[Fshback]

  The board meeting ended with little fahe iors were happy and Lumos Inc. was raking in record profits for a newly established game pany. Victor chuckled, he should have known.

  Anastasia had always had good ideas, it was just a shame she did not live to see her work e to fruition.

  There was still hope for David, somehow if they could just…

  His thoughts were disrupted by his phone buzzing, lighting up, and wiggling across the table as it rang. Victor frowned, who would be calling him so te?

  He rexed in his chair before pig up the phone. He read the tact fshing across the s as Aya, his niece. Without hesitation, he picked up.

  “Hello?” he said nervously.

  “Uh, hi…” Aya replied just as nervously. Victor heard the shuffling of fabric over the phone and surmised she robably settling into her bed or a couch.

  “My phone died before we could really get a ce to talk.” Aya said. There was a long pause over the phone as both didn’t know what to say to the other.

  “How are you? Fred told me he met you at a junk shop in Axen.” Victor said starting the versation. What did people her age even do, he spent just as much time holed up in his office as Fred. What did Aya do for fun other than py his game?

  “Oh yeah, I’m leaving Axen actually. I was saying goodbye to my friends. I’ll still visit occasionally but we all agree it’s for the best I leave such a terrible pce. Don’t you think?” Aya gave a shh, Victor’s heart ched, it sounded so simir to Anastasia's carefree ugh.

  “Holy, that city’s no good. You know your father, mother, and I were all from there. But we left.”

  “To Evangels?”

  “Mericross first.”

  “That’s where I’m going, following the family's footsteps huh?” There was another pause, Victor hung on her word, waiting for her to ask what they both knew was ing. “How e you never found me? Didn’t you know about me? I know you said you looked but...”

  “I did! I knew Anastasia had ged your name and yrandmother wao raise you herself, but after a few years, we lost tact, something happened, you went missing one night. And I fot it all, your new name, your address, my memory was in plete disarray.” Victor took a breath and tinued.

  “Then someone tacted me, tellihey knew where you were but it was a trap, Aya.”

  He smmed his fist unto the table in anger before he could trol himself, he hoped he had not scared her with his temper.

  “The bckmail.” Victor’s eyes widened, how had she known? Was it possible she kneas itting such a crime?

  “You know?

  “And I know who’s bckmailing you. My mother had a sister, Lydia, and my grandmother had a friend Fido. Those two are spiring to keep ext you but I’m determio put a stop to it.” Aya said iermination.

  “A sister, Aya, your mother was an only child!”

  “What?!” Aya asked in arm. Victor could imagine her sitting up in shock. Victor nodded, fetting she couldn’t see him. Indeed, Anastasia never had any siblings, Mira raised her by her lonesome oskirts of Mericross.

  “Lydia, if I recall correctly, was a woman who would e over to help yrandmother sometimes, they were introduced to each other by her than Fido.” Victor said.

  “That rat bastard! Sorry.” Aya said apologizing for her cursing.

  “No, I agree especially since I gave him a job at Lumos Inc. as a favor to yrandmother. He told me you went missing as soon as you turned 17, just disappeared in the middle of the night.”

  “He dumped me at this apartment with Lydia and told me it was my grandmother’s wish that she should take care of me! I k! I khere was no way that hag could have been my aunt. She was too cruel, I should have known.”

  “There was no way you would have.” Victor said softly, even with the anger bubbling in his heart he tained himself for Aya’s sake. “We were both tricked, to think I helped Fido to pay Mira back for looking after you and this is how he chose to reward all the kindness I’ve shown him.”

  That Fido had mastermihis bckmail all along cut Victor deeply. He had never looked down on the man, seeing him as someone who had fallen on hard times and chose to help him. They both grieved the loss of Mira Brown or so he thought. Victor’s head throbbed as he began thinking.

  “Aya, I have an idea, it might be a little risky but if it works those two will end up behind bars, possibly for the rest of their lives.”

  “Of course, I’m in.”

  [Fshbads]

  “And the rest is history!” Aya said, leaning ba her seat. She sed Mars’s face but was uo read the irl’s expression. Mars had her lips curved in ption, she folded her arms at the end of Aya’s tale.

  “I’m just gd it worked out and I’m even happier that Lydia and Fido were exposed for their crimes. I mean f identity is ohing but kidnapping? What the hell is wrong with those two? I don’t even know who’s worse!”

  “It’s no test if you want my opinion.” Fred said. He had listened carefully to the story Aya told. While he was gd it worked out, it was io think the unassuming man he had seen every so often was actually uheir radar this whole time.

  There had to be more to it. Fred shook his head.

  ‘There’s no way those two are ected.’ Fred thought, his past linking him to the infamous hag group could not in any way be ected to Aya’s situation. He looked into the review mirror, watg Mars and Aya bicker as friends would.

  He had quickly grown fond of the girl in the few iions they'd had. Maybe his proximity to her mother caused him to look upon her favorably, but he just wanted her to be alright. Being taken advantage of for so long was bound to cause her problems in the long run.

  ‘Luckily it seems she has a good friend by her side.’ Fred thought as they pulled into the parking lot of the train station.

  “Okay, we’re here.” Fred said, unbug his seat belt.

  The Axero station was a rge building with its tral focus being its igloo-like dome and the several pilrs surrounding it.

  Aya got out of the car, gazing around the white and cream building in awe. She had been expeg something old and poorly maintained like most buildings were in Axen but the beauty of the area shocked her silent.

  “Beautiful isn’t it?” Fred asked, handing his keys off to a uniformed man. At the girls’ questioning gazes he replied “It was a rental, I’m taking the train back to Evangels.”

  “Oh, we’ll meet again right?” Aya asked hopefully.

  “Unless I die or something we will.” Fred chuckled. At Aya’s armed face, he sobered up. “Of course, we’ll meet again. Remember to call your uncle when you board the train. Here, I’ll help you take ys and find your train.”

  Aya and Mars aking out their duffle bags and backpacks. It would be a long trip to Mericross so it would be good to get there early.

  “Alright, let’s get going.”