Two lives

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4Sz8_Oq1M )
 
The rooftops flew under his feet as he gave chase.
 
His investigations of the Red Lion were beginning to bear fruit – slowly and arduously, of course, but how else should it go? He was peeling back the layers of an onion that had untold and perhaps even unknowable depths – but he was determined to peel back those layers, one by one until he’d found the black and monstrous thing at the core.
 
I'm sending the raven
Black bird in the sky
Sending a signal that I'm here
Some sign of life
I'm sending a message
Of feathers and bone
Just let me know I'm not forgotten out here alone
The air is cold
The night is long
I feel like I might fade into the dawn
Fade until I'm gone
 
Cardinal had told him about her dying to save her mentor – a night of terror and heartache… three weeks prior. He couldn’t even be upset at her – he knew where he had been for the past three weeks, ducking between his nighttime patrols, maintain the vague pretenses of his life as Sir Victor Orsei, and doing the odd jobs as Khelan Weber out of the Lion in order to maintain his cover. He hadn’t called on her, nor she on him, and he’d barely even seen the inside of the Skybound in over a month.
 
And besides, she would have gone home – her home with Maelie. Of course she would not need him to protect her from that, she had her own life she was beginning to build there.
 
And hell, he mused further as he swung out into the night, he’d missed her journeyer party because of being on a job as Khelan that evening.
 
Oh, I'm so far from home
I'm so far from home
So far from home
Oh, not where I belong
Not where I belong
Oh, I'm so far from home
I'm so far from home
So far from home
 
I'm sending a raven
With blood on its wings
Hoping it reaches you in time
And you know what it means
'Cause out here in the darkness
And out of the light
If you get to me too late
Just know that I tried
 
Kevan was beginning to build his life with Peg, he thought distracted as he landed on the fleeing cart, rising slowly to let the long shadows add to the terror he knew he was instilling in the driver. The white lenses shone softly in the low light as he advanced on the driver.
 
He couldn’t even think of her as “The Woman” anymore, or even “Lady Disdain”. He had never intended to get to know her; her reactions to his persona as Victor only helped to solidify his alibis and reputation. But when she had needed help, he could not stop himself from coming to her aid. And now, she was being courted by Kevan, and against his will, he had begun to feel a kinship with her. They both carried a strange and otherworldly darkness inside of them and struggled to maintain some kind of normal life. He wanted to dislike her, but found that she had grown on him all the same.
 
Oh, I'm so far from home
So far from home
Oh, not where I belong
Not where I belong
Not where I belong
Oh, I'm so far from home
So far from home
So far
 
The air is cold
The night is long
I feel like I might fade into the dawn
Fade until I'm gone
 
He’d promised Arinelle he would be there for her, but when was the last time they had spent any time together outside of the emergencies of adventuring? How was he supposed to help her understand the truth about her life and prophecy when he barely knew his own destiny and where it lead past…
 
Fists were flying around him as he moved, before standing over the his quarry for the night. It was far better to focus on this than on the future. Some part of his mind noted that he felt like he was being torn in two – along one train of thought was life and marriage. Perhaps Arinelle would move in with him? She had wanted her own place, however.
 
Oh, I'm so far from home
So far from home
Oh, not where I belong
Not where I belong
Oh, I'm so far from home
So far from home
Oh, not where I belong
Not where I belong
 
Along the other train of thought was the Fall. It waited there for him like a patient lover, inviting and in the darkness of dim light.
 
As he leapt back into the night, he tried to put those thoughts behind him, and desperately tried to shake the feeling that he was lying to all of them.
 
So far from home
Not where I belong
I'm so far from home