Chapter XXIV

And So on and So Forth

L eaning on his palms, Jeremiah's eyes were closed to the ceiling as his head rested back. Every second his vision was canvassed by black, whirls of blue would surface, and he'd find himself witnessing the pulsing waves of a clear blue beach. Sand and tiny shells would pull into the water, the horizon showed nothing but distance, and Jeremiah's whole heart and body would settle upon the rise of bubbles breaking the surface.

Up and up the bubbles would float, one after the other into the cloudless sky, and there they would burst into stars, each spark then descending like remnants of glitter into yet another coming wave.

As he was fully awake right now, Jeremiah knew these visions weren't tired hallucinations, but they brought him the utmost comfort when he was alone, and while Min-jae was only in another room at the moment, still the ease of the ocean brought relief.

From the tension taking up room in Min-jae, Jeremiah hadn't been surprised that he brought back some form of undesirable news. For it to be his own father's firm declaration of sleep or death, that certainly hadn't crossed Jeremiah's mind, but it was with him now, and he guessed all he could do was accept it for what it was. A warning.

Without having heard the conversation for himself, Jeremiah was more than certain the prospect had been difficult for Demiesius to ponder, much less say aloud when bringing it to everyone's full attention. They were all afraid, Hamilton, Demiesius, his brothers. They were all afraid for their own reasons, but the fear would always draw toward the same thing, and it was dreading a future of possibilities they wanted to avoid at all costs.

Opening his eyes, Jeremiah stood from the bed and looked down at himself. There were no outward changes to show for this pregnancy yet, but every passing hour brought out the strength of this quite apparent and individual being taking shelter inside him. He was hit by flutters of virtue and ease that brought his tensions down, and Jeremiah almost thought it felt like something was trying to keep him calm.

The fears that disturbed his parents and Min-jae were fresh as ever in him. There was worry bursting from all over, but then an embrace would encase him, and his heart and thoughts would return him to this current strangely blissful peace.

Despite all the bad, nothing seemed powerful enough to take him from this good.

So focused on the warmth inside him, Jeremiah went for the bedroom door, and he flinched when he nearly collided with Min-jae. Steady arms captured him in place, and he grabbed on as well, almost shoving away from the embrace before realizing it was only Min-jae taking hold of him.

In that instance, Jeremiah's fight or flight instincts nearly kicked in, and the self-preservation almost convinced him to get this encroaching entity away from him by any means necessary. He'd wanted to protect himself and this heartbeat.

"Sorry," Min-jae apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Switching his gaze to his hands that held onto Min-jae's forearms, Jeremiah hid them behind his back after seeing the length of his claws extended from his fingertips. Had he really been so scared? Had he been ready…to kill?

"Are you okay, Jeremiah?" The ease in Min-jae's voice came again. When no words were given, he was instead embraced there in the doorway of the bedroom. Jeremiah's arms slinked around Min-jae's midsection, compressing their bodies together, and he laid his head upon the Korean dhampir's shoulder.

From how easily Jeremiah had taken the news of Demiesius' declaration, one could assume he wasn't excessively worried about it. He'd been calm and surprisingly understanding, but in the second Jeremiah's instincts flashed a warning red toward this sudden approach, even if it'd only been Min-jae, he had to admit to himself he was a bit on edge.

As Jeremiah stood cloaked in Min-jae's embrace, whispered reminders of being in good hands brought relief. Upon opening his eyes, a kiss touched his temple and he hugged a little tighter before backing away. "I'm fine," he answered at last, but still he kept the reason for his fret to himself. "I think I could use some fresh air. Would you like to take a walk with me? "

"Of course, I would," Min-jae gently took Jeremiah's hand. "I haven't wanted to insist that you leave the house, but I'd like to show you around the village if you're comfortable. When you were here before, nothing good came of it, but there's so much more to this place than misfortune."

Jeremiah nodded and they were soon standing before the Song residence. At the sound of the gate latching behind him, Jeremiah resisted a flinch and blinked out at the truly breathtaking view of the sunset. With Saengsacho erected on a green hillside, the view from the peak of the neighborhood was absolutely stunning. The comforting colors of the sky stretched across the clouds, making the puffs look more like sweet cotton candy, and when a gust of shoreline wind carried up through the neighborhood, Jeremiah wondered just how far from the village the ocean was for it to seem so close.

