Queen's note: do I have a cool name for this chapter? No. Did I have a plan? I'll say I did. It was supposed to be a shorter scene to transfer into the next but hot damn I kinda like the way this is, as is. Lily will need to sit down with Asa and Vega later once she's able to think better though.

Garnets

Chapter Thirty Seven:

Grounded

Valen slowed his fast pace as he spotted his charge and breathed a relieved sigh. Walking back into the cold things aisle, "Lily?"

The woman flinched at the voice startled before looking around. She was avoiding looking to her right, letting the older Argenta man know that she was definitely still seeing things.

Valen stopped, pulling the cart aside and then lifting the girl up into his arms. Pressing his head against her own, as his helmet was attached to his hip right then. He could feel the human tensing for a moment as she gripped a cold box, then almost tentatively leaned back into Valen's hold.

Lily freed a hand to make sure his armor was real.

"You don't have to do this my girl." Valen said, wondering what Lily was seeing.

"...it's helping me stay grounded." Lily spoke in a small, exhausted voice. She was as relaxed as she could be, and it was more limp really.

"What are you seeing?" Valen asked, shifting to free his free left arm. The metallic had gently smoothing over Lily's cheek, not for the first time wondering where the traces of red blood came from on her. It was dry stains that slightly crumbled under his fingers as proof it was real, and different then the demonic blood splatters.

"...dad's here." Lily whispered as she hid against Valen, not for the first time. "I can see him wandering around, or standing beside me. Or others that were at the platform… I can hear mom outside humming."

There was a pause, and Lily struggled for a moment to not look up. "...I can see that Sentinel from the dark place too. Just glimpses out of the corner of my eye. Is this really going to last?"

"Not forever." Valen promised, running the hand through the soft, short hair. "You didn't get the blood from the pearl on you. Can you hold on for a few days?"

"...I don't know." Lily admitted, wincing at the wine in her voice. Feeling herself starting to cry again before daring to peek up, and when Valen looked normal to herself she looked fully. "...do you hate me now? For what I did? For being so stupid?"

Valen looked surprised, and felt something burn in his chest before he shifted to enclose the human in as tight of a hold as he dared. Pressing his head against her dirty hair. "I don't think I can ever hate you, my little lake lily. I was scared then, more terrified than I think I would have been able to show normally."

The Argenta took a deep breath, and stood upright to look at Lily for a moment and waited until she was looking back up at his face. Noting how her normally bright eyes were shadowed, dulled from what had just happened. She was struggling to breath, but not nearly as much as he feared Lily would with giving the mask up to the other human.

"I can't promise I'll let you back on the planet." Valen noted, smiling at the selflessness he kept glimpsing in his charge. He pressed his head against Lily as she finally smiled and hugged the human again. "You're definitely not leaving the Fortress if I can help it, I think, for some time."

"So I'm grounded?" Lily snorted, and curled up against the safety she knew. "I don't think I mind. I'm scared to stay here… or come back…"

Valen winced at that last whispered admission, humming an old lullaby he used to hear his wife sing to comfort their son when he was tiny. Just standing with holding Lily for a while, giving reassurance as Valen himself was comforted by the still human presence of her. No alterations, other than red patches where the Wretched's blood had gotten on her.

Valen shifted his hold to rub his thumb on Lily's cheek again as he realized it almost looked like there was a hand print. "Where did you go?"

"What?" Lily looked confused as she looked up, puzzled. "In the illusion?"

"When your soul almost left your body." Valen shook his head, "I felt it, for just a heartbeat, before you stabilized. You have mentioned three different places."

Lily looked sick suddenly, clutching the cooling box. "...that was probably real huh? I'm all back right?"

"You are you, and here." Valen said, regretting asking now. "Trust me, if it would not be me doing so, then the Slayer would track down your soul no matter where it is to bring you back."

"That's a strange concept to think about." Lily muttered, sounding a little more like her normal as her mind was caught and distracted by that impossible image given.

"You just… slipped. Something that can happen to anyone in a near death situation." Valen took a deep breath, and then found himself adding, "You don't have to share-"

"I think I was in hell." Lily spoke, inadvertently interrupting. Staring at the half emptied freezer, finally letting go of the box to let it rest on her front. "There was fighting, and a Sentinel bleeding through his armor. I heard you, I think John too?"

"My memory, the illusion I was trapped in," Valen winced, shifting to lean on the clear freezer doors. "I had hoped it was just my nightmare seeing you with my son."

"...he was crushed by that thing?" Lily looked up, remembering something sharp and metallic.

Valen gave a firm shake of his head, "No. The difference of a Wretched's delusions and what really happen… My son died on his feet, using everything that was left of himself to kill a larvae Titan just inside the gates of hell. I couldn't get to his body in time, so his soul could pass on to the nest reborn life. My King waded into the rotting sea of the titan's blood to get the body ...but it was too late. Vito's soul was lost in hell."

