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Wizards are long-lived. They can walk the world for thousands of years before dying, though some go far before others. It had been a few decades since the death of Faust Lavinia. A few decades since the witch Lycoris had become a widow.
After his death, Faust’s spirit had latched onto a doll of him made by the witch. Centuries before, after he had escaped execution at the hands of Alec Granvelle and ran away to the East, she had created that doll and cast a spell on it to bind him. She wished for him to remain with her, even if he died. Evident by his presence remaining in their home, the bind had worked, and they stayed in that house together for the years after his death.
They say that wizards can feel when their life is ending, and this belief was confirmed in Lycoris. When the feeling came, she didn’t know how to feel. There was happiness in it that she wouldn’t have to feel the pain of life anymore, but also sadness. She wouldn't be able to make dolls, she wouldn’t be able to spend time with her son, she wouldn’t be able to live and do what she wished in the world.
“...Dearest, what is death like?” Lycoris had approached Faust, clinging onto him. This was a question she had asked many times before out of curiosity, but this time there was more than that. Faust could tell it was more than just curiosity.
“What’s wrong, Lyco?”
“What happens. What does it feel like.” Her voice was muffled by his clothes, but there was a force behind it. She rarely spoke up like that.
“I suppose it depends on the type of death. For me it was painless and I accepted it, then I woke up again here with the doll… but your experience will be different, won’t it?”
“I suppose it will… I’m not bound to anything, after all. You won’t be bound soon either… I’ll break your doll, that way you can leave and will no longer be trapped here.”
Her words seemed to surprise Faust. He looked down at her, putting a hand on her head as comfort.
“So you’re going to break the doll you preserved for me… Go ahead, but I think you should call Leno and Ischys to visit before you do.”
"...I suppose I should." Her voice softened again. "I haven't called them in a while… I'll do that." She let go of Faust, whose form disappeared, walking over to a shelf and looking at the dolls. She first picks up one that looks like Lennox, putting it up to her ear.
"<<Sola Silentium>>... Leno, are you there? Please come visit. It's… It's important. And give the other wizards my regards… thank you." She put the doll down after finishing her message, then picking up the Ischys doll, casting her spell once more.
"Ischys… honey.. please come home. I know you're having fun running about out there… but please. It's important." She put the doll down next to the Lennox doll, a tear starting to roll down her cheek.
"Fau- Dearest, why doesn't he come home anymore? It's been a few years since he was last here… I didn't do anything, did I?" Lycoris moved over to the Faust doll, picking him up. As she walked towards her bed with him, he spoke.
"Ischys is fine, it's understandable that he can't visit as often as you may want him to."
"But did I do something wrong? Did I raise him to resent me? Before you.. before you died he'd visit more, but now we go years without seeing him…"
"People don't usually stick around after they die. There are cases where some do, yes, but overall it isn't a normal occurrence. He's probably just freaked out."
"Ah, I see…" Lycoris holds the Faust doll to her chest as she falls onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Can you please hold me, dearest… please come out of your doll again…"
A small sigh came from the doll as Faust's form materialized next to her. He hugged Lycoris close to him trying to comfort her.
"You'll be fine, Lyco."
"Hm.. maybe…" Lycoris closed her eyes as she spoke. She was tired from crying. She had never stopped crying. The weight of her approaching death and her wish for her son to not resent her took a toll on her heart. She wanted to sleep. "If I end up dying tonight, dearest… tell them both I love them. And then ask them to smash you and leave your shards with me…"
Faust said nothing in response and only tightened his hug. Soon enough, he could hear her softly snoring and smiled.
Oh what he would give to be able to sleep beside her again…
Eventually, Lycoris woke up from her sleep. Faust's doll was laying on the bed next to her, still. She picked him up, kissing the doll's head and standing.
A knock came from the front of the house. Lycoris put the doll down on a shelf and went to the front door, opening.
"Leno.. you're here! Did you see Ischys on your way over? I asked him to come but I don't know if he'll come…"
"I didn't see him, sorry. What did you need?"
"I'd… rather wait until he comes, if at all, but it's about… uh.. my approaching death…"
"...I see. So it's time for that. What will you do with Sir Faust?"
"That's what I wanted to discuss… let's wait. I don't want to have to explain it twice. Come in." She moved over for him
"Understandable. Thank you." Lennox entered her home, looking around. "Where is he?"