"We can either walk through the neighborhood," Min-jae said, "and I can show you around a bit more. Or I can show you something even more beautiful. I know you'll love it."

"What can get more beautiful than this?" Jeremiah asked.

There were so many wonderful places all around the globe, many of which Jeremiah had seen with his own eyes. To name a few, his childhood home was at the top of the list, Mont-Saint-Michel, Laos, Kyoto, Alaska. He could go on forever, and he was glad to be able to say this charming and old-fashioned pocket burrowed into South Korea was on that list. Despite what bad had occupied this quaintness, nothing could strip it from its beauty.

"Come with me," Min-jae interlocked their fingers, and instead of making for the street that would lead downward into the neighborhood, Min-jae followed a desired path leading around the short stone wall of the hanok and toward a line of autumn painted trees.

With evening approaching, the shade beneath the trees grew darker, but their vision remained clear as they walked this man-made trail. From how the grass seemed to refuse to grow and cover the wear of the footpath, Jeremiah could imagine many must have followed this trail through the years. Each crunch of leaves beneath his feet summoned a remembrance of his youth, of the times when he'd chosen distance and silence, and Jeremiah would trek out into the woodlands of the castle grounds.

Often alone, if not discovered by Dominick who would come looking for him, Jeremiah was greeted by the sounds of nature, by the wind, the leaves, the small rushing streams that cut through the forest until at last finding a place to sit and think.

Looking up as Min-jae led the way, Jeremiah stared at the soaring trees reaching upward and onward. He envisioned himself at eleven years old venturing into the forest on his own for the first time. He'd smiled at the blue of the sky that looked more like river systems from below, but the smile would soon fade through the years when realizing how lonesome the quiet of the forest could be.

In all honesty, Jeremiah never quite understood his past want to isolate. He hated being alone, and while sometimes it wasn't his choice to be alone, he'd more often than not been the one to make the decision to remain at a distance. Out of sight. Out of reach. All for what? To spite his father? To make things worse for them? For himself?

Regardless of the length put between him and those he knew cared; he'd at least looked for the comfort in seclusion. Derived from memories he couldn't help but hold onto, Hamilton and his love existed, the vivid and mutual devotion his parents put onto him in their first meeting. Being alone made it easier to appreciate those colorful moments in a sort of detail no other could appreciate but him. And when Jeremiah thought about what his choice of distance must be doing to his father, to his dad, a battle between regret and resolve commenced.

Looking forward as the yearning to shut himself away so that nothing and no one could touch him carried on, Min-jae's clear form ahead of Jeremiah remained — where he hoped and prayed to Lilith this comfort would continue to be no matter where he was. If he were content, if he were afraid, angry, battling more than himself, Jeremiah believed he could get past the mental aches so long as Song Min-jae kept his word. This person beside him was the starlight illuminating his path.

Giving a fair pull at Min-jae's fingertips, the two stopped there within the rustling trees. Branches trembled from the breeze, and as droplets of yellow and orange leaves collected around their shoes, Jeremiah said nothing as he took a much needed opportunity to enjoy this moment. So little yet so much surrounded them when they looked around, nature and the solace of it, but the most enchanting facet had to be the pair of eyes looking into his.

With a quiet and captivated smile on his face, Min-jae raised a hand and touched it to Jeremiah's, and as Jeremiah's peach lips turned into an endearing curve, his two-toned eyes kindled an even more blinding passion between them.

Being able to feel so much was almost becoming overwhelming to Min-jae; this superb appeal showing itself to him in the soft, dazzling windows of Jeremiah's eyes. There was tension elsewhere, there were troubles coming forth, and the future was daunting, but none of that far away interference seemed to matter one bit as the restfulness emitting from Jeremiah told of his contentment.

It was a state of being Min-jae wanted to preserve.

"You make me feel things I never thought I'd feel again," Jeremiah said, all of his rapture coming forth in a confession he couldn't help but divulge. "You've made me feel things I've never felt before, and now you've given me something I never knew I wanted until it was here."

As the fair smile remained on his lips, Jeremiah's gaze never left Min-jae's when he touched his stomach and the begotten soul eased into him permeated its realness into him and into their surroundings. It could be argued this was nothing more than a mistake, a mistake they'd happily accepted responsibility for, but there was no regret in it either.

Nothing but Cloud 9 furnished their bodies, and its bliss unfurled into every fissure of the land, upward and downward and in all directions when Min-jae softly took the whole of Jeremiah into his arms.

