The Divinity's Curse

**Disclaimer, read this chapter at your discretion**

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In the same instance, Abrial could see him and the maid's reflection in one of the mirrors in the room—her hand began to shake uncontrollably. 

A figure stood to the far side corner of the room, with their arms wrapped together and head bowed to the ground. 

He looked in that direction quickly to find nothing standing there. Assuming it to be a trick of the eye. Then, he turned his attention to Fervia, "Are you okay miss?"

Short breaths began to escape her, her face went pale, and he could see Fervia's grip tighten around the hairbrush as if she meant to slam it into the side of his head. 

Sophia intervened, snatching the brush from her hands, "That's enough, any more of this act and you'll frighten the young lad."

 His eyes continued to focus on Fervia.

"Sense...he needs sense, the others what if they find out because of him, look how openly he runs his mouth about him."

Although his animosity towards the maid had subdued, Abiral expected Sophia to call out the maid's nonsense rambling.

'I'm new and almost died—because of her! Surely-'

"Indeed," a rippling coldness etched out of Sophia's throat, her veins perplexed, Fervia's words hypnotized her, "Even the paper boys are taught to be right when they set foot on these grounds."

The maid's shaking hands had settled, and a wide smile began to grow on her face, "Of course! I remember my teachings!"

Abiral settled the racking his heart began to have over the thought of being beaten by Sophia, there was no doubt that she knew how to scrap. But if he rebuttal, he wouldn't have the 'killer' image Ludus brought up at Home.

Fervia glanced over at Abiral while stepping back, waiting for him to give a reaction or a response that could tip Sophia off more than him blabbering mindlessly.

"I understand," he rose from his seat the string that was clumsily tied to his hair fell to the ground, "Where are my manners?"

Sophia raised her hand to the maid to dismiss her.

Before walking off she shot one more crazed eye look at him, then stepped away from the two. The door closing was the sound that finalized the fact that Abiral was going to be swung around by Sophia. 

"Come."

He took a few strides forward to Sophia, and promptly shut his eyes to embrace for impact. If assimilating to this hellhole meant taking a whooping to show loyalty—so, be it. 

Air could be heard being part of the room as Sophia raised her calloused hand to the side of Abiral's face.

Same as the sound of the wind, the sound of her hand colliding with his skin was just as loud. Sophia didn't have to flip him upside down to get the message. A simple slap did the trick.

Abiral fell to his knees clasping his piercing pain with the palm of his hand in instinct. He hacked the shock his gut felt and swore blood mixed in with the saliva alongside a newfound ache in some of his teeth. 

He moved his jaw to gain back any feeling then stood upright once more, with his hands pushing at his lower back. Met with Sophia's unphased eyes and apologized once more. 

For a while, no one said anything, and it felt as if they were going to spend a lifetime standing in place of the room. 

Then a boisterous laugh escaped from Sophia, "Ha! Who would've known? Maybe you won't be as useless as I thought."

Abiral stayed quiet to hear the trail of her thoughts.

"Truthfully, I wasn't going to punish you for running your mouth Abiral," she placed her left hand on his shoulder, "Then a thought crossed my mind that this was going to be a good test. To scope out your character. I rather the ones who work with me to get back on their feet even if they think they're going to lose."

A relieved deep breath washed over Abiral; he was starting to get the hang of things. A more confident posture overtook his once hunched shoulders, 'Maybe she wasn't wrong, I think I might like it here.'

"But before we get out of here, take a look of yourself in the mirror. Let this be a mirror. I may not have found what you said to be an offense, yet that does not mean you are allowed to be chatty about what you don't know."

He looked at Sophia's green eyes more carefully now, her pupils never once dilated since his time here—at least this meant she didn't get a kick out of disciplining him.

"Yes ma'am, this will be the last time I speak of him without any regard to where I am and who is nearby."

With those words he closed the opportunity to ask about the mystery of the son he was subtly chasing after. Closing the doors to knowing why he wasn't spoken of in the first place and what about him made him so special to be respected by people such as Sophia. 

Abiral faced the mirror and leaned close to see his changed features. A handprint from Sophia reddened his face. A black eye with purple and green bruising began to swell his left eye. As for the other untouched eye it was-

'Red? She didn't even touch that side how is the other side of my face affected as well?'

As he studied his face in the mirror, a flash in his peripheral caught his attention, he knew not to look back to see if it was there. It seems to only exist in the glass. 

The figure was hard to make out but one thing that was for sure is that it was mocking him with a sinister smile and hushed laughing. 

Sophia's hand was placed on his back, "Good eye, Abiral."

"You can see it too?"

He anticipated it to be Ludus stalking him but if she could catch sight of whatever that was then he was assertive in the claim that it was not his [Divinity].

'No one else can see her but me.'

"Yes sir, this your purpose Abiral."

"To take-"

"Let me finish before you blurt out without thinking, another bad habit that needs fixing," she stared down at him forcing him to shut his mouth. "I couldn't fill you on everything because a snitch was near."

'Fervia?'

"I don't like encountering my higher-up. As you can imagine someone like me has lost her fear quite some time ago, but it can always be reinstalled, hm?"

He nodded at her words.

"Something you should know is you are here to take out the Unwanted [Divinities] like those," she pointed at the figure that-

Abiral jumped at the sight of it, "Euh, when did it get closer?"

The unwanted [Divinity] had a menacing aura engulfing the atmosphere. The only attribute that could be identified was its smile which continued to grow with canine teeth. 

Sophia ignored his anxious remark, "I'm sure Clyde 'accidentally' showed you one of them, no?"

The memory surged to the surface of his mind, "That was one of those..."

She raised her eyebrow with a smile waiting for him to continue. 

"Why do we have one, in here? Of all places...wouldn't it endanger the highnesses?"

He heard a scoff before her explanation continued, tapping her fingers on his back and a growing impatience came from the entity creeping up behind them.

Unknowing to Abiral, Sophia had taken notice of the white coming back in his eyes and a purge of green and yellow instead of purple in his bruises. 

"It's great you're thinking like that. However, whatever you see in these walls, what occupies the quarter of this kingdom is not by mistake, get me? I think it'd be great for you to know that it's exactly how the Ser's do business. How the duchess conducts the exchanges made from around these parts."

Her clover shimmered under the light, 'How did she achieve that ranking?'

Abiral masked his puzzled look to not appear like a fool, except he wanted to appear as cunning as the entity did. A snake before it hunts. 

"I mean look out the window, will ya? We are covered by natural forces, we are practically invisible to everything beyond here!"

Sophia's voice cracked at this statement which admitted to the fact she was replaceable because of the fact no one would go looking for her if she suddenly- 

"he...l...p!... meeee...."

A chilling presence was made clear to Abiral, had he turned his head, it would be there this time. 

Knowing this, Sophia continued, "There's more of me, but you, ha! Only one." Her glare dominated Abiral's straight face.

It was not to his surprise that like Clyde, and the repeated messages that rung Abiral's ears—she was referring to his unique situation. The walking dead boy who was selected by Hama. 

"ARGH-"

"Teacher!"

A sound of hand-piercing flesh and rummaging through its findings echoed throughout the chamber. In addition, to the muffled screams that broke from Sophia's parched throat. At the same moment, a splatter from the intrusion covered Abiral's face and painted him in her blood. 

The Unwanted [Divinity] was now alive in their physical reality.