Three at once here, guys.
---------------------------------
Of Vice and Virtue
Envy
I was there when Lust finally emerged from his seclusion. I saw him step into the sun, and felt my blood both heat and chill at once. He had always caused me to burn with desire, yet the cold that so lightly coursed deep within me was new. What was this? Was it fear? Ridiculous. Lust had never caused fear to rise within me. I studied him from afar. He had hardly changed. From what the blazing sun high above the sand allowed me to see, his physique had not diminished, nor had the quality his eyes held to pierce directly through one’s soul. He looked somewhat tired, as if reading books had somehow taken the energy from him, and his tousled hair showed it. However, an odd air surrounded him. Perhaps he had come across something he liked? Perhaps he had finally decided to cast aside the brutal witch and realize his feelings for me. She had stolen him from me. A smile came across my face as I pictured her losing the prize that was rightfully mine. She had no place with him. Not when I was the one who wanted him more.
Lust walked confidently, even proudly, away from the musky library, my eyes watching his every step. I didn’t dare show myself. I was enjoying the view far too much. So naturally, his words took me by surprise.
“Come on out, Envy.”
Somehow, I was caught between elation and surprised. His words caressed my very being. They were no different than the words he spoke to everyone, yet I knew they were secretly meant for me. They did not enter my hearing so much as they entered my mind and, for a moment, I was overcome with an almost painful burning that seared my soul. Painful, yet rapturous. His tone was not one of anger, nor of spite, nor exhaustion. The words were sounds of little more than subtle curiosity, laced with the natural twinge of desire that tainted every word Lust had ever spoken. How I wished to have such an effect in my own voice. Sloth and Lust were so fortunate, to be granted such auditory gifts.
I wouldn’t allow such an opportunity to pass. I moved from my hiding place behind the slowly shifting sands and walked, quickly mind you, to his side. His eyes gazed upon me with mild curiosity, a lack of surprise and, my own eyes surely must have caught a glimpse of attraction. My eyes strayed down from his eyes, past his goateed chin, and to the necklace he constantly wore around his neck. It was simple enough, little more than a pendant hung on black string. The circular pendant was intricately carved, however, adorned with stylized lettering that comprised one of Lust’s many names “Eros.” Others have seen that necklace as a worthless trinket, save Greed and myself. Greed simply wanted it for the sole sake of possessing it. I desired it for obviously far more noble reasons. If Lust had such a necklace, I saw no reason why I couldn’t have one as well. It would be a memento of Lust, and I would finally have a reason to throw away that ratty earring I had taken from Greed. It had looked so nice atop one of his many statues; I just couldn’t leave it to adorn such an ugly thing. Much to my disappointment, once I put it on, I was less than satisfied.
Lust simply stared me directly in the eye, his gaze unflinching, and proceeded to calmly interrogate me. I was not one to shy away at the sound of his voice, happily answering his questions like a giddy schoolgirl. Where was Pride? I didn’t know. Greed? Equally oblivious. I told him that Greed had been muttering to himself about a book he had gotten during one of his visits to Lust. Greed had been very secretive about it, and it was highly unlikely anyone else even knew of its existence. Lust’s grin brought a smile to my own face as well. I had made Lust happy. I was already one up on that foul, loathsome tramp.
~Envy
----------------
Of Vice and Virtue
Lust
Ah, Envy. A more fickle mistress could never exist. The jealous woman patronizes all she lays eyes upon one moment, then becomes a sparkling ray the next. She is easy enough to lead along, however. A word here, a kiss there, and she’ll tell me anything I could ever want to know. I’ve a thirst for knowledge, you see, a need to understand that by its very intensity rivals Greed’s obsession with, well, everything. Envy fed that need for knowledge, and as such, deserved a reward. I’d been holed up within libraries for quite some time. Even I can only manage to contain myself for so long.
Envy’s pillow talk is thankfully more informative, and more entertaining, than her idle chit chat. Aside from that, she’s not terribly impressive. But again, I’d been hidden away within ancient buildings and Envy has never been a difficult one to seduce. We lay within the library I had so recently left, the great vaulted ceiling a vast distance away. Piles of books, as well as ash, filled any space that was not already occupied, the air rife with odors of ancient tomes and freshly burnt paper. My eyes hardly drifted away from the far-away ceilings, though I could feel Envy’s boring into me. The girl really must work on her subtlety. She toyed childishly with the necklace round my neck, rattling off tales about the actions of my fellow Vices. Pride had worn a path in the ground, pacing to and fro in a display of nervous concern for my “traitorous” actions. Sloth had calmly been watching him, smiling and offering soothing words that I’m fairly certain Pride’s paranoid mind couldn’t comprehend, let alone accept. Wrath was off somewhere, a fact in which Envy evidently took great pleasure, sulking and destroying the occasional village. Greed and Gluttony had embarked on some infantile quest. I could only laugh at this. The “quest” was likely nothing more than some malformed scheme of Greed’s, and Gluttony had simply gone along for the ride.