Min-jae didn't think there could ever exist a time when he'd get used to how wonderful a feeling it was to hold Jeremiah, smell him, know him in all permitted ways — the ways no other could say they understood.

As a boy once used to such a common lifestyle here in Korea, he knew the boy he used to be wouldn't be able to fathom the realness of his future if a glimpse of him and Jeremiah in this moment was teased to him. It wasn't long ago that his established role as a technical farmhand was all he'd aspired to be and grow as. And while Min-jae could say those prospects were still with him — the desire to preserve Saengsacho for what it's always been — having Jeremiah by his side was now a requisite in order to attain that goal.

If things were different, if Jeremiah weren't here, if their baby weren't an anticipation, nothing else would hold meaning anymore. Nothing. Nothing at all.

Touching his nose into the top of Jeremiah's shoulder, Min-jae's hand pushed into the back of Jeremiah's hair as an arm wrapped around and held him as closely as possible. "How can it be that I lasted this long without you?" he said. "Everything I worked for in the beginning; my dreams, what I aspired to be, it all seems so hollow now that I know I was working toward an end you weren't part of."

Holding on, holding fast, Jeremiah listened as this lifting verse spoke to him, spoke to more than one version of himself, and it exposed this affectionate being that was more than glad to tell him all this and more.

He was wanted.

He had a purpose.

He was someone's everything.

"You have given me new hope for the years to come," Min-jae confessed. "Reworked my ambitions, and it's to do what I must to preserve more than this village. I want you beside me, always, and to do that, I must safeguard all that you are and what we have made." Min-jae looked into the watery gems staring back at him now, and his heart inflated upon perceiving Jeremiah's dazed happiness.

He looked as though his own heart might burst at the seams.

"Perhaps you and I were not planned from the beginning," Min-jae went on, "But I will love you like it was written in the stars long before you and I stepped foot in this world. I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours. In this life, on and on, until the end of this thing called time."

Jeremiah shut his eyes and tears trickled down his cheeks, shining rivers streaming to his chin as Min-jae wiped them away one flow at a time. His lips were kissed, and he was held together, yet not a piece of him trembled as if it would fall away. He was secure. He was whole.

"I love you," Jeremiah professed, throat stinging unbearably. "Much more than I thought I could ever love again, but you've unlocked that door in me and let yourself in. I might struggle, and I'm so sorry for that," he apologized. "But, please, don't give up on me. I can be here; I can show you all of me. And I promise, I can be what you need, too, if you'll hold on. Just give me this one chance; that's all I need. One chance to show you I can be strong for you and for our child."

"For our family," Min-jae nodded, and he kissed Jeremiah once more. Seeing Jeremiah in this state was enough to know his words were honest. "Come," he started them through the autumn path again. "We're almost there."

After some minutes, the trees began to open up again, and Jeremiah's perspective of how naturally breathtaking Boseong County was reaffirmed itself. As they stepped out from the tree line, the grassy slope turned to sand and a shoreline stretched far in either direction, curving around the hillsides to offer what privacy sat here at this untouched patch of the beach.

"Wow," Jeremiah expressed. He couldn't help himself and tugged Min-jae's hand as if anxious to get closer to the pulsing waves.

Yet another view of himself when young sparked across his mind; fifteen and alone, walking a dark shore in another part of the world he'd run to see up close and for himself. He recalled how lonely and wonderful the solo stroll along unfamiliar waters had been — the fantasy he'd coveted in those minutes.

Someday.

He'd wished to someday be as he was now: beneath an inspiring sky, on a beach, and beside the likes of someone glad to walk it with him. It'd been such an innocent wish; one he'd released some time ago and settled with the idea of never fulfilling. With it having been his choice to unhand, no others were to blame for dropping it, but a sense of gratitude refurbished the old yearning now that it was in front of him.

"Do you like it?" Min-jae asked, his English whisper warming Jeremiah's ear.

"I love it," Jeremiah declared, watching the surface of the ocean glisten and waves pulse. It was music to his ears. "I've seen so much throughout my life and been to so many places, but I can't think of anything that truly compares to this."

Min-jae pointed toward a long pier that reached out over the water. "When I was younger, my father would bring me night fishing. We'd catch so much, and I'd hand out lots of what we caught to our neighbors. After he started to leave more often, coming here was a rarity until I no longer wanted to, and things were never quite the same between us."

