Chapter 45 Bonds and Bonded
Chapter forty-five
Bonds and Bonded
Alaceandra
We meet up with Sorin and the prince at lunch and shovel down a sweet doughy concoction and a side of candied meat before I am once again back in the clearing with all the men. Something or rather someone is missing.
"Where is Baldar?" I ask. If he is not here, how am I supposed to practice?
The prince pats my shoulder jolting me from my thoughts.
I look at him and he points to an x burned into the ground several feet from where we stand.
We all walk over to it and as my feet touch the burnt edges a spark shoots through me and into the ground.
We all jump back as the forest floor rips itself open to reveal a familiar furry hand followed by a familiar furry body pulling itself from the depths.
As quickly as the ground splits open, it stitches itself back up leaving behind only a couple of scorched pieces of grass in its wake.
"Missed me?" Baldar skitters over to me.
"Did you have to make such a grand entrance? Where were you?"
"Oh you know- places and things. We should really try not to exhaust you so much today; I do NOT want to do that again." He is running circles around my feet.
"Do what again?"
He stops running and turns his little head in Sam's direction before turning it back my way. "No worries." He sits. "We should continue to work on your fire today. Let me know if you start to get tired though!" He squeaks, then gets up and runs to the middle of the field.
"O-kay." I follow him and so do the other men.
Sam and the prince take their positions on either end of the field.
This time it only takes me focusing on my flames and a touch from Sorin to ignite the field in soft red firelight.
"Holy shit." I say under my breath. We practice making the flames appear and disappear for a while until I am able to do it on my own without having to touch Sorin.
"Since it looks like you have gotten the hang of that, Sorin please take your place at the south tree."
Sorin nods and makes his way over to the tree sitting by the trunk, matching the other two men.
"Okay Alaceandra now cast your flames."
I do and they once again dance around the clearing.
"How are you feeling? Tired, yet?"
"No, actually I am feeling pretty good."
Baldar titters. "Ah, so my suspicions are correct. Seems you two have been busy in my absence."
"Busy? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, your powers have progressed swiftly and if that were not enough, I can sense your bond is almost complete… what do you think that means?"
"My bond is almost… I thought I only marked him, now we have an almost completed bond?" I keep my voice to a hushed whisper.
Baldar sighs. "Yes, Alaceandra. Notice any new markings lately?" He sounds annoyed and I widen my eyes in realization. "There you go, you got it now. No worries though, nothing can be completed until the solstice. The bonding should only enhance your abilities for now."
My stomach drops and a noise comes from behind me. My flames have grown in size.
"Control Alaceandra!"
I take a deep breath and the flames calm themselves.
"Good. How am I to tell you any information if you are just going to blow up the field? Now try to bring that flame on the right into that one on the left like we were practicing yesterday."
Taking another deep breath, I try to push the conversation from my mind and imagine blowing one flame into the other.
They move with a surprising amount of ease, crashing into each other, their colors shifting from red to orange as their heat grows.
As I move each one, something else pulls at me.
The connection to my flames forms like a physical tether within.
A thread that weaves and tangles throughout my body.
The more I focus on that connection the easier it gets to pull each one.
Baldar has me continue adding flames into the fire until all of my tiny flames have formed one huge violet bonfire, and I giggle, a sense of entanglement filling me as all my threads are crossed and knotted together.
"Great now try to release the flames." I focus on untangling each line and pulling it away from the huge knot. A tingling fills my hands as I do, the extra energy flooding back into my system. The flames disperse but they keep their violet color.
"Release fully, Alaceandra." Once each thread is separated. I cast Baldar a quizzical look.
"You want them to disappear," he says in explanation.
"Oh." I imagine dropping the threads and the little lights extinguish, a rush of power flowing up each line and back into me.
Baldar climbs up my body and I once again cringe at the sharpness of his claws.
"That was really good Alaceandra you barely broke a sweat this time!
We will be practicing sending the flames in the air next session and trying to throw them!
If we can figure that one out we will try to cast one small flame that you can hold in case you are in an area in need of light.
" I smile at the small creature. "I have a feeling you will pick up on these things quickly too at the pace you are progressing.
Once you do, we can move on to your summoning lessons.
" He seems more excited than I am. I walk over to the opening of the clearing doing my best to keep Baldar balanced on my shoulder and the men fall into place behind me.
"Great job, Firefly." Sorin's hand warms my lower back as we make our way back towards Sylvie's for dinner.
"It was pretty cool was it not?" I beam.
"It was. You are coming into your skills a lot quicker than even I did. You should be very proud of yourself."
"I am, but…" I look away from him. "I need to talk to you."
"What about?"
Looking around, I notice that Sam and the prince seem absorbed in their thoughts, so I take the leap. "Baldar mentioned something about a bond. In that apparently we are bonded- partially- which is why I have this mark."
"Bonded? Are you sure?"
"Well, no. He only just mentioned it briefly during training, but is this something that has happened before? I have never heard of it."
He nods thoughtfully. "Like I mentioned in the forest it was not uncommon for queens to take on multiple partners.
Texts had mentioned these pairings as being 'bonded', but I always assumed that was a turn of phrase.
" He rubs my back thoughtfully. "I will have to look into this further once we have access to a library. "
"May I join you once we do? I think it would be good for me to learn more about our history. I tried to do some research back in Helomasi, but I was barely able to find anything." I glance towards Baldar only to realize he is out cold on my shoulder.
He smiles brightly. "Of course, Firefly. Before I forget, I would like to show you a bit about potions seeing as they were key to getting us out of capture the first time." He winks at me. A tingly sensation fills me at the thought of being alone with Sorin once again.
"That would be great."
"Perfect! Let's meet between your lessons tomorrow?"
"That works for me."
"Amazing it’s a date then."
"I guess it is."