My mind soon drifted away from the ceiling high above me, the indignant desert birds that fluttered through the sandy air, and the visions of the fellow Vices that danced before my eyes. It strayed to my tenure within the various libraries and what knowledge I’d amassed there. I had found so many books, obviously, yet only a few had actually had information I was concerned in. I had spent my time reading up on my origins, learning the story that had culminated in my creation. Though I could not eternally quell my impulses, my desires, I had found myself growing weary of my endless existence. Every single time the physical shell of a Vice or Virtue finally gives out, we are immediately placed within another. There is no peace; there is no rest. This was unbelievable. These people, these cattle, that we infected were able to achieve peace, why weren’t we? We do more work in our existence; we endure more hardships. Pleasures of the flesh serve as a wondrous means of tiding oneself over, make no mistake about that. Yet, I could not, and cannot, rid myself of the belief that surely something else must await me and the end of things. I would not allow myself to wait. That would be simply ridiculous. I was determined to find my own way to reach paradise, the solace I had sought for so long. I longed to be free of my servitude, to simply be and pay no heed to anything. I wished to be free of the irritating presence of the Virtues, gone from the tumultuous cascade of emotions and backstabbing that went hand in hand with being a Vice.
I had learned many things during my seclusion. I learned, for example, that my dream was within reach.
~Lust
------------------------
Of Vice and Virtue
Pride
Unacceptable! I had been lied to, deceived! That wriggling, worming Greed had been hiding things from me. I knew he was a traitor. He will be punished. Severely. He knew what Lust has done, and even went so far against me to hold in his possession a book that Lust had read. He would serve to use this book against me somehow. It must have been his motive to stab his leader in the back and painfully twist the knife of deception. I would not allow him to so easily sidestep my authority. I would confiscate this book of his before that avaricious insect could use it against me further. There must have been powerful secrets within that book if both Lust and Greed were to hide it from their leader.
I had learned of this book through the ever-faithful Gluttony. She had been playing with her dolls and acting out scenes, as usual. Though many of these plays were often centered around food and other objects, their degree of edibility notwithstanding, this particular display was rather unique. As Sloth looked on, or rather through Gluttony and into space, the young girl seemed to be portraying something she herself had witnessed. She held only two dolls, those of Greed and herself. My doll was cast off to the side, something I made sure to reprimand her for afterwards. Quietly, with a voice as hushed as the autumn winds Gluttony so enjoyed, the young girl was speaking for her dolls, waving the otherwise immobile figurines up and down as they “spoke.” She must not have known I was there. The topic of “conversation” was far too treacherous to be allowed anywhere near me.
Gluttony spoke of a secret between her and Greed. This alone shocked me. Gluttony had never withheld anything from me. If she held a secret within her, what else had she hidden? Even the child was not to be trusted. According to Gluttony’s personal conversation with herself, Greed had shown her something Lust had supposedly given him. A book, inscribed with some peculiar gold symbol. I could care less about the symbol. My attention was focused solely on Gluttony, and her lonely little tea party. Lies within my own cabinet. Unbelievable. Unacceptable.
I could no longer bear it. The fury was rising within me and it became utterly clear to me that Greed must be dealt with and this book confiscated. I would not allow whatever poison Lust imbibed upon to infect my ranks. I did not care that I had no idea where Greed stashed his treasures, only that he had hidden such information from me. He was a traitor as well, just as eager to backstab me as Lust. I passed Sloth as I stormed away, giving a burning glare towards the silently reclining lady. She lay upon a bed of rose petals and sweetbrier. Any sunlight that could have come into the room of alabaster and obsidian was dimmed by the overabundance of plants. Due to Sloth’s own inactivity, the plants had long since laid claim to the area. They climbed up the walls and across the floor. Sloth said nothing to me. Her lips were closed, her voice imprisoned behind them. The only sound was that of her black dress ruffling slightly in the wind I made as I moved by. She simply looked at me as I passed. Could she have known what I was going to do? Gluttony did spend hours playing dolls in front of her. How much did she know?
~Pride