"I've never been fishing," Jeremiah admitted.

"Really?"

Jeremiah shook his head with an embarrassed laugh, an image of Demiesius and Dominick dressed as fishermen shaking his lungs. "As you can imagine, my father wasn't the fishing type when I was a kid, and the last time Dominick did such was probably when he was human over five hundred years ago. It never came up anyways, so I don't feel like I was missing out. I was more of a city boy, as you can tell."

"I have to change that," Min-jae said, interlocking their fingers, and they walked along the waves as they came and went. "I'll teach you to sow in Spring, bring you fishing here, and we can sit around a nice fire to roast what we catch. And…" He held his words and bit the smile on his lips, draping his arm around Jeremiah's waist, and his fingers tucked beneath the hem of his shirt to feel the warmth of his skin. "Someday we can do all this together. All three of us."

Coming to a stop, Jeremiah's whole body seemed to flush with relief at the spoken hope, but in Min-jae's aspirations, a level of remorse came to Jeremiah in the form of familiar faces.

"We're going to be a family," Jeremiah said plainly. "I left mine without a word, and I feel like your involvement with me has taken you from yours."

"I'm sure they understand."

"Of course, they do. They love us," Jeremiah stated. "But it's not fair to leave them without a word of anything if you and I plan to stay here for the duration of this pregnancy. I can't imagine what my departure must be doing to my dad, of all people, and I don't want my parents and brothers to feel like I don't want to be around them anymore."

"Then let's go back," Min-jae said without hesitation. "The way your family looks at you tells me all I need to know about how much they love you. I love you, too, and I want you to be with me. But I don't want you to be weighed down by regrets either."

Grateful for Min-jae's encouragement and understanding, the decision was made to travel in the morning, and once 7:00am Korea Time rolled around, they put themselves together and were soon standing in the grand foyer of the castle. The sun had already tucked itself beneath the horizon and the corridors were quiet as ever.

On any other night, the rowdiness of the younger Titus boys could be heard from anywhere, but from the tension drifting through the halls, and the silence taking up almost every room, it was all Jeremiah needed to sense to know this quiet was due to his withdrawal.

Before Jeremiah and Min-jae could make it up the first stairwell, a rigid aura dashed from the upper levels with purpose until they were faced with Sebastian in the large arch of the east wing. There was a clear mix of emotion on his face. From the twitch of his brow, it looked as though he was struggling between expressing relief and frustration, but the frustration overturned the relief of seeing his brother, and he clenched his hands into fists.

"You're so selfish," Sebastian spat in a whisper, and his two-toned eyes blazed in outrage. "How could you leave the way you did? Over a week, we all waited for you to wake up. We were afraid you never would, and you just decided to disappear the moment you opened your eyes? What the hell is that?!"

The look directed at Jeremiah from Sebastian was a first in the boy's seventeen years of life, and Jeremiah had to admit it was a look from his brother he'd hoped to never see. It wasn't hatred, but it was close. "Have you spoken to Father?" he asked. "I know you're frustrated, but—."

"Father hasn't stayed put since you've been gone," Sebastian said, turning his burning gaze onto Min-jae. "And where the hell do you get off taking him like he's yours? You like my brother? Fine! But he's not your family to take wherever the hell you want; we've been worried sick about him!"

"Sebastian," Jeremiah caught the crack in his brother's voice, and without missing a beat, he hurried for him where Sebastian lunged into his open arms. "I'm sorry," he apologized, squeezing the teenager who let out a soft cry into his shoulder.

"You can't do that," Sebastian sobbed. "I thought I was never going to see my brother again."

"I'm so sorry," Jeremiah held on tighter, turning his nose into the dark side of Sebastian's hair. "I was hurt, and I was afraid, but I shouldn't have disappeared like that."

And all after what he knew Sebastian had seen during their last moment together. His brothers were knowledgeable of the world and its darkness, but for Sebastian to have seen something so ghastly, so brutal happen in front of his eyes, Jeremiah knew it must still be fresh as ever in him.

When Sebastian backed off and cleared his face, Jeremiah spotted the rest of his brother's nearing from down the wide corridor. Avery looked like he might yell at him next, but appeared to swallow it and accepted a needed embrace as well, Gabriel and Lysander following together, and it was Lysander who didn't let go when Gabriel's hold let up.

