Chapter Text
You’re always on my mind
You’re always on my mind
And I never minded being on my own
Then something broke in me and I wanted to go home
To be where you are
But even closer to you, you seem so very far
And now I’m reaching out with every note I sing
And I hope it gets to you on some pacific wind
Wraps itself around you and whispers in your ear
Tells you that I miss you and I wish that you were here
- Florence and the Machine’s ‘Wishing you Were Here.’
❈
Somber was the rainy day in the heart of London. The gods favored a dismal song as their tears fell into raindrops and soaking the sleeping bister earth. Its heights would phase in and out, some times allowing the sun to peek from it’s safety of the clouds surrounding it; releasing spears of golden saffron light. Even with it’s benevolent rays, the air was brisk to the touch, you had to wear a thick jacket to escape it’s wintry grasp. When the sky was thick with dark, soulless clouds, a exhale of breath manifested into a alabaster smoke in front of you. No doubt it was the thralls of winter and had no intentions going any where any time soon.
A bustling station was the one to take into the heart of town. A commute most knew every day but a treat for Elias. He wasn’t the biggest fan of actually going into town but today was a special day, so special that he had to keep a secret from his pupil; Chise – a bit older and really not his pupil any more, oddly she just tended to live with him and assist him with his home-bound shop. He could not produce a word to label what she currently was to him but if he had to describe it.. It was special. A very very intense feeling of special. His heart grew cold and desolate in the time she’d been away from him. He was more than elated to have her home and safe with him again. He was warm again.
“Is this the right stop?” Said a familiar voice, trailing behind Elias as he disembarked from the shaking train cart. Encircled them was the crowds of people going to and from where ever their destination was; the sound of their voice like a rush of water that one could not make out a singular word.
“It should be. If I remember things right.” Elias responded, he’d dawned his glamour to avoid the unnecessary attention. He stroked the long xathous fibers into place behind his ear.
Ruth; a loyal soul bound to Chise stood beside Elias, his stature reaching now to Elias’ shoulder and charcoal tinted hair falling into the tips of his collar bone. In the ten years he and Chise had been gone, he too had aged along with her. A resilient sternness still flecked in the color of his wine shaded eyes. He surveyed the flit train station intensely, smelling for any threats to be found.
“Ah this way –” The tall gentlemen gestured the direction with his long cane.
When Chise had turned 24 she started to experience a sense of wanderlust. For months her body grew tired of the confines around her. She and Ruth started to feel cramp, it was clear after about 3 months of oblivious remarks and actions; Elias was just too dense to notice it right away. When Chise finally had to be blunt it was very hard for him to swallow the fact his apprentice – his very special apprentice was starting to out grow the country sides. It was time for the juvenile robin to take her first flight. She’d learned almost all she could from him, that was usually when students take off, right?
But was it he who was ready to let her go? She couldn’t remain here for ever. Chise had to live her life, she had to become who she was destined to be. If he made her stay she would surely come to resent him and .. likely leave him any way. Elias caved in and allowed Chise to go, as much as he hated it but this would make her happy and her happiness is his happiness. That’s what he told himself every night for months after she’d left.
It felt like he lived through ten years of winter.
It wasn’t all that bad, he would get a letter every few weeks of what she was doing. America, Canada, South Africa, Brazil – She even went back to Japan for awhile as well. She’d gotten a job working with plants and making new forms of Medicine as well living in a Guild of Mages who were stationed in America. Her career took her to the far sides of the world; Chise was living passionately as Elias had wanted her to do. Each letter he got was always a new surprise and adventure that he lived vicariously through her. Her photographs were a collection on his study’s wall. A shrine to her and all she did, Elias was very proud of his student.
After a few years the letter started to come less and less. She’d written in one she’d left the guild and pursued different interests. Well that was how she’d worded it but entailed of nothing of where she was going or doing. Soon after that he received no letters for almost a year, this made for some very agitated months and sleepless nights. Elias decided to write a letter to the Guild she’d been with, asking of her whereabouts, promptly getting a reply a day or so after. It came on the wings of a large moth made of paper.
‘Dear Sir Ainsworth
We appreciate your letter and concern, Chise was like family in the time she’d spent with is here. We all miss her very deeply and are too worrisome of where she may be.
I too have taken the liberty to seek Chise and where she might be. My attempts were proven fruitless and can only hope that she is safe and warm. I hope that you will be more fortunate in locating her and if you do, please write to us. We are all eager to hear of Chise’s en devours and hope she might return to us one day.
Your faithful kin in magic,
Nikolai Van de Berg,’
Elias took a long pause after reading over the exceptional typed letter, Nikolai had used a old fashion type-writer. The ink still deep in it’s onyx color and smell, this letter had come all the way from America; it’s feeling alien to a English Gentlemen as himself.
For some time, Elias grew quiet. What had become of Chise? The days worn long and the nights quiet.
Cold, like any day in March it had begun with the fog blanketing the lush verdant fields. It was the perfect weather for their neighbors to rejoice in the refreshing morning light. Playful Water Aerials toyed with the dew. Sprinkling the Spring Flowers that had budded barely that sunrise; their wild, untamed color shimmering like diamonds against the rays of light beaming unto the rolling fields. As they danced through the new born zephyr, the neighbors exulted ancient songs welcoming the change of the seasons.
