IV Animus

 It took everything I had not to collapse, feeling myself become lightheaded and weak. Ah, I need water, plenty of water. Nonetheless, I kept up the barrier; the drained energy wouldn't kill me, not that I minded. 

 "Animus, are you okay?" Dia's voice sounded, clear and extremely loud. She sounded out of place, completely sudden, and it hurt my brain.

 "I'm fine," I grit out, eyes hardening. I knew that was a lie. I was far from fine and my medical knowledge only confirmed that fact. But, of course, my youngest sister did not need to know that.

 "Your appearance says otherwise." Dia deadpanned, standing quite uselessly at my side as a support. I mean, not completely useless, but cut me some slack, I'm feeling cranky.

 "Never judge a book by its cover, remember?"

 I have to admit, I did not see that one coming and that was genuinely me talking. I must've been corrupted by both Kastro and my sister. 'Keep me out of this.'

 I'm pretty sure I blacked out for a moment because one moment I saw white spots and the next I was being poked in the cheek by Thraxi who was crouching beside me as I sat against a rock, an unfamiliar sword propped on the same rock as me. I won't even ask, I don't even want to know, "Huh."

 "You should probably let go of the barrier before doing anything else."

 I frowned, taking a moment before realizing that I indeed still had the barrier up. There were people around it yet I let go, too tired to care about a bunch of random people. Both of my sisters are menaces in their own right and I have zero objections to dying--that's how unconcerned I am. Almost immediately, we heard voices echo in the distance, making us snap our heads in their direction simultaneously for the sole purpose of unnerving the newcomers.

 'You three are crazy.'

 I decided to ignore Kastro's incredibly rude comment and all three of us didn't blink at all as we continued staring at the newcomers. Thankfully, it was just Silas and his sister--I don't know what her name is by the way.

 "Could you please stop staring at us? It's creepy," the blue-haired girl requested, grimacing ever so slightly while her brother hid his chuckle with his hand. Yeah, Silas is much too used to us.

 Lil' sis shrugged and stopped staring, Dia decided to stare at the floor and I gave a closed-eye smile. I honestly wanted to continue staring but my eyes were currently stinging and I might faint in who knows how many seconds.

 Someone fell to the ground before me and I pursed my lips. Thraxi is going to be the death of me and not in the preferable way; she must be quite stupid to think engaging in an invisible battle with a century-old weird creature thing wouldn't completely drain her energy. ...That actually sounds kind of fun--

 'Don't you dare.'

 No promises.

 I glanced at Dia hesitantly picking her older sister up. Good, she didn't use her telekinesis; if she had, I would've gotten my steel glove and punched her with it. Because no, I'm not as weak and petite as I look.

 "Do you know you're scarier than Thráxi?"

 I choked on air at random Dia's statement, getting patted on the back by an amused Silas. The traitor.

 "What‒?"

 She looked undis‒scratch that, she did look disturbed. So did Silas' sister but I couldn't care less.

 "Whenever you look at someone like that it's as if you're planning how to kill them." I do that a lot actually, but the correct wording wouldn't be to kill 'someone' but rather 'myself'. Details, details.

 "I did not realize I was that scary, I'm honoured," I grumbled, feeling even crankier than before. Guess what? My body finally decided to stop being insufferable and finally let me collapse in peace. The real world is such a pain, literally.

~

 I woke up in an unfamiliar room. Any normal person would be alarmed but at this point no one should be surprised if I say I did not care. My mom told me that I should care a little more but some things are just so boring when your father is a king who also spends his life terrorizing you. I was smiling, by the way.

 "I'm sorry for the sudden awakening. My name is Saphia Celest," she smiled faintly, "I trust you have medical expertise?"

 Without waiting for an answer, she walked away, leaving me with all the medical items needed and my unconscious lil' sister.

 I took a moment to register what in the world just happened. What was that!? That didn't even line up with basic etiquette for when you have guests, even less medical etiquette! I sat up and passed my hand through my hair in frustration. Time to check up on my sister.

~

 I hummed, critically observing the burns on my sister's arms; I'd never seen anything quite like them. They seemed to be of first-degree at first glance yet the moment you looked closer, they seemed to have done more damage than second-degree burns--actually, they were reminiscent of poison bruises. The term refers to what I call the outer appearance of a poisoned body part.

 "Animus."

 I turned my head to see Dia glaring at me, an unidentified surgical knife clutched tightly in her left fist. My eyes immediately flicked towards the scalpel, dread pooling in my stomach the more I fixed my eyes on the object.

 "...yes?"

 She smiled a sickly sweet smile, making me shudder involuntarily. She reminded me too much of our father sometimes. Like father, like daughter they say.

 "Doctor, why are you not resting?"

 Swallowing down my panic, I tried to look away from what she had in her hand. Diamond lifted her hands up to rub her temples in an attempt to stop herself from making sharp objects fly and penetrate me. The only thing I did was follow the movement of her scalpel.

 "Are you going to rest or do I have to make you by force?" Issuing me a dark look, she cracked her knuckles in a threatening manner.

 All I did was stare at the knife she was holding.

 I had a bad feeling things would get worse soon.