Chapter 99: Helen
...Where am I?
Slowly blinking my eyes, I floated in the shattered darkness; fragments, shards, mirrors.
Everywhere I looked, I could see a distant reflection of myself, and everywhere I looked, I could see the fragments of destruction.
Whisper.
A voice suddenly echoed in my ears.
Whisper.
It came from my left.
Whisper.
I tried to turn.
Whisper.
I tried to look.
...Then, for a split-second, for a moment shorter than the distance between atoms, I saw her.
Myself.
Me.
Standing amid a stream of liquid, the younger me stared at me-
Silently.
Sorrowfully.
With despair lingering in her eyes, my eyes-
She opened her mouth.
She mouthed:
[Sorry.]
---
My eyes flicked back open to reality, to the sight of Yulei's impending demise.
I was wrong before.
What I must do is simple:
Curse her.
Curse her into maintaining a connection with the crown; that way, while her Soul may be contained within the crown, she will stay alive.
Overlapping my hands over Yulei's face-
Go.
-I sent a stream of Curses through my bloodstream to the tips of my fingers, then I released them in a careful and controlled manner.
I did not allow my Curses to rot the girl.
Instead, I gradually imbued my Curses into Yulei, and also into streams of white haze escaping her body.
The next process wasn't complicated.
All I did was maintain my Curses within both sections: the white haze and her body.
For as long as these Curses that were born of the same source, me, were maintained inside of her, then the Curses within her Soul in the crown will also be linked to the Curses imbued in her body.
While one exists, the other must also exist.
And if one falls, the other must also fall.
That is her Curse.
That is the Curse that I've planted into Yulei.
...Correct.
I, Alora, daughter of the Mistress and the personification of madness, have accomplished something that would be considered blasphemous.
I've Cursed someone.
Not the world, but I, me, a mere little girl who has barely shed the cloak of mortality, have done what only the world has, what only the world could do-
...Maybe not.
Taking a deep breath, I retracted my hands from Yulei and stumbled back into Esme's arms. Catching me, Esme wiped my scattered golden hair aside and gazed into my white eyes, "Did you do it?"
Giving her a thumbs up, "Thanks to you."
Chu.
Out of nowhere, her lips made contact with my scalp. The squishy sensation jolted my heart up my throat, "Eh?"
Turning my head up to look at Esme-
"Alora."
-the smile I thought I would find wasn't there.
Instead.
"Why is there lipstick on your head?"
A frigid, icy smile sat on Esme's face. Rubbing her index finger across her lips, she smudged over glossy, clear lipstick and held it out at me, "What is this?"
Um.
I opened my mouth to extricate myself from the situat-
"Oh! It's mine!"
Fuck.
Hilda gently landed from the skies and skipped to Esme's side, "That's mine, sorry! I should have cleaned it..." Scratching her head, she awkwardly shut her eyes and gave off a 'cutesy' atmosphere.
But-
Open your damn eyes!
"...Is that so?" Esme stared with hollow eyes at Hilda.
"Woops!"
Open them!
"What exactly did Hilda do, dear sister? My wonderful, innocent sister?" Lowering her index finger, Esme stepped closer to me.
Giving me no time to respond, her right thumb and index finger gripped the bottom of my chin from beneath my mask. Lifting my head to meet her eyes, "Go on."
Is this the same Esme I know?
Inexplicably, that was the first thought that entered my mind once her hollow, terrifyingly empty eyes entered my vision up close.
Wait-
"Tell me."
Is that?
"Sister-"
I clasped Esme's mouth shut.
Why, you ask?
Because look at those eyes.
Look at what is hiding beneath that golden, lovely hue.
Darkness.
Pitch-black darkness.
Madness.
"Relax, Esme."
Placing my free hand behind her head, I gently pulled her down to the ground. No form of resistance came through from Esme, allowing me to rest her quietly by my side.
"Little dummy?"
"Hilda, stop talking for a minute. Zip it shut."
"Mmf!" Saluting, Hilda 'zipped' her mouth shut.
"Vanessa, Hildekar, take Yulei over to the descending Elden. I'm going to take an educated guess here and assume that he's the medic, or, well, caretaker, of the group. Am I right?"
"Yeah..."
"Fine, idiot. We'll take her to him." Vanessa pinched Hildekar on the side and promptly wheeled Yulei over to the descending group.
Now then, what the hell is going on with Esme?
Why did a bit of jealousy almost send her spiralling to the depths of despair?
Did the personification of madness infect her in the same way it did with me?
