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The light breeze of air hit Lumine’s pinkish cheeks. She took a moment to breathe in the fresh air, before glancing past the town's gates. She was sitting on the corner of the town's well. A heavy burden was weighing on her shoulders that she couldn’t deny. As she was about to get up and take a stroll home, an undeniable presence revealed itself behind her.
“Miss me?” As she turned her back to look in the direction from where the sound was coming from, she was met with a familiar figure. His braided hair being swung by the wind, his clothes slightly worn out from hard work, that tired smile… It really was him.
She ran to her older brother, Aether. She wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, and he welcomed it without a second thought. He ruffled her hair affectionately after she had let her arms go.
“Well, you’re excited to see me. I know I probably should’ve sent a letter to you, but you had to have known I was alright. What, did you think your brother couldn’t take those pesky bloodsuckers on?” Aether had a smug look on his face, clearly proud of himself.
For the past 2 weeks, Aether had been on the front lines of the fight. Aether was the vice captain of the defence force in their town. If there were one thing he hated, it was them. But all of that hatred in his eyes disappeared after he could see his dear younger sister, his reason for fighting.
Lumine cupped his face to get a proper look at him. Her expression turned into a scowl as she noticed all the dark circles under his eyes.
“You look like you haven’t slept in days… When’s the last time you had a proper night’s rest? Have you been eating enough as well?” She could never help herself from concerning herself with his health.
“Honestly, every time you go back to the front lines, I have to worry more about you taking proper care of yourself and not you being slain in battle.”
Aether chuckled as he removed her hands from his face. “Aye aye, Capitan.” Aether usually didn’t take her concerns about his health seriously; he just saw a nagging little sister. The way he treated his own well-being as a laughing matter frustrated Lumine every time.
“This isn’t funny!” Lumine fumed. Aether felt as if he played around with her even a little bit longer, she’d start fuming from her ears.
“Alright, alright. Look, I get it, okay? I know you care about me, and I appreciate the concern. I just don’t have an option. Those creatures only show up during nighttime, and during the day, I’m needed for setting up the base for the next wave of attacks, or cooking or feeding the horses.
Lumine’s facial expression softened. She went from her scowl to a more sorrowful expression. She knew that this was what he had to do to keep them safe. She knew that, and yet she still couldn’t shake off the feeling of worry. That was her brother risking his life and health after all.
Aether picked up Lumine’s melancholy attitude and knew he had to fix this by cheering her up.
“Look, I have to go visit the church soon. If you come with me, I’ll buy you something sweet afterward. Will that cheer you up?”
Lumine hadn’t visited the church in a while. Religion was never something that really interested her. Sure, she could pray for her brother’s safety, but she simply didn’t believe it would change anything.
When they walked past the narthex and through the aisle, Lumine could spot a familiar figure scolding a new face. The deaconess was Barbara, a sweet girl she used to play with when the times were simpler. They were inseparable at the age of 5, until her parents separated. Barbara’s father moved away to another town, dragging her with him.
Barbara’s attitude switched once she saw the two companions. She rushed to visit them, almost tripping over her ankle-length dress. Even though Barbara was much older now, Lumine still saw traces of her childhood friend... The blonde hair in two curly pigtails and that bright-eyed smile.
"You two saw all of that, didn´t you? I apologize for my sudden outburst. That tone-deaf bard just really gets under my skin sometimes! But that´s not how a deaconess should act. That was careless of me, and I know better..." Barbara scolded herself while Lumine tried her best not to start laughing. She hadn´t changed one bit! After gathering herself properly, Barbara´s face brightened up.
"So, what brought you two here? From what I recall, you guys have never been the type to come pray. I never see either of you come on Sunday." Barbara tried her best not to sound judgmental, but a hint slipped out.
"Well, about that...I sort of got promoted a month ago; I am now the vice captain of our troops. I no longer have that luxury of coming to church to pray." Aether gave her a bittersweet smile, half out of pride for his rewarded hard work, half for his guilt for the burden he is now supposed to carry with that responsibility.
Barbara felt immediate shame for being so insensitive; her voice dropped a tone. "Right... Always being here makes me sometimes forget about the horrors going on outside. I hope you know that all of us are deeply grateful for your and your men´s work. You keep us safe and let us devote ourselves to our lord and savior." She gave him a look of sympathy, which he seemed to shrug off.
The walk home was quiet. Aether had dropped by the store and bought Lumine a tart, and now Lumine was munching on it quietly. Even though she didn´t want to bring it up, she saw some differences in him after he came back. He was quieter, more sorrowful. She just couldn´t shake off that somber feeling she was getting from him. He used to laugh more, talk more, smile more… Now he’s just put up walls between himself and everyone else.
Lumine tried to ignore it and fill in the silence. “So, how long will you be home? Since you’ve been promoted and all, I’m guessing they want you back in there pretty soon, huh?” Lumine asked while trying her best to sound optimistic. She knew that if she pushed him too far, she’d see a side of Aether she wouldn’t be able to forget.
Aether’s gaze hardened as she brought up their inevitable separation. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.” He saw Lumine’s mouth open, clearly ready to object, but he cut her off even before she got the chance. ”It’s not that I don’t want to stay, but I need to keep everyone safe. I need to keep you safe from them.” He whispered the last part, Lumine barely catching it.
