We finished dinner, and moved into the living room. Ciara and I were on the couch with each other, Mama was on our left, Mother Irina on our right. Papa was in the chair across from us, and staring expectantly at me.
"So, Papa, what did you want to talk about?"
"We were talking about this telepathy thing that Mrs. Irina brought up. Care to explain a bit more?" Papa was back to being stern with us.
I glanced over at Mother Irina, and saw her wince, realizing how much more difficult she made things for us.
"Well, when the {System} let us know we were soulmates, it also let us know we could use our [Soul Connection] skill to always talk to each other telepathically. After a while of trying it out, we managed to get it to work, and just use it every once in a while. It's very nice for talking without people listening to us. Is there a problem with it Papa?" I was worried again. Everyone else had a more shocked look on their face, like something was wrong with what I said.
"Did you say [Soul Connection] skill?" Mother Irina sounded concerned.
"Is that normal for soulmates?" Mama and Papa got up and walked in front of us. "That sounds really big. What does it do?"
"Well, it said that we could talk to each other, and can tell where the other is, generally. It also said that it had more uses that we needed to be closer and have higher levels for. That was all." The pressure was back on us at this point, being stared at by all three of our parents here.
"There's really nothing we could do to predict this, or stop it from happening now, is there? Their souls are connected, and that's not something anyone can do anything about. Not that we'd do anything like that, anyways. We already accepted that you two would be together, and this just makes me sure you'll always have each other's best interests at heart. I suppose this has got to be the end of the conversation, really. I suppose this is congratulations to the both of you. I'll do my best to support you, as long as you do your best to support each other." Papa once again went above and beyond with more words than he'd normally say in a day. But it was a comfort over all, and I had to get up and give him a hug. I was followed by Ciara, and we moved on to Mama and Mother Irina as well, making sure they all knew we loved them. It was a good way to unwind after all the serious conversation we had.
We stuck around until it was time for me to go to Magic lessons with Ms. Jasmine and Trix.
'Do you wanna come along, Ciara? Or do you and Mother Irina have something to do tonight?'
'I'd love to see how you learn magic, let's just check with mom first.'
"Mother Irina, can Ciara come with me to magic training? I'm sure Ms. Jasmine wouldn't mind, and she's a very good teacher too." I gave her puppy-dog eyes.
"Alright, no need to give me that look. We don't have anything to do tonight, so go ahead, Ciara. And I'd like to spend a bit more time with Valerie too, so I'll be here to take Ciara home after you're done. See you both in a while then." She gave us a little smile, and winked as she got up to follow Mama into the kitchen.
With that agreed to, we left home for the clearing where I usually met Ms. Jasmine and Trix.
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"So Amara, who's this with you? You haven't brought someone to our sessions before." Ms. Jasmine was surprised at the sudden guest.
"Sorry for not asking beforehand, but she's important to me, and probably just as talented in magic too." I didn't want Ms. Jasmine to have any issues with Ciara, so I did talk her up just a little.
"Well, if she's that talented, it probably wouldn't hurt for her to watch us. Well, let's begin." Ms. Jasmine started helping me with some control issues I'd been having, while Trix gained an interest in Ciara, asking her to do the same test I did when we started training together.
Due to her combat training, and slight bit more experience with using magic in that scenario, she did better than me in base accuracy, but fel just a bit short in raw power. Her aspects weren't necessarily meant for a damaging role, after all. Mine were.
But she had something I had yet to be able to mimic, healing magic. Apparently the water aspect was one of the best for healing, only behind light for that application. But it was harder to envision how it worked, so besides people with a mindset that focuses on that, it was hard for other casters to learn.
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The way she showed this off was healing me after is slightly injured myself during one of my bigger magics. "Do you think you could teach me to heal too? I haven't really figured it out yet."
"Really? It's not that hard, so I can't see why you of all people would have trouble, especially with your profession. Making and fixing things is your whole thing." Ciara joked with me for a bit. "But, of course, I'd love to help you out." She smiled at me, clearly meaning what she said.
"Okay, what's going on with you two?" Ms. Jasmine caught on to us pretty quickly, not that we were trying to hide it.
"Well, I guess the easiest way to put it is that Ciara and I are soulmates. We'll be together whenever we can for the foreseeable future."
