The sheer joy she'd felt when she'd activated the new magic was quickly being replaced by fear and guilt. For she knew that there was a plethora of dark shameful moments in her past. Moments that still haunt her to this day, but as she flew across the isles and away from what was once the emperor's palace and to the town's night market she knew which moment it was. "Titan no, not this." but she could already see her younger self buying the cursed scroll. The look of guilt and fear that after a moment turned to certainty made her her sick to see. "I have to stop this." Even if she knew it wouldn't matter, she had to at least try, but just as she remembered after buying the scroll her younger self rushed off toward home leaving Lilith to attempt to give chase. Sadley even after transforming and flying after her she only managed to arrive just in time to see her outside of Eda's room.
Not wanting to see this again and possibly fueled by panic she did something reckless, something she was sure Eda would approve of and dove through the window crashing head first into her younger self.
Thankfully the sheer shock from seeing her raven form break through the window stunned her long enough for Lilith to cover her mouth. "Please don't scream."
Which she proceeded to do into her hand. Hearing footsteps and fearing what her beastkeeping mother could do in her current form she scooped up her younger self and flew out of the house and high up into the sky.
"Sorry sorry sorry!" she repeated seeing the look of fear as they flew above the clouds. "Okay... I'm going to uncover your mouth so please don't scream."
Her hand had just moved when she asked "are you going to kill me?"
"What?! No!... Look I know how this looks but I'm you from the future."
"!?"
"Yes, I know but I can and will explain." Seeing a nearby clearing in the forest she flew them down and set her younger self down who took a long look at herself. "I can't believe it..."
"Yes, I know this form is surprising..."
"No, I can't believe mom convinced me to join a beastkeeping coven! She knows Eda and I want to join the emperor's coven! We've told her a million times that while yes we like animals, we want to have access to all magic!" Lilith was taken back watching herself freak out as she walked around a stump rambling. "I mean sure that from looks amazing and you can fly but I'll get my staff soon- wait I do get a palisman right?"
"Oh yes and he is the most adorable little white raven, though he is a bit of a goofball sometimes."
"White raven? That sounds so cool! But to think I join a beast coven." she raises her hand still clutching the cursed scroll. "So, I got this for nothing! I was going to temporarily curse my little sister for nothing!?...
…
...I was going to curse my little sister." The weight of her words hitting her, she sat down on the stump trying to rationalize it. "No, it would have just been for one day, just long enough for her to not compete. Yeah, then next year she could join, and everything would have been perfect."
"I'm afraid that's not what happened." changing back she knelt down to look herself in the eye already preparing to embrace her for the truth.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm you from the future and I came back to stop us from doing something that we regret for years. First of all, this curse lasts forever, not a single day."
"Eh?" she squeaked out. "Tomorrow during the duel just as it starts Eda surrenders saying she's not about to fight us for a position and that she can easily try again next year."
"What?! No! Then that means I... she... Eda... for nothing." She was nearly in tears, but Lilith went on. "After which she transforms into her owlbeast form Infront of everyone, before we can say or do anything we're taken away by the emperor's coven and given the seal. We don't make it home for two whole days and by then Eda had transformed back and was hiding in her room."
"We get into the emperor's coven!?" Her excitement was very short lived as Lilith quickly transformed and let out a very angry growl. "Like I was saying!" she screamed, making her younger self look away ashamed but a little bit amazed.
"The curse affects her for life and less than a week from now it flares up and in a moment of horror she attacks our father. He's wounded badly, his eye is lost and most of his left side is rendered usable, but he can no longer carve."
"He can't carve anymore?" At least this time she reacts properly. But don't be too hard on her, after all she doesn't know the truth about Belos or the coven. "Yes, after which Eda feeling guilty runs away and becomes a wild witch. We loose track of her for nearly fifteen years only seeing her on wanted posters. Our relation with our parents aren't much better as we only see them during the holidays, even then it's just for a moment or two as the coven demands all of our time."
"But Belos is all powerful right? Maybe he can cure her if we rise to the top? That's what he does right? We can fix it, and both join the coven, right?"
"That is what he tells us, but that is just one more of his manipulations. Eventually we do capture her, but it turns out he was just after something she had, when he doesn't get it, he orders her very public petrification. We decided to save her, well her and her human apprentice who later becomes our niece."
"What?!"
"Tell you later I promise, anyway seeing her stuck like that and wanting to at least attempt to make amends we split the curse with the pain sharing spell. It does the job, though we both wind up losing our magic, but we find a long lost magic to use and become sisters again after so long."