"My dearest is in the room… I'll go get him, one moment." Lycoris walked into her room, disappearing for a moment before coming out with the doll. "I got him, but he might be asleep…"
"He can sleep?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure… there are times he just doesn't respond, I can only assume he's resting…" Lycoris placed the doll on the table, patting his head gently. "Remember this outfit, Leno? It was the outfit he helped Chloe make… How are the sage wizards, anyways?"
"They're doing fine… we've had some new faces since you last visited."
"Ah… so that means… I see." Lycoris didn't want to press on about it. She did not want to know if any of the wizards she had become friends with had passed without her knowledge. Lennox gave her a hug, hoping to comfort her somewhat.
Lycoris' fascination with death ran deep, but when she was properly faced with the idea of death around her, she was terrified, even more so than she was of her own death.
Lycoris sat down, gesturing for Lennox to join her. They spoke for a while, Faust waking up and joining them after a bit. The three of them had fun, their demeanors almost returning to what they were during the Revolution.
Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Lycoris jumped up, knowing already who it was. She rushed over to the door, opening it to reveal Ischys. She looked up at him smiling.
"Ischys..! You came! I missed you so much…" Lycoris hugged him tightly. Ischys laughed softly, putting an arm around her while looking into the house at Lennox and Faust. When he saw Faust, his expression saddened for a moment before returning to how it was.
"You called and said it was important, so… I came. You called Lennox over too?"
"Yes, yes, I did… come in, your room is as you left it still, if you'd stay for a time… I have things to talk to you both about…" Lycoris let go of Ischys, letting him inside. She closed the door behind him as he walked in before moving back to her spot next to Faust. "Alright, um… I told Leno this already but I'm going to die soon, and with that I have to unbind my dearest…"
"Is that what this is about?" Ischys spoke up. "How much time do you think you have?"
"Nhh, I'm not sure. All I know is that it's soon. Besides just that, there's also the matter of what comes after… Do either of you mind cats? They're technically feral but they're rather friendly and used to houses…"
Ischys and Lennox looked surprised for a moment at Lycoris' question. Faust noticed and started to speak.
"What she means to ask is if you'd take care of the cats. You both have your own animals to take care of, but we don't want these guys to suffer without us taking care of them."
"I could make room for them with the sheep, unless Ischys wants them?”
“I wouldn’t want them getting in the way of my birds, they might get into fights…” Ischys waved a hand towards Lennox, offering him up to take the cats. “They’re all yours.”
“I’ll take care of them, then,” Lennox nodded, “But what of this place?”
Lycoris glanced around the room, hesitating for a moment before speaking.
“I want to leave this place alone as it is. You can have it if you want, but I wish that most things here stay as they are… though that is just me being attached.”
“I agree with her.” Faust pat Lycoris’ head. “If you want something you can have it, but we do want this place to stay close to the same as it always has been.”
Ischys and Lennox stared at the couple, nodding silently. With the matter of the cats and the house itself out of the way, all that remained were questions that would be more difficult to answer. The four of them stayed silent for a while before Ischys finally spoke up.
“So… What about that?” Ischys pointed at the Faust doll. He never did like it. The fact that his mother had bound his father to it made him uncomfortable, but he never said anything, as he knew it made his mother happy.
Faust glanced at Lycoris, who remained silent. He knew that she must have been uncomfortable with the question, and so he decided to answer it himself.
“She’ll have to break it. Once the doll is broken, the spell binding me to it will also break and I can ‘die’”
“Why break it? There are other ways to get rid of binding spells…”
“Because I don’t remember how to break it and the intent was always to have to break the doll in the first place.” Lycoris spoke quickly, frustration evident in her voice. She didn’t want to have to break the doll. She didn’t want to think about it.
She looked down at the doll sitting on the table. She had created it centuries before, just days after she had reunited with Faust. The spell that she had cast on it took much out of her, but she had pulled it off. Since then, she has protected it. To Lycoris, all of her dolls were like her children, the Faust doll being the highest of all on the hypothetical hierarchy.
"So you're insistent on breaking it?" Lennox asked
"Yes… though if I die before I'm able to, please break him for me. He'll tell you how…"
"Why not just do it now?" Ischys question had caught everyone off guard. The other three looked at him, stunned.
"Um… because… I uh…" Lycoris struggled to find the correct words to say. She was attached to the doll. Attached to the sense of safety it gave her. Attached to the lingering spirit of her beloved husband. "I don't want to have to live without him…"
A small look of pity washed over Ischys, a look that did not go unnoticed by Faust. Faust sighed, standing up.
"Whatever the case, Lyco is dying. She invited both of you to say goodbye and to figure out what would happen after." He looked down at Lycoris. "Lyco go lay down, I can handle the rest."
