It wasn’t so much her comment about the illusionist, but rather her voice that caused chills to run down his spine. Goddess help him, it even sounded the same. Was this some sort of hell? A place where the ghosts of life past would haunt him?
The thought of ghosts left him however when her hand reached up and made contact with his skin. He took in a deep breath and held it for a moment as she examined him with her eyes and the tips of her fingers. Fingers that he had known so well before...
He hadn’t realized that he had closed his eyes until they opened after a span of time that left him unsure. It was there, in her eyes. The questioning glances as she moved those dark large seas over his features. She knew, just as he did, that something was amiss. And clearly it would be him that would have to explain first.
Drawing in a deep breath of air, Ezra moved his hand up, taking her smaller one into his. “No...” he began, a certain sadness and regret in his voice. “I’m not dead. But I needed everyone to believe I was... and in all the ways that mattered... I was dead. I... am dead.”
He paused and looked around, the sea of people within the tent making him suddenly closterphobic. Leaning towards the bar he muttered to the man behind the counter that he was taking a ten before squeezing Elia’s hand gently and leading her away from the crowd and into a secluded corner away from the entertainment.
“I...” He began, unsure of how to continue. How does one really begin to explain the abrupt ways in which one life ended and another began. How does one even try to tell someone from their past, the horrors of their present. But of all the places in the world and of all the people in the world. Perhaps she would understand.
“You know I’m not what I was before.... the blood at the campsite. The signs of struggle. That was me. And for all intents and purposes... I was gone. But you know as well as I, that there was no body at that funeral. No concrete evidence that I was gone from this world entirely. But my magic was. And that was all that mattered wasn’t it?” His mind moved back to not only his family, but hers as well. After all the match set between them was all about strengthening the magic and power. The fact that the two actually liked each other was simply a bonus.