Chapter: 485 – Premarital Counseling

Tala and Rane sat in a beautiful, sequestered portion of the sanctum with Master Nadro.

It was common practice to ask the most powerful Archon well known to the couple to perform the ceremony, at least in traditional Archon weddings.

‘Known to the couple’ was meant to imply solid connection as well, not just passing acquaintance, and thankfully, Master Nadro qualified on all counts.

-Well, except that he’s not an Archon.- Alat teased.

Yeah, yeah. Tala amicably dismissed her alternate interface, but she appreciated the good-natured interaction, and Alat could obviously sense that.

All three were enjoying their beverages of choice, which Kit and Tala kept at the ideal fill-level and at the perfect temperature—both chosen by each drinker. The drink was, of course, drawn from large containers of pre-prepared beverages in the sanctum kitchen, but that was hardly pertinent.

The three were gathered for premarital counseling. Not only had Master Nadro insisted on it if he was to perform the ceremony, it was tradition. More than even that, however, it would be incredibly foolish for a couple to bind themselves together so tightly without having gone through such a basic process.

They’d already had deep soul-scans done—another prerequisite to a marriage done ‘correctly’—and Master Nadro was about to give them the results. Then, they simply had to talk through some requisite things, standard points of conflict that other couples had encountered, historically.

In this context, the discussions could be had with less tension and stress, and it would be easier for both parties to be heard out in full before the actual situations arose.

But that was for after the results.

Master Nadro had a contemplative look as he took a long sip of his chamomile tea. “The results are back. I do apologize for the delays involved, but there were some irregularities.”

Tala squeezed Rane’s hand, suddenly nervous. “Such as?”

“For one, the unusual level of synchronicity that your souls already possess, despite no soulbond being in place.”

Tala frowned. “I believe Mistress Noelle mentioned something about that. She even did a few scans on us a few years back.”

Master Nadro nodded. “If you met her, that makes sense. She studies such things.” He chuckled. “Her ability to keep confidentiality hasn’t worsened either. When I consulted her about this, she made no mention of any previous encounters.”

“So… is it a problem?” Rane asked.

Master Nadro shook his head. “No, it just made the process different from the norm in yet another way.”

Rane grunted in understanding.

Tala gave a little smile. “Well, that aside. What else was found?”

Master Nadro smiled. “Your soul’s shape is also an oddity, Mistress Tala. I believe that Master Jevin told you that working with your bloodstars as you have been would create extensions of your soul reaching outward, yes?”

“He did.”

“Well, that isn’t usual.” He smiled reassuringly. “It isn’t bad by any means, but it is unusual. I will state up front, your souls are compatible from everything we can tell. You should be able to create a soulbond through physical intimacy, and the bond should be stable and secure. Both of you have a solid connection to the next world—even without taking your gates into account—though the nature of each has deviated from the norm.”

They glanced at each other then back to Master Nadro. Rane spoke this time. “What do you mean ‘deviated from the norm’?”

“Well, I should say that by ‘norm’ I mean human standard. Rane, your soul’s deviation is quite normal for your family line. The boon your ancestor was given to be passed down is woven into your very soul, and that is how offspring inherit it. It exists as an integral part from the moment of soul-genesis, before even fertilization, generally speaking.”

Rane frowned, but Master Nadro continued before he put together his thoughts sufficiently to ask a question.

“We know much of what we do about your line because one of your ancestors was a soul-specialist, and she made a pointed study of her family—your family. The boon is present even without a body, both before birth and after death, before the soul has passed on. She was able to induce true out of body experiences, and the boon stuck with the soul rather than the body. All told, this means that while your soul is non-standard, it is non-standard in an expected way.”

Tala glanced toward Rane, and he shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense. Any other means of granting such a boon would require an ongoing outpouring of power from the Sovereign, and from what I understand that is unlikely.”

“Indeed.”

Tala was frowning, “Wait… If every child has it, and it’s an ancient thing… How does humanity as a whole not have it yet?”

Master Nadro smiled. “Excellent question. Technically, most do, but it is faded to the point of uselessness. A soul is built by the mother and father, and even then a soul associates more with one than the other, and sometimes with neither. As we grow up, our soul matures, and we become who we eventually will be. That shifts our soul. Sometimes we draw closer to one parent over the other, sometimes we draw away from both. So, if descendants draw away from the source of the boon, it will manifest less strongly. The reverse is similarly true. Thus, as families become estranged over the generations and lines intermix, it becomes all but nonexistent in everyone but the direct line.”

“The Gredial line.”

“Precisely.”

“Master Grediv’s descendants.”

“Yes.”

“Was he the one who got the boon?”

