Tell Me!

How lucky. How amazingly lucky. How horribly lucky. How lucky that out of all the times and places one could notice her in a place like this, it had to be him, of all people. Zephyr Clover. Nabi cursed his name under her breath, sitting within the dark dorm room given to her. Her breath was heavy, tempered only by the sheer willpower in her mind to keep it at bay and to remain in control of her own thoughts.

“He knows we’re here, otherwise he wouldn’t go around making stupid promises like that… this ‘merit’ thing. It’s annoying,” Guisei said to himself.

It was the only thing Nabi could actually perceive through the constant questions in her mind, even if he said the obvious. Nabi kept her hands over her mouth, quietly muttering to herself, expecting an answer from somewhere. The black stone above their heads offered nothing, and the hollow wood beneath was the same.

“How did they know ⸺ How did they know ⸺ How did they know ⸺ How did—” Nabi stopped herself short. She slowly exhaled, yet the anger within her breath dared to light flames to illuminate the dark room. Guisei perked up at the sight of her stomping over to the wall by the fireplace before she slammed her fist in the it.

“How did they know?!”

The building shook from the impact and Guisei from the rare moments he’d actually hear Nabi express rage outside of battle or when he did something reckless on a mission. A rippling wave shivered through the wall when Nabi retracted her fist. The once empty room came to life with bright crimson flames to match Nabi’s eyes.

Guisei began sweating.

Their faint glow dulled with the flames once she got the time to slow down and catch her breath. A calming sigh escaped her lips. Her mind quickly went to work, finding a hint of light within the situation before she could snuff it out with her own worries.

“Actually… It does not matter anymore. All we need now is a plan,” Nabi muttered under her breath.

She found comfort in a couch across from Guisei’s, letting the ruby red fabric envelop her. Guisei looked over to Nabi carefully. Her eyes were closed, deep in thought for a moment, but it was a familiar sight to him.

“No need to stress yourself out about it at this point, but if you have something, then let’s hear it,” Guisei said.

Nabi frowned at his tone. It felt condescending more than anything else, but even then she still had figured out little to work with given their plan. Guisei seemingly thought the same way. He perked up to finally ask the question.

“The hell did she even want out of us, anyway?” Guisei asked.

His golden eyes flickered back to Nabi, carefully analyzing her demeanor. She examined a map; the crimson markings she made on it traced each pathway. They were searching for someone’s whereabouts.

“The trial that Zephyr spoke of, the one they refer to as Prota. Lady Leviathan wants us to find the other two candidates and complete the Trial of Axía, but I guess the nobility leaked that info here,” Nabi said. “Surprising no one makes this that much more difficult.”

She crumpled up the map she got from Leviathan. It was useless to her. The castle changed nearly every year from the numerous conflicts that arose between students, and it was obvious that the two they were searching for had been there long before they even received the mission or even arrived.

Guisei grimaced at the mention of the other “candidates” even though he didn’t know them. He couldn’t escape the thoughts in his mind, telling him to just ask Nabi about the things he saw and if she could even understand. Nabi noticed, regardless of Guisei’s apprehension.

“Spill,” Nabi said, sounding closer to an order than anything else.

Small sparks crackled to life at the sound of her voice. Guisei kept his gaze lowered, mulling over what to actually say until he resigned himself and asked the question.

“Nabi…what did Mammon do to me?” His golden gaze scaled the length of the table, rising like the sparks from the fireplace into the air. “I know that his power is in my hands but — it isn’t right he did something else I know.”

Guisei hoped she’d say something in response but all he got was nothing except the sight of her eyes focused on something else, looking past him instead of at him. Nabi spoke but what she said was far from what Guisei wanted to hear.

“That is correct. Nothing more, nothing less,” she said.

Mammon’s words echoed in Guisei’s mind. He remembered the sight, but it was different now. He could see the man’s face so vividly from the look he gave him to the movement of the tattoo engraved in his skin.

“All power in this world has a cost; even he said it. What did I trade away for this, Nabi?” Guisei asked.

The sparks picked up, giving birth to a small fire to dance upon the wood like Guisei’s eyes the more he tried to read Nabi’s expression. Cold, dark, yet unlike so many times she appeared⸺off to him. Their gazes met and hers shot back to the table despite there being nothing else to find. Something was on her mind, but what it might be was hidden from Guisei. Unlike so many times in the past, he knew it.

“Nabi…just tell me what you know. You don’t need to have all the answers but I need….something to work with here, anything really. What did Leviathan tell you or maybe your old man might’ve⸺”

“There is not anything to tell,” Nabi said, her voice cut through his sentence the moment her father was even brought up. She quickly worked to rid his thoughts from her mind. “Besides. you achieved your goal, didn’t you?”

Guisei looked at the symbol on his palm, and felt the pressure surrounding the rest of his arm. His cursed arm. His broken arm. His arm that didn’t feel like his own and he knew it.

“Mammom’s arm,” he muttered to himself only to stand, and look at the girl. His hair drifted over his face, spreading over his eyes like the fire that grew within the fireplace. Despite knowing what she’d say he tried again. “Nabi, please I just need something to work with and I can drop it just like that. “

“I always said it was useless, chasing after them and their power,” Nabi said bitterly.

