Ciara and I walked out of my room, ready for dinner after our nice nap. The first thing I noticed was that Papa was at the table, waiting for us. Then I noticed that Mama and Mother Irina were looking at each other nervously.

   'Something seems off about this. I hope nothing bad happened. Be ready for anything.' Ciara looked at me and nodded slightly, understanding that she shouldn't speak right away.

   "Good evening, Papa. How was your day?" I tried buttering him up a bit before the inevitable conversation.

   "It was pretty average. Well, up until I got home, that is. Amara, dear. Do you mind introducing that new friend of yours?" Papa was speaking stiffly, which wasn't something I saw happen before.

   "Of course! This here is Ciara. We're very close, and I'm even making a sword for her." I tried to play it off like everything was fine, but based on Papa's expression, things were very not fine.

   "And what's this I hear about soulmates and such?" Papa got straight to the point, and it caught me kind of off guard. It felt like he was upset, which never happened.

   "Ah! Um, that. Right. Well, Ciara and I explored town a bit today, and during that trip, we discovered we were each other's soulmates. It's a really funny story actually." I stuttered a bit, but I tried my best to sneak the whole soulmates thing in without a ton of room for questions.

   'This is kind of intense. Are you okay, Amara? Do you need me to say anything?'

   'No. If you jump in now, I think it'd make him more upset, somehow. Just stay behind me until we can get this cleared up. Don't want you getting caught up too much in this, now do we?'

   "Why so silent all of the sudden? Why not tell that funny story of yours? I'd love to hear it." I could almost feel the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

   "Oh, right! You see, after Ciara met me in the forge for measurements and stuff, Mr. Darius told us we should head into town to have some fun, while he went over the pricing of the sword with Ciara's mother. We went out and tried on clothes at a boutique, and found these outfits, which we both liked. After that, we headed home, and I found a flower stall selling my favorite flower, so I bought one to put in her hair, because it matched the outfit I picked for her. You know how much I love red carnations." He wasn't giving me much of a reaction so far.

   "After that, she called me pretty, which caught me off guard, and I may have ended up kissing her on the cheek. That's when the {System} let us know we were soulmates. And after that, we headed back to the smithy to talk to Mr. Darius and Mother Irina, then came home and talked to mom. The rest you were here for, I think." I had to recap everything that happened today as quickly as I could in order to avoid making his mood worse.

   "Well, that sounds about the same as what I heard. My question for you is, what do you think you're doing? Did I teach you to kiss someone on your first meeting, young lady? So what if the {System} says you were meant to be together, it shouldn't have had an opportunity to tell you that. What were you thinking? You're far too young for this kind of thing, missy. You still have a lot of growing up to do before I'd be willing to let you start seeing someone like this. I know you may technically be able to process things like a young woman, but you don't have the life experiences of one. And I for one think you should pay attention to that and your job before finding someone to start dating. Do you have a problem with that?" I'd never heard Papa say so many words at once before, and the longer he went on, the more scared I got that he'd rip Ciara and me apart, maybe never letting me see her again.

   "Papa, please don't be too angry, and don't take it out on her. Being around her makes me happy, and she feels the same, so why can't we stay together? I'll do everything I did before, I always work hard at the forge, and with my magic training too. I'll help Mama around the house more, and anything else you need me to. Also, I wasn't lying when I said I was making her a sword. It's my next big assignment from [Forgemaster] Darius. If I don't stick around her it'd turn out terrible. So please don't make her leave." My eyes started watering, still a little puffy from the crying earlier.

   Ciara hugged me from behind and pressed her forehead on my back. 'Thank you for sticking up for me, even against your father. It means a lot that you'd protect me like this' I could feel a few warm tears on my back.

   "Honey, I wasn't going to kick her out. I just wanted you to see that this was a little fast, and that you're still young. Now I see I may have just stressed you out more than anything. I didn't mean to scare you, so come here and let her introduce herself, okay?" Papa's voice went back to normal. He wasn't nearly as scary now, but it still felt like he wasn't totally calmed down.

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   'Are you okay with that, Ciara? He might not be fully okay with us yet, but he seems to have calmed down for now. It's totally up to you if you aren't scared to do this' I didn't want to force her into anything, so I didn't move until she gave me the okay.

   'I think I'll be fine. Mom is here as well, so nothing too scary should happen. Let's do this, Amara.' She was confident as ever, so we started towards Papa's seat.

   "Hello Father, it's nice to meet you." She let go of my hand, and curtsied to Papa." My name is Ciara, and I'm Amara's soulmate. Please let us stay together. I'll do my best to improve so I don't fall behind her."

