Don't Eat the Witches Corn (Part II)

Don't Eat the Witches Corn (Part II)
Tamara ushered the three though the long corridor. She exhaled, “The plague has been upon us for a year now. We don’t know where it came from, but before we knew it, it had wiped out all of the people here, along with our crops and other things needed to survive.”

Surveying the expensive seating, and rugs, and endless medical supplies, Lilith heard Elizabeth’s stomach rumble as the smell of food once again hit their noses. She touched the golden walls, “Seems like money isn’t an issue however. Tell me, who’s the disgusting asshole who left the majority of your city to die because they didn’t have money? Who's the greedy prick who locked away all the medical supplies or only the rich?”

Tamara swayed in discomfort, “I know you must think horrible of us, but some must starve so others can eat-”

“Then those some should have included some of the Blue Bloods too.” Unable to hide her glare, she almost growled at her, “There’s more money and things here than you all could ever spend and use in a lifetime.” She closed her eyes, feeling her anger building.

Calm down Lilith...calm down.

She opened them realizing that they’d stop walking. Entering a large room of lively people, everything seemed to stop the moment they saw her, Elizabeth and Morrigan.

“Everyone this is-” She looked at Morrigan and folded her lips. “This is uh-.”

“MORRIGAN!” She roared. “My name is Morrigan!”

“I’m sorry, this is Morrigan, and Lilith...the succubus queen.” Gasp poured around the room as various emotions lined their faces all directed towards Lilith. Some of fear, some of curiosity and some of pure desire. Tamara cleared her throat, “Um, Lilith has also brought Elizabeth with her.”

“Commoner!” A man yelled standing. He slammed his fork down against his plate, “I will not stand for a commoner being here.”

“Then how about I break your legs and give you a permenant fucking seat.” Lilith raged. She looked around the room, “I suggest you all spend less time worry about Elizabeth and more about what’s killing you off.” She pointed to another man, noting the pale blotchiness of his skin, “You infected?”

“Yes”

“Come here.” He stood and hesitantly walked over to her. His breathing labored, it was clear he could hardly stand. Sweat pooled around his neck, drenching his expensive clothing. His hair contained patches and she could see the rawness of his eyes and nose. She turned to Tamara, “Are these the typical symptoms?”

“Yes, the plague works in stages. This is the first stage, hard to breathe, chills, hair loss, cold and flu like symptoms. Phase two is loss of bowels and phase threw complete shut down.”

“That’s fucking disgusting!” Morrigan interrupted. Waving her hand around, she groaned, “This is boring and I better not get infected. You’re asking her stupid questions when we need to be inspecting the hospital grounds for whoever was the first person who passed this shit to the others.”

Lilith rolled her eyes, “You don’t fucking listen. Hectate told us that it isn’t contagious. They all just get sick on their own.” Walking around the large table, she looked from one sick person to the other. Plates stacked with food in front of them, caused her to tilt her head, “Is loss of appetite one of your symptoms?"

Tamara shook her head no, “Oddly no. It’s quite the opposite, those who are infected tend to eat more.”

“Then why isn’t anyone eating?” She heard coughs and watched them look from one to the other in fear and she chuckled, “Listen, don’t stop eating on my behalf.” She grabbed one of the plates from the table and took it to Elizabeth, all the while ignoring the angry stares directed at her.“I know you’re hungry. Sit and eat, they won’t bother you.”

Her little stomach growled again, but she shook her head no. “I’m not supposed to eat that.”

“Shittt I will!” Morrigan shouted as she grabbed another one of the plates. She let out a scoff, “This is probably the only time that you’ll ever be able to get a decent meal and you snub it? Yeah, you’re about as stupid as my sister.”

Lilith cut her eyes at her, before turning her attention back to the child, “Hey, I promise that I won’t let them bother you. Please eat, you’ll feel better.” Elizabeth lifted her shaking hand and took the plate. Her face crumbled as she stared at it afraid of disappointing the woman who’d been so nice to her. Lilith watched her, the smell of something on the plate tickling her nose. “What smells so sweet?” She murmured to herself as she looked from the meats to to the vegetables and other items, not seeing the source.

“I-it’s the corn.” Elizabeth whispered. “It makes it irresistible.”

“Huh? Wha-” Lilith’s face paled as she looked at the large portion of spinach quiche that sat in the middle. She pointed to the plate, “Does this have cornmeal in it?”

Confused, Tamera nodded, “Yes, corn is a staple for us here, it’s what we’re known for. Almost everything we make has corn inside.”

“Fuck!” She screamed. “Morrigan don’t eat anymore of that shit!”

Morrigan rolled her eyes, “What? Now you got a problem with corn? Just admit that you’re no closer to cluing this mystery than I am. Maybe we can get Hectate to call a draw on this one.”

Walking over to her, Lilith slapped the plate out of her hand, “Listen to me for once! It’s the corn, the plague is the corn!” Morrigan spit out the mouthful of food she had and scrapped her tongue in panic. "Lizzy, it’s the corn that’s making everyone sick isn’t it...like the song?!”

She nodded, “She told me to never forget. For any of us to forget that way we knew not to eat any of the corn.”

The entire table began to spit out food everywhere. “Why weren’t we told?!” Someone seethed.

Lilith fumed at them, “Because the people who figured it out, you left them to die. You exiled their children and you took everything for yourselves.” Replaying the song in her head, she paused, “Where did this corn come from?” The entire room hushed, “WHERE DID IT COME FROM?!”

“From Anabelle.” Tamara said quietly.

“Who is Anabelle?”