The tranquil mage started his day like any other. Cleaned, dressed, fed and checking that any prescriptions or customer requests had been made and filled. Elias was thankful for Silky, she kept some of his most used spaces free from clutter and organized. Luckily they were all up to speed and only needed to dispense the stock when their customers arrived. Elias dutifully arranged the packets based on who he remembered showing up the earliest in the day. At least he could now focus on other duties. Maybe arrange some of his books, prune the garden? The greenhouse plants could use some water he thought.
The sun casted highest in the sky, drying the wild flowers of their dew. By now the Aerials had flown some where new, home likely? Elias doused the potted herbs with a old tin watering can. It was mundane of a mage so powerful as him but it was the little things that he took pleasure in now in these silent days. He’d finished through the cooking herbs when the can drew thin of any water. That was no good, Elias rolled up his sleeves. The spout was at the back of the house; once they met he pumped the lever to summon a stream of water. Fresh, robust water filling the can, shaking it’s metallic body.
Silky turned the corner that Elias was near, she had a liveliness in her eyes that he had not seen in awhile. The mute house-spirit begged of Elias to join him in the house.
“A visitor?” He questioned, the last of the water filling the can; droplets dripping into it. Something did feel amiss now he thought about it.
This was curious, if it was a customer she could have tended to the transaction herself. Maybe it was Simon or Angie, it would have to be someone of importance to get Silky this energetic.
Elias walked through the Greenhouse, taking his cloak he’d left on the table and dawning it. The air of the house had changed dramatically, it’s scent that of pine and lavender, had Silky been baking something? But it was then the energy started to become surreal, he had not felt a efflux like this in years. It could only be one thing, Elias stepped faster, his heart resonating like a drum in a band. The walls of his home never felt so long, they seemed unending like the anxiety riddling his brain. Had she come home to him?
The first thing he saw was the cardinal red of her hair, next her tender foliated eyes that had turned to him with a kindness he remembered like it was yesterday. With teacup in hand, Chise sat on the love seat beside Ruth who laid with her in his true-born state. Both master and apprentice stared at each other for a second – a second that felt like hours. Elias couldn’t help to let his mouth gape which only conjured a laugh that vibrated from Chise’s throat.
“Hi Elias.” Her meek words said over her cup of tea.
“Chise.” The flummox of a man choked.
-
She’d grown up, his fledgling was no longer the small, quiet girl he’d won so many years ago. She was a woman with a ageless wonder echoing within her gaze, it was a beauty to behold because really Elias felt like he was staring back at someone new, someone he’d never know. Sheepishly he pressed his hand against his heart as Chise explain where she had been and done. This human feeling was foreign.
“I decided to go back home.. Well Japan that is. I was working in a book store–”
She continued to tell her story with a calm pride as they both sipped on Earl Grey tea served in mint and pearl cups decorated with pastel sweet-peas. Her hair had grown long, draping her shoulders, her hands, fingers callous and skin freckled with new beauty marks; Elias silently investigated all of it. He had not seen her in five years, how strange humans can change their appearance so fast.
“It was very simple living there, working a day job and paying bills. I felt very normal for some time, as if my life as a mage never really happened.” Chise chuckled at the end, relaying over her thoughts. “But I read some old books in English my manager had gotten from a sale. He didn’t know how to read them so he let me have the collection. A lot of them were poetry and one day I read one about a man who looked like a beast. I couldn’t tell if it was based off a fairy-tale but it made me feel very melancholy. I wanted to run away right after that – some thing in me awoke. Like a bear or a wolf, it pried to be released and run home.” Chise sighed a sigh. “So I did, I decided to come home.”
She looked at Elias with a sincere fixation. He sat there was a blank as a board, as if she was about to ask him of something; he prepared for the impact.
“I think I wanted to come home to you. You and simplicity of the life here. For so long I feel I have been wandering aimlessly.” The sleigh beggy pulled at a piece of her red hair, admiring Ruth’s sleeping form beside her or just avoiding Elias’ fixed gaze on her. He was frozen in his seat, not saying a single thing but a question or two here or there. It made Chise quiet nervous to see him so silent.
“I was hoping may I can stay here for awhile?” The question kicked Elias from his concentration; his deep set eyes jolting to their original crimson shade. He coughed with his balled fist over his long snout before speaking properly.
“Of course, this will always be your home. You may stay as long as you like.” His gentle voice told her, leaning a bit forward in his chair.
The serenity labeled on his canine face made Chise feel warm and accepted, he couldn’t change his expression but from so many years of being by his side she instantly knew; Elias was exuberant to have her home, he just was expressing it poorly at this time. A heart warming smile listed across her softened pale face. His hand was laid on the arm of his lounge, her fingers ghosted over the length of his large appendage, finally laying it on top of it.
Quickly the mage took notice, slowly flipping it over so their fingers could weave together and clasp. His hands were like a new chapter in a book, Chise felt something grow anew, eager to flip the pages that was him and what new lessons he would teach her. It wasn’t the same when they were young and stood aside each other and Master and Apprentice. It was fresh, born and new. Her heart leapt underneath her chest.
She had found her way home; back to him.
Her eyes admired the living room as if she was remembering it’s contours once again. Salamanders spat fire at each other in the hearth, their reddish bodies crawling over the scorched logs, the lengths of fire like grass. Chise stared at that as well the books that littered the walls around them, her gaze back to Elias who still stared at her; their eyes met.
“Welcome Home, Chise.”