The hour passed quickly, and now Helix stood before the door to the dining room, trying to compose his expression.
After his...loss of composure, he had cleaned up the bathroom, changed into a fresh set of clothes—dark gray, always dark gray, the Abaddon family owned no other color—and spent the remaining twenty minutes sitting on the edge of his bed staring at the wall until he calmed down.
It was hard, but Helix had managed to compose himself to a degree.
He straightened his collar, exhaled once, and pushed the door open.
The first thing that came to mind was that the dining room was long, lit by floating orbs of pale light that drifted near the ceiling like lazy moons. A dark wood table sat in the middle of the room, polished to a mirror shine, set with enough silverware to feed a dozen people.
Morgan was already there, slumped in the head chair like a corpse. Well...considering his curse, he practically was a corpse. Esmeray sat beside him, laughing at her phone, probably at a meme.
She was still wearing her armor, just watered down. Instead of the silver suit of armor, she donned a flowing silver robe armored near her hands and back.
They both looked up when Helix entered.
"You look terrible," Morgan said by way of greeting.
"Thank you." Helix pulled out his chair and sat down. "You look worse; naturally, that’s nothing new; you always look worse, dipshit."
Morgan opened his mouth, closed it the same instant, and huffed with indignation.
"That’s different; I have an excuse."
You do...
His chest tightened, and just for a moment, Helix put himself in Morgan’s shoes. Would he have survived with such a curse?
Never.
Esmeray put her phone away and beamed at Helix.
"Hello, hello Helix! Good day?"
"...Yeah, truly amazing."
Esmeray clapped her hands, bringing Morgan to look at her with a weird face.
"Dear, normal. Please be normal. Remember, we talked about this."
The woman pouted and stuck out her tongue. Jumping over the table, she grabbed Helix in a hug.
"But we’re not in public right now, only with my dear brother-in-law."
"Can’t...breathe," Helix spoke softly, tapping Esmeray’s arm.
"Oh my! Sorry dear. You’re fine right? I just forgot humans need to breathe and are fragile creatures of flesh and bone...Oh how fragile, so fragile."
A look of pure bliss appeared on Esmeray’s face, as if she cherished the thought of humans being fragile like glass. Slowly, Helix tried inching backwards, but a sturdy hand cupped his cheeks.
"You’re so fragile, dear. You should stay inside, always inside...Yes, we’ll build something that even heaven can’t shake, something never before built. We’ll—"
"STOP!"
Morgan all but screamed, his previous dead expression contorting into worry. Gray smoke swirled around his hand, writhing like it was in pain...just like the one who’d conjured it.
As if water had been doused on a fire, clarity slowly returned to Esmeray’s eyes, the previous glassy sheen shifting back into golden brilliance.
"What did...Oh..."
As Esmeray stared at gray fog in Morgan’s hand and the way he looked at her...with such profound fear, Esmeray came to realize what had happened.
If only I didn’t have this curse. Why do we bear this fate? Who exactly did we anger?
Just like the rest of the three Seraphic families—Azrael and Abaddon—the Israfel family were also cursed, and Esmeray’s curse might have been one of the worst.
It was so dangerous, in fact, that she wore a full suit of armor at all times so as not to harm others around her.
As disgust clouded her face, Esmeray slipped off the chair. She felt disgusted at not being able to control herself around her brother-in-law.
How was he supposed to look up to her if she succumbed to her curse like that?
"I...forgive me, Helix, it seems I’m not in the right mindspace today."
She laughed awkwardly, as if something amusing had been said.
I wasn’t going to say anything.
His gaze dropped to the floor, shame crawling over his spine like an infestation.
Did Esmeray truly think him so shallow that a minor mishap would change how he saw her? Whatever hurtful words her curse had forced from her lips, whatever twisted thoughts it had planted in her mind, Helix knew they had all been for his sake.
Misguided, yes, but for him nonetheless. And he’d make sure she understood that.
"Sister-in-law, look at me. Please." He grabbed her face, forcefully making her look at him. "Do you hate me?"
"Huh! N-no nothing like—"
"Then why did you say that? Surely you must hate me to entertain such thoughts. Why? Answer me please, or you might truly fall in my eyes."
"Helix sto..."
Before Morgan could even finish, Helix shot him a glare of deathly propositions, his hollow eyes boring holes through his brother’s skull.
His smile, however, told another story. Helix was smiling softly at Morgan, as if telling him everything was under control.
Torn between intervening further or stepping back, Morgan shook visibly. His brother was tearing into the love of his life, yet why did he feel like Helix was doing it for Esmeray?
Hesitantly, he sat back down, though his face was taut with worry.
Don’t do something that’ll make me hate you, brother. Please, you’re the last person I want to hate. Morgan instantly thought inside, praying for a different outcome.
Because, at the end of the day, if he had to choose between his family and Esmeray, he would choose the latter without delay.
Esmeray fidgeted with the hems of her dress, like she was a child caught eating sugar after brushing their teeth.
"I-I’m ashamed, Helix, but my curse..."
Finally.
Helix smiled at Esmeray, gentle and brilliant. Gently, he grabbed her hand with both of his, and squeezed.
"So you see, it was your curse that made you say what you said, think what you thought. Tell me then, dear sister, why exactly were you blaming yourself? If you didn’t mean it, hell if you didn’t even know you were saying it, why blame yourself?"
He guided Esmeray to a chair beside Morgan, and gently pushed her down.
"Now let’s enjoy dinner and do something more fun. Hmm, how does crushing Morgan’s hope sound?"
Morgan grinned. "Bring it on little bastard."
Food arrived shortly afterwards, something with roasted meat and vegetables in a dark sauce that smelled extraordinary. Helix hadn’t realized how hungry he was until now.
Morgan took a bite of a weird gray rock-like food, and spoke.
"So, what’s your purity?"