Hhhhh I hope this okay but your art inspired me to write a lil something op 🥹:
Tera stared blankly at the ice shard hovering above her finger as though it were a crystal ball. She'd heard of magic mirrors, of viewing mirrors, and wished she could manifest one. It had been days since she last saw Maria—days that felt like years when she had nothing more than faith that her daughter was safe.
She let the shard fall as a swarm of bats swept into the clearing, and furrowed her brows as they materialized into a tall-standing figure cloaked in shadow. Something dark and menacing had been following her for days, nipping at her heels and metastasizing in the darkest corners of her mind—but this wasn't it. This presence meant her no harm.
"...It's you," she said as he stepped forward, the dawn light illuminating his pale face and glinting off of his silver hair. Alucard.
"Miss Renard," he greeted her with a small bow.
Doubt pricked at her spine at the formality of the gesture. Was it merely a relic of the time that had once been his own, all those years ago? Or was he about to deliver grim news?
"Where is Maria?" She demanded. "Richter? The others?"
Alucard set a steady hand on her shoulder. "Your daughter is safe," he said. "Richter, Annette, Juste. They are all safe."
"Where?" Her claws extended of their own volition—these foreign things that didn't quite feel a part of her yet. "Where is she? I want to see her—"
"I think you know as well as I do that it's best I not share her location with you right now," he said, darting a pointed glance at her hands.
"She's my daughter!" She snarled, cutting her tongue on her fangs when they, too, came out without her permission.
Alucard pulled back, a sympathetic crease between his brows, and Tera wrapped her arms around herself in shame—the taste of her blood in her mouth enough to snap her out of it.
"...She says you left her for her own safety," he said once she willed the sharp, predatory things away. "Is that not true?"
Tera swallowed the blood on her tongue and nodded. "I want to see her," she croaked, knowing it was something she couldn't have—not yet. "You don't understand what it is to be separated from your child, Alucard. I have a—there's a hole in my chest."
He studied her for a moment, then averted his eyes with a frown. "Perhaps not entirely, no," he admitted. "But I... well, I've been separated from the people I care about before. Know how hard it is to be alone, when you truly don't want to be."
There was no denying the sorrow in his eyes, no denying he knew the pain she felt in some form or another. As old as she knew he was, some maternal reflex in her itched to bring comfort to a face that looked so young and so lost. "Why did you find me?"
He shook himself, looking around the clearing as though he were looking for eavesdroppers. "I just... well, I wanted to bring you these," he said, and reached inside of his coat.
Tera tilted her head, watching as he produced two dolls. He glanced around again, and she realized he was embarrassed.
"Here," he said at last, holding them out to her.
She was baffled at first. Didn't know how to react. Some mixture of appreciation and insult. For one was Richter, with his brown hair and blue button eyes, and the other—
"My Maria?" she whispered, eyes watering as she reached for her. The green buttons for eyes, her pink dress, the golden strands of yarn that made up the hair Tera used to brush every morning. The stitching on her face even seemed to perfectly capture her moody pout.
"I'm sorry," Alucard blurted, and started to take them back. "This was in poor taste. I just—I thought it might be a comfort. I didn't mean to offend—"
"No," Tera shook her head, smiling at the dolls. "No, they're perfect."
Alucard blinked. "...They are?"
His shoulders slouched in relief. "I... I kept dolls of Trevor and Sypha, way back when," he said. "I'm... not entirely sure in the end, if they were better or worse for my sanity, but... they were a comfort, at least. To me."
Tera let out a watery laugh. "They're perfect, Alucard," she sniffled. "Thank you."
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