Emily’s question echoed through the room like an oil spill slowly spreading across the open sea. Her gaze stayed locked on the angelic anomaly hovering just a few steps away, suspended in the air with effortless ease.
As always, she appeared completely relaxed. Her body held a languid, almost lazy posture, like someone who was bored and utterly detached from the tension saturating the space. Her expression showed pure indifference, not hostile, not curious, just distant.
Resting on her lips was that subtle, playful smirk, faintly provocative, the anomaly’s unmistakable trademark, one Emily despised. That smile, more than any silence, felt like mockery.
After Emily’s question, the anomaly didn’t respond right away. Instead, she murmured softly for a few seconds, her voice falling into a light, almost musical cadence, as though she were humming a cheerful tune only she could hear. The sound lingered oddly in the air, stirring an unsettling sensation.
Finally, her lips parted: “I think you’re asking the wrong question, dear Emily” she said, her tone dripping with artificial sweetness.
As she spoke, the anomaly slowly rotated in midair, her body drifting with an unnatural lightness until she was face-to-face with Emily. She raised one hand and wiggled her fingers from side to side in an almost childish gesture, playful in tone.
That signature smile, wide, confident, and deeply unsettling, remained etched on her lips: “I believe what you meant to ask is why there’s another you... the one you so deeply despise, hate, and above all, fear”
Emily’s face hardened the instant the anomaly’s words echoed through the room. Her fingers curled into tight fists, nails digging into her own skin, while her eyes narrowed, fixed on the figure before her. The anomaly smiled, slowly, amused, as if savoring every reaction she provoked.
A shiver ran down Emily’s spine, a mix of nervousness and disbelief, before she finally broke the silence: “How do you...”
She was cut off when, without warning, the anomaly appeared right in front of her. Her presence seemed to warp the air itself, as though reality were bending to make room for her. Those beautiful golden eyes, radiant like the sun, locked onto Emily’s with an intensity tinged with both curiosity and judgment.
A single finger rested against pale lips in a silent gesture of provocation: “A mother who cannot understand her own children” the entity murmured, its voice far too gentle for the weight of the words: “is nothing more than a flaw”
In the very next instant, as soon as Emily blinked, the anomaly had already stepped back a few paces, deliberately keeping a subtle distance from her. Its body still hovered in the air, suspended in an unnatural way.
For a brief moment, Emily’s thoughts drifted, and an unintentional irony crossed her mind as she wondered whether the anomaly’s legs still worked, considering that ninety-nine percent of its movement took place in the air.
Her feet, technically bare, were partially concealed by pale fabrics that trailed like delicate veils. Even so, Emily doubted that anomalies like Virtues could get dirty at all... or that they cared about something as human as cleanliness.
Shaking her head slightly, as if to dispel her wandering thoughts, Emily refocused on the anomaly before her, who continued speaking calmly: “While it’s true that Tenebrya, at its core, carries the ancestry of fear, its power is not limited to that alone”
Her voice buzzed strangely in Emily’s ears: “To reduce fear to something merely frightening is the same as irrationally claiming that everything that exists is only the sky and the blue horizon you humans are capable of seeing... when, in truth, there is far more”
The anomaly slowly turned back toward Emily. A cryptic smile curled at the corner of her lips: “Far more than you humans are capable of seeing” she concluded in a low, almost confidential tone: “or even trying to understand”
Emily remained silent, a thoughtful expression settling over her face as the angelic anomaly advanced toward her, her voice echoing with curiosity: “You really are an interesting case”
The entity drew even closer, slowly circling Emily, studying her as one might examine a rare work of art. There was something in her gaze that blended fascination with amusement: “Normally, when humans feel fear, they do one of two things: they either ignore it... or they overcome it”
The anomaly stopped directly in front of her. A playful, nearly taunting smile appeared on her ethereal lips: “But you live with it. In fact, you seem unwilling to forget it... or overcome it”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Emily’s gaze faltered at the anomaly’s words. Her eyes trembled slightly, and her lips parted as she prepared to retort, though she wasn’t at all confident she could form a coherent response.
Before she could gather her courage, another voice cut through the air, intruding on the exchange with casual ease. It was a voice Emily knew all too well.
“Oh! Is that really true!?” she exclaimed, her tone bright, almost childlike with excitement.
“I see! I see!” she continued, now infused with understanding, as if an invisible piece had finally clicked into place: “So that’s what it was, sister”
Emily turned toward the voice, staring at the apparition whose features were almost identical to her sister’s, and let out a sigh heavy with resignation. She couldn’t deny it, she felt exposed, vulnerable, as if every one of her thoughts were being read in that knowing smile the specter wore.
