[/html]It still seemed impossible that he should be there, speaking to someone who was as much a ghost to him as he was to her. He had accepted so very long ago that he would never see her again that he felt profoundly empty, living this contradiction now. The feeling of bitterness had passed, along with any guilt towards her specifically. What was he supposed to say? What was he supposed to do? Ought he treat her like the stranger that she was? Treat her like the mother that she was as well? How did one treat a mother, in any case? He had never known, and neither had his daughters. Not knowing made him feel more like a child. Time travel was a funny business.
But for all his awkward indifference, Kharma did let himself smile, if only for a short second, when Kaena spoke of Gabriel. To him, the older hybrid had probably always been an old man -- he had always acted like one. Commanding and intimidating, but nevertheless caring and concerned. Nostalgia. So much time had passed. Though he had not seen as many seasons as his half-brother or his mother, the cloaked figure was much older now as well. Ezekiel had only been a few months old at the time of the fire. Arkham had not yet been a year old himself. And now? And now his girls were grown. And now, he was very nearly the age his father had been at the time of his death.
"The family lives on, then," the shadow said. "Good." He did not count himself among them any longer, but he did not wish them ill. They were not his family, but they were people.
"I have been better as well," he continued. "And worse, I suppose." He paused. "I will be returning to Thornloe -- it is a village a month northeast of here. If Myrika or Cassandra happen to come, could I ask you to send them home?" And Rachias as well, but that request died in his throat.
Kharma would not deny the woman any questions she might have for him, but for his part, he could not think of anything else to request of her or to say to her. She was indeed a stranger, and this was a strange land that he wanted to depart as soon as he could.
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