"Lily I understand you are seething right now but pacing and brooding like a teenager is not going to get you anywhere" Darius said from his place sitting on the work bench, sass dripping from every word. He continued to watch the witch pace around the room like a crazy person.

"I am not brooding, I'm pacing my aggravation out!" Lilith snapped back at the ex-abomination coven head, receiving an eye-roll and a tut in response. She ignored him and continued about her business. What she did was none of his business and she was just fine dealing with her (justified) anger on her own, or so she thought.

To her horror, she felt her body weaken as feathers started to sprout from her neck and arms causing her to fall to the ground. Alarming Darius, along with herself the two frantically searched the room for an elixir, but Lilith was struck with the realisation that there was none, at least that she could grab before she would transform. She shot a glance over to Darius who given the situation looked relatively calm, but as someone who had known the man since their school days, he looked downright panicked.

She'd have to hold back long enough to give him time to get help, she could do that surely. If Eda could deal with this for decades she could hold back this stupid owl beast for a few minutes.

"Lilith!"

Then all of a sudden everything went black


"Arg what...where am I?" Lilith awoke to a pitch-black space that seemed to go on forever. Everywhere she looked all she could see was darkness, she could barely even see her arms in front of her. She looked desperately for a way out, walking aimlessly hoping that if she kept walking she would find something, anything that could help her escape. She didn't even know what she was trying to escape, all she knew was that it had something to do with the curse.

"Lily, Lily look at this"

Lilith froze. She knew that voice...

"Edalyn?" She turned around and suddenly in place of the pitch-black darkness, there was a glowing light, growing bigger as she approached until it engulfed her. She braced herself and closed her eyes to shield herself from the blinding light. Slowly she opened her eyes again and found herself in what seemed like a memory or what was an illusion of one. She remembered it vividly as it played back before her, it was a memory of her and Edalyn. Edalyn was showing her, her new spell. She had been so proud back then.

"Lily! I did it look! My first light spell"

"You did amazing Edalyn, I'm sure one day you'll be an incredible witch!"

"Yeah, I'll be the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!"

Lilith looked back at that memory with bittersweet feelings. They had been so close as children they had only been little witchlets during this memory and it broke her her heart to see them like this. She couldn't bear to look at the pure pride and adoration in her sister's eyes as she looked at her past self knowing what she'd inevitably do to her. Lilith stayed in this memory for another minute or two until she saw a looming shadow move over herself and her sister. She looked up to see what it was only to see the intimidating figure of the owl beast lurking over them. Regardless of them only being memories she felt her protective instincts kick in and charged over to the figure, determined to protect her sister.

The owl beast didn't seem to want to stick around because once she started running the owl beast turned around and ran. Usually, Lilith wouldn't think about pursuing the creature but she was not in a good or stable headspace, all she could think about was getting revenge on the creature that ruined her sister's life and getting her revenge. So Lilith fled the memory ignoring it as the scenery around her started to morph and bend until it changed into another memory, this time from her coven try-out when Eda first transformed.

"No no no...not this, where are you horrid beast!" The owl beast managed to evade her, leaving her alone in the memory and watching the first consequence of an action she would learn would be the worst decision of her life. But there was no one there to listen to her so she had no choice but to watch. She watched helplessly as Edalyn and herself prepared to fight and charged at one another. The two young witches charged but right before her younger self could attack Edalyn stopped and forfeited the match, surrendering her position in the emperors coven to her but before she could even leave the field the curse took effect, transforming into the owl beast.

She, both her current and past self watched in horror as the crowd booed and roared and her younger sister, as they threw things at her and as she ran away in fear and embarrassment. Even now all she could do was watch...Lilith couldn't take this anymore. She fell to the ground and cried. She cried in shame, in anguish, in sadness. But she cried nothing more but in regret. How could she have been so selfish?

Even now she acted as if nothing happened. Eda had let her back into her life. She had left the emperor's coven to "save" her and even took half of her curse to save her from permanently becoming the owl beast. But nothing would be enough to repair the years of betrayal and torment her sister had faced. She didn't deserve to even call her that...

Lilith sat silently and completely frozen as if her body was an empty shell. She still didn't know where she was but she honestly couldn't find in herself enough to care. For all she cared she could stay in this unknown abyss for eternity. It was the hell she deserved. Unbeknownst to her the scenery around her changed. Instead of the field from her memory or the black abyss, she now found herself on a beach on the edge of the shore. Lilith could only barely hear the crashes of the waves or the pull of the tides, and she stayed in this state until she finally heard the sound of sand ruffling and a quiet growl.

She turned her head to see the owl beast slowly approaching her, it didn't look as threatening. Instead of being large and intimidating, it looked small, maybe the size of a baby griffin, it looked more demure too. It looked almost apprehensive of her, as if it wanted to approach but was too nervous to do so. But that was stupid she thought. It probably didn't look as intimidating because she had stopped running and didn't care anymore.

"What do you want horrid beast, you've ruined Edalyn's life and now you've ruined mine, are you happy?" She didn't expect an answer and was surprised when the owl beast moved closer and nuzzled her knee. She was about to push it away but a vision suddenly flashed into her mind. It Looked like another memory.

"Oh my titan! Did my hand just fall off?... I wonder...hey I can pull my head off that's cool"

"Heh even with my curse I'm still stronger than any of you fools, emperor's cover psshh what a joke"

"Look look, I can turn into a fricken Harpy how cool is this King! And I absolutely kill this look"

Lilith realised quickly that these weren't her memories, no instead they were Edalyn's. They were her memories since she had the curse and how she had grown to live with them over time. The owl beast must be linked to the both of them since she shared the curse, everything they had experienced they could see especially the moment after the curse had taken effect. But what surprised her was that that Edalyn looked perfectly fine in all of these memories, she didn't look like she was being tortured by the cure, inconvenienced maybe but that was it.

