"Apophis... Apophis?!" How could she not have guessed at the reason Lily had been summoned? Her curse on her own baby sister... So very stupid a thing, sacrificing her like that...
"The Champion of Ma'at... Of course, of course!" She snapped her fingers, and in her dismay, swore under her breath, an ancient word that might as well have topped every curse out there. She had done it now, truly. Her spell was meant to protect Lily in a way none of their family could be; the Grand Divination allowed for a variant which applied to both Thoth and Ma'at's realms... The tears of the chosen, shed at the truth of the world, brought forth by the diviner, given new life. She mentally flipped through the pages of her spell book, she didn't need the physical copy any longer... Yes, that's what it said, she'd doomed Lily from the start. A pure entity, given forth to truth, Lily was the Chosen of Ma'at, the one champion that would stand against the evils of the entire Universe, forced into the position by a silly, naive, eleven year old girl...
Lucy was sickened by herself, but that didn't stop her teleportation spell from working... She left Michigan in an instant, and half way around the world, in Japan, there she was again. A tea shop, but not just any ordinary tea shop... It was late evening in this part of the world, not the bright morning she'd just left, but in this place, the party was just getting started. She could hear the beautiful words of a woman, dressed as a geisha, standing atop the stage on the far end of the tea shop, singing poetic verse in her native language. For a moment, she praised Thoth for giving her that voice, that spoken word, but went about searching the room she'd stepped into, some of the folks enjoying their sake or tea glanced casually her way. Dressed as she was in gothic fashion, a bit on the lolita side, they didn't seem to care one bit who she was or what she was doing here, as other similar women were in the crowd.
One of them was the girl she was searching for, Haiku. Approaching her tentatively, she waited for a moment in the conversation she was having with a patron before she sat down at their table, folding her hands.
Haiku straightened up visible the moment that Lucy sat before her. She leaned back in her chair, her face serious and her eyes tilting toward the two people she'd been entertaining at the table. She uttered an apology, and told them to leave.
"What are you doing here?" Haiku questioned, in the typical fashion one Witch might speak with another. Just as the Gods; there was no such thing as being rude, it was simply best not to sugar coat words.
"I think you know. Official business," Lucy replied, and snatched one of the sushi rolls from Haiku's plate, popping it into her mouth. Haiku looked well, she supposed, as pale as she always was, as morbid as she always seemed. They really were two peas in a pod, and a couple years back, Lucy had been proud to help mentor her in the ways of the Witch when she'd finally discovered her patron deity, Ameterasu.
"I need to know if you've heard anything about a snake," Lucy stated, and leaned forward, much like a cowboy on a mission in a saloon. She supported her weight on one elbow, and pointed a finger right at Haiku.
"If Amaterasu has told you of a snake approaching in the grass, now would be the time to spit it out, Haiku," Lucy said, and the woman deliberated. Haiku's long, silky hair had only grown longer since they were younger; Haiku hadn't really grown much, either, Lucy was a small factor larger of a person than this tiny girl. She fit in so well in Japan it would've been sad to see her leave, really.
"My divinations have revealed a fair amount of turmoil, if that's what you're getting at. Something isn't right in the Universe, according to Amaterasu, but you know I stay out of such affairs. It isn't as though I'm any good against dark forces without Her Shining Light," Haiku stated, and her flat look of disapproval told Lucy that maybe she shouldn't frown so hard. Haiku was touchy about shows of emotions like that, they created ripples in the aura-reader's vision, disturbances that forced people's forms to warp. She saw reality as differently as any other Witch might; for Lucy everything was a lot more like LEGO bricks. Stuffed together at random, and terribly painful to step on.
"A snake, Haiku," she stated flatly, seriously. Lucy had meant that much more literally than Haiku was taking it.
"A snake?" She thought hard, it didn't take long, before she perked up, and nodded.
"Now that you mention it..." Suddenly growing hushed, there was a sharp inhale from Haiku as she breathed in the sudden essence of the Universe itself, and her lips, touched by a gentle glowing light, made Lucy look around quickly. Nobody was paying them attention. Haiku's eyes were lit, as if from behind, when she stared at Lucy.
"Along awash in blades of green, a Sun, a Moon, a galaxy; again, and through, a night becomes, one to march and one to burn. The snake, he slithers among the grass; hidden behind the veil of day... The hawk, the ibis, the beetle near; devour each to become clear, again against the wakes of time and again he shall never unwiiiinnnd-AGH!" The pain contorting Haiku's face as she dropped from her trance had Lucy leaning over to support her shoulder with one arm. That was exactly what she'd been looking for.
"Haiku... Thank you," she stated, and nursed her friend's sudden weakness gingerly and with care, rocking her gently back and forth as her body shook slightly.
"It never gets any easier," Haiku said in the deadpan they both shared, and for a moment, Lucy smiled.
"It's not like being a Shugenja has no downsides," she stated, using the Japanese word that most Witches in this part of the world prescribed to.
