Placing his sticks down Xavier offers a soft, embarrassed smile towards his adoptive mother, his hand absently rising to ruffle his hair. Lucia just looks on fondly for a short while before chuckling suddenly and gesturing for Xavier to follow her.
"Come kid, let's chat" She calls over her shoulder, the fond words having the raven quick to follow. Anytime spent with Lucia, even if they didn't talk much made the raven content and happy. Considering his upbeat mood the raven eagerly follows Lucia, only to find himself sobering as they leave the house and start towards the church. A place the raven had considered forbidden ever since the attack. But Lucia seemed determined.
Following the other inside with obvious reluctance Xavier tries not to think too much about the distinct feeling of crawling under his skin, he can see the others face from this angle as they pause at the stairs at the end of the aisle. Lucia looked strained, and Xavier felt a twisting in his stomach.
"Your birthday is coming up shortly, I don't know if Denver ever even told you when it was or if he told you the correct day but… it's a very important day." She says softly, Xavier blinks at the words, having not considered this before he admits with a shrug that he'd never known the exact day of his birth. Denver had always celebrated the day he'd saved Xavier. "Have you been experiencing anything odd lately, like dreams or sensations you can't explain." Lucia asks, pulling the raven from his memories.
The question in itself is odd, but Xavier finds that it's probably not as strange since it's directed at him, the victim, the weak one. Perhaps Lucia thought Xavier was becoming delusional, was Mason spilling everything to their mother, letting her know about how little he'd eat sometimes, how he would sprint to the bathroom to scrub a green tinge from his skin only for it to be gone. Or perhaps the most recent ones, the things he told himself were waking dreams since he'd been getting precious little sleep, the ones with the floating creatures and odd looking animals.
It seems he must take too much time because Lucia is turning to him with a grave expression, like she was about to sentence Xavier to a nuthouse and be done with him. Or so the raven can't help thinking anyway.
"Xavier, this…, those things you're seeing,.. maybe seeing." The priestess pauses yet again, pinching the bridge of her nose as if to collect himself as Xavier tries to bar off his heart, not ready for the pain. "You're not delusional." He hears, and frowns because surely he must have misheard.
"What?" he asks, voice weak but filled with hope. Maybe he'd been right when he'd caught Mason looking in the same direction as him, maybe others could see these haunting things.
"When you turn nineteen you'll find yourself faced with these visions regularly, like you see me here or the chairs over there. Mason can see them all already, he's been able to for many years, though he's more educated in the matter" Lucia continues, explaining herself with a look in her eyes that's begging Xavier to believe her. Faintly he remembers catching Vincent, Kyle and Mason discussing homework for some class he'd never heard of. He remembered the way they'd all tensed as he made his presence known, claiming they'd all gone to a similar summer school for the past few years and they had to go back every holiday to review some things. He wonders if this is where Mason became more educated.
"Xavier, please believe me, what you will be seeing." She pauses yet again and Xavier is getting really nervous, was he crazy? Or was Lucia? Were they all infected from his contamination from Denver? "They're not delusions, they are beings of a supernatural nature, and in part so are you."
The first part Xavier finds is strangely easy to accept, the second has him glaring at the priestess, at his supposed mother. What had he just been called? The information tore a pain in his chest and he stumbles away from the blond woman.
"What?" he repeats again, feeling like a broken record. The pain won't stop in his chest, only increasing he sees that green again, crawling along his skin. Glancing back to Lucia he sees the others eyes following the stain making him panic. Was it real then? What was it then? What was he? Before panic can choke him Lucia pulls Xavier into an embrace, it's warm , kind, and loving. The raven watches in amazement as the green peels away from his skin with a soft white glow and melts in his adoptive mother's arms. "I'm not crazy? I'm a supernatural being. What am I?"
