He closed his eyes, trying and failing to force the expression of dismay from his face.

"I died," he began, his voice still very soft. Any louder, and it would break. "And escaped. I was reborn as a human, nineteen years ago. Then I came here." An obscenely abridged version of his life, but long explanations could wait for later. "I..." he almost thought of naming Kusuriyuri his lover, but that didn't evoke the permanence of their relationship. "I have taken a mate."