Lillian’s life has been a lot different than most people’s. Sure, as a child she had a caring father, and a roof to sleep under, and food on the table when she was hungry. But that’s pretty much the extent of its normality -- not that you could expect any more from someone who was born into a Dark Guild.
Her parents, Kalius and Lilith Drew, were each mages, and each the result of rough childhoods of their own. Two factors which aided in pushing them towards their place in a Dark Guild. The two met relatively early in each of their times within the guild, but it wasn’t until some eight years later that they romanticized one another and eventually came to bare a child in little Lilliana. It was both one of the happiest and saddest days in the life of Kalius, as he received his baby daughter, but in the same hand lost his wife to unforeseen birth complications. Despite the dread that overtook him, he persisted in trying to raise his daughter in his wife’s memory.
From that day Lillian’s life moved forward under her father’s care, until she could learn to talk, and walk, and eventually begin actual schooling. Over the years her father watched over her, spending the money he and his wife had saved so that he wouldn’t have to leave to go attend his job in the guild - but once she began school he too began again, telling Lillian some details about his work whenever she got curious, but always saying “You’ll see more when you’re older.” when she got too excited.
It seemed “older” wouldn’t be too far off, either. At the very beginning of her teen years, Lillian’s father told her of the power that had been put within her when she was very young -- the power of a Dragon Slayer - just like him. She was somewhat confused, curious, and ecstatic all at the same time as he began to tell her of what training he had planned for her. He was a little surprised at how readily she took on his instruction as they began to experiment with her magic, testing the waters. Over her years in school, coming home was her favorite part of the day, but likely for a different reason than most students. As soon as she got home she would seek out her father, the energy that had been drained by the school day flaring back to life within her. Even on days he wasn’t there, she would train by herself if she could.
As the years passed eventually her father thought she would be ready to take on her first official mission for the guild. Accompanying them on the mission would be one of the other higher ranking members(just like her father, but younger) of the guild, Tygan, whom seemed to have an alright relationship with her dad.
The mission was simple. Ward off some villagers from their homes and then ransack the place as they scattered. Sounded rather easy, considering none of the villager had any magical abilities, according to their information. And it was indeed easy - the only problem was, Tygan didn’t really follow the plan. The Dark guild mage took his Fire Magic to the houses, setting them ablaze without even a warning to those inside, right in front of Kalius and his daughter. Now, Kalius wasn’t a good man. In fact, he was by definition a bad man. But he didn’t burn innocent people alive for no reason - especially not women and children.
Lillian’s dad called for the other mage to stop - to no avail, of course. He took it upon himself to put his own magic to use, blasting a furious stream of white flames out of his mouth and coating Tygan’s flames in his own, the former blaze being snuffed out almost immediately as Lillian watched. This obviously angered the other mage, who had a word of two to jab at Kalius - who spoke back with just as much vigor. The two were locked in a stalemate until Tygan relaxed his shoulders and let out a laugh, patting Kalius on the shoulder as he walked away from the scorched homes.
“The girl has made you soft, Kalius.”
Kalius led his daughter away from the stemmed wreckage of the village and back home, seemingly no longer interested in the job. This method of training carried on for a few years, Kalius trying his best to separate his daughter from Tygan’s antics, Lillian growing more magically independent as time grew on. It wasn’t until an especially large mission that Lillian met Tygan once again - though this time there were other mages coming along with the trio, so Kalius felt confident it wouldn’t go as badly as missions with him had been over the years.
He was wrong. In fact, sone of the other mages joined in on his cruelty. Kalius wasn’t new to this spectacle, but only now - when he had his daughter to influence and teach - did he realize how wrong it was to affiliate with these people. He stopped the carnage once again with his Nullfire, earning more than one skeptical look from the other mages as they shrugged off his attempt at peacekeeping and moved on.
It was some months later that Lilliana found herself on her way home from town, groceries and weekly supplies in her arms - but only until she looked into the sky and saw a thick pillar of billowing black smoke ascending into the sky from above their secluded home. She dropped her things and ran home as fast as she could where her father was waiting for her return.
And was he waiting. Lillian saw the smoke grow thicker as she closed in on the home and saw the roaring flames that coating the home from base to roof. She felt her heart jump into her throat as she saw the intensity of the damage. She panicked as she tried to look through the windows, to no avail. She heard a call as she rounded the house, trying to find some way of seeing if her father was caught in the flames. She ran around to the back of the house and found him lying on the ground, trying to drag himself to his feet, attempting to use a tree as support. She rushed over to try and help him up into a sitting position against the tree, looking over him. He was burned horribly. Most of his skin was burned off and he groaned repeatedly in agony at each repeating, quick movement of his chest. She burst into tears as she saw his condition. There was no hope of his survival. She sat with him for many minutes, crying and trying to comfort him in any way she could.
