Lucrezia was led down the corridors and into a familiar path leading her past a maze of other passages.
Finally, it opened up to a huge double door at the far end, and she couldn’t help but stare at the pictures carved on the arches of the ceiling. The one that looked like a complete fantasy world in its own, hauling her mind into the abode of its divine attraction.
How can such a plain thing that lacks beauty be so splendid to the sight?
She took a faltering breath when the servants, the ones ant to be her chaperones, walked with painfully loud footsteps despite their soft footsteps. Any normal person would barely hear a sound from their movent, but suddenly, Lucrezia didn’t feel normal.
She could hear even the slightest thing so miserably in her mind. From the sizzle of water boiling, to the sound of birds chirping, to sword against stone, and to overlapping voices coming from nowhere yet everywhere at the sa ti.
It echoed so fiercely inside her head she felt it would explode. That was all the more reason she refused to stay bedridden today. Lucrezia barely trusted herself well enough to overdose herself by taking another pill to dull the pain.
Although Miss Eldriselle never ntioned that the tonic had to do with her sudden predicant, she was awed at how it helped her the night before. Realizing how much it dulled it, not completely, but to a bearable state, she was suddenly lured to neglect the prescription.
If being greedy could get her out of this situation, she was willing to take the risk. Her fingers still trembled, and she clenched her fist to hide how bad it was.
On reaching the double doors before her, Lucrezia took a deep breath. Her pulse skittered in her chest, dreading to enter more than to walk away.
The last ti she’d been here... well, except for the fact that she was surrounded by all Sins and their ruler for the first ti. And the trial too. She thought that maybe those occasions would’ve made her get used to their presence, but it did nothing to her poor heart that trembled at the re thought of not talking about the sight of them.
Realizing how terrible her idea was deciding to leave her room, and she took a slight step back. That wasn’t only the presence she felt... terrified to face. Eager, to be precise, and the distance between them was only five feet away from the door.
She was still afraid of him—on so level—but it was nothing compared to the sick terror she felt toward the Naless King and his brothers.
Lucrezia repeated her retaliation, committing them to mory so she could say them to him the mont their eyes t. How are you, Milord? Are you... well? No, scratch that. It made her sound a bit too concerned. D-Did you survive all phase? Worse. Her curiosity shadowed her concern for a fleeting mont. Forgive for my... and her thought paused over there.
For her what? Condition, she rembered the words of the maid earlier. In Veximoor, fainting wasn’t as much of a big deal as in other alignnts. In all other kingdoms, she doubted it was as big a deal, except to high-born or royal blood.
Perhaps it was the fact that she was a mortal, another creature poorly different in the eyes of the gods. There was no better reason for that.
Before Lucrezia could gather them properly, the double doors opened before her and her breath faltered.
Unlike the other ti, noises didn’t cease upon her arrival. There was not a single noise in the room, but silence, and it was that silence, she realized was far worse.
Taking a deep breath, she walked into the room. Lucrezia was greeted with the sight of the woman with candid eyes who bead when her eyes t hers. The pressure she felt in her chest loosened a bit, and her steps beca lighter to walk on.
Her eyes traveled to the remaining empty seats that raked across the huge long table aligned with delicacies beyond asure, adorned with burning candlelight. She could ntion the ones that were familiar to her; fruits, roasted root, and chicken. The rest was sothing she knew she would get used to in ti.
Lucrezia didn’t realize how her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach when the absence hollowed her inside out. None of them were present, leaving empty seats she recalled that belonged to the absentees she was familiar with.
Most especially the one at her far left.
She tensed, sensing the wrongness in the air. Sothing was wrong, and she could feel it to her bones.
She tore her gaze away, only to et the faces of Vaeloria and the silver-haired by the na Rheonara. And now she thought about it, their nas were as rare as their opulence.
Her legs almost wobbled but she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin instead, internally struggling to make it to her seat.
The mont she settled on it, Lucrezia could feel the weight of the room over her shoulder. The three of them sat dispersed away from each other, despite the empty seats that raked across the room. It only ant one thing; that each seat belonged explicitly to each one of them.
Lucrezia couldn’t tell if that was normal, but what she could tell was that the intimidation in this room was a sign of superiority over the less fortunate.
The hairs at the back of her neck rose when a familiar voice weighing an unending amusent but also a clear unhindered distaste broke the silence.
"What an unexpected recovery, Lady Anastasia. I had assud your delicate condition would keep you confined for at least another week,"
Here we go with the condition, she thought, but it lasted only a second when her words settled deeply. Another week? Has she slept that long?
eting her gaze that was steady despite the tremor threatening her fingers beneath the table, "Your concerns honor , Lady Vaeloria, but I have no intention of remaining absent for so long." She tried to smile despite the pain in the insides of her cheek.
She’d bitten it a little too much last night, trying to inflict pain to get rid of the unbearable pain in her mind. And now, it attacked her in ways she couldn’t lift her cheeks properly without feeling the misery she inflicted upon herself.
A faint approving smile, perhaps rely entertaining, curved Vaeloria’s lips.
The woman with candid eyes let out a soft hum and reached for her cup. "It is good you joined us," She said warmly, as though smoothing the tension before it thickened. "Blackvale grows restless when routines are disrupted. Although we’re glad you managed and handled it well,"
The word restless made Lucrezia’s pulse flicker. She wondered how much worse her situation the other day must’ve made them think of her.
Servants moved in silence, pouring dark tea into porcelain cups so thin they seed spun from frost. The scent rose from their action, sothing floral, sothing spiced, and sothing herbal, unfamiliar but not unpleasant.
The servants moved in afterward, straightening the plates and setting the silverware into perfect alignnt.
Rheonara, the silver-haired one, began first, carving into a slice of fruit with languid precision. Vaeloria followed, tearing a piece of bread without ever glancing down.
Ensuring their attention was away from her, Lucrezia hesitated only a breath before lifting her own cup. The porcelain felt too fragile in her hands, or perhaps it was her hands that felt too fragile for it, shaking beyond asure.
Faint noises pressed over her ears, disrupting the sudden peace in her mind and she brought the cup to her lips, hoping the simple motion might anchor her and dull the intrusion of it all.
It did not.
She could hear the faint scrape of porcelain against polished wood as Rheonara adjusted her plate, though the movent had been no more than an inch. The quiet drag of silk over silk when Vaeloria shifted in her seat sounded like a sigh pressed directly against Lucrezia’s skin.
Sowhere far beyond the chamber doors, water hissed violently in a kettle, though it should have been nothing more than a distant simr in the kitchens below.
A fork grazed a dish, and the tallic ring shuddered through her skull. Even breath had texture now. Lucrezia could distinguish the asured inhale of the candid-eyed woman from the slower, almost bored exhale of Vaeloria.
Beneath it all, the castle itself seed to breathe with stone settling, distant footsteps along a corridor floors away, and the muted clank of armor being fastened sowhere beyond her sight.
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