For the damned | ✓

33

CENTURIES AGO - PART VI

"HOW LONG ARE YOU guys going to do paperwork?" Niccolo complained.

Vox Dei was arriving, which automatically meant it was the busiest day of the year for them. At least, for her and Helio. Niccolo had managed to get permission to be absent from both of them after years of persevering, so now he was just lying on Helio's couch while they were busy writing behind their desks. Helio's rooms were simple, but Delilah always preferred being here instead of in her own home. The castle she had been gifted was gorgeous, but even after all of these years, the towers she was supposed to spin the souls in still felt like a prison at times. After moving in with Helio she didn't have that problem anymore, but he always had had a calming effect on her somehow.

Their desks were opposite each other in the living room, both spilling over with paperwork. Niccolo frequently came over, mostly because he was evading all his own responsibilities. Besides, even if he denied it, he had become friends with Helio and getting a reaction out of the Reaper had become his new favorite game. She played the same game, but the stakes were more in her favor. After all, Helio had proposed to her a century ago, her answer one she had never hesitated about.

They weren't married yet, but they still had en eternity to go, so there was no rush. Five centuries already they had known each other and they had been the most peaceful years of her life. Sometimes she still felt the effects of being locked up for so long, her nightmares all about her mother pulling her back into that tower again. But she couldn't, Helio reassured her, he never would let her. They were both stronger than her mother, but either way it didn't matter that much, because her mother had disappeared completely ever since she had broken free.

Niccolo threw a pillow at her then, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you skipping Vox Dei again this year?"

"Yeah," she said," so I'm up for whatever strange plan you have concocted this year, Nico."

"Don't break anything this year," Helio warned.

"It's fine," Niccolo grinned," we have you to help clean it up after all."

"I will not."

"You will so."

"Okay, you're right, I will. But I'll be complaining about it, so be prepared for that."

Delilah chuckled, continuing the work so they could be finished on time. Vox Dei was more a formality than anything else, after all every problem that was to be solved was always sent to them beforehand. After her display of power at her inauguration, most of them were still scared of her, to the point where they didn't dare to speak to her. It wasn't because they thought Helio was weaker, but they certainly did think she was crazier. Honestly, they were right.

Still, there wasn't much use for her being there when they were too scared to look her in the eye. It wasn't like she enjoyed Vox Dei anyway, the whole formality just extra work on top of everything they already had to do. Helio complained about the tradition as well, but he would never dishonor it, his sense of duty so strong at times that Delilah was almost jealous of it. She never had been prepared for anything like this, so to her, the Soulweaver position had always been more of a way to be free rather than her birthright. Perhaps she would've been kinder and more loyal to the cause if she had grown up otherwise, but she didn't care much for it. Without her youth she would never have been this sharp. Her naivety had been lost long ago, in that tower.

"What's wrong?"

She hadn't realized Helio was standing beside her until he spoke, his paperwork abandoned on his desk. Usually she'd brush any concerns off, but she never wanted to lie to Helio. He noticed her hesitation, offering her his hand as he waved at the balcony leading towards the garden on his left.