Sirzechs internally winced as his sister shoved another incredibly concerning piece of dinnerware in his face.
He was honestly confused on how she had apparently 'made them' and terrified that Grayfia seemed to be considering taking a few of them home with them.
He loved his wife, really he did. Just thinking of the rare twitch of her lips as she tried to hold back a smile honestly hurt with the sheer intensity of his feelings for her.
However she also had the strangest taste in decor he'd ever seen. There was a reason most of his offices went for near tasteless shows of wealth and it was down to the one time he allowed Grayfia to decorate something, people had mistaken it for an out of season haunted house.
So to say he was worried when he saw his wife eyeing a plate that he was fairly sure had been glaring at him earlier, despite its lack of eyes, would be a bit of an understatement.
The glee in his sister's eyes as she showed them off almost made him pause, as he made his move to distract Grayfia from the outright abominations his sister had made.
"Rias, how have you been? Have the servants been treating you right? Have you been eating enough?" To be fair he was honestly asking each question.
It was concerning that she was still awake at this point. Usually a young devil of her age with such little contact to anyone with genuine emotional connection like family or friends or just someone with enough power, would have long slipped into a Slothful Hibernation to protect themselves.
This visit had honestly been meant to be a goodbye until her quarantine was up, as she should have been barely able to keep herself awake at this point.
But here she was, eyes as bright as the false sun shining in the purple skies of the underworld. Not even a hint of exhaustion to show for more than a year's worth of isolation.
It was disturbing, to an extent he could remember having gone into Hibernation as a child when both Mother and Father and his Aunt, had been forced to fight on the front. Despite the servants best effort he had slipped into hibernation barely a week into their deployment.
It had been terrifying, he had been able to feel himself destabilize more and more the longer they had been gone.
Not that he had realized it at the time, after all he hadn't exactly known what was happening. Despite all the leaps they had made in recent centuries, Devils had been the result of a spell. As a result young Devil's needed to stay beside someone of their family, of close relation to them or with enough magical power to sustain them.
If they didn't, the spell that made up their very being, still shining with Lucifer's profane magic written deep within their bones, would start degrading until they went into hibernation to slow the damage.
The only exception was Lucifer himself, regardless of the Devil in question, proximity to him would prevent the entire issue. It was one of the few times any devil ever got to see the Morningstar as anything close to what he was before his exile.
You could say many things about the original Lucifer, but he had honestly been incredible with children. At least Devil children, that is, Sirzechs had personally seen it as he crucified an entire human orphanage.
Regardless, while his sister's situation was an exception in many ways he couldn't see how it would allow her to fight off hibernation so long. The blank look she was giving him didn't help matters either.
"Uh, what servants?" His sister asked in confusion, head tilted slightly as her teal eyes looked up at him in confusion. It took him a moment to realize that she probably didn't even notice the maids cleaning the manor or even the cooks. A good servant was a quiet one and Rias had lived most her life ignoring them so it would probably be better to specify.
"Well your tutors of course, they said you've been making great progress with your-" He could feel his voice trail off as his precious sister's face screwed up in even more confusion. "What tutors? I haven't seen anyone other than you and Gayfia since my first day here."
Ringing silence echoed inside his head as his mind went entirely blank. Trying to decipher that statement like it was written in hieroglyphs, unseen since the death of the first pharaoh.
He thought it over again, trying to puzzle it out once again before he looked back down at his sister's confused eyes. Keeping his voice as even as possible. "I'm sorry, what was it you just said Rias? I'm not sure I heard you correctly."
Still just as confused as before a slight frown tore across her little face, as she rolled her eyes at him. "I said I haven't seen anyone else since my first day here. Well I did think I saw a maid a week or two back but I think I was just hallucinating."
An ominous silence fell as Sirzechs felt his heart tremble as he tried to think through the all consuming rage bubbling in his chest. He was about to speak again when his wife beat him to it.
"Rias, what have you been eating?" He almost forgot his anger when Rais huffed, an annoyed frown on her face as she answered. "Whatever I can cook, I'm not that bad, you know. I even learned to make this stir fry thing a couple of days ago and it turned out great!" She said with all the pride a near ten year old girl could manage.
A loud crack jumped through the small drawing room, and it took him a moment to realize he'd completely shatter the armrest of his chair. Not that it had mattered as before his mind had even processed the damage he'd done; he had already all but teleported to his sister's side.
His hands resting on each side of her face searched for anything wrong with his sister. Her skin was pale, he realized, paler than was healthy. Her teal eyes wide with confusion as he manhandled her patting down her sides. She was thinner than she should be, ever since the changes had set in she had started to prefer baggy clothes. Like the sweater she was nearly drowning in, and it's hidden just how stick thin she was.
Then as he rolled down the long sleeves of her sweater he found a bandage, wrapped with obvious lack of practice around her right hand. The bandage was yellow with age and stains from the salve clinging to it like a parasite.
He had to fight off tears as he carefully unwrapped the bandage, ignoring the oily feeling of the left over salve on his fingers while his sister stood still like a statue. Confusion dripping off her as she stared at him with wide blue eyes, like he was some strange creature that she was only now realizing could be dangerous.
As the last of the bandage was pulled off of her hand he nearly started to sob. Right in the middle of his sister's palm was a severe burn. So severe in fact that the last time he'd seen anything like it had been on the battlefield, and it only took the most basic prodding with his demonic power to realize it had been caused by a conceptual spell.
He felt like an idiot, a moron, a completely incompetent waste of demonic flesh. Sparks of destruction danced around him as the room started to creek in distress. In the back of his mind he could hear it as his wife crashed on to her knees under his leaking strength.
How could he have not noticed? He had up until a short while ago been visiting her almost daily. How could he miss it as his sister had to learn to cook in order to not starve? How could he have missed the complete isolation that echoed in this mansion like a bad smell.
How could he have missed that despite having started to absolutely despise being held she hadn't even tried to escape as he had pulled her into a hug. Only offering a token resistance with childish insults, while she had pulled him closer.
How could he call himself her older brother? How could call himself a Satan, a leader of his people if he couldn't even notice the wrongs being done to his sister?
Age old Wrath dripped into his mind like syrup, the familiar burn wrapping around him like an old friend as recriminations crashed through his skull as his own pride rebelled against him. Destruction tearing out of his body, his mind falling further into disarray.
Pain slammed into his face, his head jostled to the side, the echo of flesh slapping flesh crumbling through the room as he was forced back into focus. His little sister's teal eyes wide with confused fear, her red hair having reverted to completely white once more. Her left hand still glowing with residual destruction and pulled back as though ready for a second blow.
It was only when Rias ripped her arm out of his clutches and started to run did Sirzechs start to cry.