Lily sat up in Valen's arms so abruptly and stiffly she might have fallen from his hold if he had not reflexively been holding onto her tighter.

The image of her possessed father in the aisle faded as Lily stared up at Valen's face. "What did you say?"

Valen blinked, startled himself and shifted his arms to keep Lily stable as she came alive for the lack of a better word. "What you saw wasn't how my son really died-"

"No, no, the name you just said?" Lily was looking at him with widening eyes. She both was and was not quite scared.

"Vito?" Valen looked even more confused and a bit worried. "My son was named after his mother, Tolin, and myself. Her idea was to mix our names…"

"He had your eyes, and black hair didn't he?" Lily asked without thinking, and felt the reflective squeeze of Valen's hands before he made himself stop to not hurt.

The older Argenta man took a few carefully deep breaths, trying to ignore the shutter he felt in his chest. Valen slowly sank into a kneeling position, and then sat. "What did you see Lily?"

Lily trembled in his arms, starting to cry without meaning to, as she realized something was off. "That fight… battle was your nightmare… Being trapped at the bottom of the almost bottomless canyon was mine."

Valen reflexively held her tighter to him at the mention of the canyon oddly.

"...so that dark place with him… wasn't an illusion, delusion…or nightmare tied to that demon you all killed?"

Valen took several deep breaths, aware of one of the Sentinels at the very end of the aisle that came to check in on them. Unlike earlier that day, he had much better control of his emotions, despite needing to sit. The man made sure to center himself, took a deeper breath and then looked down. Finding his old parental instincts still held strong.

He had made himself calm down, and stable, and the younger human was if not settled. At least calmer in his arms as she reacted to his steady breathing. "You remember something when your soul…slipped?"

Lily nodded quietly, her back starting to loosen again against the curve of Valen's arm. "I felt like I was in a.. current almost? In the water, it was so dark, but the water didn't reflect the stars. Then he pulled me out of the current."

"The stream between lifetimes." Valen breathed, and stooped to press his head against Lily's. He suddenly was very grateful that his wraith gift had worked. "It's a place we know on Argent D'nur, that's between lives. Before the afterlife if you will, when a soul travels to their new reborn life... Vito was there?"

He hesitantly added, "How far in the current?"

"I don't know, I just remember feeling it and then getting pulled out?" Lily tilted her head as her eyes she thought. Blinking at the relieved sigh beside her.

"You did not go in properly then, good." Valen paused, looking conflicted for a moment. "What did Vito say?"

"'Don't look at him. Don't let him see your soul.'" Lily quoted roughly, pausing to cough and then looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers. "There was… something else there. I don't remember a lot of if. He was chained to it and bleeding on me. It scared me, the other thing, but he kept me from looking. And showed me…this?"

She stared at her hands as there was a faint glimmer of silver around her fingers. It faded before the wraith energy could really form as Lily really did not have that much control, if any. "That's right, he showed me this. How to save you from the Wretched. He said it wasn't…your…or king's fault? Either? Both. It's kind of hazy now. And then he pushed me back."

Lily looked up, finding Valen had his eyes closed as he was breathing steady. Did that help him at all? She could not get a read as what bit of energy she had was dropping again.

The young woman was not so sure if she wanted to sleep at all. That medical coma of before, or the stasis pod seemed better if it was dreamless.

…would John mind if she gave into the childish desire to sleep in his bed?

"...you are definitely 'grounded.'" Valen said unexpectedly as he pulled Lily up and held her tight, not unlike how the Slayer would as he pressed their heads together. Making the human wonder if this was an Argenta sign of affection after all, and that the demigod picked up on?

"Okay," Lily agreed, happy to be squished a bit despite a wheeze. Not the same as when John did it, but acceptable. It probably would not be hard to get one from him now. She could just stand next to him and wait to be picked up. Or ask.

Sitting like this with Valen was nice though. He loosened his hold to let her breath, but she evidently was not aloud down. The small wiggle was only allowed for Lily to settle comfortably.

"Valen?" Lily asked as she heard the portal to the Fortress opening for the others to start moving supplies through.

"Yes, my girl?" The older Argenta man glanced down, glad that for once this day he could control his reactions. Not wanting to show how scared he was, that he had almost lost Lily's soul twice in a few minutes. Her seeing Vito before the moment he saw…

"That demon, the Wretched?" Lily looked back to see someone in armor passing by with one of the carts filled before. "What did it mean, calling me a gorgon's daughter?"

"...you understood the demonic language?" Valen was just able to hold back his worry, and his voice and expression was more surprised.

"I don't know?" Lily frowned, "I know I couldn't before, but something felt like it cracked in my chest, and after seeing that red canyon I sort of understood that last bit? I'm not…going to turn into a monster like my parents did right?"