But I thought that neither our mother nor the madness would place their grubby paws on my sister; I was meant to be the only one toyed with by either side.
I'm the pawn, not Esme.
I genuinely had no idea what the hell was going on. Whether this was something intentionally placed in my sister by the madness or some form of consequence placed upon the Curseless One for the very reason of being Curseless, I couldn't, for the life of me, figure it out.
None of that matters at the moment.
I have to soothe Esme; I have to force the darkness back.
Half-panicking-
Tap.
A firm hand, larger than my shoulder, landed on it.
Following it upwards, "Nemora?" I spotted the person I expected to be touching me the least.
Ignoring me, she opened her mouth-
Ring...
-then Esme's consciousness shut off.
She was put to sleep.
I couldn't see how she did it, nor could I detect, with my Curses, how she did it.
I certainly heard it, though.
"Thank you."
Thanking her, however, was the least I could do at that moment.
Nemora had already stopped looking at me; her attention was drawn to Yulei instead.
"Careful, you fucking retard. Stop taking the piss and stabilise your shitty hands." A plethora of unsanitary words shot forth from Vanessa. Sidelining the others from her vision, she held onto Yulei's body to prevent it from falling over.
That girl had also passed out; she was limp and susceptible to the elements at the moment.
-----
Standing before the homely door, a seductive, tanned lady clad in a loose, one-piece dress rapped her knuckles over the door.
Taking a petite step back, the lady pressed her sunhat down from the passing breeze. Securing it, she dragged her fingers over her face, sighing as she gazed into the distance, towards the centre of the palace grounds.
"Coming!" A muffled sound echoed from within, and, moments later-
Click.
Peeking her head of silver hair over the open door, a mature lady stared at her visitor.
"Hello, is Giliard here?"
The silver-haired lady stiffly nodded her head, shut the door, then clacked back into the depths of her home.
Sighing, the brown-haired, seductive lady waited patiently.
A minute later...
He stood before her.
With a head burning with fiery hair, he stood with his arms crossed and a sliver of Blessings imbued to the brim with explosive power oozing all over his vast frame.
"Long time no see, Helen." Squinting his eyes, Giliard glared at his rare visitor.
"Long time, Giliard." Leaning her body over, she stared upwards at him seductively, "Say, Giliard, what colour is my-"
"Brown."
Holding his hand out towards her, "Your hair colour is brown, it's always been brown. And stop with the pushing of your chest, I'm a married man."
Clicking her teeth, Helend leaned back and swished her hair.
"What are you here for? I don't reckon you're interested in reigniting the very friendship you broke years ago."
"The second half wasn't necessary. Giliard. Even a baby could figure that out, didn't have to say it out loud."
"Get speaking, then, if you would rather not be smote as you stand."
Mockingly pushing her mouth wide open, "Oh no! Giliard Von Lamperard, the Commander of the Sanctified Knights, has threatened to kill me! What shall I do!"
"Fuck off, just get to the point already."
Helen shrugged at his crude language, "Fine." Then, she leaned her head to the side; she revealed what lay behind her at that moment.
"Our guest is waiting, isn't that right, _______?"
The air rippled with static, pulsing with a crude blast of Blessings and Curses at the mention of her name. Standing, smiling, with her chestnut-coloured hair spewing in the wind-
"Oh my~ Helen~ How did you know~?"
Her grin spewed with malice.
Twirling a strand of hair between her fingers, Helen glared at the newcomer with disdain, "How could I not? Sending your daughter to me with full knowledge that I'd hide almost nothing from her. Are you making a mockery of me or merely pretending, as you always do?"
"Hehe~" Tapping her chin, "I wonder what you mean, dear Helen?"
The Mistress puffed her cheeks, "Oh! Did it happen to remind you of-"
CRACK!
...Smiling, the Mistress glanced between her abruptly extended index finger, the crack spreading through the air, and the fist lying a mere centimetre away.
"Don't mention that."
Helen's voice was oddly quiet.
Her face was still, her movements steady, and her breathing was orderly.
But the crack in the air stretching between her fist and the Mistress's finger was undeniably real.
"Oh? My bad~" Slowly lowering her finger, the crack in the air miraculously disappeared the moment her arm dropped back by her side.
Similarly, retreating, Helen lowered her fist to her side.
"You know why I came to Giliard, _______; you sent them there. Why, after all these years, do you reopen that wound? What do you have planned? And, in that case, Giliard, why are you allowing your daughter to be involved in this mess?"
"I came here for answers."
Crossing her arms, "And I'm not leaving until I have them."