By the time Lyra and Corvus reached Eria’s house the sun was already on top of Edion. The intense heat made everyone want to find some shade, even though it was the Lacerta Festival. And that was when the bars and restaurants in Edion started thanking the stars, after all, everyone wanted a cold beer and a good meal while waiting for the heat to pass.

With the help of Yoru, Lyra managed to carry Corvus all the way from the colosseum to the second layer of Edion, where the nobles and rich merchants stayed. Just like Yoru thought, Corvus and Lyra didn’t really  have any choice other than accepting Eria’s offer. To him, it was a good offer, better than his. At least it helped them break free from their master, although a journey together with a mage will hardly be a safe one.

Even though they had been careful, it had not been easy carrying a wounded person all that way. On the way occasionally Corvus would let out a few painful grunts, but he tried not to show it too much as Lyra started tearing up. Eria’s house wasn’t a big one, it had a small flower bed in the front after the iron gate and a small fountain. The two floors house itself didn’t stand out much, white painting with dark grey bricks on the roof, one main door together with windows here and there, some bedrooms on the first floor. No lion statue, no emblem, no guard or servant, only a plain name plate next to the gate, hardly a fitting place for one of the Lamia’s Follower. In this part of Edion with all the fancy houses and villas, Eria’s place couldn’t have been more normal.

They let Corvus lie down on the couch in the living room, just under the decoration light. Having to endure the pain in this heat, the wolf man was soaked with sweat. Lyra used her sleeve to wipe the sweat from his body, but despite all her effort, his condition didn’t seem to get any better. Eria put her hand on the wolf girl’s shoulder and calmed her down:

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your brother.”

Then she sat down next to Corvus, her palm facing his shoulder, eyes closed, lips muttering a magic incantation. To Lyra’s surprise, Eria’s hand was glowing with a soft yellow light as she finished her incantation. She stayed still for a few minutes to let the spell works out its magic. Before long Corvus’s painful grunt had stopped and his breathing became slow and steady again, he had fallen asleep.

“He should wake up in a few hours and his condition will be much better than now.” Eria said as she stood up.

Seeing magic for the first time in her life, Lyra was struck with awe. She wasn’t a mage or a nurse, but from the peaceful look of Corvus, she knew her brother had recovered a lot in these few minutes. Remembering Corvus painful face last night, Lyra bursted into tears, she bowed down and said hysterically:

“Thank you miss Eria, truly, thank you!” No matter what motive Eria had, she had helped them break free from their master, then healed her brother, those were the facts that Lyra would never forget.

“Just Eria is fine, it was nothing really. After all it is Corvus’s life force that healed him, I merely just sped up the progress by helping his body make use of it easier. Really, I didn’t do that much.” Eria tried to get Lyra back on her feet.

Seeing that Lyra just kept crying and thanking, Eria tried to distract her:

“Since I have sped up the use of his life force, when Corvus wakes up he will be extremely hungry, how about you two go out and buy something to prepare dinner. A healthy meal will help him replenish his life force and speed up the healing process.”

Hearing about her brother’s recovery finally made Lyra stop crying, she nodded silently, but her eyes were still fixing on the sleeping wolf man.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Corvus, just go and buy us some tasty dinner. You don’t mind accompanying her, do you, Yoru? Show her the festival a little bit.”

Eria showed Lyra to the front door, then put a coin bag inside Yoru’s hand and winked at him. The fox man put the bag inside his cloak, then looked at Lyra’s saddened face. He opened up a smile and spoke in the friendliest way he could:

“It will be my pleasure. Shall we, miss Lyra? The market run out of stock pretty soon these days.”

The wolf girl took one last glance at her brother then nodded, put her hood on and walked out together with Yoru, their tails waved lightly with the motion.

On the way to Eria’s house Lyra didn’t have the chance to look at the surrounding, since she was too focused on her brother, but knowing that he was getting better, the wolf girl started to show her curiosity. On the rare occasion that Lyra got to go outside the colosseum it was always in a rush, she and her brother never really got the chance to enjoy the city. The fancy houses painted in white as well as the vast gardens and high iron gates were all new to the little wolf girl. Even more now that they were all wearing a colourful decoration for the festival. Yoru couldn’t see the expression of Lyra under the hood, but he could make a guess, for a girl that spend most of her life inside that small room, those decorations must seem extremely strange.

“You have never been out to enjoy the Lacerta Festival before, miss Lyra?” Yoru asked, try to ease up the anxiety of the wolf girl.

Lyra shook her head slightly below the hood, then answered with a soft tone, reminiscing of the past:

“No, not really, master Halbmond. Every year at the Lacerta Festival, the colosseum organizes a series of three matches for the gladiators. Once you sign up, you have to participate in all three matches, and the price for forfeiting is really high, as you and miss Eria have already known. And because of the high reward, my brother always participated in the event, so all I did was just staying in my room and pray for his safe return.”

