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Lily ran.
Her feet hurt as they pounded on the ground, the soles of her shoes have been worn off in her long, tiring escape from the capital. Her arms are heavy and feel as if they’ll break off. But she can’t let them. Not with the two baskets she grasps tightly. Not with the two precious bundles in them having her and only her for protection.
Lily is tired. But she must continue running. Running was all she’d been doing for the past five days. The only thing she could do when that thing attacked.
o0o0o0o
They were visiting the Efumare mansion when it happened. Her, her father and mother, and her newly born baby brother, Asta.
Asta, who looked nothing like her or her parents but who Lily loved with all her heart. Mother had told her that her brother had gotten his looks from a relative way way waaay down on their family tree but Asta was in fact, their child.
(Lily wouldn’t have cared either way though. She was finally a big sister! After eleven years, she finally had a sibling she could play with and cherish and do all the fun things that siblings do.)
First things first was dress up.
She couldn’t have her brother wearing just any clothes! So she took on the responsibility of making sure his first clothes were the best he ever wore. It may have taken her a few weeks but finally she finished Asta’s new clothes. The cloth smooth and soft so it wouldn’t irritate him, all topped off with his name, lovingly embroidered into the fabric, right over his little heart (although Lily had a lot of help. Her mother didn’t want her to poke herself).
Lily had even been able to make a similar pair for the Efumare’s new son, Yuno.
It came as a shock to both families when they realized their respective children would be born on the same day. What a coincidence it was! But the parents took the revelation in stride and began preparations for their new arrivals.
That’s what brought them to the Efumare’s mansion that night. As soon as both women had recovered from giving birth, the Airauqa family had packed their things and traveled to the mansion to celebrate and get the two newborns acquainted. Their families had been friends for decades and they wanted to make sure it stayed that way.
Yuno and Asta took to each other like fish to water. Sharing the play mat on the floor, Lily watched them interact. Yuno laid there quietly, seeming content in his new clothes (Lily had pestered Lady Efumare to let her put it on him as soon as she got there) and his family pendant, given to him by his parents to commemorate his birth. The chain was gold with a blue stone with a weird golden design in the middle. His parents had tucked it into the collar of his new outfit, though, so Lily didn’t get to much else. Yuno had a small smile on his little face as his head tilted towards Asta’s baby babbles, as attentive as a newborn could be to his new friend. The families hadn’t figured out which one was born first yet, but Lily could already tell they’d be as close as real brothers as they got older. And Asta’s brother became Lily’s by default.
(She’s made up her mind, and no one was changing it.)
Lily and the boys were about to be sent to bed when it happened.
Yuno’s content face suddenly scrunched up and he began crying, wailing like no tomorrow. And since his new friend was crying, Asta joined in as well. Lady’s Airauqa and Efumare arose from their seats by their husbands only to stop halfway to stare at the wall by the children in horror.
Lily turned her head and screamed.
Darkness covered the wall by her brothers, and despite being only an absence of light, Lily could feel the weight, the power flowing from it. Dark tendrils broke away from the mass on the wall and slithered their way towards the two babies. Lily, whose sisterly instincts were on overdrive by now, snatched up the newborns and dashed towards her mother, only turning back when she was safely behind the two women.
Lily watched as the playmat was swallowed by the darkness, its presence in the room seeming to have been destroyed entirely. Lily’s hold on her brothers only tightened.
Her father and Lord Efumare had placed themselves in front of their families, slowly ushering the women and children towards the door.
Then, the darkness spoke.
Ẅ̴̺̩͖́̍̏ḧ̵̭̚e̷̡̬͖̺̿̋̌ŗ̴̻̝̃e̷̝̾ ̵̪͔͋̒i̴̞͇͋͐̄̍͜s̶̨̟̋ ̷̗͉͛͌̄ͅi̴̙̓̔̂͝t̷̲̹̫̽͑͒?̴̥̽͝
“We have nothing to give you, demon,” yelled Lord Efumare.
(Those were the last words he ever spoke.)
The dark tendrils shot up at lightning speed and, in an instant, Lord Efumare was but a corpse left standing up right by the very pillars of darkness that killed him.
Someone was screaming. It took Lily a moment to realize it was her.
