Tale Of The Half-Blood Wizard

Someone opened the door for us. He might be the housekeeper of that house and he was very friendly. "He is the housekeeper of this house," Winnter told us. "If you want anything, just tell him." She said. We directly bowed for a greeting to him. 

"Thomas, they are my friends and we are staying here tonight. Please make rooms ready for them. Only one room because the youngest is afraid to sleep alone." Then Thomas smiled at us and asked us in. 

The front yard was very spacious with maple trees alongside the driveway to the house. The leaves had changed the colours, the trees barely had branches and twigs remained. I looked around to see the beautiful garden. This reminded me of my father's house which was filled with many kinds of flowers. It hurt me anytime I remembered it. He finally decided to get married without ending his relationship with my mother. To the worst, my mother wanted me to and my brother came to that wedding. 

"Tha" Winnter called me, pushing away all the painful images in my dreaming. I turned o where the voice came from. "What are you thinking about?".

"Sorry, emm" that was all I could say, I didn't know what else I had to say. 

"Tha, I hope you don't hide anything from me, like you hid the Manjis. I took you here so that we can get to know each other better." Winnter looked at me closely. 

"Sister, are you okay? Don't daydream too much." Mirai sounded concerned to see me, and warned me, too. 

"Sure Mirai, I won't. Relax," I poked her cheek and drew a thin smile. 

"Tha, who is that?" Mickey, who was in my arms, whispered. 

Someone was sitting on the balcony of the second floor, she was facing toward the yard. She looked so beautiful with hair as black as the night and white pale skin. The gown she was wearing was ivory colour combined with grey and white fur, making her look so elegant and outstandingly lovely. The wind blowing softly brushed her hair but she didn't care a bit about it. She smiled when she looked at me heading toward the house and that made her look ten times more beautiful. I was about to ask Winnter about that beautiful girl but I saw she was busy talking with Thomas, the housekeeper. 

Winnter took us to the dining table, and some moments later various kinds of dishes were served on the table. I turned my attention to those dishes when the housekeeper asked Mickey. He wanted to feed that tubby cat. 

We enjoyed our dinner quietly, no one said anything. This made the atmosphere grow a bit tense. I never expected that Winnter was in fact one of the descendants of noble wizards. 

"Come on, say something! Don't be so quiet!" She broke the quietness of that night on the dining table. "I brought you here not to make the situation stiff. But I want it to be relaxing." 

"Your house is so big, Sister," Mirai spoke up innocently. Instantly it broke her into laughter. 

"But it is very quiet here, Mirai." Winnter stopped laughing, her expression changed. "It is big but empty and quiet." I could sense bitterness in the words she said. 

"There are many assistants here, why feel lonely?" Mirai insisted on saying things based on her age level, being a die-hard type, and being talkative. 

Winnter was silent, thinking about something. "This house feels lonely for me and I never made or did something to make it convenient for me." She admitted, then turned her eyes towards me. "I never want to stay here." It sounded like an insinuation for me. 

I never unpacked my clothes out of my suitcases although there was a wardrobe in my room of course. I put my bathing soap in a container easy to take for a trip. I was almost similar to Winnter, never did anything to make me comfortable being at home because I never wanted to stay long in one place. Even the garden at the back of the house was just made with simplicity and improvisation. 

"Winnter, can I ask you something?" after I got approval, I continued my words, "Who is that someone I saw on the second floor some time ago?" Winnter looked bewildered. "Emm…I mean I saw a woman in that room upstairs. She was looking at us.

Winnter burst into laughter listening to my question. I wondered which part of that question was amusing for her. "Oh my Gosshh… Tha… that is not human! Give me a break! She kept laughing while squeezing her stomach in pain. Perhaps it was due to too much laughing, I didn't know for sure why she laughed out loud like that. 

"I didn't see her," Mirai said.

"It was my sister," Winnter finally managed to reply to me. "Do you remember me telling you that I had a twin, named Summer, Don't you?" I nodded quickly. 

"But, didn't she…?" I felt uncomfortable saying it clearly. 

"Die?!" Winnter continued it, "Yes she did." 

Shocked and confused, I didn't say anything. I really didn't know what was going on at that moment. In my mind, if she died, what had I seen at that time? "It is my sister corpse, it has been mummified." Winnter's words simply answered what was troubling my mind. 

Mirai was shocked. She stopped eating, so did Winnter, putting down her spoon and was trying to recall something, "My mother was a very popular model in her era. A year after her marriage with my father, she gave birth twins, Summer and me. I was two minutes delivered after her."  Winnter started her story. 

"We were only two minutes apart. Even though my sister was older, my mother loved both of us equally. My sister was the perfect one. She had everything for a girl to deserve 'beautiful' title." I could see that Winnter adored her sister so much, her eyes sparkling anytime she mentioned her sister. 

"It happened in the beginning of summer season. She took some friends at home. One of her friends said my eyes were very beautiful. It was accidental meeting, wee came across in the kitchen. She told my sister about that, and my sister was very angry. She wanted to have my father remove my eyes to her eyes. My mother disagreed with that silly idea." Winnter paused, She seemed to try to relieve burdens in her heart. 

"But wasn't she already very beautiful?" I was curious, and Winnter smiled. Even her corpse was still so gorgeous. I really adored her to be honest. 

"But my sister thought that her beauty was not perfect without my eyes," Winnter laughed of bitter laughing. "After that incident, I found out that several times my sister wanted to kill me, but I always got away from her and she was too always able to hide her crime. Until finally my mother knew it and she was so furious to her." 

"So, to save me, my mother locked me in an underground store-room," Her gaze was flying somewhere in the past of her childhood, "One day, my mother and father went out and my sister  managed to open the lock of the store-room. We had a big fight. I ran out to my mother's room on the second floor but my sister was able to keep up with me. Unfortunately she slipped off the stairs and died." She sighed. 

"If that is the story, it means you didn't kill your sister." I objected to her claim. 

"Tha, the truth is what they believe is true because it is for their own benefits and they will keep it that way even though that is not what really happens. That is the law." Winnter sighed, and I felt that it was not something good for her to remember.

"Mother loved us both and because my sister who always wanted to be the center of attention, she mummified her body, replacing her eye balls with glass eyeballs so that they would look like mine, putting on the best clothes of her, and put her body in the best room in this house, facing the garden so that everyone could see her and adored her beauty." Winnter paused, thoughtful. 

I didn't know what I should say, it was the greediness of someone that made her own life in danger. Summer was just like my father who had put Antonie and Zie in danger for his own sake. It was just that girl had got what she deserved so soon for her greediness, while my father had not had it yet. 

I didn't really understand what people like my father and Summer thought about life. I didn't want to judge them as guilty ones, I just didn't want them to sacrifice others for their own benefits. That was what I hated about them. 

…

After dinner, Winnter asked Thomas to take us to the portal by a wagon. Actually I planned to have a leave from school the following day and I wanted to stay for the night in that girl's house. I wanted to get closer to one another, having no secrets among us, like I keep the Manjis from her.. But the hostess of the house didn't want me to skip my duty and asked me to go home soon to Euron, get enough rest before I went to school the following morning.