Rene was never actually told the ‘technical’ way binding works—she just knew it was something like connecting them through memories or such. The larger the objects involved, the greater the effect if the omyn who bound them keeps them that way. One could feel the binding; she got migraines if she kept pictures bound to the wall for a few days, for example, but has more or less had a migraine since waking up on the train.

She couldn’t explain the process, just barely understanding it herself, but in a sense one formed a connection with some kind of idea; to undo a binding, you just had to break that connection. She had a feeling some people were different—she never actually confirmed, the ability being rare in and of itself—but all Rene had to do was visualize the connection and it worked.

She figured she gave enough time once she got back to the palace, sitting down on her bed and just…trying to think about it without wincing. It still bothered her, for a few reasons: Lord Dazuz never gave much details about the process, and she understood why now. She never would have agreed with the goal if she knew she had to offer her own blood and bind it to something.

Rene managed to picture the gravestone, slightly reddish with the moonlight shining off it. She imagined a reverse effect of her blood seeping in—it coming out, instead, staining the stone as it dripped down to the dirt below. Typically that was enough to break it, but she sat there for a minute with no noticeable result. She tried the same thing another few times to the same end.

She sighed. She might have to be stuck with it, then. She didn’t want to be, but if she couldn’t break the connection…

She’d just have to be glad it wasn’t anyone’s life, and hope it didn’t interfere too much with hers.

…

Rene woke up to a very unpleasant migraine, which were fairly consistent since she came back. Her best solution was just to take some pain medication—which didn’t actually do much to help—and hope it didn’t greatly hinder her day.

She knew Adelinde noticed her semi-frequent wincing and, to some extent, she didn’t like that Adelinde worried. She appreciated the thought—anyone would—but didn’t enjoy the thought that she was bothering her no matter what the emotion behind it was.

She didn’t get up in time for breakfast—rare but not unusual if she had a migraine, even before she left—so she went to the kitchen to gather up some of the leftovers and get something to null the pain a bit. Moving too quickly caused some dizziness, so regardless of the extra time she did what she could to remain relatively slow.

Rene went to the office when she finished eating as previously agreed, Mark and Matteo spending the day together so Rene and Adelinde could go over things for the wedding. Her fiancée offered a smile at first before frowning once she really saw her.

“You don’t look well,” Adelinde noted. “Did you get something to eat?”

“A little,” Rene replied. She walked over to where Adelinde was, noticing the few papers lying out on the desk. “It’s just a migraine again.”

“We can put this off for a while longer if you’d rather rest,” Adelinde offered kindly. “We still haven’t set a date, so we can take as long as we need.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I feel bad making all this wait until later,” Rene said. “I should be able to manage—or at the very least, we can start it even if we might not finish.”

Adelinde didn’t entirely look convinced, but nonetheless nodded. She sorted the papers into two piles—one of legal documents, one of blank papers meant for listing off desired items and such—then pulled out the top one off of the legal documents pile.

“I’d consider this one most important, so we can start here,” Adelinde decided. “It’s the basic marriage document—I’ve filled out some of my parts while I waited, so I need your input for the rest.”

“All right. What do you need?”

Adelinde pointed towards each section as she mentioned it.

“I’ve already put reason for marriage as personal, which would fit our situation,” Adelinde said. Oddly enough, she seemed comfortable with the legal terms; probably a side effect of being the heir to a nation. “We need to decide on any surname changes, the date of the wedding, the date we filled out the paper, and our signatures to make it official.”

“First thing would be surnames?” Rene guessed.

Adelinde nodded. “I don’t have much preference; we can make one to share, or keep what we have now.”

She considered it for a moment, then asked, “Could I change mine back to Horize? That’s my parents’ family.”

It would be nice to not even be considered a Dazuz in name; it’d solidify her choice not to try to create a nation anymore.

“You can write that in,” Adelinde said kindly.

She passed Rene the pen, who carefully wrote out her name on the provided line. She couldn’t quite remember if she actually ever saw ‘Rene Horize’ on paper—technically it would’ve been on the adoption form Lord Dazuz filled out, but she never saw it. She never had a reason to write it out herself.

Rene gave the pen back to Adelinde when she finished, and conversation continued after Adelinde wrote her preferred name to still be ‘Adelinde Dakari.’

“As for the wedding date…” Adelinde cast Rene a playful look. “Would you like to humor me?”

“What’s your idea?” Rene asked, smiling a bit in return. Her migraine almost dulled, albeit not by much.

“What about the thirty-first of March? Then we can hold it at the conservatory. Marrying during the sakura’s peak bloom just seems…fitting.”

Rene offered a light kiss in response. “It is. That gives us a few months to get everything ready.”

Adelinde smiled, and together they finished the rest of the paper. The other legal documents were similar; one regarding if they would be considered a branch of their current families or a new one, one concerning whether or not Matteo would legally be considered Rene’s adopted son, and other things. Adelinde went through all of them with ease—Rene, by contrast, just wrote down what she needed to.

The legal documents took about an hour; once they were all moved from one pile to another to mark their completion, Adelinde gave a somewhat sheepish look.

“You will no doubt have very little surprise to hear,” she said, pulling out one of the papers from the blank pile, “That I’ve already decided on a good portion of the music already.”

Rene laughed, leaning closer to give her a kiss as her reply just for the migraine to return and a bit of dizziness to come up. Adelinde’s smile faded into a frown, gently directing Rene into the chair to sit down. It didn’t help much, to be honest.

It took close to a minute before the dizziness passed, although the migraine stayed. Adelinde’s frown just grew more worried.

“If you’re starting to have some trouble standing,” Adelinde said lightly, “You should see someone to make sure it isn’t anything serious.”

“I will,” Rene promised, even if she knew the likely cause and it probably couldn’t be helped. She winced. “Just…maybe not today. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Adelinde reasoned. “We made good progress for today—go ahead and rest. I’ll see you at lunch or dinner.”

Rene murmured some agreement, returning to slow movement so she could stay relatively balanced. She went back to her room and laid down, initially meaning to pick up a book or daydream or idly go through some of her old things but wound up asleep instead.