Chapter Eleven #2
“But to his surprise, instead of goats, he heard singing. So he crept through the trees in search of the maiden with the beautiful voice. Engiel reached a pool of freshwater and stopped, frozen in awe. For there, bathing in the pool, was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.”
I leaned forward in my seat, my meal all but forgotten. “Who?”
He frowned at me. “This is a myth, you know. Romantic storybook nonsense.”
“Who?” I demanded.
“She was tall and exquisitely muscled, with delicate wings made of membrane so fine sunlight could shine through. The horns on her head curved backward, highlighting the beauty of her face. Her ebony hair rippled down her back.”
“She was a Gar?” I asked.
Gabriel nodded. “A princess in one of the Gar tribes, though he didn’t know it at the time.”
“What happened next?”
He rolled his eyes at my tone, but obeyed. “Princess Onyxa was shocked to see a strange seraph intruding upon her while she bathed. But before she could reach for her sword and slit his throat, he calmed her. They spoke that day, and vowed to return and speak again. Over time they fell in love.”
I sighed happily.
“Engiel swore he’d marry none but her. He promised he would come for her with great fanfare, as befitting a princess of the Gar clans, and that he would prove they were ayim-bound.”
“What’s that?”
He hesitated, and an odd look crossed his face. Almost as if he didn’t want to answer me. “I’ve told you what ayim is,” he said slowly.
I nodded. “It’s like blood, but…more spirit-based. You glean energy from the sun through it.”
Gabriel nodded. His eyes were intensely dark and brooding, pinning me to my seat.
“When ayim is shared, it creates a bond between seraphim. It is like family sharing blood. Siblings in arms will do so. Friends swearing oaths to one another will also cut their skin and spread ayim on one another.” He paused again, and I knew I wanted to hear this part, since he was so unsure about sharing it. “And…mates.”
“Like…husbands and wives?”
He bobbed his head awkwardly, then sighed, as if he realized I would press him on the matter. “Marriage is a legal matter among our kind.”
I nodded along. “The nobility in my world also see marriage as a business, legal arrangement. Mates are for love?”
He nodded, more or less. “It is love, yes, but it is also physical. Our bodies physically react. Philosophers have theorized that it’s a way to ensure the best traits of two seraphim are passed on to the children.
However, I don’t think that makes sense, because while our kind requires male and female reproduction, we mate and love regardless of sex or gender. ”
I held up a hand. “Wait. What?” I knew sometimes men loved one another and women loved one another.
I knew some people didn’t identify as male or female, or sometimes realized they were in the opposite body.
It was mostly accepted in Anglia, though, for reproduction’s sake, for marriage between men and women was still considered traditional.
And there were a few people who looked for reasons to hate another person, and being “nontraditional” was as good a reason as any.
“Seraphim love regardless of sex, regardless of gender. We marry regardless of them, too, for the echelon we were born into matters far more.” He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away.
“I have had lovers of every gender in the past. Long, long ago,” he hastened to add.
“And if I chose to marry, my parents would look for an arrangement with the best suited family.”
“But…children,” I pointed out. “In our world we need children to pass inheritance to. Our nobility are obsessed with having sons to pass the title and wealth to.”
Gabriel spread his wings a little. “I thought I was telling a bedtime tale.” He laughed. “Not comparing and contrasting our social and sexual customs.”
My belly flipped each time he alluded to anything sexual. I needed to get a hold of myself.
“Children, the next generation, yes, they are important to seraphim also. We commonly adopt—as long as the adult child was born into the same echelon. Heirs can be from your bloodline or not. They can be any of the children, regardless of birth order. Except those of us who join the military. We can’t be heirs to family titles or lands.
“My uncle, before he died, had gained some wealth and status. He never married, so he had no one to inherit his holdings. Neither spouse nor children. But when I was halfway through the academy he mentioned adopting me, so I could carry on his name and honor.”
I frowned in thought. “Interesting. Yes, I see how that would make marriages between those who cannot bear children together more acceptable in your world than in mine.”
He nodded, getting back to the first point. “Mating and loving are intertwined, but there are stories of finding your mate in a person you hate. Or loving someone who isn’t your mate.”
“But what exactly is mating? How do you know if someone is your mate?” I pressed.