"You're telling me...? Every time you come around I see your madness creeping... They say with Thoth it's only a matter of Time, and Chronos doesn't care what you think..." She laughed softly, and Lucy sighed. It was true, though... Every day her care for this world grew thin; she knew one day this Book would curse her, drag her into the void of despair that is the existential nature of her human soul; her curiosity had grown too powerful, though, she learned new things every day...
"He likes lacy black ones," Lucy stated suddenly to Haiku, who blinked at her, while the Loud girl smirked.
"Two Tuesdays from tomorrow," she also stated, and lifted a finger in the air, poking at invisible buttons like she was operating a calculator.
"He dies when he's seventy six, you won't be together then, but it will be the best sex of your life. Fourteen, by the way, also next week tell that idiot not to put cream in your coffee, or you'll get a third degree burn. And yes, Madaline is the right name to choose." Lucy spat the information like an encyclopedia, and Haiku tried to absorb it all, but frowned.
"Lucy," she said softly, regaining some of her composure from the little prank she'd offered her by telling her fortune to the letter.
"What did I tell you about spoilers?" Lucy's tiny little smile made her crack one of her own.
"Also, I didn't know my lucky number was fourteen. Or that Madaline would be so beautiful," Haiku responded to her fortunes, and Lucy cocked an eyebrow.
"Who said anything about beautiful?" Lucy jabbed, and they both had a slight chuckle. Haiku was always so wonderful to be around, a fellow Witch, when normally she was so alone...
"It's a shame you live all the way over here now," Lucy said to her friend, who shrugged at her.
"Doesn't stop you much. Enjoying avoiding the four thousand dollar plane tickets?" she wondered, and Lucy noticed that hint of a cocky attitude in that flat voice of hers. Always so competitive, Haiku was... Always topping her poetry, her spells, even... But not the Grand Divination... But not her skills with necromancy.
Just to be funny, Lucy let her glyph glow and summoned the magicks of her Gods. With a single finger she traced a glowing line on the table, forming circles and patterns with hieroglyphs and numbers... Haiku watched, amazed at the prowess and ease with which she drew her design, and Lucy reached over to grab the plate of food Haiku had been hoping to finish, placing it in the middle of the center circle. She looked around again; the next act at Haiku's little shop had gone on, and in their corner, nobody would see it but the stage performer, a man she recognized as somewhat of a shaman. He already knew her secret. One of Haiku's friends, he was a shriveled old thing who played the Chinese airhu, and that was exactly what he began to do as he watched with amusement while she conducted her spell. She gave him a two-fingered quick salute, and he grinned as the patrons laughed in their conversations.
The whole room lit up with a sudden flash as the plate of food was converted into a stack of US dollars, molecule for molecule, assembled perfectly and converted completely. Haiku blinked at Lucy, and while the confusion ran over the place while the lilting melody still played, the man on the stage gave a light laugh at the display only he had witnessed, while all eyes were on him.
The glowing runes she'd written were gone, traced there solely with her powers, but she pushed the stack of cash at Haiku.
"Get this place some carpets. When it catches fire, just stomp it out before it spreads, the carpets will win you the favor of two businessmen who will sponsor this place with their scouted talents. You'll know it's him when he sings, it will capture your heart unlike anything you've ever heard. Ten bucks says he's an incubus," Lucy stated, and Haiku had to lean back, having quite the hearty laugh at her friend's antics. Never before had she ever seen something done so boldly, Lucy always truly amazed her. She smiled at the stack of cash, one hand reaching out to flick through one of the bundles of twenties like a flip book.
"How much is this?" Haiku questioned, and Lucy smirked.
"Three hundred thousand, six hundred and sixty. The six sixty is for your ma, she needs a new set of tires for the winter, unless you want to attend that funeral. I mean, who wouldn't? It would be all... Booo. Booo hooo..."
Haiku eyed her friend for a moment, then rolled her eyes.
"Show off."
They shared a grin. Lucy loved performing for Haiku, somebody who could actually appreciate openly what she could do. But as they smiled at one another, Haiku's smile slowly died, in a manner that replaced her face with a look of fear. The airhu stopped, the tea club fell silent... And Lucy shivered, eyes wide, as that thin trail of red slowly slipped from Haiku's nose.
"No..." she breathed, and Haiku's eyes stared at her with mortality quivering at the iris; Lucy felt it behind her, sliding up her spine with a quake the likes of which she hadn't felt in years. Cold, dark, the abyss centered in the corner of the room. There was no sound from the thing, but as it moved, lazily, both she and Haiku trained their eyes on it.
"Run...!" Lucy gasped to Haiku, toppling their table as she leapt toward her and pushed her toward the door. Stumbling about on the floor as her head pulsed, there were half a dozen screams spreading through the room as she looked about in sheer terror. The patrons were beginning to bleed from their orifices, collapsing, the minstrel atop the stage was fleeing for his life, praying and chanting as he did so with his instrument as his rosary. The Invisible One's grip slid about the crowd, and Lucy's own throat closed tight as it swelled with the blood in her own veins, it turned against her like the sea as a storm passed overhead.
