Chapter 11 - Thanatia

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The next morning, I woke up at seven and cut across the Court's yards, hurriedly making my way to the gym. Casimir had still been fast asleep when I left the room we shared, no doubt tired from all the magic use yesterday in the sports arena. Before I had closed the door behind me, I'd given him a fond, if slightly worried look. Casimir was strong and helpful, but he tended to put other's needs before his own. He'd come back yesterday looking completely beaten, apparently having forgotten dinner altogether. I'd chastised him for his carelessness and dragged him to a restaurant, where I'd forced him to down a sandwich and a glass of water.

'Casimir,' I muttered, shaking my head. 'You can't keep doing this.'

'Doing what?' he innocently replied, munching on his sun-dried tomato and mozzarella cheese sandwich.

'Forgetting your basic needs. Like eating? It's kind of important.'

'Yeah, but my basic needs are not more important than our entire race's needs.' Casimir's eyes sparkled. 'You should have seen them yesterday - they got all fired up!'

'I did see them - through you,' I pointed out, eyeing his sandwich with envy.

'Want some?' Casimir offered, catching my look.

I sighed. 'Nah, I'll just end up downing the whole thing. Might as well order one for myself.' I waved at a waiter with short-cropped black hair. As he approached, I noticed him eyeing me a little more than an employee should be eyeing a customer. His smile was friendly though, and his dark eyes crinkled up at the corners in a way that told me his smile had been sincere.

'Hello, how can I help you?' he asked, bowing slightly with the menu pinned to his chest.

I pointed at Casimir's sandwich. 'I'll have one of those, thank you. It looks great.'

He scribbled something in his little notepad. 'Anything else?'

Oh, what the hell. 'I'll also have a bag of chips. And a glass of juice, thank you.'

The waiter offered me a crooked smile, scribbled some more words down, and turned to go.

'Hmm,' Casimir noted, amusement colouring his handsome features.

'Hmm what?' I asked, curious.

'He looked rather...interested,' Casimir said with a wink.

I shook my head. 'Give me a break. It's his job to be polite.'

'And it's my job to see more than what meets the eye,' Casimir reminded me. 'His aura turned bright pink - like the colour of freesias.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Well, I can't really say that a man finding me pretty gets me all weak-kneed.'

'It's not just prettiness, Natia! There is energy all around us - invisible to the rest of you - that binds us, that connects us. Sometimes, when that chemistry is right, just casting our eyes on someone can cause a deep, emotional reaction. It goes beyond just thinking someone is attractive. It's in the way people move, how they carry themselves, how these small details come together to form a whole that seems flawless and unique.' Casimir stared to the side, eyes unseeing and filled with awe. 'It's what makes this world so beautiful. It's what makes the hardship of life worth it.'

As usually happened when Casimir went on a slightly spirit-induced philosophical trip, I couldn't help but regard him with complete admiration and pride. All the while he had been talking, I felt like he'd been talking about himself. Because he really was flawless and unique. Men like him were hard to come by. I wondered once more why Casimir never seemed able to settle on anyone. Although I didn't really want him to get a girlfriend, I couldn't comprehend why he seemed to tire of every woman he dated. He'd dated many - some casually, some more seriously - but he couldn't settle. The main reason for that was that he simply didn't love them enough. He loved women like he loved anyone else: the same way he loved men, children, and the elderly too. Casimir had a lot of love for everyone, but he didn't seem able to concentrate it on a single person.

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