FIFTEEN YEARS LATER #4
“She’s kinda comforting, really,” Mira said. “It’s nice of her to travel all this way to check up on me, isn’t it? You’d think she has plenty to do in her own time. Like, she has a House to found, doesn’t she?”
Joiya was quiet as she studied her daughter’s reaction.
“So, Ba wants me to be a researcher…”
“Of course he does. You have a tremendous talent for the Old Ways.”
“Yeah, well…”
“What else are you going to do when you move back to Yahzen and wait around for your father to retire from being Master Dunsman?”
“Do shit with my wife, probably.”
Joiya grinned. “As much as we julah love our leisure time, you need something productive to do! I’m saying this as your mother, by the way.”
“As opposed to?”
“I think we both know what you see me as at times.”
You mean a goddess? A demi-urge? Pick one, really. “No need to worry about me, Ma. I’ve seen all there is to see already. Now I’m just experiencing life.” She paused. “I hear that’s one of the original tenets of being alive.”
Mira knew they had to get back to the house, especially since Joiya was a celebrity and Mira one of the honored residents.
But as they walked back, side by side, Mira silently contemplated a life beyond Arrah.
This is my home for now. She was already used to the weather, the nitrous storms, the pastoral setting, the sweet but na?ve locals, and the little loft in an old barn that she shared with Sulim when they needed to get away from the family for a while.
And it’s not like we never leave. She often went with Sulim and Sonall to visit Graella and her family on Qahrain while Kema stayed behind and played Lady of the house.
She had met Sulim’s extended family, seen the place where she was abducted by Cerilynian mercenaries, and seen where a priestess named Hannu still kept court in a small city called Yarensport.
If Hannu remembers anything… She never let on. But she was as pious as ever.
Joiya went on inside. Yet Mira stopped at the back porch, where she saw Sulim leaning against the wall with a pipe in her hand. Both hovered near the zatbah-stone that perpetually sat on Sulim’s breast.
I always knew one suited her. Sulim did not smoke, but she enjoyed holding that thing, didn’t she? It helped that it was partially carved from zatbah stone to match her necklace.
“Needed some air?” Mira flirtatiously asked as the door shut in front of her.
“Saw you out here and was reminded how much I love you.”
“Bollocks. You were wondering what my mother and I were talking about.”
“A bit of both, really.” Sulim pocketed her pipe. “There’s talk that Graella is inspired to open the ballroom tomorrow. Wants a proper party.”
“Oh, dear. Who will you dance with?”
“Probably my adopted son.”
“Which one?”
“Ha, ha.”
Mira sidled up next to her, shrouding them both with an invisible ward of disinterest. “You were supposed to say that you’re dancing with me.”
“Isn’t that a given, though?”
Holding out her palm in front of her soulmate, Mira generated a tiny red ball that swirled and smoked in the fog that encroached upon the porch. “If you love me, put your hand on mine.”
“What the hell are you doing now? You know I don’t go around touching random julah magic.”
“Aw, come on. Trust me. My dad thinks I’m good enough at the Old Ways to become a researcher one day.”
Sulim shook her head. “What are you doing, Mira?”
She grinned. “Showing you heaven.”
“That’s what you said you were gonna do last night, and then you fell asleep.”
“Aw, come on! Do it! Touch it!”
Sighing, Sulim slapped her hand on top of Mira’s.
They transcended the atmosphere, dancing together among the stars as nothing more than formless souls. As their golden wings fluttered and played between heaven and earth, Mira showed Sulim the farthest extent of infinity that she had yet to discover between this reality and the next.
Surfing, floating, and waving—they were convinced that this was the height of sensual diversity, and nothing from the Void could convince them otherwise. Not even when they eventually returned to their bodies and resumed the day-to-day lives that trudge on one year at a time.
Mira didn’t know what would happen when they both eventually died; Sulim didn’t have to think about it at all.
But for now, they were here in the cosmos, laughing, kissing, and dancing.
The best part of all? Their identical auras ensured that they never lost each other as they rushed through the universe and indulged in a creation long-nurtured by the greatest divinity of all time.
Thanks for the chance, Ma. Mira knew how precious a soulmate was, and wasn’t about to let any divine feminine down in enjoying every second of it.
And long before they plummeted back down to their bodies on Arrah, Mira painted that sentiment among the stars—Welcome Home it said, and the only entity that could follow them shook her head in exasperation.
Only Mira could get away with rearranging the stars and coloring their souls with the past and present.
The fact that Sulim laughed the whole way made the effort worth it.
THE END
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