It was so good to hear her son's voice again--even if that voice had changed somewhat with time. Her son was grown now, like Carwyn and Xion. She smiled at him tenderly, fighting back the joyful tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. He asked how the family had been. Xeris hesitated for a moment before responding. "Your father and your brother are well," she began, "Although I am afraid that I don't know the whereabouts of your sister." She paused again. "Xion and I...we left a little over a month ago, to visit my homeland, as my father had apparently called for me. But it was a trap. When I arrived in the land of my birth, I found it in the middle of a war. My former clan is dead. I sent Xion back toward Phoenix Valley, but I am afraid she has not yet returned." Her voice was breaking. "But if you were able to survive out there for so long," she said, her eyes now meeting his, "I'm sure she will be all right."
Xeris, at first, hadn't noticed the scar that blazed across her son's chest, but her golden eyes fell upon it and she let out a very quiet gasp. "What happened to you?" she asked, her eyes flickering from the scar to her son's face and back. Something about him didn't seem quite right; perhaps it was just because he was older and more mature, but Delwyn seemed to be lacking his usual energy. Of course, Xeris herself had been in a similar state ever since returning to the Valley; this was the most emotion she had shown since. But to think that something could have happened to her son to change him like she had been changed made her heart ache with worry.
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