A Thousand Years of Hope - 2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It was a warm midsummer night.

Scents of roses and jasmine in bloom warred in the small, vibrant flower garden. Crickets sang in the night, and the sound of water flowing in the brook at the edge of the property added to the music. Standing on the tallest tree, Tani Ryuzo watched a two-story house built in the middle of the property, a complicated mood settling on him.

He supposed the house represented the perfect American dream: a husband, wife, two children, and a white picket fence in the front yard. The woman worked at the local hospital as a nurse. A school bus picked up the two children every morning and took them to school. She hosted sleepover parties for the children on the street often. It was the perfect life in the small suburban city of Kirtland, Ohio.
Tani scoffed and wondered what he should do now.

A breeze ruffled the leaves around him. Tani touched the branch that caressed his cheek to comfort him. His feelings for the house’s occupants left him with a bitter taste. The bitter taste was tied to nine devastating choices in nine centuries. There was no hope left. The branch slid away, and he sighed.
Tani wondered why he would feel disappointed at this point.

His beloved had truly gone ahead of himself. In their last chance, the man decided to make a family before meeting.

Tani should not feel disappointed or betrayed. After all, in the last nine reincarnations, this tenacious soul always chose the perfect family over him.

Still…

Tani had hoped this last one would choose him. He gave an internal scoff. Foolish thinking. It was impossible now. The family was made. Commitments and promises forged. Tani could no longer interfere for the sake of the little ones. He was no family breaker.

“Quite a beautiful home, isn’t it?” a soft voice commented behind him. “One might believe this two-story house represents a happy home.”

“You come to take pleasure in watching the end of my calamity,” Tani said, pushing his long dark coat back. He sunk his hands into his dark trouser pockets and kept his gaze on the two-story house.

“Don’t sound so unhappy. I find the ends quite depressing. I know you don’t believe me when I say it. Tani, don’t you think it is a tragedy to see such a perfect family come to an end?”

“I wonder if you understand what tragedy means, Cale. From your perspective, tragedy is a word you say, but you do not know what it truly means. They are a happy family. No end is coming to them. I have made my decision. I will not meet him this cycle.”

Cale solidified next to Tani, wrapping his right arm around Tani’s tense shoulders.

Tani stayed still, refusing to show any reaction to Cale’s presence. Fear fed Cale. It made him stronger and more callous. Cale sniffed Tani’s neck, touching his left ear with a finger. His fingers then swept into Tani’s red-brown hair. The long fingers tugged on soft strands, and Tani closed his eyes, working to control his irritation.

Cale leaned into him and whispered into his left ear.

“Sweet Tani, I’m so grateful for you. Your pain has fed me for centuries. The last cycle you had with the mortal left you lost in a sea of pain for a hundred years. I wonder how long this cycle will take. Or…wait—”

Cale broke off and shifted away, dropping his arm from Tani’s shoulders. He made a show of counting on his fingers and then widened his dark, dark eyes.

Tani dragged his gaze away from the quiet house to look at Cale. He shuddered when Cale smiled. The sinister curve of Cale’s lips sent shivers down Tani’s spine.
Cale was painfully handsome. His face was designed to seduce and fool unsuspecting souls into believing he was a benevolent god. The god of calamities adapted to time better than his peers. He always dressed in neat, tailor-made suits and shirts. Tonight, he was in a gray suit and a white shirt open at the collar. He looked like the gentleman but was, in fact, a man who controlled and thrived in the chaos of darkness, pain, tragedy, and what all souls called calamities.

Cale was the most sinister of gods from the hidden world known only as the Ekho Realm.

“You look at me with such accusing eyes, little fox,” Cale said with a shrug. “You’re still young, Tani Ryuzo. Your three thousand and one hundred years are a drop in the ocean compared to my millenniums in these realms. You know so little.”

“Thanks to the thousand years of calamity you bestowed upon me, I have aged to ancient status, Cale,” Tani said, looking away from unsettling black eyes.
His heart always felt frozen when he looked into Cale’s dark eyes.

Although, there were times he needed Cale’s dark eyes to numb his heart.

“You know nothing about me.”

“On the contrary,” Cale said, his tone filled with amusement. “I know pain molds a soul. Your pain has molded your soul and his, and the journey you have both walked has kept me quite entertained. Your pain has changed you, as it has him. You are living your last century of calamity, Tani Ryuzo. If he makes the same choice, he made the last nine, your place in this mortal realm shall cease to exist. Your fate will be tied to the Ekho Realm, and you shall never return to the human realm.”

“It makes you happy to repeat the sentence my father’s peers gave me for loving a mortal,” Tani noted.

“It does,” Cale said with a smile. “The eternal sadness you feel will allow me to remain in our Ekho Realm with no need to reap calamities in this realm. I hope you fail the mission the Septum gave you.”

Tani took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was no need to get angry with Cale. It only made Cale happy. Tani could not cry either. The tears were long gone. There was nothing left inside him. It was true that Cale was not the only one waiting to watch him fail.

Tani was a visitor in the human realm, just like Cale.