"Never," Valen said firmly, looking down fully at his charge. "Everyone has reflections of what their souls could turn into. You might have traits from your mother, as mothers will always pass on parts of themselves to their children. Just like I can become a Marauder if I 'fall' to corruption or lose all of my wraith gift."

"...the demon meant my mother didn't it?" Lily asked as she thought about the half words she heard as she was being held up from behind.

"Yes, likely. It was big news in hell when she was reborn there." The man thought about it and asked, "What did you understand?"

"...ah, 'gorgon child', and 'mortal daughter'... I think? It seemed almost insulted and then… excited." Lily thought for a moment and then looked up to meet the obsidian gaze. "Is mom, what my mom turned into… looking for me? But that demon seemed like it wanted to tear me apart."

"Possibly." Valen aloud as he thought. "And, the Wretched likely thought you had a crystal heart already."

"...like dad?" Lily's eyes widened as she thought of the crucible her father was inside of. Then she had a strange expression, "...I'm not going to be put in a sword thing am I?"

"No." Valen leveled a look down at the child he held, unimpressed. Then he added in a firmer tone, "If something ever did happen close to that, I will kill the unkillable to keep you safe. Besides."

Her guardian shifted, lifting a hand and pulling down the collar of Lily's shirt to tap a metal finger on a spot just under her collar bone. Inadvertently making Lily cough as she reached up to his wrist, startled.

"You still can't breathe well Lily." Valen said with a now fond smile, "Your chest is not hollowed out, my little lake lily, like a full Gorgon. Nor are there crystal growths on you, breaking through the skin."

"Like dad was?" Lily thought, thinking of her changed father before he was crucible. Finding herself reaching for the gold chain on her neck as Valen pulled his hand back and finding the rings to fiddle with.

"Yes." Valen seemed to consider something. "But you haven't had any of those drastic signs. There's a chance that… You said before you were alone on that… sea platform? With your parents."

"For a few months." Lily thought back to their first conversation. She reached to her left arm and looked at the pale scars where that infection was. Where John had taken out both the blue claw tip from her father and then another small silver of something gold? "You were surprised I was alone there for so long and not 'charmed.' Did something happen to me back then?"

Valen was struck once more that Lily could pick up some things fast, reminding him she was not really a child despite the size of the girl. He took a deep breath, wanting to lie but not having the heart to do so. "There is a chance, my lake lily, given how the Wretched reacted. That you do have a crystal heart as well. Or the start of one."

"Is that why my chest has been hurting since the demon?" Lily asked, surprising Valen as he looked down at her. She glanced up and then added, "It felt like something was… cracking in all that chaos. Not anymore. But it could be the air here."

"Or both." Valen frowned, trying to remember what he had learned of Gorgons in his time in hell. "We'll have Asa look at you back in the fortress. But you don't feel any different than before, just… I may have used a little too much wraith energy."

"Little?" Lily asked in a bemused tone, looking around and jumped as she saw something that was not there. Reflexively leaning into Valen before recognizing whatever it was, was not real. She swallowed. "I don't think I like this. Or that down there. Is there a way to go back to a few weeks ago and hide?"

Valen shook his head, "As much as I agree, no one can stop the flow of time."

Lily leaned against Valen and tried to cuddle against his chest plate to distract herself. Or ground herself away from the hallucination. "...I don't want to be a monster like mom."

Or a living sword.

Maybe a pretty thing to sit on a shelf if she could get cuddles.

"You won't be," Valen promised, and then snorted, "Not if I can help it. Definitely not with the Slayer around and attached to you. His raw stubbornness is legendary for some very good reasons. As I said, you've been adopted into the protection of one of the few real gods left Lily. He likely can never willingly let you go… I doubt I can either."

"So I'm stuck with the big guy?" Lily looked down, as if she could see that thread of warmth she had yanked that was in her chest. If anything it felt more like a string of yarn than a thread.

Oddly, the thought did not bother Lily. As she did feel safest with John and Valen around.

"Very much so," Valen huffed and then chuckled. "If anyone can make sure you stay you, for as long as possible, he'll likely be it. Or find a way to break reality at this point."

"Lets not give him that idea," Lily worried, as the Demigod already seemed impossible enough as he was.

"True enough." Valen nodded, then he looked up and over at movement again.

"Lord Commander." Captain Mila called in warning as she started to come over. She was still in full armor with her helmet on, and tapping the side of it. "I apologize for interrupting. But there is an… Incident with the War King. Vega says he needs someone that can speak a human language that's not Argenta like?"

"Oh dear." Lily blinked, feeling Valen heaving a deep sigh before getting up. She shifted with him but was not put down.

"What did that bastard king get into?" Valen demanded.

"He, um," Mila paused, "...is kidnapping a child?"

Lily was starting to see a theme to who John was willing to let into the Fortress. Or the humans he had the luck to find.

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