Chapter: 488 – For as Long as I Live

Tala and Rane sat, holding hands, in their thrones once more. The paint on their hands and on the armrests of the thrones was decidedly purple from intermixing.

The guests’ chairs had been rearranged to surround tables, and food and drink were already appearing at Tala’s will to fill each table.

Guests were mingling, and a small line was beginning to form before Tala and Rane. As was traditional, ‘bigger’ gifts—usually those given by a group of guests working together but not always—would be presented publicly, usually in a dual display of generosity and overt support for the union.

Master Nadro took it upon himself to make the final announcement as officiant. “Now presenting, Mistress and Master Sappherrous.”

Lyn huffed a laugh.

There was polite clapping and much murmured discussion over the name as Tala and Rane shared a chaste kiss, and Master Nadro stepped back, fading into the crowd even as he grabbed a pastry.

Master Grediv had been at the front of the line mere moments earlier, but then Mistress Holly had walked up to the Paragon and given him a long look as the clapping died down.

Master Grediv had sighed and stepped back, muttering under his breath—clearly for Mistress Holly’s ears, but Tala caught it too, “I’d say age before beauty, but you have me beat on both counts.”

Mistress Holly’s eyes flicked toward Tala, the Inscriber clearly realizing that Tala would have heard. She gave a small grimace and sighed, shaking her head.

Master Grediv quirked a smile, adding in a softer whisper, “There’s always a price for throwing your weight around, Mistress Holly.”

She gave a small, resigned bob of her head toward the man, and Master Grediv returned the gesture a bit more deeply.

Tala did her best not to react, continuing to bring out the refreshments by her will.

She could have done it quicker, but she was trying to arrange things just so.

There were cheesy mini-caravans, hand-pies, racks of ribs, poultry legs of various sizes, sausages, pork belly, and several other variations of meat. And that was just the various vehicles for meat.

There was a massive spread of single-serving salads of varying composition and dressings, fruit and fruit mixes, rice and other grains, as well as an overabundance of various drinks and desserts.

All of this was kept the best temperature and overall state by Tala, Alat, and Kit’s active will.

Rane seemed like he might have been able to help her. Their soulbond was still new, but already, Tala could feel some of her authority over the sanctum reflected within Rane.

He wasn’t doing anything with it yet, but he seemed to be feeling the weight of it all the same.

He had offered to help set the tables one way or another, but Tala had declined, aware that it was incredibly difficult to be precise with such acts of will, and as funny as it would be to have Rane dump some of the food on a guest, it would be a diversion from the purpose of the event.

And that’s not actually what would happen, regardless.

-Yeah, if it were, you’d probably have agreed.-

…Probably, yeah. It would have been a funny memory to have. But I know he’s too good, too careful to do something like that.

-Of course, the actual issue is that he’d lay it out differently than the way that you want, not due to malice, but due to lack of practice and ignorance of your precise desires in this arena.-

…That’s being a bit silly, isn’t it.

-It is, but that’s fine. You aren’t getting upset when guests are taking unevenly from various trays, leaving them less aesthetically pleasing.-

Well… yeah. We’re rearranging on the fly to keep things balanced and appealing.

-True… this really isn’t good for our hyper-meticulous side, is it.-

I’m sure we’ll be fine… I’ll make sure of it.

Alat snorted within her head. -Have fun.-

Tala took the momentary pause to shift her mental focus—while continuing food arrangement and rearrangement with the smallest portion of her attention. She turned her focus to her new connection with Rane.

Their bond was unlike any of the other soulbonds she possessed, as made sense. It was funny. In comparison, it now felt like the others were pale, artificial imitations of this one.

The best comparison she could come up with was the other bonds were like shoes, and this one with Rane was her foot.

In a way, the ‘artificial’ ones were more robust, but this one was more real. There was more feeling to it and feedback from it. It was more a part of her.

She couldn’t sense his emotions—emotions were things of body and mind—but she could feel his soul, and right then, it was practically glowing with joy.

-Umm… Tala? Isn’t joy an emotion?-

You know, I don’t think so? Happiness is an emotion, joy is a state of being.

-…Whatever you say.- Alat projected skepticism.

She didn’t think she could aspect mirror any of his magics with this bond, but that wasn’t really the intention of it. Instead, she felt like she could directly give him power for use in his magics, and he for hers.

That two-way connection was utterly seamless and seemed to be balancing itself with absolutely no mental effort or delay, as each of them flexed their various magics in almost unconscious, experimental ways.

Where Terry could use her magics, or her power for his magics, and she could tap into some of his power and magics, it seemed like everything Tala and Rane did now had the magical weight of two souls behind it, seamlessly and perfectly aligned.

Rust, that’s potent. We can’t do anything new—magically speaking—but everything we could do before has an incredibly increased weight.

-Yeah. I would bet that out in Zeme proper your aura will be far closer to the supremacy you experience here, in your sanctum, than it was before.-

Yeah, I think that being in here is masking just how much it’s affecting us. Is this how arcane marriages are?

-Not from the research I’ve been able to find. They have some overlap, but for them, it’s more a broadening and deepening of their concepts. That does grant power, but of a different kind.-

Then, it’s no wonder that most of our cities are run or defended by married couples. With this, it would be much easier to actually go toe to toe in aura clashes with a similarly advanced Arcane, despite their concept advantage.

-Indeed. It seems to almost make up the natural difference in potency.-

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Tala both immediately found herself irritated that no one had ever mentioned this and also fully understood why they hadn’t. After even a half-second of thought, she was grateful that no one had told her that this was one of the effects.

If Mages were explicitly told that marriage would provide a noticeable boost in power, many more would rush marriage for that benefit, and no soulbond should be rushed.

-And we would definitely have moved toward marriage faster if we’d known this was a benefit.-

And that would have been to our detriment and the detriment of our relationship with Rane.

-Precisely.-

How are things with Enar?

Alat actually briefly radiated the feeling of embarrassment before she got that under control. –Well… we’re bound too.-

Of course you are. You bonded when we did. Why… oh… oh! So, if we hadn’t…?

-We would have. So, you two still would have.-

That would have been… Tala felt a twitch at the oddity and awkwardness that could have created.

-Yeah.-

So, things are good, then? I’m not going to ask details of the bonding.

-Yeah, things are good. We have the cognitive equivalent of bodies. So, the process was very like your own bonding, but I won’t say more.-

I not only didn’t ask, I explicitly said I wasn’t going to ask.