I look at the ridiculous boy who has stood in front of me, and who wants to enter my sister Meteria's private room.
"What do you want?" I blow.
He, the useless being, lowers his gaze. He is a centimeter taller than me, but he seems to me just a flying gnat, with his pathetic reputation as an overworked Don Juan and his legs quick only to escape from danger, leaving everyone behind.
He is an insignificant twenty-year-old boy, with that tousled hazelnut hair and red eyes. He is a fourth-rate supporter, is it possible that Zeus Familia has not been able to find a better one?
"I would like... to see Meteria." he whispers, turning his thumbs shyly.
"Meteria is sleeping." I dismiss him quickly, in a tone that doesn't allow replies.
I can't stand Arius Cranel at all, and the fact that Zeus himself likes him gets on my nerves. But basically they are cut from the same cloth. Two equal perverts.
Luckily he has the good sense to follow me and not to go into my sister's room, or I would have kicked him in the face.
In the large wooden hall, where the Hera Familia gathers for meals, there are also Zeus and Zald.
Arius sits next to me for breakfast. Bad sign, he will most likely want to interrogate me about my sister. Why doesn't he leave her alone?
Alas, what he tells us makes my cup of milk go the wrong way, and the fact that I then threw that cup on his impudent face doesn't console me at all.
That imbecile is having a child from Meteria.
This explains her tiredness, unusual even for her illness.
If Zald hadn't taken my hand and squeezed it to the point where he almost crushed my bones, at this time of Arius Cranel there would only be a pile of ash left.
"How... Did you... Dare." I articulate, with my heterochromatic eyes darting with hatred.
"Alfia... I love your sister and-"
"YOU LOVE MY SISTER AND WHILE SHE IS PLAGUED BY NAUSEA YOU SPY ON OTHER WOMEN IN THE BATHROOMS! YOU ARE A RUNT, YOU ARE NOTHING AND IF YOU SAY ANOTHER WORD, I WILL MAKE YOU RETURN TO THAT NOTHING!"
Hera is appalled. I never raise my voice, never. But Arius Cranel is another matter.
"Alfia, calm down. It's not good for you to get upset like that."
I'm out of breath, an exhibition of the disease I share with my sister. Right now I don't care, I just want Arius to disappear, and besides, I'm furious with Meteria too.
What jumped into my sister's mind? Having a child in her condition... I am embittered and disgusted.
That same evening I join her in her room.
She knows me, she immediately sees the flash of reproach in my eyes, made clear by the last twinkles of the sunset.
"You really don't like Arius, huh? Yet he is a good boy, if you gave him the opportunity to express himself..."
"He already expresses himself wonderfully when he runs away leaving us to fight without potions and spare weapons, or when he peeks at naked women at the bath-house." I hiss, poisonous, but my sister laughs heartily.
To be honest, I don't know how she does it.
"Don't be so angry, my sister..."
She takes my hands in hers and my ferocity subsides.
"... You know, I have decided a name for the future baby: it will be called Belle."
"It's a girl name. What if it were male?"
"I'll remove an e."
Meteria makes everything look so easy. I, who am her twin, feel so different, so unnecessarily complex...
I decide not to brood further, and I keep company to Meteria until her breathing becomes regular in her sleep.