Crystal Heart (ONC 2024)

4: Grim Wisdom

Delilah would easily admit to the fear that flooded her veins, but never the tinge of relief. To die, but not at his hands... somehow that felt like victory.

Just as quickly as she'd taken her chin, the woman released her, stepping around Delilah and approaching the table with the yellow eye. The edge of her gown brushed against the top of Delilah's foot as she passed, sending gooseflesh up her calf, and she noticed as the woman approached the light how beautifully she was dressed. The strange dichotomy – elegant clothing in the dim, dirty room – gave courage to Delilah's tongue.

"I did not bring a whole Crystal Heart," she murmured, "Just a shard."

The woman was sinking gracefully onto a cushion behind the table, but she froze to cast Delilah a sharp look. The yellow in her eyes had faded, leaving behind piercing green irises that seemed to cut through the darkness.

"That's worse, and you well know it."

Delilah was too distracted by the colour of her eyes to care about the admonition. If the green was softened slightly, and set in a longer, less pointed face, then...

"You are Frederick's mo-" A lifetime of etiquette and deportment lessons held her tongue. "That is to say, you are Lady Ascott, the Dowager Countess, are you not?"

The woman nodded easily as she put her skirts into place, shuffling forward to take a proper seat at the low table. She rested her palms on the surface, not quite touching the eye, and glanced up at Delilah, as if waiting for her. Then as she watched, the dowager blinked, mimicked instantly by the eye, which dimmed and brightened in perfect harmony with her.

"Come girl, sit."

Delilah hesitated, her gaze darting between the crystal eye and the woman sitting behind it. It was not that she did not trust the dowager...she was Lady Miriam Ascott, after all, renowned for her ageless beauty and good society. And maybe, not that long ago, that would have been enough for Delilah, but not anymore. Not now that she knew what glowing crystal could do.

Lady Ascott had no patience for her fears. "It won't bite," she snapped, her green eyes narrowed to slits.

Delilah wasn't so sure. Rather than move closer and take a seat at the table, she bent to kneel where she was, her borrowed dressed pressed between her skin and the dirty stone beneath. The dowager might have rolled her eyes, but Delilah couldn't be sure.

The older woman lifted her hands, her long fingers dancing in the yellow glow of the crystal. The light winked again, but this time stayed dim, and when Delilah glanced up, she saw the dowager's eyes closed, a look of concentration on her face. The woman took a deep breath in, and then blew it out slowly into the stillness of the room.

Delilah wasn't sure what to do. All she knew was that she sat in silence, a state which made her uneasy. She was used to having the shard with her now, it's steady heartbeat ominous, but unerring. Without it she felt... uneasy.

"I knew your son." She hadn't meant to say it, and she winced as her too-loud words seemed to bounce back at her from the walls.

The dowager paused, seemingly in the middle of a breath, but her eyes did not open. "I would say you know him still," she returned quietly, "since this is his house we are in."

"I knew him before, I mean. Before..." She gestured to herself, not quite sure what she was pointing at. Or for whom; Lady Ascott's eyes were still closed. "Before this."

Delilah pressed her lips together tightly, suddenly aware of what she was saying. This was Frederick's mother, a stranger with no loyalty to her: anything she shared in confidence would surely make its way back to the woman's son.