Emily chose to ignore it. Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she tried to empty her mind of the whirlwind of thoughts that was suffocating her. She took a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill her lungs, then released it slowly, as though each exhale carried away a fragment of the surrounding chaos. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to regain a sliver of control over herself.
Still, the longer she watched herself on the monitor, that distorted, cold, and unforgiving reflection, the less she was able to trust herself and her own judgment, as if the image were staring back at her, silently questioning every choice she had ever made.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
At the moment, we were simply killing time in the garden, waiting for the search teams Victor had sent out to explore the area to return. Until they did, there really wasn’t much else to do besides wait.
Before you ask why I didn’t just head out on my own to look for a way out, know that the idea did cross my mind, and I even tried to act on it.
However, Victor, Arthur, and Rupert didn’t find the proposal appealing in the slightest. To cover more ground, someone would have had to stay behind to look after my little sister, and none of them seemed particularly eager to take on that honorable responsibility.
It was during that pause, while I remained there beside Tenebrya, that I ended up learning something important about her: above all else, her essence is that of a pure soul, nearly untouched, ironically clashing completely with what she represents.
Aside from that, she doesn’t seem to possess much physical endurance, nor does she display any abilities beyond the control of nightmares, a power that, it’s worth noting, has never been directly observed by us. As a result, we have no real understanding of how it functions, where its limits lie, or what consequences it might entail.
As for the recent cases of anomalies that emerged mysteriously and resulted in the deaths of entire families, it’s difficult to say whether they can be attributed to her, since Tenebrya was not personally involved in any of the known incidents.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to cover for her just because she’s my sister. That would go completely against everything that brought me here. Still, when I asked her earlier whether her powers were out of control, she merely tilted her head slightly, visibly confused, unable to give me a clear answer.
Victor, Arthur, Rupert, and I reached the obvious conclusion: she didn’t do what she did intentionally. That realization, however, doesn’t erase the fact that, because of her powers, dozens of people lost their lives. But at the very least, it proved one thing, Tenebrya is not inherently evil.
With all that said, there was just one more thing I needed to do: (Come here for a moment, Tenebrya)
She reacted quickly to my words, turning her two pale, colorless eyes toward me. Then she rose from where she had been resting among the shimmering gemstone flowers and approached me with curiosity. I placed my hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, it was surprisingly soft and silky, a texture that would never have been noticed without direct touch.
Victor, Rupert, and Arthur, on the other hand, stared at me as if I were committing some kind of unspeakable atrocity. In fact, given my little sister’s unique characteristics, I couldn’t help but wonder how that scene must have looked from their perspective.
Shaking my head to push those thoughts aside, I turned my attention back to my little sister, who continued to watch me with curiosity, her eyes tracking even the smallest of my movements. I leaned slightly toward her, trying to reassure her: (It’s okay. Can you close your eyes? I promise this won’t take long)
Tenebrya looked back at me, curious, as though trying to anticipate what I would do next. Even so, she obeyed my request without hesitation.
Her small eyes slowly closed, and with that, the one feature that truly marked where her face began seemed to vanish.
Of course, her form could still be recognized by its structure, its contours, proportions, its presence, but you understand what I mean.
I turned around toward Rupert, Victor, and Arthur, who were standing only a few steps away. The three of them caught my gaze and exchanged brief looks before backing off a little farther. It wasn’t the first time they had seen me act this way, so surprise never quite reached their faces.
I turned back to my little sister and closed my eyes. I wasn’t exactly trying to concentrate, in truth, I didn’t even fully understand how this power actually worked.
It wasn’t something I could activate whenever I wanted or whenever I thought it was necessary. And just as I expected, the sensation surfaced the moment my eyes closed and my mind finally emptied.
When I opened my eyes a moment later and looked up, I found two spheres floating in the air. One slowly rotated above my head, while the other, moving with the same hypnotic rhythm, hovered above Tenebrya.
I watched closely as my sphere, once predominantly golden, now threaded with subtle reflections of countless other colors, pulsed with a gentle light.
Gradually, it began to absorb the hues of Tenebrya’s sphere, which remained completely dark, devoid of color or brilliance, like a silent void being slowly consumed.
Tenebrya, meanwhile, kept her eyes closed, following my request obediently. I once again touched the top of her head, letting my fingers rest there for a brief moment, as a quiet yet persistent thought formed in my mind: the strange and unexpected sensation of having gained a new little sister, cute, silent, and incredibly obedient.
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