I DON'T OWN ANYTHING

Lyra's pov

As soon as I sat on my bed, I fell asleep until someone knocked my door, "yes?" "miss lyra, it's me the maid who showed you here" 'oh, is it lunch time already?' I looked at the clock and was shocked to see that it is past 6 'o clock in the evening, "ah, yes please come in" she came in and bowed ," miss, the bath is ready if you want to take a bath please inform us" "uh,excuse me " she looked at me waiting for me to speak, "about lunch-" " oh, since you three were asleep young lady said to let you rest, but if you are hungry you can order anything" "oh, okay, but first I think I will take a bath".

"Please follow me then" I stood up and followed her. While we kept walking I saw many portraits and statues of various kinds but one particular portrait made me stop on my tracks. The maid who was escorting me sensed that I stopped and am looking at the portrait, "she is late lady of this mansion " she said 'that's why ' I looked at the portrait again 'she looks kind of similar to touko' brown hair which are straight from above but as they reach near tips they turn to become wavy, they were reaching just below her shoulders.

Tied behind in a single low ponytail, eyes warm brown, sitting in elegant way. "Young master took most of the characteristics from the lady, and young lady took her beauty" the maid said, "how did she... died?" I asked but after that I realized how impolite and rude it was, I turned to her "I mean-" "it's not my place to talk about that" she declared and we continued to move on in silence.

It seems the bathroom was on the ground floor itself since we didn't climbed up the stairs, "what is your name though" I asked her "Martha, and here we are" we reached there and when I entered, I was stunned to find out that it's not any bathroom. It was large and spacious, there was one single pool, something was shining in its center but I ignored it because my focus shifted to a lone person inside the pool. Her back was facing us but then she turned to look at us, "oh" she realized that her lone time ends here.

"Martha!?" touko was startled by our sudden presence there, "my apologies young lady, I didn't knew you were here" Martha bowed and deeply apologized "it's okay" touko said calmly and pointed to a small door exactly opposite of the entrance, "the bathroom and changing room is there, Martha please bring some spare clothes for lyra and shut the door and don't let anyone in" "yes ma'am " she bowed and followed her orders.

I went in bathroom and took a quick shower, rubbing some non existing dirt, it felt better and when I finished as martha had informed me, I can sit in pool for some time. For now it was just me and touko inside the pool, non of us spoke with each other but I decided to break the silence because if I missed this chance to talk with her ,I don't know when I will get another.

"Touko" I called, she looked at me, I was on the opposite side of her, near bathroom and she was near entrance, but my voice got echoed in there and seemed little louder, "I have certain questions for you, are willing to answer" she tilt her head, though her hair are tied up in a bun, they look large, "yes, as long as they are something that I can answer" she said, "do you remember the time when you had said that there is malice inside bianca " "yes" "so, were you telling the truth at that time?" "yes, without any doubt".

"How? I mean to say tha-" "though you will say things like 'she can't' or 'she won't' the fact remains same" she continued "you seem to be confused about this, right?" I nodded, "malice is different in different people sometimes it is just too intense to the point that a person may kill another and sometimes it is not so intense like when someone is just annoyed with another person" she continued "bianca's malice wasn't something that is too intense, it was moderate, it was jealousy ".

"Jealousy?" "she might have been jealous about the fact that I talked with cheren or stared at him for too long in gymnasium" , I looked at her, shocked, I didn't knew that she at that time was just trying to say this very thing, 'stupid me, if I knew then... ' "I could have saved bianca..." I thought it out loud, "no, you couldn't have" touko said "huh?" "she had those negative feelings, which would have either way helped that bracelet and the person who gave it to her" "that means-" "if you or cheren or anyone close to her who knew her feelings for cheren would have helped her think that not everything is in her hands then the story might have been different " she said.

"Heh, if only right, but even if her bracelet-" "if you are asking that we could have removed or destroyed the bracelet then let me tell you how the function of these things work, once if you wore the ornament it gets attached to your body and starts absorbing your soul so that it could recharge itself, once the entire soul is absorbed then the bracelet works independently still fixed on its host's body".

"That means till the time that you reached there-" "the bracelet had consumed entire soul of bianca and her body was sent hollow, a space from which it is impossible to return" she said "but if few days before that we would have-" "till that time we didn't knew exactly what is happening and even if we knew the bracelet was too powerful that it consumed two third of bianca's soul too quickly in a day, on top of that that thing deliberately kept me away ".

"Deliberately kept you away " I repeated, "remember the time when I suddenly didn't felt good " "yes" "it was because of that thing" I looked at her bewildered by what she said. "Don't think about it too much for now, I will explain it later " she said, I decided to change the topic, " well, touko, is this place, I mean, this mansion always remained this quite " she closed her eyes and gave it a thought, "as long as I can remember, yes".

"So, you and your brother never had friends or something " she nodded, "I don't know about touya but as for me, ever since I was little, I had always saw the malice in everyone " "what? really!" "yes" she continued without stopping " it was sometimes directed to me and sometimes towards others, it was troubling to see people who have malice towards each other so intense that they might kill one another , they always talk with that smile with one another ".

She paused, inhaled deeply and exhaled, "in my case everyone that tried to approach me was greedy, they didn't thought about me but my status..." she trailed off, she turned her head towards her right, staring off into an empty space.

There was a brief moment, in that I realized how difficult it would have been for her, the truth that only you could see, the feelings that others have towards you, it might be painful and heart breaking for you to realize that the smile and love the other person is showing might be false and they only think about you as an opportunity or just as tool or object.

"I am sorry, touko " she looked at me and gave a confused look, "I never knew or never tried to understand your reasons" she nodded "I should also be apologizing, I never know how to express myself but please accept my apology " we both bowed our heads slightly to express.

After few moments I again spoke up, this time a different subject, "by the way, what is that shiny object in the centre of pool" " oh, it is a magic stone that keeps this water warm and helps to relax the muscles " "ohhh, it really is helpful " I sinked in a little and heard touko giggling, I got up and said, "so, can we be friends from now on?" I extended my arm knowing full well that she wouldn't get up and come shake the hand, but she actually did, "okay, so please bare with me " we both chuckled and it felt good 'bianca, I will work with touko and others to give you justice', I decided and went to the changing room.

Done...a slightly long chapter, I guess, anyway...enjoy...