Tani was a deviant Ekho, born of a fox clan mother and an immortal clan father. He was considered deviant because he dared to fall in love with a mortal a thousand years ago. In the eleventh century, he fell in love with a handsome mortal soul and, with careless delight, bound his soul to the mortal to the mortification of his entire race.

Mortal lives remained fleeting. An Ekho’s life was too long. The Ekho Realm forbade bound love between an Ekho and a mortal. Tani broke the taboo when he bound his soul to the mortal man he loved.

In a bid to return him to the Ekho Realm, Tani’s father and the council named the Septum—which governed Ekho—dragged him home for a trial. The Septum did their best to get him to unbind his soul from the mortal man.

Loyal to his beloved, Tani refused to yield his love and instead begged the Septum for a fair judgment. His lineage saved him. The Septum ruled that Tani Ryuzo would live under a one-thousand-year calamity monitored in person by Cale, the god of calamities.

Tani would stay in the mortal realm and live life among the mortals. His beloved would live a life of reincarnation through the one thousand years. His soul returned through the centuries in different families. The only way to escape the calamity was for Tani’s beloved mortal to choose to bind his soul to Tani. His beloved’s choice would prove Tani’s love true and lift the weight of his one-thousand-year calamity, restoring Tani’s freedom.

At the start of his thousand-year calamity trial, Tani boasted to his father’s Septum with confidence that he would win his mortal love within the first century. He begged for a second reward. The right to be allowed to love the mortal bound to him unstopped by his people or any other soul, including Cale, for the rest of his life.

The Septum agreed but added to his punishment should he fail. If Tani failed to gain the mortal’s unconditional love, he was to give up the right to visit the human realm forever.

At the start, Tani was sure he could convince the mortal man bound to his soul to choose him, to love him, to make a life with him. He never once remembered to account for his beloved’s free will.

Nine hundred years later, each century past, a different yet similar reincarnation of his beloved stumbled onto Tani’s path. Each time, each one chose to love, but never with Tani. Never.

Tani watched his beloved choose to bind himself to another mortal soul, another woman, or man in some centuries.

Now, in the mid-year of twenty twenty-one, Tani could no longer boast like a fledgling. His heart was already torn to pieces, numbed, and stabbed by his beloved’s consistent choice—a choice which never included him.

Tani could no longer boast to Cale, who watched his defeat materialize with each century past.

The family living in the two-story house meant his beloved had again chosen another soul instead of him. At the end of his thousand years in this mortal world, he knew how silly he must have looked to his father hundreds of years ago. Love was not enough to make a life together, nor was it sufficient to convince his beloved to choose him.

Tani had lost thoroughly.

His sentence awaited him back home in the Ekho Realm.

It was time to give up on the mortal realm.

At what point did love turn to hate? And why did his heart never hate his beloved?

“You are facing the last chance in your thousand-year calamity, Tani,” Cale said, his voice low, free of contempt and teasing. “I know you’re weary. I would be, too, after all the years you’ve pursued him. Your beloved mortal is thirty-five years old. I’m surprised you waited so long to find him.”

Tani shrugged. He waited…or hesitated to find his beloved because he was tired. He was no longer confident in his love and his choice to bind his heart to the mortal. He just wanted the trial to end.

Tani took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. The warm night air made him wish for the cold of winter. At least then, the weather suited his mood.

“What happens if I decide not to meet him?” Tani asked.

“Nothing. Live out the century until its end,” Cale said, his tone matter of fact. “Your beloved will die in his chosen life. You will have no right to enter the human realm ever again. A fact that hurts you because I know the life you’ve built in this realm. The punishment not to return here will devastate you. Are you willing to ignore that you need him desperately?”

Tani closed his eyes. Sorrow filled him, and Cale sighed with pleasure next to him. It was expected. At this point, Cale would be his only companion in the future. There was no need to push him away.

The thought of never seeing his beloved’s face again filled him with acute sadness.

In a cruel twist of fate, his many centuries in the human realm gave him a community of souls he did not want to forget or leave behind. He had created a home he cared for, a world he nurtured. It would be lost to him if he could not get his beloved to choose him.

“Your pain is the best kind,” Cale said, stretching his arms over his head with a pleased smile. “Fine, delicious pain, old and refined, it’s like nothing I’ve ever fed on. It’s hard to give up. I ask you, Tani. If you don’t complete your part of this trial this time, the past nine hundred years will have been a waste. Is this the outcome you hoped for?”

Tani opened his eyes to stare at the two-story house.

A light turned on downstairs, and the picture windows showed a neat open kitchen. A tall man walked deeper into the room, sending Tani’s heartbeat racing in his chest. His eyes feasted on the toned body dressed in a plain white t-shirt and old pajama bottoms. The urge to cross the backyard to the kitchen windows was strong. Tani ground his teeth and reminded his stupid heart that the man in the kitchen had already chosen his love before they met.

Unable to look anymore, Tani turned away, but Cale’s words stopped him.

“He dies in a year, you know,” Cale said.

“What do you mean?” Tani asked, looking at Cale in shock.