“She was a witch!” Someone yelled.

“No she wasn’t!” Elizabeth screamed back. “She was nice to us!” She turned to Lilith with tears in her eyes, “Everybody said she was a witch because she lived in the forest and did magic, but it wasn’t magic! S-she helped. I was really sick one time, and she gave my mama something to make me all better. She took care of everyone, she made up stuff with the corn she grew in her fields. She was nice to us, nice to everyone.”

“Tamara-” Lilith said through clenched teeth, “Anabelle was a medicine woman for the poor, wasn’t she?”

She shook her head in shame, “She just wouldn’t stop and it was affecting the taxes. We needed the commoners to come to the hospital.”

“How?! They couldn’t fucking afford it!” Tamara stood silent, and Lilith looked around seeing the guilt on everyone’s faces. “What the fuck did you all do?”

“We tried to reason with her. To stop the medicine work and sell us the corn she grew but she refused.”

“So you stole it, and killed her…”

Tamara’s hands shook, “W-we just wanted to scare her a bit to get her to waver, but she wouldn’t leave the field! It didn’t matter how many is us surrounded her, she wouldn’t leave and kept saying she would be there for the poor as long as they needed her. So we raised the taxes and made things even more scarce and eventually we got them on our sides. When she found out they betrayed her, she turned into something else entirely. Something dark and when we went back to the fields, she stood once again, but this time, she grinned at us.”

She began to shake, “I will never forget that awful grin. She said ‘you wanted a witch, you got one.’ she raised her hand, and out of fear someone-” She covered her mouth, “I-it was an accident.”

Lilith stared at her in pure disgust, “There was nothing about that, that was an accident.” Finally realizing the magnitude, she turned to Elizabeth, “It wasn’t your parents who taught you that song, was it? It was Anabelle.”

She nodded, “She said never forget...we tried to tell our parents, but they wouldn’t listen….no one ever listens when you're not a grownup.”

Lilith inhaled sharply, “Stop eating the corn. You spilled the blood of it's true owner inside it's fields and yet you greedily continue to it it. It is not yours and it is poisoning you as you have poisoned your own home with your greed and hatred towards those who have less than you. Hundreds have died because of your arrogance, do you wish to continue down this path? There are children who line your streets destitute and without families because of what YOU have done.”

Her eyes bore into them, “You are going to rectify this because it was one of those very children who has saved your lives today.” She smiled small thinking of Jayden. “I know someone who has more than he could ever know what to do with, and yet he still holds more compassion than anyone I know. I suggest you learn a fraction of a level of this compassion because it’s clear Anabelle is protecting these children, continue as you are, you will die whether you continue to eat the corn or not.”

Appearing in front of her Hectate clapped his hands slowly. “Well done Lilith.” He said.

She shook her head, “But I don’t know how to cure them. What about the children? Elizabeth? I can't just leave them.”

“That wasn’t the requirement of this test. The requirement was that one of you was to figure out how to provide assistance.” He pointed to Elizabeth, “You did. You brought the answer with you, without knowing. You showed compassion, patience, and equality all the things that were to be a part of this test. You have passed, congratulations and do not worry of Elizabeth or the others, after today their lives will be for the better, that is my word.”

Before she could respond, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Jumping she collided with a massive chest. Turning she looked up at Jayden who smiled big at her. “You know, you’re sexy as hell when you’re being all nurturing and stuff.”

Her face flushed, “Don’t make me blush like an idiot when I’m being tested, I need to be serious.”

He chuckled and pouted, “Right, right.” He lifted his head and looked around at the people of Thule, “Damn, this is some severe food poisoning.”

Her eyes widened, “H-how did you know that?”

He gave her a smug look in response, “Because I know my shit, just like my lady knows hers. Liam said he got to see you when you passed, so since I’m here, I know you passed and I’m beyond proud of you.”

Face completely flushed, she wrapped her arms around his waist, “Really? I made you proud?”

“You always do.” Leaning in to kiss her, he paused, “Who’s the dude looking over here like he’s about to blow a gasket?”

She turned around, and then let out a loud laugh, “That’s not a dude that is Morrigan.”

He retched his head back at Morrigan, “Lord, Liam was right. The more time that passes, the more the ugly on your inside seeps to your out.”

“Fuck off!” She shouted, throwing the plate at him.

Effortlessly ducking it, he laughed, “Aim as shitty as that attitude too.” He cleared his throat, “Now? Where was I? Oh yea-” Looking around again, he scrunched his face at the people staring at him. “The hell yall looking at?”

“Y-you're Prince Jayden…” Someone murmured.

He arched his brow, “Okay? So that means you gotta stare at a brother?” His eyes whitened, “Staring makes me uncomfortable. Like you plotting some shit, and I just heard yall do fucked up shit in fields, and I DAMN sure ain’t about no fields. So somebody better say something before I-”

“Woah! No!” Tamara belted, mortified. “It’s just we heard the stories about the succubus queen's love for the four incubus brothers, but we thought that’s all they were, just stories.”

Calming, he nodded, “Oh, well shit, say that next time. I almost tore this tacky ass room up.” He huffed, “I’m already on edge from Lil disappearing.”

Lilith rubbed his arm, “I’ll be back soon as I finish beating my sister’s ass.” She gave him a serious look, “I might be two for two but I need to be all four, because I can’t lose any of you or my powers.”

Clasping her face, Jayden kissed her deeply and whispered against her lips. “You won’t Lil, we’re rooting for you. You got this. Oh and before you ask, yes, I'll bring you back here to visit."