"Forgive me," Jeremiah pleaded, picking the eleven-year-old off the floor, and their hold on one another remained secure. He passed his hand down Lysander's dark hair and to his back. "There's no real excuse I can give as to why I left the way I did, but I hope you all can forgive me for stepping away like that. I didn't mean to cause anyone to hurt."

"It's okay," Lysander sniffled. "You came back. "

"I came back to tell you all something," Jeremiah said, setting Lysander down, and he glanced toward Min-jae over his shoulder. With an outstretched hand, he beckoned the Korean dhampir to take it, and they started down the corridor. "Where's Dad?"

"Dad struggled to get out of bed," Gabriel said as he and the rest of the boys followed. "But he should be getting out of the shower."

With that in mind, Jeremiah's throat squeezed more and his remorse for practically running away made his shoulders feel heavier. He'd thought of himself when taking Min-jae's hand and vanishing to South Korea, and it was only now that his decision was beginning to feel as Sebastian stated. Selfish. He loved each of his family members equally, but there was a slight difference in the way he loved his dad. To know his actions caused even the smallest breach of woe in Hamilton made him feel like some sort of villain.

Since their reunion years ago, there was a carefulness in the way they interacted with one another. Hamilton was tender and soft-spoken with each of his sons, but the perceivable difference he held in his voice and heart for Jeremiah was something saved for him and him alone.

Thinking back on their time together after their family was made whole again, Jeremiah called to mind the first time he'd left home to live elsewhere. Still involved so intimately with the Debrutellon twins at the time, he'd made the decision to live within what had been the Asker Coven. On the night he'd informed his parents of his choice to leave home, Hamilton had wrestled endlessly with the idea of accepting a separation of any kind. But he'd accepted despite the hurt to see his son leave a nest in which they hadn't quite bonded during their beginning years.

Although what they had now was stitched without a single loose strand to be found, that didn't mean someone like Hamilton — a man so incredibly attached to his children and to the ones he loved — could bear much of this thing called distance, even if it meant his sons were spreading their wings and building upon their own lives and character. He could accept it but bearing it was a different story.

Standing before his parent's bedroom door, Jeremiah swallowed a breath and met Min-jae's gaze. His brothers were standing a little further back, and when a black mass formed from the floor up and into the shape of his father, Demiesius was returned to the castle as well. Perfect timing.

"Son," Demiesius said, surprise and appreciation shown in his dark eyes.

"There is something I need to share with everyone," Jeremiah interjected.

At the mere sound of his voice, the bedroom door swung open, and Hamilton stood in the doorway with damp hair and dressed in white silk shorts and a tank top. While he looked freshly put together, the tired lines under his eyes showed his weariness. "You're back?" Hamilton asked. "Why did you go?"

Jeremiah held a hand out and when Hamilton took it, he pulled the man along to a more spacious room. "Let's sit down," he said, glancing at Demiesius whose eyes gave away what he already knew. "I promise it's nothing bad, but it's something I need you all to know, and I hope you'll be able to understand this choice I've made."

When gathered in a lounge down the hall, Jeremiah remained standing at the center of the room as Hamilton and Demiesius took a seat together on a sofa, the boys crowding around them on the floor and armrests as Min-jae stood aside, arms crossed and…not quite anxious, but not quite relaxed either. He looked like he was absorbing Jeremiah's stress so that the words came easily.

"I'm sorry," Jeremiah said firstly. "When I woke up, I shouldn't have gone the way I did, and I'm sorry if I made anyone feel like this isn't somewhere I want to be anymore. That couldn't be further from the truth."

He looked toward Demiesius whose hand was coupled with Hamilton's. The way either of them perceived Jeremiah was so similar yet so unalike.

"Father," Jeremiah went on, "You and I have a history no other in this room could fathom. Our years together were different and difficult from the start, but the strain we sat in worked out over time, and I came to see your love for me couldn't have been any more authentic if you tried. You did your best with what we had."

Jeremiah beat down the clog entering his throat and neared Hamilton, kneeling there before him, and his smile reflected back at him in the soft blues of Hamilton's eyes. "Dad," he said, "What greater gift could you have given me than this life? Even in our time spent apart, what you left me with stayed so intact, and so constant, that I believe a piece of you fastened itself to me the moment I was born. In my most lonesome times, you were there. You've always been there."

