As the world resolves around me I see gorgeous flower arrangements in greens, blues, and whites hanging as if naturally grown from the trees, which seem to have grown into a perfect circle. It looked like there were repeating patterns in the wall of vegetation but it was hard to tell. We stood at the center of a group of people, many children and a few adults, all standing in a solemn circle around us. Even Stacy the land shark stood quietly without trying to bite anyone.
Zerrious is among them, counting under his breath how many people were in each ring of the concentric circles of people. Prime numbers, I realize. It must have been much more complicated a ceremony than I initially thought.
"Today, we gather in this moment, frozen in time, to make two one, to make a place in eternity for a love everlasting." The Mana in the area starts cycling, becoming a gold river running through the outmost circle of people. "A soul that cannot be bound by the mortal coil will be forged this day from souls who long for each other even in the most pleasant of moments, and in the darkest of times." Zerrious starts waving his hand, directing the river of magic to form floating sigils over the ever flowing river of gold. "One soul to rival the power of gods." The Mana flows, filling the second circle as well as the first. "One soul unshaken by the harsh realities of this world." Sigils form above the second circle with more waving of Zerrious' hands, more complicated than the last. "Two worlds collide and make something new, something unshakable." The magic flows around Nyah and I, pooling in a gold whirlpool about our waists. "That these two shall no longer be two, we gather for the permission of Ensiar of bonds." A final sigil forms above our heads, pulling from the whirlpool of gold about us to create a maze of shifting lines in the sky.
The concentric circles of people are gone, the rivers of gold are gone, all that exists is the forest and Nyah with no warning.
"The words of the marriage bond have before been so true," I hear from behind me. Nyah looks over my shoulder and I whip around, preparing to pull a quill blade. A man stands there, normal, dark skin and hair, although his iris's burn a vibrant gold, like the rivers that previously surrounded us. There is this sense of vastness to him, a quality that's hard to place. "Two worlds indeed intend to collide today."
"Ensiar of bonds?" I asked, taking a wild guess.
"Right so. I'm the only god that people truly know to worship. They understand that I am not the only god, but I am the only god that takes a personal hand in the world through any means other than the system messages, which you don't have. Not for yourself anyways," says the god as he faces me.
"Are we supposed to appeal to you? I'm sorry, great one, but I don't know how this works," Nyah says as she moves by my side.
"Normally, I would congratulate you, bind your souls, and return you to your layer, but this is different." The layer did feel different, more. . . fluid. Things were solid, and the area around us wasn't shifting at all, but I got a distinct feeling that this was due to outside influence, not inherent properties of the plane.
"I'm different," I say, a stone dropping in my gut.
"Yes. The travel from your world to ours fundamentally changed you. Your body has taken on an inherent etherealness. Not ghost like, more like an affinity for magic. That affinity, however, has made your soul more. . . physical in nature. By binding your souls you take on qualities of each others souls, which means your soul becomes less potent, and hers becomes more potent." We sit patiently, waiting for him to finish his explanation. "I simply don't know what that would do to either of you. It may just do nothing, after all, you'll now share Mana reserves, but it might cause unforeseen problems. Matter changing fundamentally can be catastrophic and then altering it further can be more so."
"So you wont marry us?" Nyah asked, echoing my thoughts.
"That's not what I'm saying at all. I became the god of bonds for a reason, everyone that wishes to make a serious bond should get the chance. I propose something different. A weaker bond, one that doesn't make your souls one, but instead binds you differently. It's not as powerful, but it also has no chance of ripping either of you apart. What do you say?" This was a kind god, one that talked with people as if they were equals, even though nothing could be further from the truth.
"Give us the normal bond," said Nyah. I was surprised, because the main danger was to her, but I buckled down and took her side, agreeing with a nod of my head.
"If you wish. The difference in your makeup may cause something of a lightshow, but I will be able to contain it, so at worst, the two of you are the only people injured by this if you want to continue anyways. I do this for the foolishness of love, and that I find in you very strongly my dears," said the god, making a show of stretching and cracking his neck, even though it was common knowledge that gods had no body to stretch.
Nyah grabs my hand and I squeeze it reassuringly, even though I was likely more scared the she was having an innate sense of the mass destruction possible when messing with souls and matter. We look at each other, and suddenly we start running into each other, like water thrown on wet paint. Suddenly we're back in the middle of the circle, the final words of the ritual still echoing in the air. The river of gold has gathered around us and started forming an egg like structure around us. Before the top closed I saw the noon day sky go dark with two mimicries of worlds hanging in the sky, my world and this world.
This world had similar continents, slightly closer together and more submerged, and a lot more miniscule islands. Then the egg sealed around us, gold suffusing the very air we breathe. "I love you," I manage before something pulls at me, a faintly familiar sensation that could only have come from my travel into this new place.
Nyah screamed. What seemed like a stretch to my soul that had grown used to growth and change with it's physical qualities was a tearing to the stable and as of yet untouched soul of Nyah. I held her as she fell to her knees, then there was a pop and we were thrown into the Aether.
