"Here is my Family."
The black cloth that had been over the painting slip to the floor.
The room was just as Belladonna had left it the day she had been here, different paintings had been pulled down and cover and the room smelt a little dusty, but this wasn't the painting she had seen the day she came in.
This painting looked different. Looked alive... somehow.
In this big frame, there were four people.
His Mother, a lean woman with piercing auburn hooded eyes that had a glint of humour in them, bold and black eyebrows, high cheek bones accompanied by a neck that looked like a bit of a stretch. Her auburn hair was made into one big cornrow, leaving only wavy strands out to cover some parts of her face.
Next to her, on the small black sofa, sat a man with full mutton chopped beards and long black hair mixed with scattered strands og grey. His gaze was piecing brown, like he knew all the secrets there would ever be to be kept. He also looked similarly huge like Eli. In his hand was a young boy of about six, a large smile on his face, his eyes on the boy of about two, in his mother's arm, that seem to be playing with a glowing blue gem in his hand.
"They are all so beautiful."
"Were."
She nodded.
"Your mother, she has..." Belladonna's voice trailed off as she took a closer look at the painting, realizing that she had blue zig zag lines on her forehead and on a part of her left cheek. "What is that?"
"My Mother dabbled into magic," he chuckled, clicking his fingernails at the bottom of his mask, "went a little too deep. Going too deep into anything for too long, always has consequences."
That must be like an illness then.
Nodding and still looking at the painting, she moved her attention to his father.
"Your father dabbled into magic too? He has it on his hand."
"He collected gems from outside the walls, captured beasts that could cost him his life to get without magic. Also back then, they were trying to build the walls too," he pause as if he was deliberating on whether to tell her or not, but he continued anyways. "Building the Great Walls of Ignas to protect us all from those monsters, used a lot of magic. Dangerous magic."
Belladonna frowned, her gaze fixed on the small blue gem in the boy's hand.
"Could that be how they met the Bride Thief?"
Eli brushed his hand over her hair.
"I have thought about that too in the past. I decided that it could be."
She felt his arms pulled her into an embrace from behind, while his fingers played with her hair.
A grin broke on her lips at his closeness, feeling tingles dance across her skin.
Eli was very touchy, loved playing with her hair the most and she had come to realize that she liked it just as much as he did.
Maybe even more.
Something about it just felt so relaxing.
"You look so happy..." she paused, staring at the painting with narrowed eyes, her smile fading away.
Eli had no scales on his face in the painting. Had the painter purposely missed that out?
"I don't see any scales on your face."
He nodded. "Painted over it."
Her lips stretched into a grin again. "Painted yourself before the painting."
"Exactly!" He answered in a dramatic way that made them both burst into laughter.
Recovering from the hilarious moment, she continued, looking up at him.
Ah, thank Ignas.
He had already taken off his mask.
She wished he would always have his mask off.
She adored his scales and loved to see them always.
How wonderful it would if he didn't always hide them away.
"You look like you really love your brother."
His gaze moved away from her and fixed on the painting ahead, she watched how those gentle brown eyes slowly turned glassy with tears and she looked away with a sigh.
"I loved him," he moved away from her, stepping closer to the painting, as if he was in a trance, then he stopped and looked back at her. "I will always love him. He was my Blood, my best friend. We did everything together."
Belladonna could relate a little--no, she couldn't. Aniya wasn't her best friend, she was a snake.
Despite the fact that she was only following their mother's orders, Belladonna still couldn't view he as any less terrible.
"What's that Blue gem in your brother's hand?"
"It was a charmed gem. My mother said she sensed some strong energy from him that might need taming, so they made the gem for him as a toy."
Belladonna let out a breath.
"My Mother was right. Some years later, he did kill our Father's black horse, a captured beast from beyond the walls, and dumped it's heart in a bowl. Said he wanted to start a 'Heart Collection'." He ended with a strained chuckle and Belladonna stared on, horrified.
"I took the blame upon myself, of course, but my parents knew who the real psycho was."
"At what age did he do that?"
"When he was six. Right after the dog one."
Belladonna looked away and stared at the picture.
It unsettled her in a way she couldn't describe.
"Were your parents humans?"
"Very much." He replied, tracing the wooden frame of the paint, his leather glove collecting dust as he did that. "Just ones that knew their way around magic."
"And your brother?"
"Oh, he was human." His voice was light with humor again before it became strained with a distant feeling of pain as he folded his arms behind him, his gaze fixed on the painting in a way that seemed like he was looking past it. "I was the only mistake."
She stepped forward, cautiously, then placed a hand of comfort on his shoulder.
"Don't say such hurtful words to yourself, Eli. They are not true."
Titling his head a little towards her, he said, "But I do not know what I am. These scales, no one else had it. I could be nothing but a spell gone wrong, for all I know."
Belladonna frowned. Talking about his family to her was starting to remind her of her own, and she didn't want to remember.
But soon enough, the memory gave way to anger, one that she couldn't hide.
"Did they treat you terribly?"
"No. Not once. But it was obvious who they loved more."