The Princess of Wrath

Chapter 6 - Part I: Insomnia

It was the early morning of the thirty-second day of that month, and Asura could not fall asleep. Five full days without being able to sleep more than a few minutes before waking up abruptly and on the verge of crying: since what happened at the port, every time she closed her eyes, the terrifying figure of the monster calved by unimaginably more evil beings that came from the stars appeared in her mind to torment her.

She had been attended by the best healers in the metropolis, recommended by Councillor Walker, and even with all the medications and mental exercises they recommended, she could not find the peace she needed.

Her mother had hardly spoken to her since her return to the Silent Keep after the event. The only interaction they had was the exchange of documents from Belmont Pharmaceuticals and the captain's log of the IIN Phantom Reaver. Asura understood perfectly why: Elfriede was very furious with her for risking her life so irresponsibly, after being informed by Octavius and the Wraiths hours later. The Empire came very close to losing an heir to the throne a second time in that generation and that did not sit well with both the Empress and the general population through journalism.

Insomnia had forced the Princess to pursue a nightly hobby. Initially she relied on reading about the stars, history and personal chronicles of her ancestors, but with the passing of days and the lack of rest, her mind could not maintain a common thread of the ideas that the books transmitted to her and she inevitably gave up.

Other activities that she liked, such as knitting or walking the surrounding grounds of the Silent Keep under the protective eye of the patrollers, did not seem so attractive to her then. The reality was that she wanted to speak to someone who understood the torment she was enduring, but as her mother was the only person who fit that model and being ignored by her, Asura had no choice but to go with that person to whom she turned to as soon as she discovered that the curse had awakened and was running through her veins.

In the almost absolute gloom of the deepest crypt of the Tomb of Saints, being only broken by the dim light of a candle, the Princess was sitting on the edge of the large hole that contained her grandmother as a personal prison. The light reached the bottom and allowed her to see in more morbid detail the cadaverous figure of Nibia, walking slowly from one side to the other without noticing her observant granddaughter and sliding her gargantuan sword against the floor while sighing monstrously and chillingly.

For a reason that perhaps lay with the family rather than the mysteries of the curse, Asura felt relatively safe and in company with the former Empress; as if her presence was more tolerable than nothingness itself.

"... I thought that mother was going to throw me into a cell in the dungeons, but she looked me straight in the eye and said: did you forget the teachings of our ancestors?" she was telling her grandmother the events of that fateful day with a half-smile while Nibia continued with her eternal and indefinite journey without paying the slightest attention. "And of course I forgot that I should be careful with the Eldritch Truth. What else could I do, with that illusion of Janos in front of me? The destroyed monument, my memories trampled... I just wanted to hear his voice again. And that selfishness destroyed the lives and future of two soldiers."

She muttered an insult out loud and stopped her story for a moment to check the time on her pocket-watch with the help of candlelight. It was seven in the morning and she had not even prepared for her journey. She was dressed in a loose white shirt under a dark brown vest, tight-fitting pants of a similar color, and boots that narrowly fell to her knees; in short, a set not at all appealing in the eyes of the nobility.

She put her watch away and refocused her attention on her wandering grandmother.

"It's ironic, right? The curse that made you who you are saved me from earning a direct ticket to Crowley Asylum, unlike the two members of Fontaine's tactical team," she said with anger at herself and guilt. "Mother believes it was our blood, but I also felt the curse within my body rejecting the parasitic influence of that...that thing that came from the Forbidden Continent. I overestimated the Eldritch Truth and that almost cost me my life, grandmother. I was so stupid..."