I pushed out with my mind, stabilizing a bubble around us, but my soul was starting to hurt now, an acidic burning that seemed to spread throughout my entire being. It had to have been worse for Nyah, who was struggling to breathe. I couldn't help her, I was barely keeping my concentration enough to hold reality up around us. I reach out, grabbing the fabric of reality between my hands and pull with all my might, crudely ripping a hole in the side of the world and letting Aether spill out and reality spill in, both being eradicated in worlds with inherent properties antithetical to each other.
The Aether whips out, lashing my eyes and causing me to scream out and loose my grip, forcing both me and Nyah to be ejected from the Aether and back into that golden egg, which has grown to a blinding crescendo. The egg starts to condense, growing smaller as the bond seemed to have been forged somewhat successfully and Nyah is finally able to start catching her breath, tears streaming from her wide eyes as she gasped for breath. I sit down, trying to recover mentally from the indescribable pain that made us one in this moment.
The golden skin of the egg settled on our skin as we held each other, seeping into us even as we calmed down, falling into a deep slumber before the world could catch a glimpse of the now married couple.
I woke up tangled with Nyah in our bed. Opening my eyes brought me a sort of nausea that forced me to squeeze my eyes closed. The Aether was visible, distinct from my sight of the regular world but visible at the same time. Like having my eyes looking in different directions at all times. Luckily the only thing in the Aether were patterns of Aether, so I was able to quickly adapt. Another odd thing was that my Mana seemed different. In fact, it didn't feel like Mana at all. It felt more like. . . My Mana had been replaced with Aether.
And my soul had been bound to Nyah. That meant Nyah also had Aether instead of Mana.
There was something else too. That gold power seemed to have made lasting differences. The other changes seemed to be due to being in the Aether when our souls were combining, but the gold power had remained, something that Zerrious hadn't warned me about.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I was prodding the golden power in my soul when Nyah woke up and asked "Sigurd? What happened?" I didn't have answers, and she didn't open her eyes, she just snuggled in closer, resting her head on my chest. We had both been changed out of our clothes and put into night clothes. I guessed it had been about a day, maybe less considering it was dark out.
"That went worse than I hoped, but better than I expected." I recognized that voice, male and eternal in a way that was impossible.
"Ensiar?" I asked. Nyahs eyes popped wide open and she sat up, looking to the corner of the room where a man of gold stood. She didn't seem disoriented, so the Aether that hit me in the eyes must have caused my sight to change.
"I was lucky enough to be allowed to speak with you after your bond to tell you about some of the. . . odd occurrences that appeared at your wedding." He moved forward, conjuring a simple chair, completely ordinary except for the radiant gold flowing from it. Nyah and I moved to the edge of our bed, sitting and patiently waiting for the explanation. I could Nyah felt weird and wrapped an arm around her. "The golden egg was obviously a barrier to keep the dangers inside, I told you I would do that beforehand. You were thrown into the Aether, and since that happened during your fundamental change in your souls, you both became very in tune with Aether. It shouldn't cause any problems, but Aetherwalking should be easier for both of you, and yes, I've suppressed your system notices. You should get them when I've explained everything so it wont be a shock."
"I sort of figured, continue," I said. It may have been a little disrespectful, but this god seemed pretty chill.
He smiled and continued as asked. "That Aether experience would have been certain death if David here didn't have the perfect skill set to bring you back-"
"He is Sigurd. I know he used to be David, but he's different now. He isn't the same man that woke up on the forest floor five years ago," Nyah defended me.
"I don't mind, love. Both are me, so it doesn't matter which one people use." It was a more recent bit of self acceptance, but it was understated enough that it hadn't come up before, most people only knowing me by Sigurd.
"Apologies. I do strive to call people what they wish but it gets hard to keep up. Eternity is a long time to have every mononym memorized." Nyah blushed, looking down at her lap where her hands sat. "Anyway, you managed to get back safely, although Sigurd took a blast of Aether to the face. Luckily, it only changed his eye color and gave him Aethersight. A good outcome if I ever did see one. Although, since the Aether started spilling out while you were forcing your way out, the little golden barrier absorbed a lot of it. Almost all of it, in fact. The barrier was intended to disperse, but it was too dense. Instead it got rid of itself by expending itself, closing in on you two and making the bond between you stronger than I thought possible. It's a dangerous power though."
The god paused as we both reeled from the complicated topics. It took several minutes for us to finally take stock of all the changes the god had pointed out. Only one thing was left. "What does it do?" I asked.
"It looks like it made the bond physical as well as spiritual." I was confused. We didn't share a body, but we did share a soul. That's how the bond works, but if it's physical then we share a body? Was this some sort of mental space in our combined body? "Let me explain. Normally, the bond allows you to exchange control of each others Mana and spiritual strength between two bodies. Now, that applies physically as well. If one of you needs to be incredibly strong or agile, they can draw on the strength or agility of the other. However, while one is strong, the other is weak. If one of you die, you both become debilitated. Mana is easier to share because having none isn't near as debilitating as having no physical strength." I understood. We had a shared "pool" of every resource we had, and we could take from that pool to make ourselves more at the cost of our partner.
