voices

She'd gotten used to hearing the voices of the dead.

Once she'd first noticed them, they were always there. Faint whispers, barely understood, on the edges of all sound. Tuning them out was easy enough, as they often faded into silence underneath the din of ordinary life. Most never had much important to say, anyway, tied to some lives that were none of her business.

This place, her home... right from the start she knew it had been different. The whispers tugged at her attention for reasons, at first, she couldn't understand. She felt every hair stand on end as they reached her ears, even as the words still eluded her.
At first, she dismissed it. Simply reliving unpleasant memories, confronting much less literal demons for a change. Nothing more than the weight of two centuries.

It was only after her brother's body faded, hs words had truly sunk in, that they started to make sense.

/Liliana, there you are!/
/You have to help us. /
/Help us find him. /
/Put him to rest, the poor thing. /
/We can save him./

She wanted to scream at them, force them silent and tell them that the job was done, but they still clung to that useless vigil, as spirits do. But, as she'd gotten so used to doing, she stayed silent and firm. No one would see weakness in her. No one.

Even as more voices played in her head. There were so many now, fighting for attention in her skull. Who even knew which were her own thoughts anymore? Every day, especially in this damned place, she had to shout louder and louder just to hear herself.

Who was she really, buried under centuries of lies and manipulation? No one else knew. That would have been fine if she herself wasn't starting to forget. Did she ever know?

/Gods,/ she thought, /I'm starting to sound like Jace./

Another voice. A memory. The scream of a man on the verge of death. A stab in her chest that happened too quickly for her to tamp down.

She hoped and prayed that her last ally wouldn't notice the tremble that had grown in her hands underneath her cold demeanor, lest the last of her identity be torn away. Not even she knew what lay underneath.