In all of the chaos, the boys still crying, Lady Efumare’s agonized wails, and her mother’s frantic tugs towards the door, Lily was focused on her father. Her father, in his dark blue suit, who was shielding them with his whole figure, sweat on his brow as he turned to look her in the eyes.
Lily listened. And Lily heard. She heard his final words.
There was only one.
“Run.”
And so she did.
o0o0o0o
Lily didn’t know for how long she ran. Only that, by the time she collapsed, she’d found herself in the capital.
It was there, in the darkness of some dark and wet alley, that Lily let herself cry. Yuno and Asta (Her only family left. Oh God, they’re the only ones still alive!) had long since fallen asleep as she ran, having tired themselves out with their tears.
Lily cried and cried and cried some more. Until, just at the break of dawn, her tears stopped and she welcomed the blissful darkness of sleep.
o0o0o0o
Something was wrong.
After her fitful sleep, Lily had been awoken by her brothers’ cries for food. The young girl had walked the market for hours, looking for something, anything, that would satisfy them. It was by chance that she came across a kind elderly woman in a red cloak who didn’t mind giving her and her brothers some food and spare clothing.
(A few hours later, the captain of the Grey Deer squad would look at the search order in his hands and frown in suspension and worry for a young sister and her baby brothers.)
She was walking the streets looking for a place to stay when she felt it. Something in the city had changed. She looked around her and noticed the two magic knights stalking towards her.
They felt… off.
Lily quickly turned around and began heading in the opposite direction.
They followed.
And so Lily took her father’s advice once again.
She ran.
o0o0o0o
Big siblings exist to protect the younger, weaker siblings who are born after them.
Lily can’t remember who she heard that from (maybe the boy with the 5 or so younger brothers and sisters running after him) but she takes the saying to heart when she realizes that she won’t escape these magic knights the way her father taught her.
She couldn’t run from this.
Not unless she fought first.
So she laid her brothers down (Just this once. Please don’t cry, Asta. She’ll be right back, Yuno.) and she stood in front of her brothers, her peasant clothes rustling as she called her magic to her.
Her mother had only just taught her the basics of magic. But it would have to be enough.
Please let it be enough.
The magic knights were right on top of her. They were talking, their smug smiles were taunting.
Lily ignored their words. She ignored their spells. She ignored everything except her family at her back. Her family that needed their sister.
Needed their sister to do what she had to.
And Lily did. She cast her magic. She watched as the arrogant knights fell, knocked out by the weak girl they’d been sent to capture.
Because Lily was a big sister now. And it’s a big sister’s duty to protect her younger siblings.
o0o0o0o
The noble Efumare family has been murdered.
Main culprits: Lord and Lady Airauqa
Status: Descased
Daughter of the Airauqa family missing from the scene. Suspected to have fled with Efumare’s newborn as hostage.
Order: Find and capture, by any means. Bring to capital for interrogation.
Lily couldn’t believe it.
Her parents. Her family. Her. Blamed for the deaths of the only other nobles who were truly noble.
Asta and Yuno coo at her, sensing her distress as she read the search order she snatched off those two magic knights. Try as they might, the babies couldn’t brighten their sister’s mood today. Not after news like this.
What will she do now?
She’d found her way into a forest, her brothers tucked safely in her arms (where they will stay for as long as she knows they’re in danger).
Where will she go? How can she protect her family?
Lily thought and thought and thought.
Where would the magic knights least likely search for a young noble girl on the run?
...
The Forsaken region.
Her parents always told her to avoid the Forsaken region. That it was not safe for a little girl to be alone. Nobles never set foot there.
It was the perfect place to hide.
Lily stood, adjusted her grip on Asta and Yuno, and began her long trek to the very edges of her kingdom.
o0o0o0o
The shadows returned on the fourth day.
She’d been in the common region in a small village that bordered her goal, the Forsaken region. The news of her capture hadn’t reached this far in the kingdom yet, so Lily felt safe enough to go into the village to get more supplies. She did odd jobs around the village for money, Asta and Yuno watching her comfortably from the two little baskets she'd been given. The same old lady Lily had met in the nobel region had been the one to gift the three children with the baskets, each holding a generous amount of cloth to swaddle the two infants as well as a blanket for Lily.
