A Reverse World

Chapter 24

Naerys had fooled himself into thinking everything his mother had ever done to him, had allowed people to do to him was all for his own good.

After struggling for a while, he had finally managed to accept it, he'd had no choice really seeing as he had brought all this on himself by being born weak and useless.  He snuggled closer into amaryllis and softly started speaking

" Everyone says mother never loved me but I don't believe it.  There was a time when I was allowed to see her, to hold her for a little while and call her mother. And I was happy with that. My siblings may have been allowed to hug her and climb into her lap and be carried carefully by her but I was never jealous. I was born from a commoner after a night of pleasure after all so I understood I wasn't allowed to dirty her body, I was really grateful mother didn't just abandon me at birth so I was satisfied".

He sighed deeply before continuing

" That was such a long time ago though that I can barely remember it. But I think everything changed my fifth birthday". Amaryllis nodded, children of the royal families were usually tested for their potential at the age of five, it was to determine whether they had enough talent to carry the family's inherent magic.

Her heart clenched at Naerys's words, from what he was saying he had only ever received the smallest amount of love from his mother and  his situation had even gotten worse?,  Five years was too short a time to make any difference, he might've just said he'd lived with abuse all his life.

" All my memories from then on were filled with hunger, pain and despair. The only reason she didn't abandon me somewhere after that is probably because she felt I could still be somewhat useful ."

" She must be disappointed now"  Naerys said bitterly " seeing as I've turned out worthless anyways and-"  Amaryllis gripped his hands tighter in warning, she didn't want to interrupt but she had to let him know she didn't tolerate him speaking about himself that way.

Naerys seemed to understand as he smiled at her before continuing:

"It started slowly at first, I wasn't allowed to see mother anymore or have my meals prepared for me. Of course as a five year old child, I could barely reach the kitchen counter not to talk about cooking anything so for the first two years I got by on wild fruits and berries that grew in the garden and the scraps my siblings would sometimes leave me".

" I was moved from the little dwelling I called home into an even dingier, more dilapidated hut. I never complained though, after all I deserved all this. Wes arrived when I was seven, I had been lying motionlessly on the mat I had weaved as I had eaten some poisonous berries by mistake and the pain was too much to ignore. I was really stupid then, I kept on eating the poisonous berries even though I knew they would hurt me but that pain was much better than the feeling of an empty stomach."

'Oh my god' amaryllis thought, how had Naerys lived through such a difficult time?, She'd thought she had it bad with the whole servants taking over their masters place and all but Naerys had suffered through a  much worse situation so much so that she couldn't even fathom what she'd have done were she in his place.

" The door had been quietly pushed open and he had poked his head inside. I couldn't see anything but his blurry form as I was almost delirious with pain. Wes had rushed in and crouched over me letting me see his face. He looked healthy, far healthier than I was with tan skin, brown hair and black eyes".

" That was all I managed to see before passing out. I woke up later to a hot meal and a wet cloth on my forehead. Later I learnt Wes had spent all his allowance from his family to get me medicine, I was touched of course and vowed to always stay by his side".