Paused for a second, Lyra let out a sigh and continued:

“The Lacerta Festival … wasn’t something happy to me. There were more than once that I had wished it never existed.”

Realized that she had talked too much, Lyra bowed her head and apologized:

“Ah, sorry to ruin your mood master Halbmond. It was not really that bad, the Festival, I mean. When our mother was still alive we usually ate together at the festival, occasionally she even took us out for a walk. But it wasn’t easy, since I’m a mixed blood. After she passed away, I rarely went out anymore.”

“I’m sorry to talk about all those sad things when you are enjoying the festival.” The wolf girl bowed her head again, her voice got lower and lower until it couldn’t be heard anymore.

“It’s okay, I don’t really mind, it’s good to let those things out once in a while.”

Yoru replied, not all the beastmans of Palomar get to enjoy the Lacerta Festival, that much he knew. For as long as history recorded, the Kingdom of Palomar had always been on bad terms with the Guran Empire of the human kind. There had been so many wars that even the historians themselves couldn’t remember. In some brief moment of peace, the two nations would negotiate ransoms of prisoners, but not all were lucky enough to return to their country. Lyra’s mom must be one of the unlucky, and there were a lot of them out there in Palomar as well as Guran. Commoners, farmers whose lives hardly make any difference to the two nations. There were forced into slavery, had to do everything for their masters. And the results of that are off-springs like Lyra, the mixed blood, the cursed children, unwelcomed in both nations, target of discrimination. It wasn’t hard to imagine why Lyra rarely went outside.

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“Master Halbmond, can I ask you something?” Lyra suddenly spoke up as they took a turn to a huge park in the middle of the second layer.

Slowed down a little bit to match with Lyra’s walking pace, Yoru replied with a smile:

“Just Yoru is fine, go ahead.”

There was a brief pause before Lyra asked her question:

“Then you can call me Lyra as well. You and miss Eria didn’t seem … surprised to see me?”

To the wolf girl, the reactions people had when they saw her weren’t really pleasant. Most of the time she could feel the disgust in their looks, others just seem to ignore her existence, as if she brings bad luck to them.

“It wasn’t the first time that I’ve seen one of your kind, and I don’t really think there is anything bad about being a mixed blood. As for Eria, once you have learnt something like magic, I guess species are hardly the thing that surprise you anymore.”

Yoru stopped by a grocery shop that seemed to have everything they needed. He started chatting with the shopkeeper from the Dog tribe, getting the food for dinner, their tails and ears moved slightly as they laughed off an old joke about the festival. Lyra stayed silent the whole time, hiding herself behind the big hood, big blue eyes glancing nervously around. Eria and Yoru might be different, but she knew that most people didn’t really like her presence.

After they finished the shopping, the sun had already started to go down. The soft orange light enlightened the happy smiles of the families on the street, shining upon the decorations and banners all over Edion, it also helped to ease Lyra up a bit. She seemed less stiff now, walking next to Yoru, each of them carried a big bag full of groceries.

“Are you a mage as well, master Yoru?” Lyra asked. No matter how friendly Yoru and Eria were, it seemed the wolf girl’s feeling of inferior didn’t go away that easy.

“I would love to be one, but no, I’m not. It’s not that easy to be selected by the Lamia’s Follower.” Yoru shook his head. “I’m just a wandering minstrel.”

“Lamia’s Follower?” Lyra tilted her head, probably the first time she had ever heard of such thing.

Yoru moved his pointy ears slightly, tried to remember what he had learnt about the oldest Order of Palomar.

“From what I know, Lamia is the name of the first mage ever in the history of Palomar, the Miracle Maker. And the apprentices whom she taught called themselves “The Lamia’s Follower”. About this matter, I’m sure Eria know much more than me, you should ask her later.”

The wolf girl nodded, now that she was freed from her small room in the colosseum, Lyra tried her best to absorb whatever information she could, just like a child who finally get to see the world for the first time.

“You said you are a minstrel, so you are good at singing right? My mother used to sing for us sometimes as well, even though she only knew human folk songs.” It seemed that Yoru’s friendliness had paid off, Lyra was a little more open.

“I don’t really think I’m that good, but I could sing a song or two for a living.”

Yoru replied then stopped. Busy talking, Lyra didn’t realize that they had reached Eria’s house. The sun had already gone down and the city was once again filled with bright, colourful lights.

Corvus was sitting on the couch, talking to Eria about something when Lyra and Yoru walked inside. The wolf man seemed much better, the tiredness was still there but most of his pain had gone away. Lyra ran to her brother, looked at all the wounds that had already started to heal up, her eyes were red and teary all over again, but this time they were filled with happiness.