“You always ran away after he chose to marry and live with his mortal mate,” Cale said. “You hide yourself in the conservancy network you have built. Waiting for the next century, hoping he chooses you the next time. In the last cycle, you got very close, so it broke you harder when he chose the woman, Violet. You never bothered to discover how long they stayed happy.”

“He has chosen her again this time,” Tani said, hating the anger coloring his voice. It was never easy to watch the man he loved with someone else. “She is the opposite of everything I stand for. She gives him children, a legacy, then and now. What is the point of interfering? Death is part of a mortal life, Cale. I might not come to look for him before he dies, but I do make sure the children he leaves behind are looked after, as he once asked of me. They lack for nothing.”

“Yes, you take care of the descendants. It’s admirable,” Cale said. “However, you have never known why he dies. You have refused to notice that it is a common occurrence. Never once changed in the past nine centuries. In every reincarnation, he has never lived beyond thirty-six. I never understood why and wondered if you noticed. Then again, you used to rush to meet him early, and by twenty-five, he rejects you so thoroughly you run off. Within five years, he makes his choice, and while living his chosen life, you leave to nurse your broken heart. He only lived to thirty-six years old each time he lived with this woman. The century ends, and the reincarnation restarts.”

Tani’s gaze returned to the man drinking water from a glass in the kitchen.

“Why did you never mention it?” Tani asked.

“You never want to know what becomes of him after he leaves you,” Cale said. “Tani, you’re as petty as your fox mother. She has refused to see your father until this day. You both take rejection too personally. Perhaps the reason why your beloved never chooses you is because you abandon him too.”

“That’s not fair,” Tani said, shaking his head.

“What if his soul disappears after this century?” Cale asked. “What if your calamity has given him the chance to reincarnate when his soul wishes to move on to something else?”

“Don’t joke around,” Tani said.

“I’m not,” Cale said. “I’m pointing out a variable you have refused to notice. He is mortal. I can’t interfere with the rules of his world, his choices. Maybe you rushed it before and missed a crucial clue. Approach him, Tani. He might surprise you and choose you this time. He is an archeologist. His work tells me he looks for you in his way. I think he will give you an interesting encounter. There’s something about him…”

“You are trying to get me to meet him,” Tani scowled. “Cale, he has chosen Violet in this life. Her name might be different now, but I recognize her from the earlier centuries. They have two children. The choice is made. There is no hope for us.”

“Perhaps,” Cale said, then gave Tani a startling smile. “Perhaps not. You have a year to meet him and discover why he dies at thirty-six.”

Tani started to respond, but Cale disappeared as fast as he appeared earlier. Tani returned his attention to the man in the kitchen.

His beloved stood tall, always filled with confidence. Tani knew if he got closer, he would look into piercing, expressive brown eyes that saw into his soul. Best of all, his fox eyes loved the gold mist aura surrounding him. If Tani got closer, the scent of jasmine coming off the mist would fill his nostrils. Intoxicating, it called to him, forcing him to reach for his beloved with his entire heart.

With each century gone, it had become more challenging to exist without the scent of jasmine or seeing the gold mist surrounding his beloved. Tani always felt ripped apart when his beloved walked away from him. It took everything to feel complete again.

Tani sighed and pulled his hands out of his pocket. He started to teleport and leave, but then he paused when the kitchen door opened.

His beloved came out, his gaze intent on the tall tree where Tani stood.

“What are you?”

The question startled Tani.

Tani froze on the thick tree branch, staring at the man watching him. He did not speak, afraid he was misreading the situation. There was no way the mortal could see him. Tani was using an illusion to hide his presence on the tree.

“You follow me. I can’t see you, but I can feel you. I felt you in Istanbul at the airport. This is the third time this month. You’re strong, whatever you are.” His beloved spoke in a cajoling tone. “Why do you watch me?”

Tani held still, afraid his beloved would see and discover him if he moved. Then, he scoffed at the thought.

Silly, you can always leave without him noticing.

He started to complete his teleport.

“Kendini göste,” his beloved said.

A large wave of heat rushed toward the tree. Shocked by the intense power, Tani stopped his exit. Years of devotion to conserving forests had him raise his right hand to absorb the damaging heat wave. The impact of the heat spell was damaging. It took Tani considerable effort to reverse the damage. He could not waste any effort to heal his palm, so he got burned. The fire singed his palm and coat sleeve.

His beloved’s spell was simple enough. It held an order for Tani to reveal his true form or die, a warning. The force behind the order, hot enough to sear Tani’s palm, spoke of power: Bloodborne warlock power.

Surprised, Tani stared at his beloved, who stood in the garden studying the untouched tree. Shock filled Tani because he could never have imagined his beloved would be Ekho-blessed.

When had a Bloodborne warlock joined his beloved’s bloodline?

It looked like Cale had a point, for once.

Tani had missed something.

“This is new,” Tani murmured, looking at his stinging red palm.

“I’m sure I’ve hurt you…somewhere. If you want your burn healed, come down here,” his beloved said with a satisfied chuckle.

“How dare you,” Tani said, then turned and returned to his domain without giving his beloved the satisfaction.

Tani needed to meet his uncle before he met Dante Arturo face-to-face. He needed to understand how his beloved would end up a bloodborne warlock.

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