Chapter 137 – Find a way

Cassius took a deep breath. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

He stared at the scorched crimson patches on the floor, inwardly marvelling at how easy it was to burn the body of a mortal with no power at all — and at the same time, at how pitiful it was to end a life in such a manner.

He slowly shook his head, dispelling those useless thoughts, and stood back up. Noticing the strange, deathly silence covering the entire Hall, he turned his head and found all of them watching him.

He ignored every one of them and looked at Esmeray who, even now, was gazing at him with eyes glowing with open hostility.

Cassius suppressed a wry smile and his instinctive urge to speak and resolve the tension, as he always did in situations like these.

He hated having any kind of problem with a member of his family.

But Cassius also knew that there were moments for words, and moments where silence was the virtue that needed to be applied.

This was clearly the second kind.

And in any case, no matter what he said, he doubted Esmeray would be willing to hear a single word from him.

’Just what did I do...’ He grumbled inwardly.

He nodded his head toward his uncle and aunt — the latter scowling at him — then walked out of the Hall, intending to continue his training.

He needed to occupy his mind with something.

Behind him, Isolde quickly followed, casting one last complicated glance at her sister Anesthesia before stepping out.

Soon enough, the Desdemona couple disappeared.

After that, Persephone had no wish to linger in the Hall either. She spared one last glance at Esmeray and parted her cold, pale lips.

"The maids were killed because one of me acting on my behalf ordered it. And the Hall is in this state because I was reckless in the process." She said, narrowing her eyes at the Princess. "This is what happened. And this is the first and last time I will cover for you in front of the King and Queen of Hood."

She paused, her gaze moving between the two siblings.

"One more thing." Persephone continued. "If you are cursed, find a cure. Whether that is difficult or easy, it does not matter. You are the Chosen Ones of Vorn. Do not tarnish the legacy of your forefathers and your god by wallowing like useless, worthless mortals in your own condition. Do whatever you must, but beings without Will have no place in the bloodline of Death."

She stopped.

The siblings looked at her with wide eyes.

Understandable.

Persephone never said more than a handful of words to anyone. But on that day, she had felt compelled to. Not only because witnessing such weakness inside the Hood of Vorn was deeply insulting, but also because...

’He loves you.’ She thought inwardly, her mind on Cassius. ’So I will love you. And I will help you.’

Without waiting for them to recover, she disappeared with Anesthesia in her arms, intending to cleanly wipe the memories of Esmeray’s loss of control from her mind.

Only Raven and Esmeray remained.

They looked at each other, and Raven sighed.

"You need to put some clothes on, sister."

Esmeray smiled sheepishly. "Aye. Aye." She nodded, then hugged her brother again, who groaned in annoyance and pushed her away.

"Enough. You reek of sex."

"Oops."

"And the Head Maid is right." Raven said, drawing a deep breath. "We cannot continue this way, sister. We may not have chosen these parts of ourselves, but we cannot accept to be defined by them and led around by them."

He looked at her seriously, taking her hands. "Please, sister. Do your best."

"It’s... hard." Esmeray winced.

"I know." He nodded. "But living this way is harder. So you need to choose which kind of hard you want to live with. And which one is actually worthy of you."

"What about you?" She asked. "Do you really think you can let go of Anesthesia? Brother, that woman seems like she was created specifically to torment you. She is the only one who can make you feel whole. Yet also the only one who can..."

"...destroy me." Raven finished, smiling wryly. "You are right. Anesthesia Amaris is my own paradox. She is my angel and my devil. My salvation and my doom. I know how immensely difficult it will be. Even now, at the mere thought of it, I can feel my soul shaking like an animal waiting to be slaughtered. Yet I have no choice, sister. I will do everything I can. I need to."

"Do you have any idea how?" She asked, sighing ruefully. "Because in my case, I know how to stop, or at least control the urge. But it feels so impossible and unreachable that yesterday I simply snapped and decided... well. You know."