After a fashion, it was clear he was passing.
“Go.” He voiced. It sounded like speaking took everything he had left in him.
Lillian looked up, trying to see his burned and torn face through her tears. “What? No. No. I can’t.”
“Go...away from here.” He croaked. “You know...what.. I’ve taught you..” He gasped out in pain as he spoke.
“I can’t leave you, dad.”
He remained silent for a short while, the only sound between the two of them the sounds of his pained breaths and the burning, collapsing house nearby.
“Your mother...would be so proud...of you.”
As he spoke his last breath, she gasped out a cry and felt it catch in her throat as a faint chill ran over her skin. The color in his eyes began to fade more than she ever thought was possible before his eyes closed, a weird feeling falling gently to the pit of her stomach.
It took Lillian several hours to pull herself off the tear-laden ground. She didn’t know what to do. Everything she had known was...her father was gone. She had nobody else.
She spent that night propped up against the tree directly opposite her father, her eyes still glossed over and dropping tears onto her pants. Each movement of the leaves in the corner of her vision caused her eyes to snap up to her father. She hoped against all hope that he would somehow get up and be okay. But he wouldn’t. When she woke up around noon after collapsing from exhaustion, he hadn’t moved an inch.
It took her every bit of willpower she had left to stand up. And then she walked. Where? She didn’t know. Somewhere.
She walked for a while, and it gave her time to try and think. So many emotions swam through her head and she didn’t know what to feel besides sorrow. But eventually one emotion broke through. Rage. How did this happen? Who did this? Why would someone do this? It had to be someone. She recalled the last conversation her father had with one guild member specifically - Tygan. It had been a pretty...heated..
Her emotions became enflamed with rage and her body moved before she could even think about it. Her feet hit the ground hard one in front of the other as she sprinted towards the guild. She didn’t care that she had felt far too exhausted to run before - her anger fueled her and her body felt numb as he ran and ran.
She entered the town and kept running right down the street towards the guild. As she grew closer it took every speck of willpower she had to slow her pace to a fast walk. Her eyes flicked to a stand as she passed by it, her hand darting out to swipe a blade off of the stand. She tucked it into the back of her belt as she pushed the guild doors open and didn’t break stride as her eyes ripped through the room, looking for...him.
Her footsteps sounded across the wood and she knew people were looking at her, but she didn’t care to look at them. She walked across the room to where he sat, bot caring to stop for a single step.
“YOU!” She screamed.
The man reared his ugly face and looked back, with a momentary look of intrigue before his face settled into a half-smug grin of realization. “Oh hello there, Ms. Drew. What brings you-“
She never stopped. She was upon him before he could finish standing and she grasped the blade behind her back, drawing it out and earning a wide-eyed look from the mage. His words caught in his throat -- and then so did the knife. His hand raised as the blade just began to pierce his flesh, the air in front of it broiling before exploding into a gush of liquid flame that slammed into Lilliana, completing engulfing her arm and part of her jaw as the older mage misjudged his shot in his moment of panic. Both of them fell to the ground, one screaming in pain and the other completely silent.
Lilliana tried to stem the burning magic even as it seared and melted through her flesh, only managing to do so after it was far too late to save her arm. Her vision blurred as she expelled the energy from her body, her peripheral swimming with movement and even the sound of her own groans of agony growing feint. She weakly tried to move her arms to try and get up, but only one of them moved. She felt her body roll over onto her back and her head rest against the wooden floor in the middle of the guild as her woulds begged her for mercy. It wasn’t long before she lost consciousness.
She woke up somewhere else. She was looking up at the sky. She was wet. She tried to more her head, only for a groan to escape her lips. Did she hit her head that hard when she fell? She willed herself to look around, and found the she was lying on a riverbank, mud clinging to her clothes and an unforgiving bed of rocks beneath her. The guild must’ve dumped her here to die. Her eyes moved to her arm.
And she almost shoved it away. It...didn’t look like the burns her father had. Her arm was - she slowly reached towards it with her other hand. She placed her hand on it, and it felt rough. Coarse. She slid her hand down the arm, expecting a deep painful sensation, but she felt nothing. Oddly enough, her arm felt.. scaly. It had wide, thin, black scales plated up it, encompassing what should be her right arm. She looked down and her hand looked the same, ending in dull-clawed fingers. What was happening to her? Had Tygan done this? No.. why would he?
She tried to stand using her left arm for support, but found her body exhausted. She tried again, placing the blackened hand against the mud and rocks, and pushed herself up until she could manage to find her footing. Once again, she walked. She didn’t know where she was or where she was going, but she walked.
Eventually she found her way to a place she’d been to only one or two times before - Crocus. It was almost a year later there that she joined her first legitimate guild: Fenixtear. It’s been a weird few months since she joined, but she at least feels relatively safe.