"Oh, Jeremiah," Hamilton reached for him, hugging his arms around his eldest's neck. "If you've come back to remind us you're still you, none of that is necessary. You'll always be you." When he unhanded Jeremiah, Hamilton tucked a stray from either side of his light and dark hair behind his ears and kissed his forehead. "You've changed so little yet so much since your encounter with that substance. You don't even smell like yourself anymore, but that doesn't mean you're not still the boy you came into this world as."

"I've changed?" Jeremiah thought that was an understandable admission. His temper was unpredictable, his aura was diminished to almost nothing, and he could agree his emotions were out of whack. "And I smell different?"

Hamilton nodded woefully, "I used to be able to feel you the second you were home because of how strongly your aura used to spread. It was very comforting. As for your smell, it's very pleasant." He chuckled, "Actually, it smells like you've put on the finest perfume in the world."

"I think that might be due to something else," Jeremiah said, standing upright again. "I'm pregnant."

"WHAT?!" The boys all shouted in unison, causing Jeremiah to jump, and although no surprise was on Demiesius' face, the shock pouring from Hamilton's widening eyes said enough.

Hamilton stood abruptly, switching his eyes to Min-jae and back to Jeremiah. "Oh…Oh, my," he brought a hand to his mouth, lip quivering as if it were undecided on whether he should cry or smile. The latter showed itself, and Hamilton cupped Jeremiah's face in both hands. "My baby is having a baby?" He chuckled with a red tint coming to his eyes, but he blinked the tears away. "Is that why you left? If that's the case, I understand why you did. If being here, anywhere near London, made you feel unsafe and removing yourself from all that's happened feels like something you need to do, I understand completely. When I discovered I wa s pregnant with you, I came here and…well, I should've never looked back."

Recalling the quiet, heavenly dream he'd had before waking up, Jeremiah took a couple steps away until he was standing beside Min-jae. "I wasn't sure if that was the reason that made me go," he said. "Neither was I positive I was pregnant until some hours ago, but when I did realize…" He took Min-jae's hand and it gave his a light squeeze. "It made me all the more certain that my decision was final. I won't be gone forever. To never see anyone again isn't my objective, but—."

"You must preserve yourself," Demiesius said with all the understanding in the world. "My one request is that you take care of yourself. You will be out of our reach, but that does not mean you will be where you do not belong. We are your parents, and your brothers are here, but now you will have family elsewhere, and they will be what matters most going forward."

"Thank you for understanding," Jeremiah nodded gratefully. "Our time zones will be completely different, but you can come see me whenever you want."

"You're sure?" Lysander and Gabriel said in unison. "Whenever?"

"Whenever," Jeremiah's smile grew, and Hamilton moved to hug him once more, his brothers crowding around after, and when they dispersed, it was like a walkway opened up and stretched between Jeremiah and Demiesius.

The elder hadn't said much since returning home, and he looked like there were a million and one things on his mind right now; the knowledge of soon becoming a grandfather was certainly one of them. He was glad Jeremiah stood by his means of self-preservation. After all, it was a similar decision he and Hamilton had made many years ago, and for Jeremiah and Min-jae to want to set themselves up in a far more quiet and comfortable location only seemed natural.

Demiesius just wished the harm that'd threatened Jeremiah here in the London area hadn't played a role in making him feel unsafe.

With open arms, Demiesius welcomed his first born into an embrace and held on lightly. There was a message he wanted to pass into Jeremiah's thoughts so that he would be the only one to hear, but Demiesius simply turned a kiss against Jeremiah's temple, and said, "No matter where you go, no matter what you need, I will always be here for you, my son. Your life and the one you will bring into this world are what I want you to put all of your focus on."

Demiesius looked directly into Jeremiah's eyes. A dip settled in his dark brow, one that could be mistaken for anger due to the distress still prevalent in his gaze. He didn't want to, but his mind was corrupted with fears that lined up with Florin Liviu, and he couldn't neglect them even with how hard he tried.

"Don't worry," Jeremiah assured, feeling the need to offer his father comfort as well. "I'll be alright. Try not to stress so much, or your hair might finally turn gray after two thousand plus years."

There seemed to be appreciation in the jest, and Demiesius nodded with a soft capable smile. "Take care, my son."

Feeling a weight rise from him, Jeremiah breathed a little easier. It was time to head back to a place he couldn't wait to call home.