Page 19 of The Hunchback

I hesitated, unsure how to answer truthfully. “Until today, no. And even today, not really. Or at least, I’m not sure what to make of it. Before, his presence always only enhanced my power, and I meansignificantlyenhanced it. But this morning, I felt as if he was absorbing my Light, but also replenishing it. I only felt emotionally drained, not physically, and not my power,” I quickly added, feeling the need to protect him somehow.

Nan smiled, making my cheeks heat.

“Even without the townsfolk opposing any potential relationship between Kwazeem and me, I fear our natures might not be compatible,” I said, hoping she would be able to shed some light on some of the questions haunting me. “Ellen, one of the open market merchants, said a Fallen will permanently drain a Vestal of her powers. Is this what is happening with Kwazeem?”

Nan took a moment to reflect on her answer, choosing her words carefully as she poured us both a cup of tea.

“It is true that, since the Fall, the Light Bearers involuntarily drain the Vestals of their Divine Light when exposed long enough to them,” the older lady said, settling at the table across from me. She held the steamy cup of tea in her hands as if to warm them, her gaze lingering on the amber liquid it contained. “But Kwazeem isn’t a pureblood Fallen. He’s special. His mother had to live isolated from her tribe because the other Fallen were passively harming the child.”

“Passively?” I asked, confused.

“The same way humans cannot tolerate extended exposure to an Elohim’s aura before starting to manifest symptoms similar to radiation poisoning, the Fallen’s aura threatened to kill Kwazeem,” Nan said before taking a sip of her tea, her eyes staring blindly in the distance as she reminisced. “Which each passing month of her pregnancy, the farther she had to be from her people. When the time came to deliver, she was alone. With complications kicking in, she called her clan, but they couldn’t approach without killing the child. So, one of her clanmates named Mikku came to ask me for help. But I arrived there too late.” Nan refocused on me, a sad look on her face. “She was so young and so beautiful… She died minutes after naming her son and making me promise to look after him.”

My throat tightened at imagining the terrified young woman trying to bring a new life into this world, all by herself. And, worse still, handing the child she would never get to see grow into a man off to a complete stranger.

“I don’t understand. Why did she stay with the tribe?” I asked. “Even if she’d been shunned for consorting with a Fallen, and despite losing her powers, she was still a Vestal. By law, the doctors in Paris would have been obligated to assist her and the baby.”

“She wasn’t a Vestal,” Nan deadpanned before taking another sip of her tea.

I gaped at her, totally taken aback by that statement. Considering the strong power I felt within Kwazeem, I’d naturally assumed his mother had been a high-ranking Vestal.

“Kwazeem’s mother was a Fallen name Caleeza,” Nan continued. “She never would have been allowed close enough to the city to receive treatment. And bringing a doctor here would have probably gotten us both in trouble.” Nan sighed heavily and ran a hand through her silver mane. “I don’t know who his father was, but he must have been a powerful ergokinetic. Caleeza said he must have died or he would have returned to her and their unborn child.”

Would he?

Nan chuckled, and my cheeks heated as my expressive face had no doubt given away my thoughts.

“I’ve wondered, too,” Nan admitted. “He wouldn’t have been the first man to have tried to ‘score’ a Fallen female. But I fear we’ll never know. I love the boy as my own. He was such a good kid. So full of energy, but always affectionate and obedient. When his condition first manifested, I thought we would manage. He’d been so great adapting to his hump, not letting it interfere with his day-to-day life. And then it got worse, and worse, and even worse.”

Nan let out a shuddering breath, her gaze haunted by the souvenir of helplessly watching ‘her child’ in agony. I instinctively reached out and grabbed her hand in a comforting gesture. Her fingers tightened around it, and she gave me a shaky smile of gratitude.

“I was so desperate I went to a Fallen village and barely got away with my life. But Mikku, the male who had come to ask me to help Caleeza, remembered me,” Nan continued. “He accepted my request to come see her son, but once more, Kwazeem went into seizures when Mikku came too close. The blood samples I gave him to analyze revealed nothing helpful. I was preparing mentally for my boy to die, dosing him with poppy milk in the hopes of easing his remaining days. And then Frollo showed up at my shop.”

I straightened in my chair, listening with anticipation at what might provide me with the answers I sought.

“He had come in like any other customer, although he’d been particularly interested in medicinal herbs and meditation oils and candles,” Nan said, an odd expression on her face. “Moments after he entered, he started looking around with a confused look, as if searching for something, although he mostly stared at the back of the store. I eventually asked him what was wrong, and he asked if there was a Vestal in here.”

“A Vestal?” I asked, taken aback by the odd question.

“I’d been as surprised as you are,” Nan said with a sympathetic smile. “But then I nearly panicked when he said there was a powerful ergokinetic nearby. He could feel their energy. Naturally, I denied it, until he dropped the subject. The next few days were terrifying. Not only was Kwazeem’s condition becoming critical, but Frollo kept coming back, his gaze full of suspicion.”

“Did he challenge you each time he came?”

“No, he just came in, pretended to look at the products on offering, while lurking around to assess where the energy emanated from,” Nan said, shaking her head. “That day, he left as usual without a fuss. A few hours after the shop had closed, I took Kwazeem to the river to try and break his fever.”

“And Frollo showed up,” I said, guessing where the story was headed.

Nan nodded. “Yes. He admitted afterwards that he’d been hiding in the shadows, fearing I might be holding a Vestal or a gifted child against their will and in contravention with the laws.”

No way…

I didn’t believe for one minute that righteous zeal had dictated his actions.

“But whatever his reasons, he immediately took an interest in Kwazeem. And instead of reporting me to the authorities, he offered to help.” Her hand tightened further around mine. “He was the miracle I’d been praying for; the miracle that would save my boy’s life. And he did. I didn’t understand the medical jargon he laid on me regarding Kwazeem’s condition. I didn’t really care either beyond the fact that my boy was no longer in agony. But then, it kept coming back. In the meantime, Frollo had been climbing the ranks at dizzying speed to become the youngest Praetor in our history. That’s when he asked to take Kwazeem from me to go live in Paris with him.”

“But why?” I asked, happy to finally get to the part Kwazeem hadn’t been able to tell me much about. “Why take him to a place that could get them both executed for breaking the law? Why not just keep coming here once a month to care for him?”

“Those are the very questions I asked him,” Nan said, a frown marring her forehead. “I didn’t want to part with my baby, but with his new duties, Frollo couldn’t justify his escapades anymore. The way his schedule was tightly managed, with his personal guards almost always by his side, it would rapidly raise suspicions. That hadn’t fully convinced me, but then Frollo said he’d been building a lab in the temple where he could spend all of his free time looking for a cure if Kwazeem was nearby.”

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