Susan Was Always First

Soft Heart, Hard Heart

Silence. All Susan could hear was her brother's shallow breaths as she did her best to wash the wounds left on his body by Wrath.

The red-haired woman certainly knew what she was doing. A few centimeters in either direction on some of the wounds would have left Peter severely bleeding out, certain to die in minutes. The fact that the woman trod so close to hitting those crucial and fatal spots told Susan that Wrath was not above killing them.

The dark room was the only witness to the horrific scene that took place besides Susan. Wrath had flayed and sliced her brother's skin on his arms and legs, and had grinned the entire time. His cries had echoed throughout the room, Susan stuck in place as she watched her brother fade out of consciousness from pain and wounds. 

"This is all my fault..." Susan breathed out quietly. If she hadn't been pregnant, she could have taken some of that for herself, protected her older brother as he had protected her many times before. 

The sound of the door unlocking and clicking soon drew Susan's gaze. Her eyes narrowed, ready to be met with the malicious look of Wrath's grin, but instead she saw a pale haired woman who held a basket full bandages and medical supplies as well as some food, candles, and blankets. 

"Hello, Queen Susan." The woman's voice reminded Susan of the green one she had heard in her dream. "I am Envy. I hope Wrath didn't cause too much trouble- The girl is still stuck in those early teen years, after all, and can get a bit carried away."

Susan nearly gasped. Wrath was that young and already so brutal? What had happened to turn a child into a monster who would likely kill a man without even blinking an eye?

Envy entered the room and knelt down beside Peter opposite of Susan. She began to look over his wounds and Susan could only watch, not daring to speak in case it would bring more harm upon either of them.

"He's lost a lot of blood, but he should recover." Envy began rubbing cool salves on the wounds. "This will help stop any infection he may get, and should help the blood clot. Hand me some bandages, would you?"

Susan quickly grabbed bandages out of the basket Envy set down and passed them to her.

"Thank you, your majesty." Envy gave the other woman a warming smile, and Susan felt herself relaxing slightly more in this woman's presence. "I'm sure you noticed I put some food and fresh water in the basket. Make sure he gets something to drink once he's woken up."

"Thank you." Susan spoke quietly. 

Envy gave her another winning smile. "You're most welcome. All I ask in return is you tell me something I've been dying to know. Is it true that the walls of the Palace have silver inlay?"

The question was odd and threw off Susan. She had expected something about her family or how to get into the building, not something trivial like the decor. "In most halls, there is some small amount of silver and gems inlaid."

Envy grinned and seemed to be pondering something before she stood quickly. "Thank you. Now I had best be off, lest the others come to check on you and find me here. Also, feel free to use as many of those candles as you like. I'll bring more to you so long as you continue to answer my questions. And, please know that I am sorry about all this. I would not have wanted to see it come to this."

With that said, she closed the door with a loud thud, leaving Susan wondering if she had perhaps found one decent member of the group. However, she couldn't tell if the woman was truly nice and had a soft heart, or if she had a motive she was still after so Susan knew she should not let her guard down fully if she could help it.

---

Greed grinned wickedly as Envy entered the main hall. "So, you have befriended the Gentle Queen."

"She seems to trust me some now, yes." Envy's eyes shone. "I think she believes me to be but a pawn in this little group of ours, just as I wanted."

"So she's going to take to you then? A pity that beauty couldn't be mine to woo..." Lust spoke mostly to himself, and the words he said were ignored by the group.

Sloth opened her eyes sleepily and yawned. "Wrath didn't kill the pretty king, now did she? The would set us back a bit and make so much more work for us."

"Yeah, and I still haven't gotten to see them, so I hope those two aren't going to be destroyed if we let her play with them."

"Sloth, Gluttony, I wouldn't doubt the skills of our friend. She may have a hard heart, but she still knows to follow orders." The word 'friend' came out of Envy's mouth like it was something vile, though she tried to hide it. The white-haired woman then turned to Wrath and addressed her specifically. "You could at least try to avoid spilling quite so much blood. It may stain the room, and I really don't want the filthy blood of that king left anywhere in our home after all this."

Wrath pouted. "Yeah, whatever. Did you see how good I got him though? He sang like a bird!"

"You did very good avoiding major arteries, yes." Envy dismissed any chance of praise the girl would get, and the red haired teen scowled at her.

Wrath was about to reply with heated words when the door opened and Pride and his daughter entered the room, having left the others while Envy was down with the queen as the girl had decided to change into her her 'princess' dress.

"Momma!" Jealousy ran to her her mother's side and grinned. "So did the queen answer my question?"

Envy scooped her daughter up into her arms and smiled as if she had not just been talking about torture. "Oh course she did, sweetheart. The answer is yes."

"Ohh!" The little girl let out a squeal of happiness. "Silver in the walls sounds so pretty! I can't wait until we live there, Momma!"

"Neither can I, honey." Envy smirked. "Neither can I."