"You're half-demon Xavier, only half." Lucia says, as if that means something really important, as if it's reassuring. But the raven doesn't know how to take this all in his mind is racing around so many things he'd never had to consider before. Slowly the priestess pulls away and makes Xavier sit, soon taking the seat beside him. "Let me speak, I'll tell you all I can think of and then you can ask me as much as you need"
Her voice is gentle, soothing and so very kind that Xavier just nods. He'd hear the old lady out, try and fit this new reality in with his own. It's hard to believe only moments ago he was feeling so invigorated.
...
Days later Xavier lay in his room, dinner cooking slowly in the kitchen as he pours over one of the many books Lucia had given him. Apparently, he and Mason were children of a rather malicious demon, Xavier was still struggling to believe it but so much of what the priestess had told him had hit home hard. All the information fit so well with everything he'd never been able to explain. Lucia had also told Xavier a few things about Denver that made his skin crawl, literally as if reacting to the name. He had been cursed, again and again it was ingrained into his body for the past years by Denver who had apparently been wanting to use Xavier by taking ownership and control of him.
The curse was eventually meant to tie him to his Uncle, but was incomplete. Slowly without Xavier's knowledge everyone had been trying ways to ease it away, but something that took years to make wasn't so easily removed. It explained the dreams and hallucinations, he and Denver were connected. Sighing Xavier focuses back on the book, he'd already read through three others over the last few days, despite his usual dislike for reading.
He'd never been so studious before in his life this was something that took his interest, he was desperate to find out more. Wanted to catch up to Mason at least knowledge wise. Lucia had told him a lot about a school for exorcists. To train hunters, or just educate people on how humans weren't the only sentient thing around. The one his brother and the others had been attending was only open during summer.
But Xavier wouldn't be getting sent there, he would be receiving lessons from Lucia, the other priests living here, and surprisingly Mason. Since his brother had been raised by Lucia, who apparently had a really high job position he'd advanced a lot faster than Vincent and Kyle. Add that onto the break year he'd taken to solely train and Mason was definitely much more trained than Vincent and Kyle combined. So much so that he was unofficially a member of the organisation now and helped others by tutoring them when he had time.
It blew Xavier's mind, on some competitive level he felt a burn to surpass Mason, but mostly he just felt admiration. Xavier had a lot of catching up to do. However, according to Lucia due to Xavier's nature he'd know some things instinctually, and honestly when it came to training the priestess believed Xavier to be somewhat prepared for fights considering his brutal past.
Apparently his adoptive mother had a rare book for him, but Xavier wouldn't receive it until Lucia deemed him ready. The priestess had stressed how absolutely dangerous it was, she explained that there were many types of supernatural creatures. But by far some of the most dangerous were demons that had received blessings. These supposed blessings gave them specific and powerful abilities. Apparently Gregor was one, so not all were cruel or malicious demons. But power had a way of corrupting even the kindest person.
When Lucia had been telling him about all this she'd told him why he was so special. Yet Xavier had balked at the idea of supposedly being one blessed by the Demons of Fate. The book the priestess held for him supposedly contained the details of his blessing. But she didn't want him to be weighed down by whatever power he held. Apparently many others shared her opinion but keeping Xavier in the dark would ultimately lead to more trouble than good.
Chewing his pen Xavier hears a knock on his door and glances up to see Mason with a small smile on his face. Obviously having just come back from school.
"I brought you more homework" He says, eyes drifting to the books around curiously, he'd seen Xavier nose deep in them everyday since that talk. Smiling a little the brunet adds "If you need help feel free to ask me, I've added some extra homework myself." Walking to Xavier he hands over a bunch of paper, school stuff on top and on the bottom Mason's handwriting. Several pages of questions, hints of where to find answers and other activities.
Glancing up at the other with a small thanks Xavier watches his brother sit on the bed and pet Mekal absently. Smiling somewhat sadly he looks to Xavier. He'd had that sort of expression on his face every time Xavier had seen him recently, and really the raven was getting to the point where he really wanted to know why. Mason looked as though he really didn't want to bring something up but had finally mustered the courage to. Once more Xavier felt nervous, had Lucia not told him enough? Was there really more he needed to worry about?
"You know, Kyle and Vincent know a lot. But they don't know everything"