   "Alright, alright. I understand why these ladies had trouble saying anything about this now. You two are just too genuine about this. It's hard to go against something this pure. You two can stay together, but you'd better stick to your word and prove that it won't affect your work, got it?" Papa seemed to have calmed all the way down at this point, and was just making sure we didn't slack off or anything.

   The stress of the situation finally released, and Ciara and I collapsed into a chair across from Papa, her sitting on my lap as we got ready to eat dinner and calmed down ourselves.

   'Thank goodness everything turned out okay. It's only been a day, but I get the feeling that being separated from you for too long would be unbearable. It's just so comfortable being together like this.' I hugged her and laid my head against her back and sat there for a minute.

   'While I absolutely agree, it's probably for the best if we sit in different seats during dinner. They seem to be staring at us a bit.' Ciara had a good point, so I let go of her waist.

   As she got off my lap and sat next to me, I saw Papa stop staring at us and go into the kitchen to grab the food that had been made.

   'Sorry about that. I didn't even notice. Well, either way, I hope you enjoy Mama's cooking. I wonder if Mother Irina helped her?'

   'I don't mean to be rude to my own mother, but for both our sakes, I hope she didn't. She's never been a very good cook. But due to that, I've been learning to cook for the both of us. I'd be glad to show you what I can do at some point, if you'd like' She smiled at me, and I nodded

   'I'd love that. And you can watch me forge any time. It's what I do best. Though I also know how to clean pretty well, so we won't have any issues with that.' At this point, I was trying to brag a little.

   'Oh, if that's the case, maybe you can come adventuring with me some time. You're probably as strong as me, pure stats wise, so a little training could get you in fighting shape pretty quick. What do you think?'

   'Again, I'd love to. I could probably find some unique materials out there too. And upgrade your gear when we get back. You'll be the most well equipped person in the world, if I have it my way.' I giggled a bit, and noticed everything was ready for dinner.

  They made some really delicious looking roast beef and mashed potatoes, with nice steamed veggies. Our mouths were watering, but we waited for Papa to say we could start.

   "Go ahead girls, We don't want it getting cold." Papa sighed, and watched us.

   I made a plate for Ciara, then one for myself, making sure she got a good amount of everything. She was a warrior, after all. She'd need a lot of energy.

   She sat there and blushed as I took care of her at the table, and then sat down next to her to eat. I started, and noticed that Papa was staring at me again.

   "Yes, Papa? Is something wrong?" I tilted my head, confused at what was wrong.

   "It's nothing Amara. Just keep eating." He sighed again.

   I heard him whisper to Mama. "Honestly, it's like they've been dating for a while already. Sitting on her lap, feeding her, giggling like they have inside jokes. How did all this happen in less than a day?"

   "I have no clue. They were like this when they came back from her apprenticeship. And Mrs. Irina said the same. They went into the smithy after their meeting, and saw them huddled together in matching outfits on a bench, sleeping. It's ridiculous, but also kind of adorable, don't you think?" Mama was a bit louder than Papa, so it was clearer what she said. And hearing it, I began to turn as red as the inside of the roast.

   Ciara saw my face change colors. 'Did something happen? You look like a tomato.'

   'Nothing serious, just heard Mama and Papa describing how we're acting. It was just embarrassing is all.'

   She nodded, and continued eating. Meanwhile, I saw Mother Irina looking at us too, with a bit of a suspicious look on her face.

   "You know, I think I remember something else about soulmates that I heard once, but I wasn't sure if it was true or not. Apparently, they gain the ability to talk with each other telepathically. Is that true girls?" Mother Irina absolutely surprise attacked us with that one, and we had nothing to counter with.

   'Do we tell them?' Ciara was worried.

   'I don't think we have another choice now.' It was probably too late to get out of this one.

   "Um. Yeah. It is." We both tried to keep from making any more eye contact with them after that reveal.

   "So you can speak to each other in private at any time? Even now?" Papa was more concerned than before.

   "Yeah. We can. Though it took a little while to figure it out." We had to come clean or it'd just come back to bite us later on.

   "Well, we'll talk about this after dinner. Don't take too long though, we need to put it away before it gets cold." Papa was being a little harsher, like before, but not quite as bad. It seemed he didn't like the idea that we could secretly speak to one another at any time.

   But that conversation was for a little later. For now, it was time to finish eating. And Ciara was apparently not the cleanest eater out there, I had to wipe her mouth a couple of times. I got some glares for that one too. But dinner was good, and we were temporarily happy.