For the damned | ✓

30

CENTURIES AGO - PART III

HER MAGIC COULD HOLD her mother in place, but not Niccolo. As soon as she had agreed to his question, his smile widened and he slowly started clapping into his hands, breaking through the spell altogether. Her mother was clearly struggling to do the same as well, but to no avail, no words leaving her lips but her eyes pleading desperately. Delilah didn't even want to listen. It wasn't like her own had ever been heard.

"I'm glad you said yes," Niccolo said," I was scared you were going to be a bore like your mother."

Delilah looked around, at the star signs forming her cage and the tower which she could barely call a home.

"I want to get out of here," she said, the words finally having made it's way out of her heart.

"I understand," Niccolo chuckled," I mean, couldn't she at least have given you a nicer prison? Not that I should complain, all I got was endless torture to harden my mind against the visions."

Delilah blinked, taken aback by this random, powerful stranger who had somehow managed to overshare yet not say anything about himself at all during his short time here.

"Who are you?" she said," more importantly, why are you here? What do you gain from this?"

"Too many questions," Niccolo said," and I have too little motivation to answer them."

"He's cursed."

Her gaze snapped towards her mother, who spoke like any mention of Niccolo was sour on her tongue. Niccolo however didn't seem bothered by her reply at all, instead amusedly turning around to hear what she had to say.

"Oh?" he said.

"Augustine means Holy One, Delilah," her mother said, ignoring Niccolo," but it's a fancy term for the children who are cursed with visions and important prophecies regarding everything that's happening, both in the divine world and the mortal one. They are very rare. Niccolo is only the second Augustine since the beginning of time."

It was very clear why her mother was finally starting to speak to her, but her last attempt to keep Delilah close and on her side somehow only made her heart ache even more. Still, she didn't say anything, because it wasn't like her mother had ever listened to her anyway.

"Yeah," Niccolo said," that's actually a funny story, you see. The first Augustine was burned alive by his own flames as all the gods watched and yelled. It always sucks to lose an object you could still get such good use out of."

"Niccolo was formed out of the flames," her mother interrupted," a miracle, they all proclaimed. All it means is that the first Augustine was too weak to carry the burden and he placed it on the shoulders of an infant."

"Let me tell the story," Niccolo said," you make it so angsty. I want you to remember that the most important part of this all is that I was born like a phoenix, but way cooler. All the prehistoric gods rejoicing around me is such a boring detail to it."

"Do you see, Delilah?" her mother protested," do you see how this world has made him turn out? I was protecting you from all that, I am still! This is no world for a child."

"Then it's only good I'm not a child," Delilah replied.

Niccolo's grin was earsplitting. "This is why I'm here. I have nothing, I'm seeing people dying at every blink and people try to use me for power any chance they get. It's not like I needed a push to take my mind off things, so when I heard there was apparently some mystery about where the Soulweaver's heir was, I thought it was time to find her. Here I am."

"Delilah," her mother begged," please. Power will only make you unhappy, just like it has made me. I was protecting you from all of it."

"So she hid you away from the world," Niccolo mused," and she would have hidden you away until the end of time, like a pretty puppet ticking it's own time away as you walked clockwise circles around your own cage."