Deprived

Chapter 27 - Eternal Scars

The sound of crying and feminine wails sent shivers over his spine but also created a soft smile on Xavier's lips. It was always a fight of dual emotions whenever the Deprived families were reunited with their loved ones.

To see their family gathering their loved son or daughter in their arms, offspring they presumed to never see again in the flesh, at least not alive...

But to also be greeted with their pain and sorrow, the horror of witnessing what had happened to their precious child. Knowing that their Beloved, their future, had been snatched away ruthlessly...

Xavier shifted his weight on his feet, watching as the pair tenderly hugged their daughter, holding her close to their chests in a warm hug.

She'd need all the comfort they had to offer. His mood soured as Xavier remembered the young witch's file. She had fallen in love with a mortal, a male from a nearby village and she had felt the connection between them.

Yet, because she had been abnormally young to sense their connection, a mere ten years old, her coven had assumed she had been mistaken, that it was merely the wishes of a child wanting to become an adult.

Her parents had soon realized that this wasn't the case when their daughter rebelled and grew sick, only healing when they managed to trick the youngster over.

And by then, the Improba had caught onto the rumors with ease. They had set a trap out for the witch and had drained her mortal beloved from every last drop of blood in front of her very eyes.

Xavier shivered in disgust as he wondered how long the poor witch had been in the Improba's clutches. They were immortal beings after all and visually, aged much slower than the average human.

Even though the young witch in front of him looked as if she was barely a teenager, the files of her health along with the information of her parents showed that she was at the very least in her late thirties.

More than twenty years spent in the clutches of those monsters...

He shivered at the thought of what had been done to the woman. Her hair was no longer the deep burgundy like on the picture her parents had provided. Instead of the glossy burgundy mess on top of the child's head, her hair was brittle, thin and riddled with streaks of grey and white.

What hurt the most was the look in the witch's green eyes. Even as she smiled weakly and patted her wailing mother on the back, offering comfort that she herself desperately needed, her eyes were dull and distant.

Dead.

A cold shiver darted over his spine before Xavier smiled warmly when the girl looked in his direction. Her eyes were quick to dart aside but he didn't feel slighted; it was only natural that after the horrors she endured with his species, she wished to not lay her eyes on them any longer.

"Thank you, my lord. I don't think there's a way to show our gratitude for finding her." The father started, clearing his throat and blinking rapidly in an attempt to stop the onslaught of tears that poured down his cheeks.

His wife agreed with a silent nod, weeping as she held her daughter to her bosom and shook, overcome with emotion. Xavier was starting to get slightly worried as the woman seemed to have issues controlling her emotions, slowly growing to hysterics but he paused.

A soft, broken voice whispered through the air as the Deprived patted her mother rhythmically on the back while singing a child's lullaby. By the time she was done, her mother had stopped crying and calmed down, save for a few stuttered breaths and occasional hiccups.

The girl smiled; a horribly hollow smile but clearly her struggle to help her mother calm down, even to the point where she dipped in her suppressed magic to help...