Lumine hovered over the doorframe, pausing as she heard his words. She took a deep breath and mumbled something about preparing his room for him. Before Aether could say anything, she was already gone. Aether sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. He muttered a “damn it” before pouring himself a drink. Aether sighed while he stirred the glass of wine in his hand.
As the first rays of sunshine reached Lumine’s face, she awoke from her slumber. With a big yawn and a stretch, she quickly got up and dressed herself. As she stumbled down the stairs, she found a letter located in the middle of their dining room table. It contained an apology from Aether and some money for her to spend on herself. A slight expression of discomfort fell on her face, only lasting a few seconds before she composed herself and decided to see if taking a walk could ease her restless mind.
A few steps from her doorstep, she could hear the bickering of a few young children. “This whole thing was your fault! If you could just be normal for once, then none of this would’ve happened!” One of the children whined.
Lumine didn’t interact much with the neighboring families, but she could recall some aspects of them. The girl complaining was Diona. Her father has always been a drunk, and her mother passed away when she was young. A child forced to mature quickly was a feeling Lumine was all too familiar with. She pitied Diona for this purpose. The other girl whom she was yelling at was Aino, a mechanic’s daughter. She seemed fascinated with everything that involved bolts and wires. Once Lumine could overhear her endlessly talking about wanting to become a watchmaker. That dream faded away pretty quickly, though after she was forced to accept the reality of being born a woman.
Lumine took a deep breath as she decided that it was better for her to intervene in the rebuttal. “What seems to be the problem here? I’m sure whatever It Is, I’m sure it can be fixed.” Children always seemed to get overly dramatic over the smallest disagreements.
“Forget It! Adults are just dumb, you wouldn’t understand anyway!” And with that, Diona stomped away from the scene. Lumine focused too much on Diana that she didn’t immediately pick up on Aino’s mood before she already heard the little girl’s sobs.
“Hic, it’s all my fault! Hic…” She sobbed pitifully, leaving Lumine pondering about what really had happened between the two of them. Lumine’s attempts to calm her down proved to be vain. The girl refused to explain anything that had happened until Lumine bribed her with a sugar sculpture bought from the nearby market. As she licked her sorrows away, she finally started confessing the true events that had transpired.
“We all found a stray cat that had taken shelter near the church… It was missing a leg, so the adults would have put it down. We had no choice but to hide it! Well, today was my turn to take care of it…” Aino’s face started forming a guilty frown. “I was supposed to watch her, but I went to look at what my dad was working on. I couldn’t take the cat with me, so I left it near the forest, but when I came back, it had run off there!” Her gaze lowered to the ground. “Is there something wrong with the way I am…?” She glanced at Lumine who found herself compelled by the current situation.
“Hey, look at me. There Is nothing wrong with the way you are. You shouldn’t want to change yourself for other people, It’s never a route you’ll ever be satisfied with taking.” She ruffled Aino’s hair. “Look, what if I go and take a quick look in the forest? I’m sure it couldn’t have run off too far with only one leg.” Aino reluctantly nodded and said her goodbyes at Lumine’s departure. Quickly after giving her promise, she started regretting the whole shenanigan while walking towards the forest. “Why couldn’t I just stick to my own business…” She mumbled to herself as she wrapped her arms as if to shield herself.
She felt an unsettling feeling seeing all over her the moment she set foot into the forest. When she was younger, she used to be spooked out by the whole place. Once when she and Aether were children, they got separated while playing and Lumine went to cry in a corner, until Aether finally found her. That forest went deep quickly, so she knew that she had to stay alert. She knew that as long as she was out of the forest before sunfall, she would be safe from the seeking threat of those night crawlers.
As she stumbled deeper into the vast forest, she felt a chill run down her spine when she heard a slight crack somewhere nearby. There was one contributor that Lumine had failed to realize, wolves. The forests near her town were swarming with them. They had completely slipped off due to all of the town's defenses focusing on keeping those filthy bloodsuckers at bay. Lumine spotted the pests, but managed to avoid their gaze as she attempted to back off the scene. It was already dawn and she had no sightings of the cat that had been lost. Lumine thought of retracing her steps to get back to where she came from, but was caught off guard by the drop of water that had fallen down on her and was now running through her face. It didn’t take long for multiple of them to appear out of thin air.
The rain got heavy fast and Lumine was now soaked thoroughly from head to toe in water. She had spent the past half an hour trying to navigate her path home with no luck. Lumine could barely see around her as her vision was getting blurry. “Crap…” She mumbled, as she leaned against a tree, losing her balance by the second. Lumine knew it, she had caught a fever. One thing she hated feeling was being weak. After her parents passed, she had taken the role of the caretaker and was trying her best to stay strong. Due to being a woman, people always underestimated her, and she wanted to prove to everyone that they were wrong, even herself. Her breath shudders as she has now sunk onto the ground, resting her back on a log. Her eyes started taking longer and longer pauses before opening them.
Before completely slipping into unconsciousness, Lumine could see a black silhouette holding an umbrella in a well-educated manner. It wasn’t a patrol officer as she had hoped. It wasn’t wearing the uniform that she had seen Aether always wear before his promotion, nor was it wearing anything resembling any of the ranks of the defence force. The figure started slowly approaching her before everything went black.