The fire picked up. Its hollow pops gave birth to life-filled crackling. Guisei tried once again, no longer even hearing his own thoughts before letting them leak out of him like a wellspring. A wellspring of thoughts, emotions, and voices like he heard when he first received Mammon’s power.

“Nabi I just need some help, you’ve always been able to bail me out of situations like this. It’s no different than Invid or Luxa, we just have to figure it out together. All I need is your help. No one else can help me, only you,” He said weakly.

She lowered her head, asking a question only to ease her mind.

“If I cannot?” Nabi asked.

Guisei closed his eyes.

“Then…it’s worthless,” Guisei said. “Like everything else.”

Something was off about what Guisei said, even if Nabi expected it. His tone was cold, surpassing even her own in apathy like a broken person clinging to hope that never even existed in the first place. A shell of forgotten humanity.

“You sound like him…Greed.”

“THERE IT IS AGAIN I ALREADY KNOW SO JUST TELL ME!” Guisei roared like the flames within the fireplace. A glass vase shattered, and their gazes flickered to the door. Guisei shot a deadly glare at it. His rage brought forth two jagged black blades, each hit the wall with two hard thumps, yet neither tasted flesh.

“Aiiieeeee!”

A light voice rang from by the door. The two blades sunk into the stone wall a few inches away from the eyes of a girl, watching the two from afar like a black cat in the darkness. She stumbled back, unknowing of what to do or say, only that she had made a critical mistake. Nabi shifted her gaze to the area, yet saw nothing or no one, only feeling the presence of the girl lingering.

“You missed,” Nabi said.

Guisei prepared himself to say something to contest her words, but stopped himself. He looked over towards the area and with it his demeanor changed. The thought that someone heard his pathetic display was…irritating. A sadistic smirk grew on his face.

“We already know you’re here. I suggest you don’t stick around in that area or else I’ll turn you into a pincushion,” he said, waiting for anything whether it be an attack or groveling. All he needed was something to distract him for the time being.

A girl stumbled out of the way. Nabi watched her with a cat-like glare, continuing to analyze the intruder. She blinked lifelessly at the lack of a small army to take down the two. No assassins or spies, just a girl with short brown hair who quickly darted back behind the wall.

“You’re bluffing,” she said timidly.

Guisei watched a girl's violet eyes peek out from around the wall, and lazily snapped his finger. The wall beside her shot out towards her like a bullet leaving behind an unnatural stone spike between her and the other two. She couldn’t help but scream again despite it missing her. Guisei chuckled under his breath at the reaction, finding something to direct his latent anger towards.

Slowly but surely, she revealed herself. A young girl with dark brown hair resting on her shoulders. She wore the same black uniforms that the other students wore with a purple tie carefully laced around her neck. Nabi let her gaze shift to the silver emblem on the edge of her skirt.

“H... hello, I’m E… Erena, Erena Xestis."

Every king needs advisors and every god requires disciples to spread their teachings. The Deadly Sin of Pride, Lucifer had such a thought when he descended upon the world. Through his actions he inspired a nation and the closest allies he had gained the power belonging to the king of Gods. Their families echoed through the history of the world, and they later became known as the original twelve noble clans of Superbia.

By a cruel stoke of fate, of the twelve, the Xestis seemed to produce a failure among them. Nabi thought so, looking at Erena trip over her words. She focused her gaze on her with a murderous intent unable to allow it to bleed away like Guisei’s had.

If she was like the stories Nabi heard, this girl was only what she could describe as trouble. Erena stepped back, but couldn’t even begin moving again. She was utterly frozen in place.

“Oh great…another noble brat that we have to kill,” Guisei commented with sadistic intrigue. “Nabi, wanna just let me handle this? I’ll be quick — then we can get back to our talk.”

He extended a hand only for Nabi to lower it for him at the sight of Erena scurrying back behind the wall, but like any normal secretive people, Nabi and Guisei had the door locked. In her panic, Erena forgot how easy it was to unlock a door. Guisei snapped again, this time the stone spike came from below, piercing through the door knob with ease. He wasn’t allowing her to escape so easily now.

“Would you just come out already? Some defective excuse for a king once told me to own up to eavesdropping if I was so unskilled that I got caught. — Definitely better than hiding like a scared kitten,” Guisei said.

Erena’s ear twitched slightly upon hearing Guisei’s voice. She peered at the two from beyond the wall with catlike eyes.

“I’m… not a cat,” she mumbled quietly.

“Then if you aren’t a cat you can come out here and talk like a person. Your name was…Serena, right?”

Erena swallowed her worry, allowing herself the jump from behind the corner. She seemed to glide with the sound of the flames. They shifted from a roar to a quiet hum, but unlike the flames she lacked grace, stumbling slightly. She brought her head down to a bow. Erena kept her hands behind her back, and when she spoke, her voice was high.

“I’m Erena...of House Xestis, I’ve only been here for two years⸺please don’t kill me,” she said.

Guisei and Nabi looked at each other with disbelief, their minds in sync. They knew there was no way this could be a second year. Erena looked at the two hoping to explain without triggering their suspicious…murderous….hurtful gazes away from her.

