Someone had once asked the Elders, the carriers of their tradition and history, whether they thought there was some actual basis for that story. The Elders had thought over the question long and hard in their meditative sleep where they became a single, connected mind. The resounding answer was no. It was a fable, an overdone and fictionally not even that competent story that was packed to the brink with all things that could possibly have gone wrong. It was a warning, nothing more.#p#分页标题#e#
Still, women had their doubts and uncertainties. Just as it was rooted somewhere deep in their being the sacred bond was unquestionable, there lay the fighting part. The gesha was expected to resist at first, fight her mate. It was believed to be proof that once the fighting was done the couple was stronger together for having fought each other. They resolved all their initial concerns in the fight and from there on out, they were united against all that life brought.
Urenya’s first reaction was surprise, bordering on shock. The bindings usually took place when a person had gathered some life experience, their personalities were more developed, and they knew what to expect from the binding’s physical part. She was barely of age.
But Patren was as good as she could have hoped for. He came to her, smiling, big and strong and full of life. A warrior, slightly older than she was, with a couple of years of fighting already under his belt. Someone experienced and certain. Valor squares, the marks of rank and victories among the Brions, were bright on his neck. Implanted in the flesh as signs of a warrior’s worth, they said enough about his character without needing any words if you knew how to read them. Urenya had been glad. He was what she had secretly hoped for – someone to make her feel safe and cared for. He fit the part to the bone.
After he’d told her they were meant to be together until darkness took one of them, Urenya had of course initially said no. The fighting was traditional, after all. It would have been an insult to just accept him, although in her mind she was quite happy.
That was what bothered her, mostly. She had been quite happy.
After spending a day together, getting to know each other on the most basic level, she’d been, at best, fond of him. Of course, she felt the tingling sensation of desire and the unmistakable pull of the thread that bound them, but there was no time to actually get to like him. The day was over, and he went off to the battle ship where he was stationed, and Urenya never saw him again.
The darkness had come quickly for them.
Diego’s insistent silence drew her out of her musings. She looked up to see her friend observing her with quiet sorrow. Urenya didn’t mind it from him. He felt bad that she felt bad, but he didn’t treat her as though she might suddenly break.
“I didn’t even know him,” she said simply.
“I did,” Diego said. “Do you want me to tell you of him?”
Urenya’s answer was cut short by a scream from the arena. They both looked to see a young man stumbling away from a mech. At least she assumed he was young, because he was taller and broader than half the grown men she’d seen. He got his footing again, raised the Brion battle spear – their ultimate signature weapon – over his head with both hands and with no finesse simply brought it down on the attacking creature splitting in two.
Diego laughed under his breath.
“Nice, Narath,” he called. “That will get you many points with the Elders. Who taught you to use a spear, a butcher?”
“I don’t have your speed,” his friend boomed in response.
His voice was so deep Urenya strained to make out the individual words.
The young man limped to them, his face showing no sign of the pain he must have been feeling. Urenya got up without anyone having to ask her and set to stopping the bleeding. A healer didn’t wait to be asked. The Brions rarely asked for help, so healers often found themselves in the position of having to sedate someone to patch them up.
Narath merely let her, standing peacefully still while she worked, not making even the slightest of sounds even when she jammed a needle into his thigh to inject a serum that made blood clot faster. She knew it hurt, a body didn’t like to be told what to do. He just looked at her with his calm, kind green eyes. How was someone like that destined to be a warrior? She saw absolutely none of the bloodlust she’d sometimes seen in Diego’s eyes in a duel, or even more – in the eyes of the twins Diego trained with. Those two were generals in the making too, no doubt about that. Urenya felt slightly worried about the Brions if those three ever got in charge.
The idea brought a smile to her face. There might come a day when they would be the leaders of the Brion people. They had all the makings of it, Diego at least.
She didn’t realize she was still being watched when Diego repeated himself.
“Do you want me to tell you about him?” he asked.
Urenya thought of the smiling man who’d come to see her, bright and joyful. Then she thought of the images they were trying to protect her from. She wasn’t sure she wanted to mix up those two.#p#分页标题#e#
“No,” she said. “He’s dead.”
Diego said nothing then. It took Urenya years to understand he’d already known at that moment. How easy it was to confuse strength with stubbornness, mourning with denial. He’d said nothing, because it was she who had to realize that.
It had been a bright and sunny day when her heart froze.
CHAPTER ONE
Urenya
The fateful day wasn’t that long ago when she began her training as a healer and was told pretty much everything she’d ever known was more or less a lie.
The Elders had emerged from their stasis-sleep to teach their young. Most of them resided in the grand temple in the capital of Briolina, their home world, but there were similar temples all around the planet. All connected, forming a single collective will.
The Elders who were committed to teaching emerged more often than the others, since their duties simply called them out more often. As such, they also aged more quickly, since out of the stasis, their bodies resumed their natural decline. The way they seemed unconcerned about that had always perplexed Urenya, but she was told that not fearing death’s approach was natural for an Elder. She too would become one someday.
The Elders teaching them had all been healers in their active life. Now they returned to pass on their knowledge and experience. The group that studied with Urenya was taught by an Elder called Seleya. She honestly didn’t know what to expect, since everyone who had ever been taught by her loved and hated her in equal measure.
One of her aunts was a healer too. When Urenya was preparing to leave, and she heard Seleya’s name, she sighed.
“Always remember you study with the best,” she said. “Resist the temptation to poison her. Trust me, some have tried. She’ll see it coming. Learn from her and don’t let her bait you. Then you’ll be fine. No, better than fine. You’ll be excellent.”
On the first day of many for years to come, the class was greeted by an old woman with her long white hair falling freely to her waist. Her eyes were grey, her body so frail Urenya thought she might collapse at any moment. Yet the look in her eyes was as alive as any she’d ever seen.
“So,” Seleya said, looking straight at her. “Urenya, right? Tell us then. What was it like to lose your gerion?”
That was a short first day, Urenya thought, storming out. At least she didn’t know much about poisons yet. Seleya did, however, and her little run would earn her no points. Urenya watched her food carefully for the next days.
After her fellow soon-to-be healers told her of all the things they’d learned, she gritted her teeth and returned. She half-expected Seleya to repeat her question, but the Elder gave her a passing look, nothing more, and carried on.
Urenya’s wasn’t the only jaw that dropped that day.
Healers were the glue of the Brion world. They fixed bodies, and minds, and souls. Knowing how to stop bleeding was only a part of their job. The others included dealing with problems, worries, simple paranoia, and complete madness. Not in the least, they were also supposed to counsel the bound couples.
The shock was palpable in the room when Seleya said that. What counsel? The theory was that the gerion found the gesha, and everything was perfect from there on out. The only possible counsel-worthy moment was when one of them died, as had happened to Urenya. Then the living one would need a bit of help to carry on when their other half was ripped from them.
“I expected better from you,” Seleya said. “I only see shocked faces. They really do not screen the young healers these days. Come, now. Tell me some instances of less than perfect ways the binding could go.”
Once the shock passed, they started to consider whether the rumors they’d heard might be true after all. One by one, Seleya confirmed them.
People sometimes binding more than once? That one they knew, because it would have been impossible to hide, but yes. Especially those who were very young when they lost their fated. Urenya swore every set of eyes was on her when that was discussed. One of the fated refusing the bond? True. Both of them refusing? Rarer, but true. Broken geshas – women who were convinced of a bond existing when in truth it did not? Sad, but true. The fated living their lives together but never truly liking the other? Yes. Wishing you were bound to someone else? Of course.