The Reaper's Curse

Depths of an Eternal Dream

Lilith stares at the explosion of dresses in her armoire. "I don't need them," she says flatly, her fingers tightening on the silk dressing gown wrapped around her body. She doesn't want to accept these bribes. 

"There's no need to be so snappy so early in the morning. You're visiting your father, aren't you? You'd have to dress properly, Your Highness," Sairah says. She eyes the nightgown discarded at the foot of her bed. "Just choose one. Besides, everything I put you in ends up torn up and bloody."

Loosing a breath, Lilith waves her hand at a wine-red satin gown that caught her eye⎯⎯⎯⎯as the plainest. "This one then."

Sairah makes to remove the dress from the armoire, but her eyes dart to Lilith's hair, and then away immediately. "What will you do about your hair?" she asks cautiously. 

A small, "oh", escapes Lilith's mouth and her hand drifts up to pull what's left of the long locks over her shoulder. She had forgotten all about the state of it. "I suppose I should cut it."

"Shall I take you to our barber? His work is splendid. When he was alive⎯⎯⎯⎯"

"I'd rather do it myself," Lilith quickly cuts in. 

Sairah's face falls. But she merely nods after a moment. "Alright, I will find you some scissors," she says as she moves to leave the chambers. 

A thought suddenly occurs to Lilith as she stares at Sairah's back. "Why don't you tend more to the other guests in this hotel? You're always spending so much time with me." Heat burns her mouth. "Not that I have a problem with it," she quickly adds on, not wanting to tear their relationship further into strips.  

"I don't think you realise how few guests we have, Your Highness," Sairah says with a slight smile, turning back around. "As of now...we have a little more than thirty guests."

Lilith blinks. "What? But...why, when the castle is this big?"

The smile falls from Sairah's face. "It's not about the lack of space. As Erimere declined more and more into poverty and chaos because of the wars waged, the number of sinners increased. It was way past our expectations. My Lady started reaping more each day, and the sinners who came here were escorted straight to the Gate of the Underworld. She stopped tolerating them entirely." 

"Does she think doing something like that will allow her to atone for her own sins?" Lilith sneers. The poison of resentment flows through her blood. There's a sour taste in her mouth. 

Sairah freezes. "You know about My Lady's sins?" she asks, her voice starting to tremble. 

Lilith hesitates. "She killed her father...and brother, didn't she? She's a monster. Why would you stay by her side?" She realises how whiny she sounds. 

"Sins are rarely black and white. Without the full story, you are in no position to judge her actions." Sairah shakes her head, once again that bitter disappointment flashing across her eyes. 

Lilith opens her mouth. 

She did exactly what she was trying not to do. Her fingers clench into fists by her sides. 

The door closes with barely a click.

☾✧

Sairah had silently come and gone a few minutes before, leaving only a pair of scissors on the dressing table. Lilith had wanted to apologise. But she didn't know who the apology would have been for. Sairah? Or the reaper? So in the end, nothing came out of her mouth. 

Lilith combs through her hair with her fingers. The chopped ends of it fall just above her shoulders. She jumps over the clumps of hair littered on the ground and steps out of the bathing chamber, the feel of her bare shoulders foreign. Unnerving.