(How the red cloaked old lady had gotten to the outskirts of the common region so fast never crossed Lily’s mind. Neither did the fact that the only magic knights she’d seen around had been from the Grey Deer squad. She didn’t even notice that none of them had approached her in anyway, seeming to orbit her little group defensively instead.)
She’d been on her way out of the village when she felt it. The same oppressive aura. The weight and power.
She didn’t even need to think this time.
Lily grabbed her brothers and she ran.
o0o0o0o
Lily ran and ran and ran.
She ran all night and into the break of dawn.
But no matter how much she ran, the darkness followed.
She didn’t know where she was anymore, but anywhere was better than letting the darkness get her and her brothers like it did her parents.
So Lily kept running.
o0o0o0o
The sun is setting. Five days have passed since her flee from the darkness began.
Lily still runs.
She’s run so much, so far, but she has to keep the darkness away from her brothers.
She runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and…
She falls.
Her leg won’t move.
Her brothers’ baskets are just a few inches from her grasp.
Yuno’s pendant lay on the ground.
She can feel the darkness inch closer. She can hear it’s disembodied laughter.
The darkness has won. It’s worn her out. She can’t run anymore.
It’s going to kill her. Like it did her parents. Like it did to the Efumares.
It’s going to kill her brothers.
…
Lily will not let this happen.
She refuses.
Lily summons what little strength she has left.
She stands once more.
She grabs her brothers’ baskets, Yuno pendant (it’s all he has left of them, she’s not leaving it), and she continues.
Lily continues to run.
o0o0o0o
She can not see. She cannot hear. She cannot feel as her feet start to bleed. She cannot taste the midnight air or smell its breeze.
All her senses are focused on two things.
Hugging and hiding her brothers in their baskets.
And running.
She cannot see, so she doesn’t notice it until it’s too late.
She runs right into it.
Lily looks up from where she’s fallen, her vision blurry as she takes in the sight in front of her.
It’s a giant skull.
Lily has made it. The Forsaken region.
She’s in Hage village.
Despite everything, she’s done what she set out to do all those days ago.
No one will find them here. No one would think to look here for a young noble girl and two newborns.
Which means that no one will know where to find their bodies either.
Lily clutches her brothers, both quietly crying at her distress.
Lily feels like she’s earned the right to join them in their tears. Just this once.
One final time.
The darkness creeps forward again, swallowing the ground as it’s tendrils inch closer to her.
Lily closes her eyes.
A bright light shines.
She hears a monstrous screech.
When she opens her eyes again, Lily finds herself in the same place she was before, the darkness gone and a powerful light coming from the statue above her.
And Lily knows.
They’re safe.
o0o0o0o
Walking the small village in the dead of night, Lily sees it.
Wanted
Lily Airauqa
For first degree murder and kidnapping
They’ve sent out her picture.
She can’t escape this.
Lily wants to sit down and cry. In fact, she almost does just that.
But then she looks down at the babies in her arms and thinks.
Even if she gets caught, she wants them safe. Happy.
She knows what she has to do. Even if it hurts her. Hurts them.
She’ll leave Hage village.
And Asta and Yuno won’t be coming with her.
They won’t have to fear the darkness, it won’t come here.
They won’t have to fear the kingdom, the knights only want her.
…
As she walks by the lone church in Hage she thinks, they won’t be alone for long.
She’ll come back for them. The government can’t touch the church. She’ll change her name, her appearance, her everything.
Once the kingdom has stopped searching for her, once she is certain her brothers will be safe, she’ll return to them.
She lays the baskets down in front of the old church building, places Yuno pendant by his head, and gently gives her brothers one final kiss on the head.
Lily walks away.
Her heart breaks when she hears Asta begin to cry. She sees a candle in the church flicker on. Lily watches from afar as the priest picks up their baskets, bringing them into the warmth of the building.
Lily is not sad as she leaves them. She knows she’ll be back. She has to protect them and she can’t do it from some cathedral on the other side of the kingdom.
She’ll be back. To watch them grow. To help them. To shelter them and love them.
Because that is a sister’s duty.
o0o0o0o
Years later, she does just that.
She smiles as Father Orsi Ofai introduces her to the children in their care.
She holds back her tears as she gazes at the faces of the infants she once carried in her arms for days, both of them so grown yet still so small.
Your sister is back, little brothers.
And she’s not leaving anytime soon.