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VIKTOR PACED AT THE DOOR OF HIS SISTER'S BATH, his hardened eyes narrowing at the sight of the pathetic leather glove that remained a permanent fixture on his hand since that dreadful night.
Hesitantly, he pulled back on his white tunic, exposing the garish leathery skin he tried so desperately to hide from a cruel, disapproving world. A part of his heart broke each time he saw himself in his most vulnerable, rancid state. His mind had tried its best to block the memory, but his heart still felt the anguish as though it had been yesterday, and his body forever held the permanent markings in remembrance.
The mangled flesh of his right torso and arm was a constant hindrance in his everyday life. An outcast in his own mind, only able to shelter his disfigurement from every eye but his own. He hated himself, he hated his body, but above all heloathed her with every fiber of his soul.
Pulling down his shirt Victor pounded on the large wooden door with great force, "Serena, open this door at once! This is an urgent matter!"
From the other end Serena's eyes grew wide as she looked towards Asta for guidance. "He is always this cross with me..." She muttered softly, her voice hardly above a whisper in a feeble attempt to not be heard.
"Would you like me to send him away?" Asta asked, her voice only at a whisper as well. Serena gave the woman an odd look, unable to grasp the idea of sending her brother away when he demanded her company. Could she even do that? She wouldn't lie and say she didn't want to... but how would her Father think of her for turning away her kin?
"I- I couldn't. Wouldn't he be hurt by my refusal? Or worse! Grow angrier from my defiance?" Serena chewed her lips in anxious thought, but the sound of another aggressively loud knock made the decision for her. "Oh, just let him in!" She exclaimed in a tizzy, her heartbeat accelerating with each second that ticked by, but there was no need for Asta to open the door any longer, for Viktor had already barged in, quite displeased for having been ignored.
"Sister, is it true? May the gods damn you if it is true!" Each step the man took forward was one more his sister took back, her eyes downcast to the floor like they always were when he spoke to her. "Speak woman! Do not anger my inner dragon!"
"I- I do not know what you speak of... forgive me." Serena squeaked. Her heart felt as though it were going to explode from pressure as it banged against her chest violently. She did not wish to awaken the dragon within him, for she feared what it meant. She did not understand the saying, but he had adopted it from a young age and it was never used in a friendly or lighthearted manner.
"You insolent girl! I have heard rumors of Prince Thor approaching the daughter of Valgor last night, and her running like a coward!" Viktor barked, his voice ricocheting off of the stone walls.
