…

          Tuare woke up from the greatest dream that she had ever had. In this dream, she met her sister again and was saved from the brothel she had been sold to. It first started out with her meeting a tall and handsome older man, he then swept her off her feet and brought her to her sister, who was an elf for some odd reason.

          Even the most vivid and lucid dreams didn’t match reality all the time. In all honesty, she kind of liked her elf sister more than her actual sister. She was more grown-up looking than her real-life sister, who she would probably never see again.

          But that was in her dreams, now it was time to live that broken life she so desperately wanted to cling to. She hated every second of it. the way the men violated her. The way they screamed so she would cry. The way they beat her till she was nearly dead.

          She was tired of it all, but she so dearly hoped to see her sister once more, at least once more. Even though she had half resigned herself to never seeing her again, she so desperately wanted to at least glimpse her little sister’s face.

          Her eyes creaked open, this wasn’t the ceiling she knew and hated. She looked from side to side. The room she was in was an awfully normal-looking room. It had wooden wall, and very normal looking ceiling.

          This change in scenery short circuited her brain fro a solid minute. That was until the door creaked open and two figures walked in. One was an older looking man, the other one was a girl she somewhat recognized. In fact, she somewhat recognized the man as well.

          He looked an awful lot like the man from her dreams, the man who swept the poor girl off of her feet and brought her to safety. Did that actually happen? Was she actually safe? No, she couldn’t be, but then again, she felt better than she had in the longest time.

          “Hello, I am Sebas,” he said, and she motioned to speak but he stopped her with another word, “no, don’t bother. You need to keep your strength up after all. You were in a rather sorry state when we found you.” Sebas spoke.

The girl who seemed to be an elf of some kind nodded her head and made to speak. The voice that came from her mouth sounded strangely familiar. Her voice was smoother than she remembered her voice being, but that was definitely the voice of her dream sister.

          In fact, she even looked a little bit like her sister, other than the older look and the elven ears. She seemed to be the spitting image of her. Yes, sure the girl looked like an angel given the flesh of mortals. But in all honesty, there was something familiar about her…

          “Tuare, do… do you recognize me? It’s me, Ninya. Your little sister?” she said.

          “Ninya? What… what happened to you?” she nearly screamed out if it wasn’t for her somewhat sore throat.

          The girl then began to cry. It was a sorry state of affairs in all honesty. Sebas stepped back and watched as the two girls hugged each other. Ninya’s eyes soon began to leak as well and Tuare was no better.

          The sisters hadn’t seen each other in years. But they seemed to be able to tell that they were indeed siblings. Tuare was obviously the least changed one of the two. Her appearance had only aged. While Ninya’s looked had completely shifted. Her ears looked like that of an elf, and her over all looks looked a lot more adult.

          They continued to hug each other till Sebas felt the food on the tray he held getting cold. Then he made noise of clearing his throat. The two sisters looked at him with reproach and then separated.

          He then placed the tray of food on the young Tuare’s lap. But before she could dig in, Sebas handed her his handkerchief. She looked at the hand that held the small cloth then back up at him.

          It was strange, at least to her, that he’d offer his handkerchief to her. She hadn’t really met many people who would offer their nice clean handkerchief. He smiled at her, but she still refused it.

          “But it’s so clean. It would be a waste on me,” she said softly.

          Sebas smiled at the young lady. It was a smile filled with gentleness and kindness. It was the smile an adult would give to a child when they asked if chocolate milk came from brown cows.

          “Handkerchiefs purpose is to dry our tears. It is said that a clean handkerchief is a sad thing, at least that was what my creator said,” he said and she took it and wiped her eyes.

          Ninya smiled at the interaction. It reminded her of her childhood. But those days were long gone now. In the past, they would often play in the woods surrounding their village. But times have changed.

          Ninya isn’t even human anymore. Tuare has been beaten and tortured in the name of other people’s pleasure. It was truly sad that they probably didn’t have the time to feel like sisters anymore.

          Or maybe they do? After all, what are they supposed to do now? Lady Aeskell said that she was going to speak with her and Tuare about their future when they were done settling down right now.

          Tuare, all things considered, could probably stay in Carne village after all was said and done. After all, lady Aeskell had said that they were putting more money and resources into the village itself. Something about founding a nation or something along those lines.

…

          Brain Unglaus woke up with a start. The memory of his failure about a year ago still branded into his mind. The cackling of an infinite power chasing him. The yawn as that power blocked his strongest attack.

It filled him with such fear that he couldn’t even think. He couldn’t even feel anything else. The mad giggles of that thing, that vampire filled him with such dread that he couldn’t think straight.

          His breathing started to pick up speed again as he remembered that woman. Her name was Shalltear Bloodfallen. A vampire, and an infinite height that he couldn’t dream of reaching. Then, he snapped out of it. The sounds of noise coming from whatever downstairs there was in this mystery building caught his attention.

          He got up, looked at himself to make sure he was alright, and made his way downstairs. As he stepped down the stairs to make sure what was making noise wasn’t a threat, as his mind was still lingering on those vivid memories.

          There, he saw Gazef Stronoff sitting by the dining room table, a servant cleaning the dishes a room over. That was the thing that caused the noise that woke him up from his past memories. Gazef noticed Brain and looked up at the stairs to see him climb down.

          “Brain, it’s been a while since I’ve last seen you. How have you been?” he asked with a somewhat jovial tone.

…