Now Liltih had expected her younger self to do react any number of ways, from yelling to refusing to believe her, even simply bolting away saying something along the lines of "I'll never be you!"
Stunned silence wasn't what she expected. She just sat there eyes wide, mouth open and hand all but crushing the scroll in her hand.
Then she started taking a series of deep breaths looking at her older self-looking for any kind of lie. Poor thing, look at her hoping beyond hope I'm lying. Looking for anything that would allow her to continue down the path we'd set for ourselves. Anything that wouldn't have to make her realize that everything she'd done was for nothing.
But after a long silence, Lilith simply opened her arms and her younger self launched into them. "I didn't want to hurt her! I promise!"
"I know sweetie trust me I know."
"We were supposed to be together in everything. But she was so talented and I... I-"
"ssshhhhh I know, but we do make up and are a family again. Even reconnected with mom and dad. A lot of things happen in the future, some good, mostly bad but in my present I'm the head of the new Bonsburough Historical Museum. I even put my good friend and confidant Hoostifer in charge of being the curator of it all. He's mostly good at his job, though there is the occasio- okay nearly daily complaint and nearly monthly swallowing of guests but nobody's perfect."
"Who's Hoostifer?"
"He's a sentient owl tube demon that Eda kept as a sort of pet and house demon. At first, I, like most people, despised him, but he helped me when I was feeling low and after talking to him learned he was quite misunderstood. He became me closet friend."
"Okay... but is the emperor's coven really that bad? I know it can be demanding but you get to use all your magic. And he speaks for the titan and promises the day of unity will-"
"Never mention that day again!" After calming down a bit she sighed. "I'm sorry but Belos is lying about everything, he's not even a witch but a centuries old human witch hunter who feeds on palismen to survive. The sigils he created are a trap to not only hinder our use of magic but to kiss us during the day of unity through a massive draining spell. That's been his plan all along, to kill most of us and then escape. Everything else was him twisting the knife. Thankfully our world has been rid of him for years now."
Her mind reeling from this information her younger self-managed to ask. "Even the part about the titan speaking to him?"
At this Lilith smiled and pulled out her scroll showing a picture of King and Lilith. "As it turns out the titans aren't entirely extinct. This is the only known titan child that will hatch in ten years or so. The current son of the tian we live on."
"That's what titans' look like!? He's adorable! Does he have a name? Is he a good ruler after Belos? Do we get to meet him, wait of course we do he's sitting in our lap! I can't wait to tell Eda! She'll freak seeing this. Wait what's his name?"
Oh, this is going to be one for the history books. "Well, he goes by King, but his legal name is King Clawthorne, our beloved nephew."
"WHAT!? Our nephew is the titan's son! We're the aunt of a god!...wait you said nephew which means Eda is is..."
"Adopted mother." she quickly stated. "Eda finds him on an island years from now and at first thinks of him as little more than a random demon until it starts speaking. Truthfully, he didn't know what he was either, not to surprisingly seeing as he's been an egg for a unknown number of centuries. But he doesn't want to be a god or ruler, not after seeing what Belos was. Instead, he's just King and we all love him just the way he is."
She watched as she went through the scroll looking at her life to be and asking questions such as "who's this star child?" or "Why is Eda missing her arm?" and finally "who's this girl Eda is hugging? Is that her daughter? Do we have a niece too? Wait, do we have a kid?"
"That would be Luz Noceda, or as she likes to be called Luz Noceda Clawthorne, Eda's adopted daughter and apprentice. She's a good kid with the biggest heart you've ever seen. But to answer your other questions no we never have a child or even contemplate marriage. But we do have a great relationship with our former apprentice Amity Blight."
"Odalia has a daughter?! By the titan that girl must be just like her."
"At first but after meeting Luz she rebels and is practically family to me."
She wanted to tell her more, but the glyph was nearly gone. "Looks like my time is nearly up."
"What?! No! Can't you stay or use that magic and come again?"
"I'm sorry but no this was a onetime thing. But at least I got to stop myself from making the worst mistake of my life. Now let's get you home before it ends." one flight later and she was dropping her off just as the glyph pulled her back.
Though in a moment of curiosity she turned around just as time began resetting. And to her horror, she saw herself entering Eda's room followed by a flash of light. By the time she got back to the present she was crying and after telling Eda was quickly brought inside and given her stash of ice cream as they talked about their trips.