"Oh, just soulmates huh? I guess that makes sense." Trix dismissed it pretty quickly, but Ms. Jasmine was having none of that.
"What do you mean 'just soulmates' pike that something you see all the time? I've literally never heard of this happening in this town in my life. What does it mean? Why do you know about it, Trix? Answers please." She was a little testy it seemed.
"Well, soulmates are a known phenomenon, at least by the magic academy in Blackbriar. We learn about it in one of the mandatory classes, {System} 101, though only really in passing if you don't find it interesting. I found it interesting, so I looked into it more, and found a whole lot of neat things about them, and some of the known abilities they might develop." Trix seemed to be the closest thing to an expert on soulmates that we'd probably meet in the near future.
"So what are soulmates?" Ms. Jasmine was still a bit confused.
"Well, to put it simply, they're two individuals who have linked souls, fating them to be together for their entire lives. Normally, people discover their soulmate between 30 and 70 years old, which leaves little in the way of time together. Sometimes they only find each other just before death, and other times, not at all."
"These people will always be soulmates, as souls never change throughout the cycle of reincarnation. Once someone dies, the soul gets wiped clean of memories, and restarts from the beginning. The only things that can survive that cleaning are soul-bindings, like high level curses or blessings, and soul connections, which link two souls together as soulmates."
"So Amara and me might have been together in past lives as well?" Ciara was interested in this lesson, almost more than the one on magic.
"Honestly, probably not. The chances of two specific souls meeting in one lifetime is astronomically low, even with the slight nudge soulmates get towards each other, and you would have already been feeling one of the effects of the connection before you met. The tracking feature of the [Soul Connection] skill is universal and well understood. If you were with a soulmate in a previous life, you'll always feel a pull towards them in every life afterwards. The connection stays open once it's been made, and some effects persist forever."
'That's comforting. Knowing, even if we end up dying, we'll find each other again.' I couldn't help but smile at that news.
"Another thing that they almost all have in common, Telepathic communication. I think you two have been using it every once in a while, seeing you react without hearing anything. It's a great tool, and there are no noted range constraints to it. You could speak to each other from opposite ends of the world if you were separated that far. Another common ability that manifests in couples like you two, albeit far into the future normally, is much higher fertility. You'll learn about that when you grow up." Trix continued to rattle off some smaller and less important possible abilities we'd manifest.
"Oi, Trix! No need to talk about that with these two, they're much too young for it." Ms. Jasmine slapped the back of Trix's head, loud enough that there was a noise. "Now, I understand well enough, and I'm happy for the two of you, but remember to focus on other things for now. Growing stronger is always useful, and will even help you stay safe in the future. Remember, I'm always rooting for you, Amara. And now, Ciara, by extension."
"Thank you so much, Ms. Jasmine. And you too, Trix, for all the information on soulmates. We didn't really have a great place to learn more about it here in town." I went over and gave them each a short hug. I'll do my best to make you both proud, and I'm sure Ciara will as well. Right?" I looked to her with a big smile.
"Of course, I'll do my best for you, Amara!" She smiled back, and we giggled together.
"Alright, now that we're done with all of that, There's something I would like the two of you to try, knowing that you're soulmates. It would be incredible to see Tandem Magic from the two of you." Trix looked at us with sparkling eyes.
"What's Tandem Magic? I've never heard of it." It seemed that Ms. Jasmine was as in the dark as us on this topic.
"Tandem magic is what happens when two casters are perfectly in sync, and using each other as foci for their magic. This amplifies and simplifies magic cast together, and is usually only used by those who have been together for years, if not decades. But I get the feeling it will work with you two. What do you say, do you want to try?" Trix was almost vibrating with excitement.
"That sounds like a lot of fun! Doesn't it, Ciara?"
"Yeah, it does. I get the feeling it's important for us to do it as well."
"Me too. But we should take a short break first. Don't wanna run out of mana partway through." I grabbed Ciara's hand and walked over to the small fire pit we had for breaks, lit it, and sat down on a log with her.
Leaning into her, I started messing with her hair while we relaxed. We sat for a while, chatting around the campfire, Ciara and I sitting as close as possible. It was extremely comfortable in that moment, and I had trouble staying awake for the Tandem Magic practice we were going to do. But I could put that off for a little bit to stay in Ciara's embrace.