Phantom Love

Chapter 35: Keitaro

       As I watch Raven fade out of the ethereal plane the yawning pit of loneliness opens up inside of me once again. I never realized just how lonely I had become until she materialized into my life for the first time. I had fallen asleep to myself, and to the world, long ago. That is, until she came along and woke me up. It's been a decade since I went out and tried, and failed, to reunite with the world again but before that? Well let's just say that where I had been living was known as Prussia, not Germany.

       Life among the mortals became tiresome and painful after a while. At first I had hid among them to keep myself separate from the rest of my kind, per their request upon threat of death, but after losing so many I had grown to care for, the moving from place to place, the identity changes I became lethargic and unwilling to be a part of a system that was never meant for me. So I left and allowed my other half to take over completely. When my kind is exiled and cut off from others like us it is well known that after a while we become the beastly part of us while the more human side of us fades into a deep sleep, never to wake again. That was my father's fate and I was sure it was to be mine as well.

        When you are one of the few races that lives on indefinitely, your kind become the only ones you can relate with in any real way. I only had that for the very beginning of my life, until my parentage was revealed, then it was just me and my father, my mother having been dead for almost a decade at that point. Him and I traveled together for a while until I had gained enough resources to leave that cruel man and make it on my own. When we met again the more human side of him had long been asleep and only his beast remained. Which was a blessing, I didn't want to have to kill my own father but if we had met again while he was still awake I fear that is the only way I would have truly been free of him.

       I hope she doesn't hate me when she finds out what I've been keeping from her. There's just no easy way to tell her. When she knew me before she only knew the other half of me and she told that other half everything, including her deepest secrets and desires. I never had the capability of speaking with her or finding her in my more human form so I took whatever I could get and lived with it. Now though, the guilt of not telling her right away eats at me.

       I turn to the mirror and activate it, leaving it on while I start the fire to cook my breakfast. As I prepare food I monitor the council, Raven's other mates, and search for Raven's location with the new parameters she gave me. After a fruitless search and an under-seasoned breakfast I grow restless so decide to train a little to relieve some of the growing tension. Turning off the mirror to give myself some space from the stress of not making any headway, I pull out my katanas and work through my forms. When I grow tired of blades I move onto various throwing instruments before moving onto the weighted chain I've always preferred.

        Finally, after reaching my point of physical exhaustion, I feel the stress slowly seep out of me. With nothing happening on the other side of the mirror I sigh and decide it's time to go out again and search with my own two eyes. I quickly strip and bathe before redressing and strapping various weapons to me before I close my eyes and reach into the ethereal plane. I call the other half of me and within seconds my awareness changes to that of my beast's. 

        Leaving the safety of our cave we go out in search of our mate. After long hours none of our leads prove worthwhile and soon I'm ready to head back. Just as I'm about to leave the icy waters though I feel a pull at my magic and before I can make heads or tails of it my beast is moving at high speed towards where we now know our mate to be. We pause as the water as the wild magic becomes thick, unsure of the new change and unsure of where we are entirely. There's a magic in the water, an old magic, that had cloaked this part of the world to me previously but, for some reason, the curtain has been lifted and I don't question it, only pick up my pace once again. As we swim up from the depths to Raven I weave through the water as giant pieces of metal sink rapidly all around me.