Her whole body was boiling, and this time, as the light flooded over her forehead, she wasn't holding back her intentions. A memory flashed through her mind; her first time at the fair grounds with Lincoln and Ronnie Anne and Lori and Leni and Luan, the gravity ride, it spun so fast, bolted her to the wall... But gravity felt two fold, it pulled her at the ground, and she slinked along until she could move behind a chair. Her head was spinning, her blood flowing irregularly in the presence of this menace, Haiku wasn't the type of Witch who could help her. No, there were only a hand full of deities who could fight one of these monsters. It had come to feed upon her, upon Haiku, she had forgotten the golden rule. Use much of your energy before you visit another Witch, lest you become a beacon for the feasting.
As the formless, massless, invisible, pulsating energy radiated toward her, drifting about only felt and never seen, Lucy deliberated on her courses of action, her maniacal mind rushing through endless possibilities in an instant. Finally she summoned the words she was looking for, pouring them from her lips this time in Egyptian, not Latin, far stronger...
"Khet aa, em khet... Netch aaut, netchit. Djehuty aa netch khet!" Her hand raised two fingers together, evoking the protection of Djehuty, or Thoth in Latin, and some relief washed over her as the wind began to whip about her, forming the barrier against the power of this entity.
How could she have been so blind...? Lincoln...
Back in Lynn's apartment, the albino man sat, his sister, sexually satisfied as she was, half asleep on the couch now as he thought things through. In the back of his mind, he knew something wasn't right. But Thoth was absent; he hadn't provided a shred of information into Lily's situation, he didn't even know what Lucy was up to currently. There was just nothing, whenever his thought wandered to his patron... He'd come to rest next to Luan's partially nude form, for lack of a better course of action.
He watched her as she dozed, mumbling to herself in her state of bliss that he'd afforded her, and he sighed. After all these years, he wasn't any better off than he had been back in the days he'd mentioned to Mister Grouse... Still confused, still wondering which of his lovers were more important, how to balance it, perhaps make them stop fighting...
Lincoln hated their rivalry, honestly. If Lynn and Luan could simply get along, then maybe he'd have everything he wanted, or needed, in life itself. Briefly fantasizing about the prospect of having both of their bodies at once, he quickly shook the thought from his mind.
Even if his line wasn't drawn at his own siblings, he could still draw a line at two of them at once.
It just wouldn't be right... Right?
"Luan," he said softly to his older sister, shaking her gently to rouse her from her sleepy demeanor.
"Mmm, yes, Lincoln?" she questioned, rolling slightly and cracking one eye as she stretched. It had been so long since she'd had such a nice round of physical affection... Her mind was awash with the chemicals of love.
"I need some advice." His sister was quick to pull up to him, smothering him with a snuggling hug.
"Oh, anything for you, Linky," she fawned and he sighed and pushed at her, forcing her slightly off.
"How am I supposed to deal with life, Luan? I mean look at me... I'm completely useless to do so much as find my missing sister," he lamented, and stared at his own hands, "and on top of that, both you and Lynn... I'm so fucked up..."
Luan's sleepiness died away rather quickly, and she perked up enough to push against him and knock him over along the couch, pinning him down as she had before, but this time, nude from the waist up, those lovely breasts squishing against him. Already satisfied, however, he drew nothing from it.
"Linky, stop." Luan hovered over him, and then smiled, those perfect teeth having been solved years ago by those braces of hers... He missed them, he remembered they were kind of sexy.
"Life gives everyone lemons. Instead of scrunching up your face, you gotta learn to laugh with the sour," she said, and then rolled slightly so that her chest was exposed, but she was looking up to him, one hand on his arm.
"How the hell are you going to keep such a depressed face around Luna in a couple days?" Luan shot, and Lincoln tensed.
"Oh shit... That's right! It's almost New Years...!" Every Loud knew of Luna's holiday at this point, it was the one time that their parents tolerated her drinking, and her past exploits were rather legendary. Lincoln's thoughts shifted to one such occasion, the year when Luna had certain sister's cars towed as a prank while she was drunker than an Irish at the pub... He couldn't help but stifle a laugh, snorting slightly. This caused Luan to do the same, and she giggled at him... He got the impression that maybe her medication was working a bit too well.
"Luan, could you please put a shirt on?" he asked, and she grinned, and wiggled her luscious breasts, drawing Lincoln's eyes to watch her nipples sway back and forth.
"Whyyyy, is Linky getting aroused again?" He groaned and shook his head, then shoved her roughly again back toward the couch. She laughed as she fell at the playful sibling push, but when her shirt hit her in the face, she dragged it off and looked up to her brother, whom was staring at her intently.
"Put it on, Luan... We shouldn't have even been messing around like that. You're lucky..." He paused for a moment here, "you're lucky that I never forgot your skill in bed..." His light blush had her smirking. Had she won? Had she proven her body superior to Lynn's, now that he had finally tasted her superior curves?
"But that doesn't mean you can just jump my bones like this. Fucking hell, I had to clean the couch, Luan...! That's LYNN'S couch!" She shirked away as his volume raised, and he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Anyway... I need you to do me a favor and call up Lisa. She'll know the best way to find Lily." His sister obliged him, and picked up the phone, and he waited patiently for the answer...