“Brother, I’m so glad you are okay. I was so worried.” She said, voice stuttered by a hiccup.

“Yes, I’m fine now, thanks to miss Eria’s healing magic.” Corvus spoke, his voice was a low one. He gently touched Lyra’s black hair, trying to calm her down.

After the brief conversation, Lyra took a deep bow to Eria, tears dripping on the floor.

“Thank you so much miss Eria, for healing my brother and setting us free. I don’t even know how we could ever repay you.”

“It’s nothing really. I told you, didn’t I? Your brother will help me with my journey and we will be even.” Eria tried to get Lyra to stand up and she spoke. “Now, why don’t we prepare for dinner, I’m not sure about you, but I could use some food right now.”

“Eria is right, do you mind helping me in the kitchen, Lyra? I think Corvus still need some more rest.” Yoru continued, then headed to the kitchen with his grocery bag, Lyra nodded to her brother and followed soon after.

When Yoru and Lyra brought out the food, Eria had already prepared the table for dinner. The fox man gave Eria a bowl full of mixed salad then splitted the grilled meat into three dishes. The smell of meat and the flavourful colour stimulated all the senses of Lyra and Corvus, they hadn’t been eating properly for a long time.

“Now then, shall we eat?” Eria poured four glasses of red wine then sat down, picked up her cutlery and started mixing the salad with sauce. Yoru ate with a good table manner, but the wolf’s brothers couldn’t resist the smell of meat. They soon started diving in the food, making a mess out of their dishes, especially Corvus, since his life force had been used to speed up the healing progress. The two finished their portion before Eria and Yoru were even half way through. Lyra looked at her brother’s dish, then at herself, a light pink appeared on her cheeks, grey tail waving nervously

“I’m sorry, we ate so fast.” The wolf girl hided her blushed face. Even though she wasn’t taught well about table manner, Lyra knew that their way of eating was too embarrassing.

“Don’t worry, I’m glad that you two liked my cooking.” Yoru took a sip of wine as he spoke. “Are you feeling better after the food, Corvus?”

“Yes, thank you for the meal, master Halbmond, I’m much better now.” The wolf man replied as he put the knife and fork down, trying to clean up his mess.

Corvus was just like her sister, they were both not very talkative. After all Lyra was trapped in the small room most of the time, and almost everyone Corvus ever met were his opponents. Even on the rare occasion that they met some other people, it wasn’t hard to guess what kind of treatment they had received.

“I hope you two can find yourself comfortable with me.” Eria held her glass up. “It has been a while since I got the chance to have a dinner like this. It feels like a family dinner, don’t you agree Yoru?”

“I guess we do resemble one.” The fox man replied, glass held up. A weird one. A fox minstrel with the blessing of Ophelia, a rabbit mage of the Lamia’s Follower, a slave fighter wolfman and his mixed blood sister, hardly a common family one could find in Palomar.

It didn’t matter to Lyra what was going on under the table. She didn’t know much about the world, and she knew nothing about Eria and Yoru except for their names, but it was true that she hadn’t had a dinner like this for a really long time. The wolf girl was filled with weird feelings she couldn’t explain. Her eyes looked at the glass of red wine on the fancy table, but her mind thought about the hard bread in the dark room of the colosseum. As she took a sip of wine together with the others, she could feel the hot liquid flowing down her vein, she could hear the beats of her heart. She didn’t know if her brother was feeling the same, but Lyra had never felt more alive.

“Since this is a special occasion, why don’t you sing us a song, Yoru?” Eria put down her glass and made a suggestion. “It was because of your song that we got the chance to have a lovely dinner like this, now that I think about it.”

Yoru was sure that this whole business with the journey is far from lovely, but what Eria said was true, it was a special occasion indeed. He went to the coach and picked up his instrument. After some thoughts, the minstrel cleared his throat, made some adjustment to the instrument and started singing, filling the room with his gentle voice. What came out of his mouth wasn’t the common language of the beastman but a strange one, one that should only be heard on the other side of the Damruel, in the Guran Empire. He was singing a human folk song.

As soon as the song came in to play, Corvus and Lyra immediately looked at each other, pupils widened in surprise. They had heard this song so many times before, it was the one their mother used to sing. Corvus could still control his emotions, but all the feelings that had dwelled up within Lyra bursted out like a river, she muttered the lyrics together with Yoru. Lyra couldn’t speak the human’s tongue, nor could she remember the lyrics correctly, her voice stuttered by the hiccups and her eyes were filled with tears but still she sang it proudly for the world to hear. Eventually a smile opened up on her face. It was a smile Lyra didn’t think she could still make after all those years, a smile that was, as her mother said, brighter than the stars themselves.

Together with her mother’s song, the wolf girl had found other things that she thought she had lost over the years of hardship.