He fell in love with a demon

What really happened

A/n-so this chapter will be Ezume's memory of what happened as she tells the story to Theo. That's why it's in cursive, thank you and happy reading
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Ezume was collecting chrystals when she heared it. She was about a two minute walk away from her village that was deep in the forest, in order to not be discovered by hunters and other humans who would hurt them.

Ezume and her daughter found a safe heaven here. In their homeland they were hunted down, so Ezume collected what little they had, after the fire their local people set in their home, and created a portal that took them far away. The fire was set by the locals in their town who believed that the Hirano family brings bad luck because of their strange eyes, that were a very intricate shade of purple, but could fade as they grow old into a vivid gray. In that fire Ezume lost her parents, a younger brother and husband. The only one she managed to save was her daughter, Kokoa.

Before they managed to run away however, one of the people who set their home on fire noticed them and tried to stop them. He had a knife that he used to slash across Ezume's eyes, leaving her lind and with a jagged scar over her face.

She managed to make a portal and the two of them fled. Kokoa lead her mother by the arm, telling her when to watch her step at first. At night they would make a shelter and Ezume would try to comfort her daughter. She decided that the loss of her sight will not stop her from protecting the only person she had left in the world. She promised it to herself and everyone who she lost. A lot of tears fell in those nights. When a little girl asked when will daddy and grandma be back with them, and her mother did not know what answer to give her but to hold her tight and cry silently.

After two weeks of life like that they saw and elderly man collecting herbs. The one way they knew he could be trusted is because Kokoa pointed out that his walking cane was in fact a scepter. He was a wizard.

Ezume aproched the man and asked if there is an place they could find shelter anywhere near by.

The man kindly lead them to his village and showed them that is was a safe place for witches and wizards who had been hunted and banished from their homes.

The villagers took them in and even build a new house for them. It was truly a miracle, and as the time passed they healed. Not fully since there was a certain emptyness in life but they managed to learn how to be happy again.

Until that day. Ezume heared screams and cries come from the village and rushed back. Only to find houses in ruin, she could hear the fire crickling and the stone and wood falling, corpses on the streets that she stumbled over, and a single hunter going from home to home, setting cottages on fire, cutting people down and taking chindren, shoving them in cages or killing them if they put on too much of a fight. She thought of her daughter and just as she did she heared her cries from a cage. She ran to her and broke the cage with her and two other children inside. She hugged them all and looked around.

"Hide. Hide all of you. I will come for you I promise. Now hide. Hide good so he doesn't find you-" but she was interupted. She was hit on the back of her head by the hunter who ruined their village. She lost conciousness and once she woke up it was quiet and dark. She was blind but she could tell day from night.

She got up and started calling out for her daughter, but as soon as she got up she tripped over something. Once she put out her hands to see what it was she realised it was a corpse. A corpse of one of her friends. She tried making out the face by touch but it was too bloody.

After searching and calling for hours with no response she broke down and screamed. Tears fell down her face as the sun slowly rose.

She gathered things that were left from their home, one spell book, a few clothing items and one stuffed toy she made for her daughter, and she set off to search for her.

Two years passed and she found the temple in the mountains, she was following a lead about an organization there that bought supernatural children sold into slavery, and gave them a chance at a normal life.

There she was welcomed with wide arms, she learned they were from her coutry, as she heared someone speaking her language after so long.

She was promised that they will do anything in their power to find her daughter and rescue her.

After another year of her life there they did find her, but she was not the same bright and happy child she used to be. She managed to escape the hunter and she lived on the streets, went from town to town begging for scraps.

The little girl was scared of everyone around her, and she would not use magic because she was afraid of being punished for it. She was even afraid of her own mother. The poor child was underweight and sick, the bags under her eyes were extremely visible and her skin was as pale as bone.

It took years for her to heal enough to trust some people, but she refused to take more then a few steps away from her mother.

"So... That means she is here with you? She is okay?" Theo asked once Ezume finished telling the story.

"She is, thank the gods, but she does not like strangers." she told him.

"That's underatandable. I'm glad you got to reunite again. You deserve so much more then how you were treated. And I apologize that I did nothing for her back then."

"You were only a child yourself. You were raised to believe our kind were meant to bring you harm." the witch smiled a little bit. Just then Aleksei finished rebuilding the shelf and they went back to training like that, or rather Aleksei was training and Ezume was having tea with Theo.