Master Nadro looked to Rane, and Rane shook his head. “No, his youngest daughter. Her husband took the name Gredial when they married in honor of Master Grediv, and the boon was given after he died, when she was grief-stricken and fearful for her children. Master Grediv was… away at the time, mourning his wife.”

Tala sat back. “Wait, I thought you said the person who got the boon was a he?”

Rane shrugged. “Master Grediv only told me the true story after you were taken. I think it was intended as a…cautionary tale at the time.”

She frowned. There was… a lot to unpack there.

-My goodness. His son-in-law died while he was disconnected from the world, and his daughter couldn’t depend on him, so she chose to turn to a Sovereign, who betrayed them? Yeah, that’s a lot.-

Tala swallowed. “I see…”

“But!” Master Nadro clapped his hands together. “We should be moving on. As for you, Mistress Tala. Your soul bears the hallmarks of a Reality curse, likely due to your brushes with dasgannach, including your soulbond to one. You also have Void bound to your soul. With the Magical nature of the soul, you have somehow managed to create a rather firm tie to existence as a whole.”

Tala felt herself smiling, rather proud of her accomplishments. But she was also hesitant as she noticed Master Nadro wasn’t smiling. “What is it? Isn’t that a good thing?”

Master Nadro frowned. “We’re honestly not sure. It seems to be for you, but we don’t really know what the effect will be when inherited.”

Tala felt herself pale slightly. “What does that mean?”

The older man sighed. “From what we can tell, there may be difficulties in conception, but we have no basis for comparison as to what those might be. Obviously, as soon as the child is there, we have the knowledge and expertise to help him or her grow and develop, to stay alive and thrive, but we just don’t know. You are a rather unique case, as far as souls go.”

That created a long moment of stunned silence.

Rane took his hand from Tala’s before putting his arm around her shoulders and taking her hand with his other. “So… I still don’t understand.”

Master Nadro sighed, giving a sad smile. “We don’t exactly understand either. We are just giving you our best understanding. You might have as many children as you desire, or you might never be able to conceive a viable child. Honestly, both extremes seem unlikely from what little we know. Regardless, we simply want the two of you to be aware of the possibilities before proceeding.”

Rane gave Tala’s shoulders a squeeze. “Well, thank you for that, I suppose. It is better to know that there might be difficulty than to be blindsided.”

“Indeed.” The older man gave a heavy sigh. “I do have one question for you, Mistress Tala, and this is an important one.”

Tala stiffened slightly, feeling uncertain about what was to come. “Yes?”

“The iron in your babies’ bodies—when you have them—whose is it?”

Tala frowned. “Well, it’s theirs, of course. I’d be stewarding it for them, just like all other parts of their body, but that doesn’t make it mine.”

The man seemed to relax. “Oh, that’s wonderful. If that is genuinely your belief, then the children you do have should be safe. You will likely have to eat enough iron to provide for them dietarily, but that shouldn’t be an issue.”

She paled briefly. She hadn’t even considered that she might steal all the iron from her babies at birth, or if they ever left her aura. It had never occurred to her, as she genuinely didn’t see it as her iron. That did cause her to relax a bit. It was that exact attitude that seemed to have removed the issue.

“Regardless, the potential difficulties with your children should be the worst news you hear about your upcoming marriage, and we will be able to give far, far better information once you are married. After all, it is easier to analyze an existing bond than to theorize exactly how one will form, and what it will sire.” He smiled then. “And it does lead into the first thing that needs to be discussed.”

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Tala looked his way, curious. “Children?”

“Yes, children. Ideally, how many do you each want? On what sort of timeline?”

Rane gave the man an incredulous look. “Ideally?”

Master Nadro nodded. “Yes. Assuming it works exactly as you’d like.”

Rane sighed. “Alright.” He turned his head to regard Tala, even as he kept a comforting hold on her. “Are you up for discussing this?”

She hesitated, then nodded slowly. “I think so.”

He smiled. “Alright. I’ll go first, shall I? That way you have a bit more time to process and consider?”

She nodded again.

“Well, I think my ideal would be having children in a minimum of pairs, so that they would have a playmate in the house even as we moved around. I don’t know that I have an ideal number, and as we’re immortal, it might be that we have them in sets every so often. Maybe one set after another as soon as the first set leaves, or maybe with large gaps between. We’ll have to decide when the time comes. Regardless, I don’t know that we’d ever say, ‘No more, ever.’”

Tala smiled at that. “Yeah, the last part makes sense, but I think I’d prefer to have most of our kids—relatively speaking—earlier rather than later, but that might be me thinking in line with a mortal.” She considered for a long moment. “You know, given our longevity, your ideal actually makes a lot of sense. You also didn’t really state a limit for any given ‘set’ so maybe they’ll be big sets?” She gave a little laugh. “I know that the best part of my childhood was how many siblings I had.”

Rane smiled at that. “Yeah, that might be really nice.”