"But-"
"I need to talk to them alone."
Lycoris nodded, standing up. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve before leaving the room.
Faust watched her leave, looking back at the other two when she was gone.
"Alright… Ischys, what's wrong? I understand that you probably don't like the doll thing, I don't either, but at least pretend. She knows that it isn’t very well liked, but it helps her cope.” He adjusted his glasses as he spoke.
“It helps her cope? I feel like it just makes her worse… She has bad attachment issues, we can all see that.”
“She never fully learned independence.” Lennox spoke up. “Growing up how she did and then ending up in a revolution after she escaped… Lord Faust was the only other wizard she’d met and so she latched onto him.”
“Yes, because of that I ended up getting not only Lennox swearing himself to me, but a girl who could barely fight for herself wishing to protect me as well. Despite that though, her magic is something, even if she doesn’t use it all that much.” Faust sighed, thinking back to their time in the Central Revolution. “She can handle herself in day to day life as well as in a fight, when she wants to, but she still has issues from when she was basically kept prisoner in her own home.”
Ischys looked at them in silence, glancing at the door Lycoris had gone through moments before. He hadn't known much of either of his parents' lives, he never asked. It seemed the type of thing they'd tell him on their own.
While the three continued their conversation, Lycoris stood in her wnd Faust's shared room, listening to their conversation.
She knew how they felt about what she did to Faust. She always knew. But she couldn't ever bring herself to break the tie between Faust's life and her doll.
Lycoris moved from the door, picking up a doll on the shelf.
"It's not my fault, right?" She whispered to it. "I'm not making him unhappy, right? I know he doesn't like his situation, but… but I had to. I didn't want to lose a part of me so soon. The execution terrified me, made me realize that we could be killed at any moment. It's not wrong of me, not wrong for me to not want to lose my dear Faust, right?"
She pleaded to the doll, hoping that it would answer. It only stared back at her, its glass eyes lifeless. She looked up at other dolls in the room, searching for a hint of remorse from any of her children.
There was none.
The room was silent, only the conversation outside able to be heard.
Lycoris held the doll, tightening her grip on it. Tears fell from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks and onto the head of the doll. She cried silently, holding the doll. After a few moments, she heard something break.
Lycoris set the doll down, inspecting it. She had crushed it, she had killed it.
This only distressed Lycoris further. Not only did she have the horrible feelings of being an unwanted gift, but now she had to deal with the death of one of her own.
Death occupied her mind. The death of her dolls. The death of her beloved. The death of herself. The death of the world. If she could get rid of what she felt, she'd destroy the world. If she could be happy with her family, she'd let the Great Catastrophe destroy everything. All she wanted was safety and happiness.
She looked towards the door, listening to those outside. The conversation had shifted, the topic now being on the state of the countries and how they've been doing. It was mainly Lennox and Faust speaking, from the sound of it, but Ischys would occasionally join in as well.
Lycoris contemplated going into the main room, but decided against it. In her current emotional state, it was not good for her to interact with them that much. At least, that's what she believed. Lycoris walked to the bed, climbing into it. She would sleep for the day.
Closing her eyes, she did her best to tune out the world, and soon enough she fell asleep.
She didn't know what time it was when she woke up, but before she could even open her eyes she felt someone holding her, as well as something in her arms. She recognized the feeling of the Faust doll, smiling. The arms, however, took her a moment to realize. Soon enough, though, she realized they were Lennox's.
"...how long have you two been here?" Lycoris opened her eyes, looking down at the doll and the arms.
"For a while. You were asleep for about 7 hours. Ischys is in his room, don't worry about him." Faust's voice came from the doll.
"Ah, I see… Thank you. Thank you for everything." Lycoris started crying again. This time, she didn't know why. These were tears that only the two wizards she'd known and loved the longest were meant to see. Tears for the wizards she didn't want to lose.
Lennox's arms tightened around Lycoris, comforting her. He'd always been there for her; he'd always comfort her when she needed it. She loved him for that.
"You aren't to blame for anything," Lennox's voice came softly from behind her, as if to try and stop her tears. It had the opposite effect, causing her cry to come out louder.
"But… but I refused Faust the ability to pass on. He never said he wanted what I did to him. He just accepted it… I never told anyone besides you and Ischys because I knew people wouldn't like it and would leave." Lycoris held the Faust doll closer to her chest. "I shouldn't have bound you to this doll, I shouldn't have even made this doll. You should have been gone years ago, but I forced you to stay because I couldn't stand living without you…"
"It's fine, Lyco." Faust appeared in front of her, kneeling down to see her face. "You did what you felt you had to, even if you didn't ask me first. I would have appreciated being told beforehand but it's too late for that now." He smiled at her. "I've enjoyed my time here with you. I love you."
