Atlier gently set Mia down on his bed and knelt beside it. He cradled her hand in his as he watched her wipe away her tears. Her body was struggling as she controlled her abdominal muscles in an attempt to stop her crying, her breathing was off as she would hold her breath for a moment before exhaling to try and take hold of the shakiness, and her eyes blinked furiously to combat the tears that stung their backs. It broke his heart to see her this way.
"Mia," he started out, his voice quiet and gentle, "what happened while I was away?"
"I-" As soon as she uttered the first word her body gave out. Her muscles conceded to her emotions, and she burst into sobbing mess. She pulled her hand away from Atlier's in favor of concealing how hideous she thought she looked. Red face, puffy eyes, swollen lips, it wasn't a look she wanted him to see. Deep down, she was disappointed in herself, she thought she was stronger than this. She'd been through worse. Her own fiancé murdered her, how could anything hurt her more than that?
Perhaps it was due to the fact that she never felt it physically. Telna had made her abuse violently obvious to Mia's body. Her scalp was sore from being pulled, her back stung from the welts and cuts inflicted from whippings and lashings, her hands had cracked open from being so dry, her feet were blistered and bloody, and her arms and legs were sensitive from the bruises she received during beatings. That didn't include the soreness from the increased physical labor either, that took place everywhere.
The physicality of it, and the mentality of it, both were equally as horrifying. 'At least Lance got it over with quickly.' She would find herself so disgusted whenever she caught herself thinking such a thing. The way her mind was trying to push one or the other as if either were okay was concerning.
Atlier gently rubbed her back, sending painful shockwaves throughout her body. She cried out more and violently shoved his hand away, causing him to stare at her in shock. She felt awful, she hadn't intended to make him feel bad about comforting her, but she couldn't get those words out. For a while she tried to push out what she wanted to say, but her sobbing wouldn't allow it. Atlier would just respond with a "Shhhh….." as if to tell her, 'Just calm down first, there's no need to rush anything.'
Finally, after what felt like hours, she had calmed down enough to speak. She looked at him pitifully, her eyes almost swollen shut. He gently wiped her tears and handed her a handkerchief to wipe her snot. "I'm sorry….I didn't mean to....push you...it just hurts….." Despite being calmed down now, her lungs were still agitated, causing her to gasp for air.
"What hurts? What happened?" Atlier asked as she blew her nose and attempted to clean herself up by rubbing the back of her hand against her cheeks and pushing back her hair.
"It was awful. She made me a maid and treated me terribly. She hit me everytime, even if I was doing well, and went out of her way to make things difficult for me. Even just now, she made me clean the floors all on my own and wouldn't let me use a brush and then she threw tea all over the floors and I….admittedly shouldn't have thrown the rag at her face, but, she was being so awful! Then she grabbed my hair and called me all sorts of names!"
Mia began rushing her words and working herself up into hyperventilation again. Atlier gently pet the top of her hair, "Calm down, she will not lay a hand on you now that I'm back. You won't be a maid any longer, I've instead made you my personal assistant. Don't worry, you won't have to do anything but stay by my side. I'm sorry it can't be like before, but this is the only way I can think of protecting you right now."
Atlier's tone had become much more intense, and, despite her blurry vision, Mia could see that his jaw and shoulders were tensed. She took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, "You don't need to apologize. It's not your fault. You couldn't help but leave and you tried to take me with you. You had to go follow that lead. What happened anyways? I'm sorry, that's more important, we shouldn't be talking about me."
He shook his head and continued to pet her head, "No, you are more important. We'll talk about that later. Your body hurts, have you been seen medically at all?"
Mia looked down and avoided his gaze, feeling overall guilty for being in the situation she was in. "No, I've applied bandages on my own, although one of the other maids did help me with my back."
Atlier felt his heart break. Bandages? Her wounds were that bad that she needed bandages? How badly he wanted to grab Telna and toss her out of his home himself. For the first time in his life, he found himself cursing his tilt of Duke. All of his power and wealth and he couldn't protect the woman he loved. That's when it dawned on him. He had fallen for Mia, he was in love with her. His face flushed red and he could feel the blood rushing into his cheeks. Luckily, Mia was too preoccupied to notice.
"I'll send for a medical team. Oh! That's right, I've brought you a gift. You stay here and relax, I'll go get it and inform the rest of the staff."
He stood to leave when Mia grabbed his arm, clutching it tightly. "Don't go! Please don't leave me! What if she comes back?"
"Would you like for me to lock you in? My dear I must go at least send for you to receive medical attention."
She nodded and slowly released him from her grip, "Okay."