[Prologue] Hidden Behind the Mask

|| She could still remember when her mother had decided her future for her. Lillith had just turned sixteen, and her mother had told that she had found a suitable man for her to marry. "I don't see why you can't just let me make my own decisions about my life?" Her mother had only shook her head before going on about the man she was to marry. "You are a bight young girl, but you have no name. No hope of rising above your station beyond the opportunities I'm giving you. The man inherited his father's fishery. You should want for little." Lilith groaned at this, crossing her arms in resistance. Ever since she was young, she was different from all the other girls. Even different from the boys. She didn't want to play pretend. She didn't particularly like games, other than hide and seek. Even the roughhousing of the boys didn't appeal to her. She liked when someone else got hurt, but when it happened to herself it wasn't enjoyable. But her mother was always constantly on her about "Appearances" so she never got a chance to be herself. Instead, she had to pretend to be just another average girl. She had to pretend that she was excited about the prospect of being married off to some, most likely, older man who would look at her as only some sort of trophy and or slave. "I don't want to marry someone I don't care about!" Her mother walked up towards her, grabbing her arm tightly. Her mother didn't usually get fierce with Lilith, only when she was adamant about resisting her mother. "You will do as I say, or you only descend the social ladder." She gave Lilith a cuff on the ear before releasing her arm, "And you will find yourself without a home. I did not raise a daughter just to have my image ruined." Lilith wanted very badly to shout 'I don't care about your image', but she curbed her tongue. She breathed deeply, before nodding. "Good. You'll begin your journey to Stony Shores by the morrow." || The journey had been the longest one she had ever been on, taking three days. When she arrived at the small village, she found a man two decades older than her waiting with an impatient expression. "Come on, we don't have all day. I need to be at the fishery, and you need to be ridding yourself of those gaudy clothes." Lilith fought the urge to grab her father's dagger out of her pack and stab him with it. But instead she put on a smile. If she killed him now, her mother would just marry her off to someone else, and she had a plan that she wouldn't ruin right now. If she killed him after the wedding, she would be seen as a widow and many would not want to marry a widow. She would be free to do as she wished after that point. She made a point to look down at her dress which showed signs of wear and tear. "I suppose I wouldn't want to be seen in these as your wife." The man harrumphed, before smirking, "Indeed. I have replacements at the house, including a Wedding Gown for tomorrow. The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can have my workers working all day again." He led her to a large house on a hill overlooking the village, before unlocking the door. "I trust you understand your duties regarding the home?" Once again, she had to fight to not immediately kill him, but nodded instead, "Of course." || Day turned to night and night turned to day. She stood in front of a large crowd of people next to her to-be Husband. They had finish reading the vows they had made before the Septon. Or in Lilith's case, she had read the vows her mother had made for her since Lilith "wanted to be difficult." Her now husband turned towards her before saying in a bored tone "With this kiss, I pledge my love." Lilith hesitated for a second, looking out to the crowd to see her mother nodding sternly at her. There was no going back. Especially if she wanted to go through with her plan. She let her husband kiss her, before turning to face the crowd. This was it. Either this would be the rest of her life, married to someone she could never love. Or she would give into her heart's desire and abandon everything about her whole life. She'd made her decision. || A day passed, a week, and Lilith was relegated to maid, and occasionally trophy wife. Her days were filled with longing for the outside world, and her nights were spent uncomfortably in a home she was not used to. But, finally, it was time to put her plan into action. She packed a bag with clothes and provisions before grabbing her dagger and creeping downstairs towards the kitchen where her husband would most certainly be. She moved up behind him, her arm casually curling around his neck, almost as a show of affection. "What do you want?" She smirked before dragging the blade across his neck, blood gushing out of the wound, spraying on her hands. He had no time to react, to say even a single word before he fell to the ground his hands grasping upwards. "You... y-you bitch," he rasped hoarsely. She crouched down over him, watching as the blood streamed out and collected on the ground beneath him. "I never wanted this. I never wanted to be married or to have my life dictated for me." She placed the dagger back in it's sheath watching the light slowly fade from his eyes. It was a pleasant sight. Something she wanted to see many times more. "But blood? Death? There's this desire in me. One that I have fought for years." She gripped the back of his head, holding him upwards so he could look into her eyes as she delivered her final line, "One that I am unleashing entirely." With that, she drew back up, before making her way outside, shrieking loudly. When several people came running, she choked up with fake sadness, before pointing into the building, "Someone killed my dear husband." She fell to her knees, fake tears falling to the ground. Someone burst into the house only to see the man, dead. "I woke up and went downstairs to find him like that." That day was a long one for her, pretending to be the poor widow going through all the ceremonies, and watching as her poor husband was laid to rest. "What will you do?" A man had asked her as she told one of her husband's workers that he could have the fishery. "I don't want to stay here with the constant reminder that my love is dead. I would never be able to move on as I know he would want me to. I'll journey out to Winterfell." The very next day, she started on her journey, and she had barely made it out of the outskirts when she heard a voice. "Wait." She stopped, waiting to hear what he had to say. "A man has a proposition for you." || She joined the Faceless Men, and for seven years she worked among their order. During her seventh year she stopped making her kills look like accidents unless that was what she was specifically contracted and had started to make a name for herself, Phantom. Some time before her twenty-fourth Name Day, she broke off from the Faceless Men, becoming an independent killer. An assassin without any ties or bonds. She kept her personas very separate however, using the tricks of the Faceless Men to make sure Phantom was never even heard in the same sentence as Lilith. As far as the world would be concerned, Lilith was a widow who was traveling the world trying to move on from the death of her Husband. And that was just how she preferred it. || She stared off at the horizon of King's Landing. She had never before been there, but every day was a new opportunity to see things she hadn't before. And every day was a new opportunity to kill.'