Lillia stepped into darkness. A jump fifteen, or a memory trial, otentially life alteri. At the very least, she’d have to recall a life alteri.

  The cold silence did not intimidate her. She had been prepping for this for a long time.

  “My name is Lillia ce,” Lillia called out into the darkness. “I do not his expio me, I’m fully aware of what a jump fifteen is, as well as its history."

  A deep voi the darkness spoke.

  “I appreciate your self-fidehe voice said. “Shall we begin, then?”

  A gmorous door appeared before Lillia, covered in a mosaic of gemstones and mirrors. Lillia saw her distorted image reflected across the small pieirror.

  “Yes,” Lillia said, marg over and opening the door without hesitation.

  Lillia now stood in a field of flowers, much like the oside the void temple. She saw herself in the distaanding in a nightgown in bare feet, twirling as she danced majestically.

  A strale lowered, no doubt an addition of the dreamlike nature of the void’s memory trial. It said, “Lillia ce at Thirteen.”

  “I am the princess of Jecruible,” the other Lillia said.

  Lillia felt the strange sensation of her present self fading away as she watched her past self. She was just a spectator now.

  “As a princess, I-I, um, ca-’t remember, ht of course. I am to be the queen someday, and therefore…I must.”

  “OK, that’s good.” A woman said. The spotlights shoht in Lillia’s eyes and she walked to the edge of the stage.

  “How…did I do—"

  “Please refrain from speaking to the director,” a man in an e beret that had a tiny mustache said. He was seated o the woman. “Unless she direbsp;you to speak to her. Eh?”

  The woman wasn’t impressed. Lillia felt her stomach turn in knots.

  “Rather mediocre, wasn’t it?” The py director said, turning to the mustaan. “!”

  Lillia kept her face stone as she walked off stage. In the ging room, she let her lip quiver when no ohere was looking.

  The curtains drew, and when they parted again, Lillia was home, staring in a er quietly. Her father was w nearby, attempting to fix one of the gss doors on the family’s trophy shelf.

  “You know, normally a py wouldn’t have the set built for rehearsals,” Lillia’s father said as he attempted to finagle a piece of gss bato the door. “Or have you in e. That speaks to a director with bad managerial skills.”

  Lillia’s mother stepped into the room, giving the famous gre only the women of the ce family had mastered.

  “And also, because she was very rude to you,” her father said. “That speaks to poor directorial skills.”

  “Lillia, my poor dear,” Lillia’s mother said. “You put too much of a burden on yourself. There will be maer pys for you.”

  Lillia didn’t ahe door her father tried to fix screeched as he shoved the gss pane in, smming the door. The sm of the door bumped a few trophies down. They nded with various ks and ks at Lillia’s feet. There were sce trophies for Ly ce, a future doctor trophy for her, and even a 'promisih metal band' trophy. For Lilith, there were many trophies that all had some variant of 'young genius' on them.

  “Don’t pare yourself to them,” her mother said.

  “The older you get, the more trophies you’ll receive,” Her father said.

  “Right! You’ll catch up to them!”

  “Lilith is youhan me,” Lillia said.

  “…Ah.” Her mother said as her father stammered.

  “I’m going to my room,” Lillia said as she got up. She smmed the door to her room as the curtains drew again.

  Now, Lillia was at a sce fair. The void sign above her said “Lillia ce at Eight.”

  She couldn’t stand to look at it. A red ribbon on her experiment about the effects a i fang has on an ice cube. She’d spent hours trying to make the dispy look perfect.

  “Lillia, Lilliaaaaa,” a young girl said as she tugged on Lillia’s shirt.

  “What is it, Lilith?” Lillia asked.

  “Look what I got,” Lilith said, holding up a blue ribbon.

  “What?” Lillia said. “How did you…they let you enter?”

  “Of course they did, because I am a genius.” Lilith said. “gratute me. I crave gratutions!”

  “gratutions, Lilith.” Lillia said, a pit f iomach.

  “Yay! What did you get? Oh.” Lilith said as she saw the ribbon.

  “Yeah, oh.” Lillia said.

  Lillia heard Lilith start to cry.

  “You’re so mean to me!” Lilith said as she ran off.

  Lillia sighed, feeliired as the curtains drew on her again.