X: Valet

Chapter four: Seth

I don't know if you've noticed – although, in all this time, I think you should have – I admired Seth extremely much. I caught his every move and word. I memorized every detail and longed to know more. More than we were allowed to. I guess you could say that I was obsessed with him.

After all these many years, I can say for sure that Seth ruined my life. And at the same time he built it.

He read a lot. Really a lot. If I passed by his office, I always noticed a book in his hands. I've never looked closely at what exactly it was. But not only something abstruse – I think I've seen volumes of poetry.

Seth's whole life was scheduled almost by the clock. Seriously, his regime has never given me any peace. He got up at the same time, ate at the same time, and, by the way, also handed out assignments at the same time. But he went to bed in different time, depending on how busy his day was.

But all these are just small things.

I don't think anyone can tell you about Seth better than Magic. That's why I want to read you... an excerpt from her diary.

Please don't judge me, I've done this many times myself. In my defense – although there is no point in making excuses, I know that there is no nobility in my act – I will say that I did not intentionally seek for it. And, to be honest, I'm not sure that Magic even remembered its existence. Maybe there was no diary at all – I found only one pathetic piece of paper. Where? You're probably interested. I decided to keep this part of the story just until I start talking about Seth.

It happened when Hunter asked me – ordered me – to sort through old papers to find references to some kind of production... Actually, I don't think it's that important. I didn't know why it was necessary. I had to rummage through completely different parts of the estate – there were a lot of documents there. Seth was afraid that I would find something that I wasn't allowed to see, and Hunter had a hard time calming him down about it. At that moment, Seth was distracted from the chess game so often that Hunter even managed to win.

As you can imagine, I needed to read the papers that I picked up. But, of course, I could have stopped – everything was clear from the first letters. Although... could I?

That "letter", an excerpt from the diary – call it what you want – was somewhat battered by time. There was not much written in it. And I'll say right away – there was no specifics about Magic's feelings towards Seth. I think she wrote it almost right after they met. But their bond has definitely been formed. Or it began to form.

"Joel is a very complicated person. He doesn't wear a mask in front of me, but it's still noticeable. There is a conflict inside him. He has made it clear hundreds of times that he will never abandon his plan. I think one day it will turn into an obsession.

And now, when there is still so much tenderness and warmth left in him, I am afraid of this. To become the one who can destroy Dubois, you have to give up a lot. Get on the path from which, perhaps, it will no longer be possible to turn off.

I'm afraid that when all this is over, he won't be able to. And I do not know what will happen to me then. It seems to me that he is afraid of this too, and that is why he continues to resist involuntarily."

Sometimes I reread this text. It helps me not to forget. Not to forget what Seth must have been like.

And he, first of all, was very short-tempered. And one of the clearest proofs of this was the case when Dubois sent Magic a whole ton more gifts....

In fact, during all this time, we had already gotten used to the fact that this man was completely restless. It would seem that he saw "Madeline" only once and spent only a couple of hours with her – Seth took care of that. I think he was Dubois' real target. He wanted to get Seth emotional. The only thing I don't understand is what was there to be happy about? Getting Seth emotional was literally the easiest task of all.