NOCTEM

Sibling

"who?... I have no idea who you speak of." Eren responded to the question Nox asked with a clueless look.

Nox gazed at the wizard blankly, he turned his head to the side, then scoffed, and spoke in an even tone.

"You're lying, you know something."

He lingered for a moment then added.

"I could detect the subtle movements you made when I asked who Irene was, your hands in which you held the cutleries paused for a quick moment, and there was a slight movement of your brows."

The wizard slowly put his food down and smiled at his student, his look was one of amusement and content.

"You're learning quite fast, I guess all that training you went through the past few days paid off."

He looked at Nox like he wanted to say something but was seriously considering it, after a while he finally decided to ask.

"Say little one, who told you that name?."

Nox hesitated for a minute, while he had come to trust the wizard a bit, it wasn't to the point where he could freely disclose things to him, but then again he didn't really have anything to hide and he was the one who asked the question first.

'Well from his reaction I can tell he knows something about Irene, but will he be willing to share some information genuinely?.. it seemed like he didn't want me to find out whatever it was that was associated with that name.'

Remembering his mother's last words, he decided to give it a shot.

"It was the last name my mother uttered before her demise."

The wizard looked to be in thoughts, a subtle yet sad smile playing on his lips.

"So even until the very end you still couldn't let go of her, Aurelia..." He mused.

Nox was confused, the wizard muttering wasn't enough information for Nox, but at the very least now he understood that Irene was someone close to his mother.

But how close?A comrade? A close friend? He couldn't tell.

The wizard cleared his throat and spoke in a serious tone.

"Well.. I'm not sure how to tell you this, no.. I'll be honest with you."

He gazed directly at Nox, then said.

"The person you are asking of, is your sister."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me, Irene is your elder sister." The wizard repeated.

Nox's expression was one of confusion as he asked in a slightly irritated tone.

"Are you toying with me right now? I don't have a sibling."

"Well, you thought you were an only child, but you're not." Eren clarified, his tone somber. " And it's a given that you wouldn't know of her, after all... she died before you were born."

Nox couldn't believe what he was hearing, he knew that the wizard could be right actually.. No, there was every possibility that the wizard was right, but what he couldn't understand was why no one, not even a single person had told him before now.

'Why.. Why didn't my parents tell me... All those while I clung to them, desperately wishing for a sibling, was I indirectly hurting them with my words..?.'

"G.. Goddammit.. I'm such.. a worthless child, all these years I didn't know how much pain they'd been through.. I couldn't see it.. no, i noticed it, but I never once tried to reach out to them.."

"You know, for someone who's pretty smart and quick to learn things you're kinda stupid." The eccentric wizard chimed in, interrupting Nox's moment of self loathing.

Nox didn't react to the words of the wizard, neither did he get pissed but Eren's words were enough to shut him up.

"You're a child, what would you have done? No, what could you have done?They already had their hands full trying to keep you safe, her loss broke them more than you could imagine, knowing that the same fate could befall you, they decided it was best if you didn't know anything about it. They wanted you to have a normal life, so they chose to carry the burden themselves and leave you out of it, you're not to blame."

Nox felt like his heart was about to burst, he didn't know what he was feeling right now, after all there were arrays of emotions present in him. Sadness, surprise, regret.. but why? Why was he feeling regret? It wasn't like he could have done anything about it besides consoling them, like Eren had said, he was but a child, what would he have done if he knew?.

He knew he wasn't even supposed to feel regrets. Sadness he could understand, surprise was definitely present, but why the regret, he felt like he had failed to protect someone close to him once again..

'Again?.. Where did I.. what am I missing? Who did I fail to protect?'

Nox couldn't help but question internally, he felt strange.. like the current feelings he was experiencing weren't his own but at the same time, belonged to him, he kept wondering, was he feeling that way because of his parents or because of his sister he didn't know he had?. Well, technically his mother died because of him, so that might just be it.

Eren's baritone voice jolted him out of his thoughts, the night breeze had become a lot chilling and the trees rustled, the clouds became dark and a few droplets of rain showered.

"Since things turned out this way.. I guess it's alright to tell you now... How Irene died, and why you're being pursued by those hunters who killed your parents."

The wizard continued.

"Two members of different races cannot create an offspring, that was the rule, and that had always been the rule imposed on us lessers by the deities, but everything has its abnormalities, in some extremely rare cases a child is born from parents with different races, we call those offsprings, hybrids. Hybrids are extremely lethal creatures that surpasses the normal standard for the races of which it's spawned of. They are regarded as abominations because they go against the law of the deities from the moment they are born, they're abnormalities which shouldn't even be in existence."

He paused for a moment letting Nox digest a little bit of information before he continued.

"I'm sure you're confused as to how this may relate to you but I'm definitely sure you know where I'm heading to already. As you are aware, your parents are members of different races so you automatically fall under the category of a hybrid. And one that's spawned of two legendary races, the vampires and the lycanthrope race. I don't need to tell you how much of a monster a spawn of those two races would be.

Nox frowned a bit, by now the rain droplets had increased quite a bit, and the flames were flickering.

"I'm not sure if you know of this, I might be the offspring of a vampire and a werewolf but I am a norm, I'm not useful in that regard!"

Eren sighed.

"I was getting to that part, it's not that you don't possess tremendous power like the other hybrids, actually you are even more dangerous than most hybrids, it's just that your bloodline was also sealed along with your mana, for your safety."