She had moved on with her life since obtaining the curse and didn't let it slow her down in becoming the most powerful witch on the isles (or so she called herself) and even after she lost her magic she had learned to live with that and even unlocked her harpy magic. Was this what the owl beast was trying to show her? She looked back down at the owl beast which had once again changed its size. Now, it more resembled the size of a common house cat which was only further supported but the fact that it had somehow situated itself in her lap. She could swear it was even purring.

Flashes of memories and scenes continued appearing around her, all of which showed Edalyn and her curse. Not all of them showed her using her harpy form and most of them were ridiculously mundane. Just Edalyn living her life surrounded by people she loved (which included herself) all regardless of her curse. She looked...happy?

"Wait...are you showing me this?" Lilith asked the small creature, waving her hand towards the illusions in front of her. The owl beast gave a small nod and resumed nuzzling into her lap. Somehow the owl beast used its mental connection to the two of them and allowed her to see her sister's memories but why? The more she looked at each of these memories the more she realised that Edalyn didn't seem all that bothered by the curse, at least nowadays. And even then she lived with it, she had found a way to live her life, curse be damned.

Wait? Was that it?

"Did you show me this...to make me feel better? Wait no..." The owl beast hadn't just shown her good memories, it had also shown her the consequences of the curse. It had shown her the ugly parts just as much as the happy memories. But what she couldn't figure out was why.

.

.

Her eyes widened as realisation suddenly struck Lilith, the owl beast had allowed her to see every regardless of what the memories held. They were unbiased and matter-of-fact. The owl beast wasn't trying to make her feel better, or make her feel guilty. It was trying to get her to accept what she did, and help her move on.

It was trying to help her get closure

"Is that it? Are you trying to help gain closure" Once again the small beast nodded but this time it shifted from its place in her lap and she noticed a small red string attaching the two of them. It was the curse, but it seemed different from before...it felt different from before. She stroked the creature incising a small purr before it slowly stood up and started walking away into the light.

"Maybe...you're not so bad after all"

The blinding light grew brighter until it had fully engulfed her and only then did she finally wake up


"Lilith! So help me titan if you don't wake up!"

"Arg..what...?" Lilith blinked slowly adjusting her eyes to the light. Once her eyes had finally adjusted she took a look around the room and noticed Darius kneeling down beside her with a relieved expression noticing she had finally woken up. He held his hand out to her which she gratefully accepted and helped her to her feet, but as he did so she noticed his face morph into one of great confusion but he also seemed...impressed?

"What is it? Stunned by my good looks?" Darius jokingly scoffed and crossed his arm, resting his other arm as leaned his chin on his hand.

"Witch please, you as so not my type. But I must say the new look is good no you, take of page out of you're sister's book did you, Lily?" Lilith raised a brow confused.

"What are you talking about?" Darius shrugged and motioned for her to turn around.

"Take a look for yourself" Lilith apprehensively turned around and walked towards the standing mirror in the corner of the room. She slowly walked up to it eyes closed until she guessed she had reached right in front of the mirror, taking a breath she opened her eyes and could not believe what she was looking at.

"I'm...I'm..."

"A harpy, yes Lily good observation skills" The witch/harpy shot a glare at the abomination witch who only smirked smugly at her. She decided she didn't have enough time for his sass right now and returned to looking at her reflection. Instead of her usual turquoise eyes, her eyes had turned back with the exception being her pupils that retained her usual eye colour. She had large brown and black wings and rather than her normal hands and feet, she had large claws and talons. She was covered in brown and black feathers but rather than her beast form, this form held a certain amount of class. This form reminded her of her sister's harpy form but at the same time was completely different and was unique to her.

She did a few twirls in the mirror before Darius whistled in approval. As a man with a keen fashion sense, he was thoroughly impressed, feathers were all the rage nowadays anyway. But he still had plenty of questions for the newly discovered harpy.

"Ok you look fierce Lily but by all means do tell me how this happened. One minute you're about to go into beast mode, you faint for about an hour and then you wake up like this! What in the name of Titan did I miss? I was right here to begin with!" Lilith had no idea what had happened but suddenly realised it must have had something to do with her interaction with the owl beast. After all, Edalyn had told her that she had a similar experience when she first unlocked her harpy form.

"Let's just say, I had a chat with one of my sister's oldest friends" This didn't give Darius any answers but couldn't be bothered to question her any further on the matter, but he did have one more question he really wanted to see her reaction to.

"So...how do change back?"

.

.

.

"Well...that is an excellent question"

"Go find Eda?"

"Yes, go find Eda"


Ok some quick notes.

1: I don't ship Lilith and Darius, I just enjoy the idea of them being old friends from both school and days in the covens.

2: I am not saying Lilith shouldn't feel bad or that she shouldn't feel responsible. I just feel rather than wallowing in self-pity and regret she should understand that Eda didn't let the curse completely control her life. Yes, it did for a while but she still managed to live a semi-good life regardless. Especially after meeting Luz. This is something I feel Lilith may forget. (Which fair honestly)

3: Also you can pry this from my cold dead hands but Lilith and Darius were totally the reason Eda and Raine got together.

Well this was my take on how Lilith got her harpy powers, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!