Chapter Text
There were things he didn’t say. So many things he wanted to tell his master, but knew better than to do so.
“She’ll die, my lord. She’s mortal, like all the others.”
He didn’t say that, because he could see that his master reveled in the soft, fragile mortality of the woman he wanted to make his wife. It was some sort of second chance for him - a life he never got to live before it was torn from him prematurely. A wealthy husband, a beautiful bride, so what if one was a monster? Death couldn’t bring himself to shatter that illusion for him.
“It’s dangerous to go through with the pregnancy. There’s no telling what the child will turn out like, if it even survives. What if kills her on its way out?”
He didn’t say that, because he saw how his master’s eyes glowed at the thought of Lisa giving birth. Of having a complete family with father, mother, and child, as nature intended.
When the child was born, the sight of Mathias and his wife holding the newborn between them, grinning at each other in relief and complete, utter happiness was too much. It felt like staring directly into the sun, a bright light that would hurt Death if he looked at it for too long. He looked away.
But the most innocent thing he didn’t say was also the most dangerous. Because Death didn’t understand why he wanted to say it.
The setting was the castle ballroom, as the night wore on far too quickly. Lisa laughed as she was swung about in her husband’s arms, skirts swirling gently. She slowed their movement and brought them to a halt, still grinning.
“It’s late, dear. I need to go to the village during the day, remember?”
Mathias’s eyes turned sad, his arms wrapping tighter around her waist.
“It’s early for me. Can’t the trip wait?”
She tugged his hands from her hips, kissing each of them in turn.
“No, you know it can’t. That little boy Adrian likes to play with has a serious fever, and we’re both worried for him.”
Mathias sighed and pulled her into another embrace.
“I suppose. Good night, my love.”
They shared a long, gentle kiss before Lisa walked away, skirts still swaying behind her. Mathias stared at the door long after she was gone.
“Now who will I dance with?” Mathias muttered to the not-quite-empty room. It was a rhetorical question. It didn’t want an answer.
It didn’t want what Death almost said, which was “Me, if you like.”