Lycster anxiously scouted his surroundings. He gripped tightly onto the strap of his saddle sling bag as he walked through the crowded streets of the market. Careful not to raise too much attention, he made haste towards the entrance of Timbretune. Seeing that the security around the entrance had increased, Lycster bit his lip. It was more than he had antic.i.p.ated. While he tried to formulate a different course of action, an idea came to his mind.
Ensuring that no one was watching him, he quickie veered off his original path and went down a darkened alleyway. He hid his saddle bag behind some boxes and looked up into the sky. Just as he was about to take to his owl form, he noticed a shadow looming over him.
"Where do you think you"re going, boy?" Caster asked sternly.
Lycster gulped his saliva down his throat.
He can"t believe he got caught again! But he was not about to give up so easily this time. Before Caster could grab hold of him, Lycster made a run for it. He evaded Caster and ran down another alleyway as fast as he could.
Just when he thought he had gotten away, he ran straight into someone. As he was about to fall onto the ground, the person he ran into grabbed him by the arm and pulled on his ear. The pain made him yelp.
"You"re not going anywhere, mister," Carole said as she caught hold of the boy.
Lycster tried to squirm out of Carole"s grasp. The boy might be young but he was a lot stronger than he looked. Just as he slipped out of Carole"s hand, Caster came in the nick of time and grabbed hold of the boy.
Together, they dragged him back to the house. But on the way there, they decided to take him to the Bureau instead.
It had been days since Vy had been taken by the Baron and Lord Tres. Lycster wanted nothing more than to give chase but he was held back by Caster and Carole. In the last few days, he had been caught by the guards as he was trying to leave Timbretune.
Caster and Carole dragged him back to the house each time he did so. This was the third time.
"I need to go and save my sister!" Lycster declared in anger when he was brought back home by both of them.
Carole was distraught, the boy had become much more stubborn since they had last met.
"Lycster! What are you going to do when you get there? Force them to give Vy back?" she asked him.
Lycster bit his lip. He did not think that far ahead. All he wanted to do was give chase and be there to provide the evidence needed to clear his sister"s name. He never gave any thought to the fact of what else that could happen.
He did not want his sister to end up in the same fate as he did when he was in the Baron"s clutches. He knew his sister was strong, but what if the Baron had some cruel trick up his sleeves?
"I … I can"t just leave her there!" he exclaimed.
Carole sighed as she shook her head.
"We all want her back. But we can"t do anything without a proper plan," Carole sighed.
Caster looked at the both of them and let out a sigh too.
"There was a plan." he muttered under his breath.
Lycster caught hold of it immediately.
"There was a plan?" he repeated Caster"s words.
Caster knew he was not supposed to say anything about it. But as the situation had taken a different route, was there really any reason to keep it a secret any longer? Carole was surprised too. She had not heard of a plan that was set in place before.
What was Caster hiding?
"You better explain what you mean by that, Caster," she said as she looked towards him.
Seeing as the situation was so uncertain, Caster did not hold back. He explained to them that before Vy had been taken by the Baron and his men, she had come up with a counter plan.
Lycster smiled with joy, "I knew she would have planned something!"
Caster shook his head, "Don"t get too excited, kiddo. The plan was supposed to be that the Baron would ask for the trial and Vy would request for it to be held in Timbretune."
As he listened, the smile faded from his face.
"If it was in Timbretune, witnesses could be summoned on our turf. It would have been a fair trial. Vy knew they would want to declare guilty. But she did not expect them to take her somewhere else for the trial," Caster explained.
Lycster sunk into his seat. Carole was silent too.
"Didn"t she have some sort of back up plan?"Lycster asked, hoping for a silver lining.
Caster looked away for a moment, "I asked her. What if they wanted to move her elsewhere?"
"What did she say?" Carole asked.
"She said, if that was the case, then we just need to wait for her return. She would handle everything and…"
"And?" Carole asked.
"... and to ensure that Lycster is safe," Caster continued.
-She knew.- Lycster said to himself.
His sister knew him too well. She knew he would want to go after her. After all, they made a promise to each other to look out for one another. Vy always placed others before herself. There was nothing she would not do for the people she cared about.
All they could do now was wait. But they"ve already waited for days. There was not a single piece of news, no signs, no messages. Was Vy really alright? Was there really nothing they could do but wait?
"Is there really nothing else we can do?" Lycster asked, "Can"t we send some people to Koufer Estate to find out how the proceedings are going?"
Caster nodded, "We could do that. But they would likely deny us entry or information."
Lycster"s mind was filled with countless possibilities. He thought of the different things they could do to ensure that Vy was alright. There must be something they could do to a.s.sist her.
Lycster thought about writing a letter to King Olwin and asking him for help.
But that would have taken too long to reach him. Especially on the fact that it had been days since she was taken, who knows at which stage of the trials they were at?
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