"I understand," I said, meeting the gods flowing eyes.
"You should get back, your friends are worried." The god flowed away like fall leaves in a gust of wind, leaving us still laying in our bed together.
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Notice!
ERROR
Zerrious has preformed a marriage!
ERROR
Zerrious has opened a portal to the Aether.
ERROR
Ensiar of Bonds has intervened.
ERROR
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Oh god, that's what Zerrious saw when he preformed the marriage? He probably lost his mind. I dismissed the notice and moved on to the next one.
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Notice!
Marriage successfully preformed! The unique nature of: David (Sigurd) has had adverse effects on the marriage ceremony, but the adverse effects were counteracted by: Ensiar of Bonds.
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Well, that was better. The effects weren't necessarily counteracted, but that was close enough to the truth to not matter.
I could feel the bond between us, strength and Aether flowing freely between us as we read our notifications. She had more than I did, only having Zerrious' notices. I focused on keeping both resources even and it stayed. Even when my focus left for something else it stayed where I wanted it, though I could tell it would easily flow if I wanted it to.
I start getting dressed, the night clothes not necessarily revealing but not for guests. Nyah follows, still reading a notice with a far off look while clothing herself. "Wait, I can't use magic?" she exclaimed. I figured it would take some doing to get Aether to have the same effects as Mana.
"Not necessarily, we just need to figure out how to make it work. Aether is too pure for this layer. I wont get into what that means because I don't fully understand it, but its so pure that the world can't be touched by it. We have to. . . dilute it, I guess." I start messing with it, blasting bits of Aether out. It remains for a second before bleeding back into the Aether.
I could feel the world around me, the influence sort of building up on my skin as Mana gets filtered back into Aether by my body. I use my mind to open up a little, letting some of the corruption in. Or trying to. It didn't work. My cane was leaning on the doorframe, and I thought that it looked a lot like a wizard staff from videogames. I picked it up and pushed the corruption into the staff. It flowed into the carvings as if were made for that purpose, seeping into the spider leg. The leg felt more. . . real than anything else. It had taken the reality that made Mana effective and shunted it into the staff. The reality from my skin was a deep Caribbean green, clearly a mixture of my green and Nyahs less plentiful blue Mana.
I held the staff, pulling some reality from as I cast the spell and mixing it with the Aether as I spewed it out. It worked, the shield seemed weaker than normal though. Less reality so it could only effect this layer so much. It still worked though!
I found that the staff was the only thing on my person that could actually store reality. It was an Aetherweb spider, so it must have been an adaptation to make survival more likely. I was able to walk with it normally and store reality as I did, and I tested this by taking a lap around the room. I had nothing for Nyah though, so her abjuration Name would go to waste until I found something for her. If I found something for her. It seemed that this was a one of a kind material.
"How did you do that?" she asked. I told her everything. "I guess the Name you gave me wont be much use then."
"It'll see plenty of use, because I'm going to go find you something similar." I may need to return to the village in the woods for it, but she would get it.
I couldn't fight with the cane and a quill blade, so I found that as long as it was touching skin I could use it to store and use reality. It was a bit too long and rigid to put it anywhere touching skin, and I quickly found that it had to touch skin the entire time I'm using the quill blade or it'll peter into Aether in moments. The spell continues to work, but it takes effect in the Aether instead of the physical layer. My shields should be enough to prevent the need for the blade, at least until I could jump into the Aether and get away.
Nyah quickly gets herself ready, makeup not a wide practice here, and we go out to meet with our worried friends. "Oh shit, we left Zerrious with twenty kids in the middle of the day," I realize as we make it to the top of the stairs.
"Oh no," said Nyah as she realizes the same thing. We both rush down the stairs to see Stacy glued to the ceiling with magic as she smiled and snapped her teeth at people while all the other kids play with toys. The few that didn't want to play were learning to whittle from Zerrious. It was actually rather peaceful, and Stacy didn't seem to be hurt or causing problems, even if it was an odd sort of time out.
"They woke up, they woke up!" excitedly shouts a little girl as she spots us. All eyes turn to us, even the suspended Stacy looks.
"Look who returned to the world of the living. You aren't hurt, are you?" Zerrious stands and walks over, leaving the small blades in the kids hands. It probably wasn't a great idea, but they were the older kids so I wasn't as worried as I could have been.
"We're better than fine," Nyah responds, entwining her fingers in mine.
"Good. We've got food, I'm sure your hungry. Don't worry about the kids, I've got them for the rest of the night," Zerrious said, turning back to supervise the kids working on little wooden statues and toys. I met eyes with Nyah, knowing that we had come to the same conclusion.
"Good luck," I said as we both sped into the kitchen to eat the steak wonderfully prepared by Zerrious earlier in the day.
After eating we went out and partied, making sure not to drink too much so we could still function the next day. Apparently, I drank more than I intended because the next day while I was out buying fruit I found out that I invented karaoke in this world. I wasn't sure how I had made that work, but now karaoke was a staple in Amos' bar.