El's lips curled into a smile as he leaned forward and stared at one of the heads. It stared back. The others inclined and turned, each gazing at him in silence. After a few seconds, El withdrew and adjusted himself. His smile only deepened, though not with warmth. It was the smile of a man who had already seen the end of things and found no reason to fear it. His eyes remained fixed on the being seated upon the throne, calm and bright, as though he stood not before a sovereign of dreadful authority, but before a grave that had not yet realized it had already been dug.
Then he spoke.
"Since you reject this alliance, hear me well."
His voice was neither loud nor hurried, yet every word descended with unnatural clarity, as though the hall itself had been forced into silence to receive them.
"Many disasters shall come upon you. Happiness shall not remain in your presence. Power shall flee from you. Authority shall loosen in your grasp. Fate shall recoil from you, and even fortune shall learn to turn its face away. What kneels before you now shall one day rise against you, and your majesty shall remain only as a shell within which fear and ruin make their home.
"And madness shall be your son. It shall be born from your thoughts and fed on your silence. It shall whisper, then guide, then comfort, until at last you can no longer tell whether its voice is its own or yours.
"Because of this, you shall be cast down from this throne. Not in one grand moment, but in a long and humiliating erosion. What was raised shall be lowered. What was enthroned shall be displaced.
"Your shadow shall grow restless. That which served you shall begin to hunger, and when your weakness ripens, it shall rise behind you, not as servant, not as reflection, but as heir. And it shall consume you.
"The last remnants of your humanity shall remain, not enough to save you, only enough to wound you. You shall remember warmth and hold only ash. You shall remember mercy and receive none."
The white light above seemed colder now.
"Your existence shall be recorded in the depths of Silence, and there you shall be hailed as the Fool. The Fool who sat too high and fell too deep. The Fool whose shadow inherited his ruin."
Then El spread his hand slightly.
"Alliance or not, this proposal was merely a chain I wished to place around your throat. A courtesy offered before violence. If you had accepted, your fall might have been delayed. But now the path narrows."
He stepped closer.
"In three months, you shall die. Not perhaps. Not in possibility. You shall die. And I shall not. Our fates shall be exchanged. My forsaken destiny shall become yours. My abandoned future shall be your inheritance. My curse shall be your last meal."
Now his voice was almost a whisper.
"I have cursed you. You are cursed. You are cast out from blessing. No grace shall find you. No providence shall cover you. You shall walk beneath light and remain unillumined, and blessings shall pass over you as wind passes over a grave."
Then, at last, El fell silent.
And in that silence, the curse felt less like a threat and more like a law that had just been written into the bones of the world.