“I — I know it might sound bad, but really I just was trying to find the library since it’s location always changes so I could get a head start and get enough merit to finally prove myself, but flying here takes so long by airship and the lag you get from that,” she yawned. “So I ended up taking a nap here since the door was unlocked, but then you two showed up and I couldn’t really….escape.”

Erena’s eyes lingered on the door, contemplating whether to try and run again, but Guisei snapped his fingers, and more stone spikes began to block her pathway. She was trapped.

“What did you hear?” Nabi asked, wishing to get to the point and rest. The sunlight from earlier gave way to orange skies that dared to bleed into darkness. The moon glimmered on the horizon waiting for the chance to rise.

“Nothing!” Erena shouted, only to change her speed and tone. “At least nothing I should…worry about at least. Every student here talks about completing the Trial of Axia, but to do those you’d have to outplay all five Exousia…no point trying at this point.”

She lowered her head after remembering that fact and the sight of Zephyr that drove her to this room in the first place. Erena tugged at her sleeve, hoping that she hadn’t made too many more mistakes since in a place like this, mistakes only means more enemies.

“If you’re worried you never have to see me again, or I could…help you ⸺if you want?” she asked sheepishly.

The two looked at Erena, but neither looked to the other to confirm the decision. Nabi spoke up, not allowing Guisei to jeopardize things anymore than he may have at that point. She stepped forward, peering through Erena’s soul with her apathetic gaze.

“No, this is satisfactory,” Nabi said, voice trailing off into the distance. “Black Sheep.”

Erena winced at the name.

“Usually most people wouldn’t know but I don’t really like⸺oh.”

Nabi walked back to her bed, and plopped onto the black fabric, allowing it to overtake her before remembering the other two who persisted in staying. Erena defeatedly made her way to the door at the sound of the stone crumbling. It didn’t matter even if there was something she could say or do. The words rendered her with an empty feeling in her chest. Guisei lowered his eyes to watch the flames of the fireplace, allowing the girl to leave before he did. The door shut, the fire dimmed, and Guisei’s mind thought about the day ahead.

“Greed.”

Nabi’s voice brought Guisei back to the world of reality. The room was dark, and the fire’s light died leaving only a candle to illuminate the distance between the two. It felt much farther than before like the snow-covered fields they once met each other on.

“What do you think, Greed, about all of this?”

Guisei’s gaze darkened. He turned away towards the door. The wound from earlier reopened right when it began to heal, but unlike Nabi, pretending that there was no pain wasn’t an option for him⸺not now.

He didn’t respond until he was nearly out the door.

“I’ll be leaving,” he said.

“Now that’s an intriguing sight. Erena Xestis of the prestigious House Xestis. I knew this year would be interesting the moment I saw that trinket you were carrying around.”

A calm charismatic voice filled the hall Erena walked through. She slowly sped up, recognizing who it came from all too easily. Zephyr’s eyes glowed bright purple in the darkness, and only his chuckling left his presence traceable.

“Emerys,” Zephyr muttered.

Another voice broke through the dark. It echoed, calling out to the nothingness around them rather than anything else. A concept approaching the domain of what so many saw as “godlike”

“LAW.”

Erena felt her body freeze like a crimson string bound her in place but even when her eyes scanned herself she saw nothing. She pulled back only for no response. Zephyr’s luminous purple gaze sharpened at the sight of her. He stopped inches past her ear.

“I’ve allowed you to hide longer than I promised… Now the second years will simply have to suffer that Hell once more,” He whispered. “Though, I will say. Bold of you, skipping out before I could set the terms of my game.”

Erena sighed. She knew regardless of what they were in the end only one would win in the end and that always had been the one standing before her. Zephyr smirked at the sight of her relent.

“What are they now?” Erena asked.

“The Deadly Sins are in Curse Academy. They want to destroy it because we’re threatening their power, teaching people to rely on their own knowledge and abilities rather than a title or status. They fear us, so they wish to destroy us.”

Zephyr’s voice was cold against Erena’s skin. She shivered, but tried to keep a semblance of composure.

“Even I know that isn’t how you perceive these situations. Tell me what you have me frozen stiff for,” she commanded.

“Oh, now that’s unexpected, the Black Sheep can throw out commands now?” Zephyr flashed a look to something in the dark, and the pressure holding Erena still tightened. Her arms rose into the air.

“If you chose to stay, you’d know that the reward for killing them would be enough merit to grant you instant access to the Trial of Axia. You could finally prove yourself and earn your birthright, Xestis Heir.”

Erena kept her gaze tempered. Zephyr passed her, leaving her with the echoing sound of his shoes against the stone tiles.

“Wait!” Erena yelled, and her gaze darkened. “Who are they?! Even if they’re here, the Exousia should know who they are. Tell me and I’ll put a stop to them before the likes of you or the rest of the Exousia can take away the chance to try.

Zephyr stopped and chuckled.

“Tell you and ruin the game? I’m only allowing you a role as a favor, you’re barely even a player,” he said, disappearing into the darkness leaving Erena with only herself and the isolation she found herself in.