Lycoris didn't know how to respond. Her emotions were overwhelming her, making her unable to think clearly. Faust's reassurance that he was fine with what she did helped her the most, but guilt for keeping him with her still weighed heavy.
"We both love you, Lyco." Lennox spoke from behind her, his arms tightening around her more. The act helped her to calm down somewhat more, his weight on her relaxing.
"Thank you… I love you both too." Lycoris let out a sob as she spoke. She had been with them for centuries, and still she didn't know how to receive their love in situations like this. "...Faust, do you want to be free?"
Faust looked at her, surprised. "Are you asking if you can break the doll?"
Lycoris nodded, loosening her grasp on the Faust Doll.
"If you want to, you can. I have no quarrels with that. But what about you?"
"I have Leno… I've kept you here too long, anyways."
"Have you, now… Alright then. Leno, take care of her for me."
"I'll do my best to make her happy." Lennox nodded.
"I'm asking you to do that as your partner, you know. Don't think of it as an order."
"I know, and I'm doing this as your partner, not as your servant, I haven’t done anything as such for years, Faust." Lennox smiled, loosening himself from Lycoris. “Would you like to do it now, or…?”
“I’d like to do it now. Is that alright, Faust?”
“I’ll be ready for it whenever you are, Lyco.”
Lycoris looked down at the Faust doll, getting up from the bed. She began to have second thoughts. She didn’t want to be alone, she didn’t want to be without the person she’s been with for centuries. She hugged the doll closely to her once more. She needed him to live. She needed him there with her. Their house felt too big without him there. She couldn’t be alone again, she refused to be alone again.
But then she realized she wasn’t alone. She’d have Lennox and Ischys. She’d have her dolls. She loved all of them, they all supported her as much as they could, they would be there for her until the end.
“Faust, could you go to sleep?” Lycoris looked beyond the doll in her hands at the floor. She had accepted what she needed to do, but she couldn’t bear the thought of Faust feeling it. She knew that was silly, that he couldn’t feel any pain from what was about to happen, but she didn’t want him to be there when it happened. If he was out of sight, then he should be out of mind.
“If that’s what you want, I will.” Faust pat her head, smiling. He then disappeared, going back into the doll.
Lycoris looked back at Lennox, who had stood up.
“We should get Ischys…”
Lennox nodded.
Lycoris walked to the door to the room, opening it. She was immediately greeted by Ischys, who had been standing on the other side.
“So, you’re going to do it?”
“Yes, might as well. If I don’t do it now then I never will…” Tears started to well in Lycoris’ eyes.
I’ll be with him again soon… We won’t be separated for too long… She told herself it would be only temporary to comfort herself. She knew not of what lies beyond for wizards who died. She wished for there to be a heaven, but felt it would be too good to be true. There was no place for eternal happiness in this world.
Ischys hugged her. The act startled Lycoris, causing her to almost drop the doll. She cried into Ischys, her tears showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Ischys brought her back to the couch and sat down with her, Lennox following behind them. They sat there for a while, waiting for Lycoris to be ready.
Lycoris dried her tears and sat the Faust doll and the table in front of her. The other two wizards next to her were silent.
“<<Parigoria Silenti!>>” Lycoris choked out her spell, strings appearing around her. They flew for the doll, ripping it apart. Lycoris forced herself to watch what her strings were doing, she wanted to look strong. She wanted to look like she could handle it. She wanted to hold herself accountable for being the reason Faust suffered, both in life and death.
The room was silent after the strings disappeared. No one wanted or knew how to break the silence.
“I think… I’m going to lie down.” Lycoris finally spoke, standing up from the couch. She walked past Lennox, not acknowledging his attempt to comfort her. She was tired, she needed to rest.
Lycoris laid on her bed. It felt emptier than usual. Faust’s spirit was no longer there to accompany her. She was alone. She closed her eyes, wishing to fall asleep once more. With time, she did. She would go on to dream forever, living once more with Faust. They had their cats and dolls. It was all they needed.
To the rest of the world, Lycoris turned to stone. First her legs, then her arms, then her head, then her heart.
Lennox and Ischys had watched her turn, the both of them silently crying. They had lost two people that day- Ischys his parents, Lennox his partners.
Rain started to beat on the windows. The cats started to cry at the door.