300 Forget The Past And Start Anew

"Let's continue tomorrow," she declared. 

"Very well, milady." Caster replied. 

Looking out of the window, she wondered where Lycster and Aether were at this moment. Reaching Aether through telepathy, she found out that they were home. 

Tired from looking through the documents that were piled, she quickly left the Bureau to catch up with her brother and Familiar. Before she left, Caster informed her hat Countess Lyra had come looking for her. 

But as she was busy with the paperwork, they turned her away. She left a message that she would come and look for Vy again the next day. Vy wondered why the Countess was looking for her. It must have something to do with Lycster. 

With Timbretune still being a relatively small town, their house was just a walk away from the Bureau. Vy quickly made her way back home, eager to see her brother and Familiar.

"I'm home!" Vy announced as she walked through the door. 

Lycster and Aether were both seated on the sofa, with a spread of food already laid out on the table before them. Both of them had made a quick trip to the Market Square and brought home an assortment of foods to share. 

Some of the dishes included Vy's favourite fried rice and barbecued meat sticks. The fatigue and hunger were really getting to her, so Vy welcomed the spread of food on the table. 

Lycster did not say much either during the meal, preferring to discuss the matter on a full stomach. Within a matter of minutes, their meal was complete. Aether knew Lycster would be hesitant to bring up the issue, so he decided to give the boy a helping hand. 

He slithered on to Vy's wrist and coiled himself on there. 

"Your brother has something he wants to tell you." He hissed. 

"Oh? What is it?" She asked as she turned to look at Lycster. 

Seeing his sister look at him made him flustered. Where was he going to start from? What was he going to say? Will she understand? Vy could sense that something changed in Lycster. 

She could only hope that it was something positive. 

-Just tell her slowly, from the top.- Aether suggested to Lycster. 

The boy breathed in deeply and relaxed a little as he breathed out. He began to recount how everything began. 

Lycster was Countess Lyra's second child. He had an elder sibling, a sister. Her name was Layla. Layla was always ill ever since she was young. Lycster's memory of her was always seeing her in bed, coughing. 

Countess Lyra spent all her time caring for her daughter, she barely had anytime for her son. 

"What about your father?" Vy could not help but ask. 

All the younger children would play together but Lycster was always bullied by the rest. They ridiculed him for being the child of a widow. He would often be covered in bruises. His mother never seemed to be around to help patch up his wounds. 

So he would run to his sister in tears and she would always be the one to console him. One day, Layla told him of her wish. Her wish was to be free from her illness, to see the world.

She yearned to stand on her own two feet and feel the warmth of the sun and the freezing temperatures of snow. But she could not. 

"But you can, Lycster. You can." She said with hope in her eyes. 

Layla wanted him to experience it on her behalf. But the boy had never been beyond the walls of the Mansion. He feared whether he would be able to survive. But his sister reassured him that he would be alright. 

She gave him what money she had, and told him to use it to get as far as he could. 

"There's a delivery cart that always comes to the Mansion on a full moon. Hide in the cart and ride it out into the world," she said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. 

"But what about you?" Lycster asked with tears in his eyes. 

"Don't worry about me," she said with a smile as she ruffled his hair. 

How naive he was, to think that it was as simple as that. He only had one person in Mansion who would cry if he disappeared and that was his sister Layla. Now she was asking him to go.

Not wanting to disappoint her, he agreed. He followed her instructions and did as he was told. But what he did not expect, was to learn the truth behind the things his family did. 

He had always heard about the Mission that a member of their family had to fulfil every few years. But never did he expect it to involve sacrificing the person. That year, that day, his sister was selected. 

Lycster watched in horror as they dragged her out and tied her down on the ceremonial pyre. He saw his mother begging them to stop but no one listened to her. He wanted to run up there and save his sister. 

But he was shaking in fear. He heard her screams as they lit the fire. When he could no longer bear to witness what happened, he saw the cart slowly making its way out into the open road. 

He ran for it. His lungs felt like they were on fire but he did not care. He slipped into the cart and stifled his cries and tears until he fell asleep. When he woke up, he was in a new and unfamiliar place. 

The pain of the memories, of what he had witnessed was burned into his mind. They even plagued his waking hours. A kind-hearted witch noticed his plight and offered him a solution. 

A way to forget the past and start a new.