"I don’t know how yet either." Raven answered, then thought of Sarah, and of Cassius’s words. "However, the most important thing is to not be so emotionally dependent on her. I need to control all those feelings and channel them elsewhere...but this time deliberately, with more conscious control."

He arched an eyebrow. "As for you...as long as you have a way, just tell me. I will help you as much as I can."

Esmeray smiled crookedly. "Are you sure, brother?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"I need to find out the identity of someone."

"Who?"

"The owner of Bliss’s House."

Raven frowned. "Why? And how would knowing his identity help you?"

"Because every time I am with him, brother, I feel whole. I feel like I am truly myself, and my urge feels as if it has been burned away by some kind of holy flame. I need him. Him and no one else. There is something special about him. And I feel... I feel so close to him for some reason I can’t explain."

The Prince looked at his sister’s face — serious, and filled with a longing he had never seen there before. He was genuinely surprised. This was the first time he had ever seen Esmeray make such an expression over a man.

Curiosity got the better of him.

"What name is he known by? I will look into it myself."

"He goes by Bliss." She said. "And no, Bliss is achingly smart and devious. If you search for him carelessly, he will know, and he may start to suspect something."

"Then what?"

"That is what I have been thinking about all this time." Esmeray clicked her tongue. "My mind alone is not enough. So think with me, brother. We need a way to find Bliss’s true identity."

"Ah..." He exhaled. "Alright."

...

Meanwhile, outside, Cassius walked in silence toward the training ground with Isolde at his side.

Not a word had been spoken between them since they left, and neither of them could quite name the reason.

But it was obvious enough.

Neither of them could put a name — and so an emotion — to what they were feeling after witnessing that scene.

They had known of Esmeray’s Curse through the game. But they had never experienced first-hand what it truly meant to live under it.

It was soul-wrenching.

And at that moment, Isolde found herself quietly thanking whatever gods existed that she had not been born with such a curse.

She would have died of shame.

Or so she thought.

What she didn’t know — and couldn’t — was that once someone caught the Cupid’s Curse, if the overwhelming drive didn’t snuff your life out directly, you would simply walk through life with it consuming you slowly until it did.

"Are you not worried for your sister?" Cassius finally spoke, their distance to the training ground closing.

"She can die for all I care."

He forced a smile at that. "Well. Nothing new, I suppose. I thought a proper talk between you two might have... well." He chuckled. "What did I expect anyway. Never mind. Did you give her the ring in the end?"

"I did." She said, her voice distant and pensive.

Cassius glanced sideways at her and raised an eyebrow. "Something did happen between you two inside the Hall. Want to tell me?"

Isolde hesitated for a moment.

What she had learned from Anesthesia was something that had never been revealed in the game.

The reason behind Anesthesia’s dislike of her sister was never disclosed, because Anesthesia herself, until the very end, had held stubbornly to the belief that she had never cared about her sister at all.

So sharing this with Cassius would mean acknowledging that she had been the one to start this vicious cycle. All because of her own ugly insecurities. Insecurities that had made her dislike her sister first, then hate her, when her sister returned that same dislike a hundredfold.

Isolde smiled wryly at the irony, and found herself forced to face her own hypocrisy in the most unpleasant way possible. She closed her eyes, drew a slow breath and tried to settle her thundering heart.

’I cannot hide it from him anyway. He is the only one I can confess everything to.’

With that, she nodded at Cassius. "Yes." She said. "I want to share it with you."

Cassius smiled softly just as they arrived in front of the training ground.

"Let’s do it inside then."

Isolde made a quiet sound of acknowledgement and followed him in.

Throughout all of this, neither of them had spoken about the event with Esmeray.

Isolde was embarrassed. Cassius even more so, for a reason he refused to put a name to.

So, implicitly, they had decided to bury the matter entirely.

But one thing was certain. With that event, Isolde had begun to truly grasp the family she was marrying into.

She was already flabbergasted. Already aghast.

Yet what she didn’t know was that...

...this had been nothing but a glimpse into the true nature of the Hood and Desdemona families.

A glimpse.

—End of Chapter 137—