twelve #3
“Yes,” she finally said. “Their auras are… I don’t know how to explain it in a way you can understand, my heart. But those auras I saw out there were… something wasn’t right about them. And I don’t just mean the other surprises I wasn’t expecting.
But it’s highly relevant to the research Ramaron and I were doing before other events occurred.”
“You mean me.”
“Perhaps we…” Joiya suddenly jerked back, eyes wide as some obnoxious knowledge overcame her. “Perhaps we were destined to be here after all, my heart.”
“What are you talking about? Destined to find this place on our pilgrimage?”
“Destined to be on a pilgrimage at all. Destined to have to be on a pilgrimage.”
“You'd better explain right now, Ma, because you’re making it sound like the Void conspired to make me get caught committing crimes so we’d be forced to come to this place.”
Joiya kept her mouth shut. Did she not want to say that?
“Ma!”
“Listen…” Joiya raised both palms to placate her daughter, who was tall enough to tower over the woman who gave her life.
“I do not question why the Void does what it does. That’s a path that leads to insanity. But it’s very clear to me that we must stay here for the foreseeable future. Something that relies on our hosts allowing that to happen. So, please, be on your best behavior for Lord and Lady Gardiah.
We have already overextended our welcome.”
“You’re serious? About staying here?” Mira’s voice squeaked at the worst time.
“And inviting Uncle Ramaron to help you with research? Sheesh, what are you going to tell this family? After what Lady Gardiah told us yesterday, I don’t think she’s going to like the idea of her children being marked. Wait, is she marked, too?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to offer an aura reading to Lady Jacelah.”
“I meant…” Mira could have hit herself. “The one not related to them by blood. Sulim.”
Something about that inquiry made Joiya pale. “Yes. She is also marked.”
“What does that mean, though?”
“I don’t… it’s just…” Frustration crashed between them as Joiya tossed herself to the side, halfway to collapsing on the bed as if she had another epic fight with her mother-in-law.
“My instincts tell me that something happened in their lives to mark them. They weren’t necessarily born this way. Much like your father’s serpent is an anomaly in his aura, it’s incredibly rare to have an aura clearly so tinted by the Void. Honestly, I didn’t quite notice it at first.
Not until the lordling stood before my inner eye. It was strongest with him… and his wife.”
“Were they soulmates?” Mira blurted.
Joiya’s visage softened at being asked that. “No.”
I shouldn’t be so relieved by that.
“But I would never lie to people. All of their auras were incredibly similar. Not uncommon in tightly-knit families, but this was…”
“Ma. You said that the girl’s soulmate was there.” Mira bit her lip. “Was it Sulim?”
“Huh?”
“Was Sulim actually her soulmate?” It made sense to Mira.
Sulim was queer, and she had been very close to Graella when they were both on Qahrain.
It would also lead to Sulim getting along enough with Sonall that she was willing to marry him.
Assuming their auras are the kind of nearly-identical that make for great friendships and happy marriages…
in other circumstances. But Joiya had been more thrown off. “Because that would be cruel, huh?”
“N… no, my heart. Those two are not soulmates, either.”
“Then…” Mira gasped. “You’re kidding.”
“I do not kid about these matters.”
Mira would have laughed if she weren’t so disturbed by her mother’s reaction to everything around her. “That’s wild. How often does that happen?”
“Sibling-soulmates are rare, but not unheard of. Why do you think some of the most sordid romances come from our culture? We’re the ones forced to think about this.”
“Holy Void as Seen Through the Inner Sanctum.”
“Do not speak of things you have no experience with,” Joiya chided. “Even to take its name in vain.”
“I’m just saying. Probably a good thing they’re going to be living on different planets if they’re soulmates, Ma.”
“Most siblings do not engage in one of the great sins, even if they are soulmates. All it means is they will share the kind of spiritual bond that transcends anything else happening to them. Many twins are soulmates.”
“They’re not twins.”
“Perhaps their being so close in age has something to do with it. I’ve heard such things called leftover twins in my studies. Meaning that the Void had some rethinking to do after the first child was born and insisted the second come as quickly as possible.”
“Let’s stay on topic. Does Sulim have a similar aura to them?”
“Yes. I said as much earlier.”
“And she’s marked? Despite not being a blood relation?”
“Yes. The three of them were marked.”
“Not Lewin?”
“No, I suppose not, if I think about it.”
“But you said they were all marked.”
“Don’t get my words twisted, Mira! I’ve got a lot to think about here. Please, I must formulate a plan to keep us here. And to figure out what to say to your father when he demands to know what’s going on…
let alone why suddenly Ramaron and I are asking for his official permission to conduct studies on this planet.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. He’s going to be pissed that this delays us.”
“Perhaps. But depending on how serious the situation here is, I might take a note from the Void and consider this the end of our pilgrimage.”
“Oh? Despite that being part of my plea deal?”
“You let me worry about that.” Ah, there was the woman Mira knew. “Your father will be easily swayed by that. As for the courts…”
Mira didn’t need to prod her mother any further. She left her to her thoughts in the room and went for a stroll through the halls, bumping into one of the couples at the top of the stairs.
“Everything all right?” Sonall asked, while his wife surreptitiously stepped behind him. “We noticed that Lady Joiya suddenly left earlier.”
“Oh, yeah.” Just like her mother, Mira was good at coming up with excuses on the spot.
Actually, I’m better. Mira was willing to outright lie.
“She puts up a good front, but believe me when I say that doing too many aura readings makes a soul-seer nauseous. She ran off to vomit. I suggest giving her some space until she comes out of our room.”
Sonall was more than slightly concerned when he said, “Please extend to her our apologies. Honestly, the two of us could have lived without the reading, but my sister—”
Mira cut him off. “Don’t worry about it.”
The three of them were at an impasse, especially when Mira stared at him long enough to make Sonall uncomfortable. The fact that his wife still wouldn’t look at her at all only made things more uncomfortable.
“See you two at dinner.” Mira had to turn around so neither of them would see her snickering. Between the recent revelation and what she had done to this man’s wife the day before… This family is a mess! And Mira wasn’t exactly innocent, was she?
No. I never am. Be it in the eyes of the law or her family’s idea of honor… well, Mira didn’t care anymore. She was merely along for the ride on this one.