Chapter Seven:
Esme POV
"Now!" I glared at the darkness.
Why did he act so difficult? If he didn't like the ritual, then he could choose not to participate. I heard footsteps returning but they didn't leave the shadows yet.
"Why should I listen to you? Do you think you're important because Father says you are?"
The audacity. And who's Father? I ran my hand through my hair and walked to the sixth pillar. I didn't have time to converse with a rude person.
The feather on the sixth pillar suddenly floated away and Sora instantly flared. "Uncle Eidrin, I wouldn't take that!"
Did the Fifth take the totem of the Sixth while not doing as I said? My grip tightened and blood dripped from my cut to the ground. I gradually grew frustrated because I had no way of putting a Prince stronger than me in his place.
The blood on the ground glowed faintly and my eyes went to it. My heartbeat quickened as my frustration rose. Something broke into the cracks of my consciousness, and I became alert.
"You are provoking the mistress, Eidrin! You shouldn't be the trigger for her awakening!"
"Keep shut, nephew."
The feather moved farther from the pillar, and fear flashed in Sora's eyes. I already guessed it belonged to his father, but totems could also be hard to replace and if damaged, that Prince might never be connected to me.
"You badly want my attention yet cannot simply ask for it, so decide to take your brother down with you? Are you the sin of Pride? You're oddly shameless."
"That's not the answer to my ques—"
"Oh, shut up!" I stomped on the ceramic cup and it shattered, surprising me as it didn't earlier. The blood on the ground burst off the floor and shot towards him in the shadows. I heard a force hit him and he grunted.
Then nothing. The feather didn't return and Sora fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
I stared at the remnant of blood on the ground, questioning what happened. Sora mentioned awakening, trigger, and once before, that I was of higher birth than his uncles. What did it all mean? Was there something else Uncle hid from me?
Seeing Sora almost hyperventilating, I grabbed a pin from his hair— anything to possibly replace the feather. My vision shifted to a different hue but I focused on what I should do. I dropped blood on the pin, and waited hopefully. It broke but nothing else happened. The sixth pillar wasn't even moving.
"It still wouldn't work because it's not a totem." Sora muttered so softly. "But a part of the sixth now has your blood so our ritual is done."
My forehead creased. Did I mess up the sixth ritual? I had made Sora cry. I dropped the pin pieces on the ground. "All because I lost my temper."
"No."
I turned to Sora but he still sobbed silently. My head was becoming cloudy. I stooped to him on the ground. I should fix this, and shouldn't care if it involved plummeting a Sin through the walls of this building.
"Heal me. I'd get the feather for you."
That wasn't my voice. Sora looked up at me, but not in fear as a strange part of me expected. Instead he smiled, instantly reaching for my hand as soft pink light radiated from his hold. "Thank you, my lady."
A memory flashed past my eyes as I stared at Sora. The image of a blond child with blue eyes, smiling at me with so much warmth. 'Cathy is the fastest, afterall.' Cathy? Who's that? I didn't know who or why I saw in a memory that couldn't be mine. Is it due to the new presence that broke into my consciousness?
I watched the gash on my hand vanish like Denim's wound once did. I thanked Sora, ignoring every other thing that didn't affect this moment. As I rose from the ground, I walked to the seventh pillar but the totem wasn't there.
"He must've taken it with the Sixth's. Pathetic child." Did I refer to an immortal Prince as a child? "Wait here, Sora."
I didn't get his response before slowly marching towards the shadowy parts of the hall. My footsteps were quiet, and my vision sharp amidst the dark. I took short quick breaths and my nerves shook excitedly.
This countenance was not my own. It was like a predator— and it was on the hunt.
"Got you."
The next moment, I found myself staring at his dark glistening eyes, and the stench of blood filled my nose. I was still within the hall but miles away from Sora and where I did the ritual. Did I teleport? How? Did Sora do it? No, it was by instinct. This feeling was instinctual.
Yet the most concerning wasn't not being in control of my actions but that the actions weren't what I didn't want to do either. I fixated on the 'prey' under me, leaning on the wall, his hand on his sides that bled out.
His dark blue linen cloth blended with his dark hair and presence, and had blood stained patches. His eyes were teary but like a familiar feeling, I couldn't make out the rest of his face but it didn't bother me this time.
"Do you regret your actions, or should I really give you something to cry about?"
As Sora explained, I was already connected to these brothers from the four completed rituals so I felt burdened to see him panting in pain over an injury I caused that I knew he couldn't heal. He slowly shook his head, and his hand fell off his sides. Was he growing weaker?
"You pushed me." I spoke consciously. "Why did you risk your life to get my attention?"
I knew he seeked my attention but wouldn't I inevitably notice him after the ritual was done? He gave no response, and that felt natural to expect. I stooped and pulled the bloody arrow still stuck on his sides. He couldn't even pull it out.
"Eidrin, this should be the last time you show this insolence to me. Understood?"
He nodded. Unexpectedly. I felt someone watching us from my left. They panicked and hid by the wall. I was in full consciousness now, so I stepped away from him. "Are you his knight? Or his son?"
"F-First knight of the Fifth, my lady. I-I have already returned the totems of the Sixth and Seventh. A-A-And if you'd be so merciful to perform his ritual, I had placed a suitable totem for my Prince. Please, forgive him. He's not stable but insisted on greeting you."
And that was his greeting? I moved further away from him as I was reminded that these Princes were not stable. Perhaps that's why the Third was being foolish, and why the Fifth was being insolent.
Yes I'd take it that way. I currently have more things to worry about. The presence I just awakened. "Very well then. Return me to the pillars."
"Yes, my lady. Thank you, my lady."
I was sent before the pillars, and found Sora standing by his father's pillar. He forced a smile when he saw me, and I knew it's because he doubted the ritual would still work with the Sixth's totem.
"It would."
That presence was still active? "Step away from the pillars, Sora." I didn't want to unconsciously hurt him even if I felt the presence wouldn't go against my will. I finished with Eidrin's pillar and turned to the last two. I bit my lower lips nervously.
"What are their names?"
"Sylin. Lilin."
I dug my nails into my palm and let the blood soak the feather.
"Sylin." I waited after it melted to dust, my heart sinking as nothing happened. I turned to Sora to apologize but he looked blank. "Forgive me…"
But he held my hand and led me to the Seventh's totem. It held a gold crown surrounded by white silk scarf, the biggest totem so far. My blood stained the scarf and the crown. "Lilin." The crown faded and the scarf also melted to dust.
Abruptly, they descended— the pillars for Sixth and the Seventh. I was confused but still glad there was a sign of progress. Sora collapsed in my arms.
"Please forgive me, my lady. It escaped my mind that my father and my youngest uncle were twins, bound at birth as well. Unless the ritual is performed for both, it's incomplete and my father's pillar wouldn't have descended." He looked so relieved that tears were in his eyes. "I'm sorry for worrying you, dear Mistress of Sins."
A breath I didn't know I held escaped my lips and I pulled him into a hug. Worried me? That was the best outcome that could happen. Also, the name he said at the end was a new title after the ritual, wasn't it?
My body was weak, exhausted, and that's not only because of the blood I lost. Many things now weighed on me after the completion of the ritual. I was bound by blood and name, by will and duty, and,,, by death and reincarnation.
Who knew the responsibility to rule over the sons of a Deity could be this much? It was more like I had to babysit them through their tantrums and instability. Why had they been unstable?
"Take me home…" my hold on Sora loosened and I crashed to the floor. I heard his faint voice panicking as he assured me.
"I will take you home, Mistress. Don't worry… Father? Father, please come—"