A hollow mid autumn night

Part 3

For the first time, Melanie is actually seen being happy the moment she smiled. She hugged the girl back and warmly said:

"What is your name, darling?"

"My name is Au..Aumi, mommy."

"Aumi, you're such a sweet girl, from now on, I promise I will take care of you, there's also a lot of things in my house you might want to see" - Melanie gave a soft pat on the girl's hair - "it's called magic."

"Oooh magic, what's that mommy?"

"Something that can only be shown for someone special like you, and I will put all my heart in it, my darling. Now let's go home, I'll take you everywhere you wanna go." - Melanie said, then picked Aumi up and walked back to her house.

"Aww! Poor girl! I feel so bad for her." - Audrey said full of empathy

"Yeah, why did her father kick her out and hit me her like that, what kind of father does this to their daughter? She's just a small innocent child." - Kayla said furiously, with Yui and Alexa sharing the same look.

Melanie - the old lady said full of sadness:

"Poor baby! She's the loveliest person I've ever met, I'm telling you. Aumi is the best thing that ever happened to me. She made me feel like I've finally seen an angel, even when she grew older, she never see me as something disgrace or horrible. She never see me that way, unlike other people. Even the kids in the village hate me, they're scared that I'd use spells on them, but Aumi didn't think of magic as an evil practice, she even begged me to teach me magic to help other people, she told me she would learn magic to cure their disease and sickness. She was only four at that time. People didn't understand me. Every time they see her going out with me, they thought I kidnapped and manipulated her to do witchcraft, one time they tried to break into my house to take Aumi away, no matter how many times I tried to explain the truth. But they no longer dare to step a foot in my house when they see the light from my pot, so they chose to throw stones into my windows, you don't know how much time I spent on fixing them. You couldn't even imagine, my daughter Aumi, she is such a heart of gold, she didn't see a monstrous thing about me, instead she see the goodness. She always wanted to be someone who would help people, and she said that ever since I healed her scars by magic."

...Back to Melanie's house, when she first took Aumi home and introduced her to her witchcraft home, Aumi runs around with the innocence in her eyes, glancing at the surroundings with eagerness and curiosity sparkled from within the child...

"My dear, has anyone told you that you have such pretty hair, it's curled and shining like the angel's halos twisted altogether" - Melanie gently swirling the coil of her hairspring - "Now, I just need to make it a bit more... polished and tidy". Then Melanie brought her upstairs and and let her lay in the bathtub. For a mother's devotion, she would give the best to Aumi; being unkempt for the most part but the fragrance she used for her daughter is refreshing and delicate, like something that's only given for her beloved ones, scented with the sweetness of her love. Melanie is absolutely right. Her daughter Aumi is a reflection of pure beauty. She adored her so much, but not for that, perhaps she never received this kind of love before, not even from her own mother.

Flashback of Melanie's encounter with the merciless troops is being pictured

"Not long after, I discovered something else abhorrent and almost traumatized my daughter. I saw her father for the first time, with a gun in his hand and stomped along with a group of soldiers towards my house. When he said he found Aumi in my house, it didn't take me that long to know the truth. A heartless brute, an abusive mercenary. No, he did not want to take her back to raise her. He and those scumbags served for the King, who was not less than depraved; when he knew there's only one spirit power left on earth, he demanded them to seek the wisp, they saw the opportunity to fulfill their greedy desire but couldn't find the wisp. Then, they learned that the last one was that newborn released from the witch's potion who lived in a village not far from the forest, but she's already dead and I'm her daughter, so that's how they found me here. Aumi's father asked me about the wisp, but truthfully I didn't know where he was; even if I do, I'd never reveal that to a scum. But as mentioned in the book, a wisp only devote its power to the person who gave them their blood, since that's the last wisp to get the blood taken from me, it wouldn't take it from anyone again; so, even if they could capture it, it'd still be useless. But he told me that he'd tell the King to come and steal my mother's potion book, and drink all the power from that wisp so it would stay intact inside his body forever. I told them it'd never happen, but they couldn't get enough of their stupidity. And when he saw Aumi, he knew what advantage he'd take without a concern, why would he when she's the one he discarded. He threatened to take her away as he's her father, his intention is to bring her to the King to be his servant as a substitute conquest to gain some reward while they were searching for the wisp. Little did he and these mercenaries know, the wisp and I are bounded by spiritual bond, and he's not just a wisp, he's a boy with special power absorbed from my blood, even when I don't know where he is, I can still tell when he's in danger. A sense of responsibility comes to me and I ought to protect that bond from anything. Luckily, I was able to rid these trash of my house, they couldn't dare with the power I have. From that day, I've sworn to protect Aumi with all my heart, the heart of a mother and I started see the good of magic like she did, I'll protect her with it, as what a witch does best." - Melanie was in rage under her clenched jaws, and both her hands in fists.

"But, there's one thing I wanna ask, I mean, you can till find out where the wisp was by talking to him right? You can ask him about it, right?"- Alexa asked, eminently showed a nervous excitement.

"I can, but why would I bother? Nothing reminds me more of a trash life than remembering what my mother did." - Melanie pressed her teeth again. Then she proceeded the next chapters of her story...