The boy looked up at her with his sweet, trusting eyes.
They were full of curiosity, confusion, and perhaps hope. It made the look feel painful to see, and she didn't know why.
She didn't want to think about it. But she could feel something twisting in her gut at that look, even as she tried to focus on the positive. Even as she smiled, and softly ruffled the child's hair. He deserved a better life than the one that he'd experienced.
He deserved to be living in his home village still, with his parents and his friends. He deserved not to be the de-facto prisoner in a gilded cage of the Prince of Sidera, always only moments away from being dragged off to be interrogated if the prince ever called her bluff.
He deserved not to have been forced to watch his village and family slaughtered by some unspeakable beast. Forced to bear the trauma alone, forced to remember forever something he shouldn't need to have seen at all.
