- And then flings herself at the Demon Queen's midriff, hugging her and bursting into messy, uncontrolled tears.

...Unexpected.

Pat pat.

Snuggle sob. (She tries to curl into a more comfortable position.)

Ugh.

All right. How about if she deposits the girl in one of the reading chairs, how about that.

Noooo she's clinging.

Guhhhh okay sixty seconds more then she's getting pushed off.

Before that sixty seconds is up: "Why do you want me to hate you?" she asks, voice still thick with tears. 

"Mmm. Mythic resonance. There is a limit to how much power can feasibly be drawn from the environment and oneself, which means that at the very high end of ritual magic... alternative... sources must also be employed."

"You're going to sacrifice me?"

"I am going to use your power to increase my own."

"Which will kill me?"

"Ideally, yes."

She doesn't stop clinging. "Why ideally?"

"Because then the ritual will have worked at full power."

Nnnn. This is hard to wrap her mind around when she's this upset. But... There's something that's easier to think and say when she's rubbed raw like this, and that's: "Do I have to hate you?"

(Being hurt repeatedly, seriously enough to keep her hatred up, sounds horrible right now, the worst part of this, though might sound less bad if she wasn't so emotionally drained that she didn't know if she still hated the Demon Queen or not. (Because if her hatred has actually waned, and she isn't just tired, then - then her life will get a lot lot worse, if today and yesterday weren't enough.))

"At the end, yes."

"...Not right now?

"...As long as you can go back later."

...That's a very very hard implied question. "Dunno," she mutters. "Could tomorrow. Probably could in years, but - dunno." (The kind of adulthood where people normally go off to war and fight and kill is more than her entire life again away from her, and a far greater multiple of the life she remembers. Even a single year feels like an eternity in which anything can happen.)

"We'll revisit the topic later, then."

"...Kay."

For now, the hug will be allowed to continue.

Good.

Though both being alone with her thoughts and serious talking hurt right now. So - can the Demon Queen tell her more about magic? (While hugging.)

That seems like an efficient use of time.

Heeee. Then: magic! (Lily is a lot more open with her thoughts currently, though her general exhaustion is making having those hard. Still, she pushes through it.)