“Are you sure this is the right time?”Lawrence asked, his brow wrinkled in compassion.“Surely, you remember how turbulent the early stages of the bond were for us?”
“He doesn’t know what he’s facing,” Minato snapped.He wasn’t exactly glaring, but his expression was anything but friendly.“What Ulla will be facing if he continues down this path.”
“It’s none of your business,” Bastion said softly.
“Oh, but it is,” Minato sneered.“The Yvri don’t take kindly to… unconventional partnerships.”
“What’s it to you when you clearly don’t care!”Bastion made a gesture of annoyance at Lawrence.
“I DO care!”Minato bellowed.“I know the consequences of the choice you’re about to make because I sacrificed everything to be with Lawrence!Do you?”
The sheer force of his words made Bastion step back.He looked between the two men and let the gravity of what Minato had said swallow him.When he saw that he had Bastion’s attention, Minato continued.
“If you follow through with this, if you allow the bond to solidify, there’s no going back.You will condemn her to a life of isolation.”
“And that is her decision!”Bastion exclaimed, lunging forwards.His voice echoed against the moss-slicked walls.He glowered at Minato, anger incinerating his fatigue.
The Yvri gave him a ferocious smile.“There’s the spine I knew you had!”he hissed, his vertical pupils nearly disappearing into the whites of his eyes.“Everything you do will be challenged.Every choice, every motive will be criticized and examined.Her friends and family will turn their backs on her because of you.She will be anchored to the shore, though the sea will always call to her.If you die, no pod will have her, and the gates of Nerrukine will be forever closed to her.You both will have to defend your bond again and again and again.You, Sir Bastion, can pass as human, but Ulla cannot.Finding a place you can both exist will not be easy.Think on that and make sure you understand, fully, so that your love does not fester into resentment!”
Bastion drew back, the sharp edge of Minato’s words as tangible as the sword at his hip.He hadn’t thought about any of that, let alone had time to categorize his feelings.But what else could this be but love?
It took everything he had to swallow a retort and reply with civility, but Bastion managed it.
“Thank you,” he gritted out, “for your concern, but as I said before, it is neither your decision, nor any of your business.”
Bastion pushed past both men and hurried down the stairs.He moved so quickly that he wasn’t sure if he actually heard Lawrence say, “He’s got more teeth than you did in the beginning.”
His side complained as he ran, but Bastion ignored it.He tore out of the keep and into the cold, evening air.It disoriented him at first, and he skidded to a stop, catching his breath.
Scorch marks blackened the southern wall.Most of the windows were jagged mouths, empty of glass but for a few sharp teeth clinging to the edges.
The courtyard was fuller, busier.Near a glowing forge, a farrier was finishing up with a flashy grey gelding.Where pallets of hay had been stored beneath canvas tarps, there was only ash.Men were busy fitting new doors to exterior walls or cleaning weaponry, while those on duty patrolled the battlements.
Ahead of him, the drawbridge was down and the portcullis up.
Bastion barrelled past the gatehouse.The guards gaped, unable to get their questions out in time.A few called after him, but he didn’t stop.
Apprehension sank its teeth into his chest as he crossed the drawbridge.For half a heartbeat, Bastion hesitated.Minato’s warning lanced through him, burrowing into him like a burr beneath a saddle.In a sad, shadowy part of his mind, Bastion hoped that what Minato had implied was wrong, and Ulla would let him down easy.
He turned south and followed the jagged cliffs until Moonwatch’s walls fell behind him.He passed the flattened, bloodstained grass where he’d fought Buck, barely giving it a glance.Further on, his feet carried him onto a narrow path, hidden by rocky terrain which was quickly becoming consumed by shadow.
The path zigzagged down the cliff face, hammered by the echo of the sea.Every treacherous step eased the ache in his chest. He slowed as he reached the salt-soaked bottom, stepping around patches of slick kelp and tidepools that reflected a half moon in the twilit sky.
He couldn’t deny that he and Ulla were somehow bound together, and the knowledge made him as helpless as a moth drawn to flame, knowing he would be burned.
Bastion took a deep breath, letting his heart lead his eye.When she emerged from the water, the sight of her made him think he’d be happy to drown.
Rows and rows of sea glass, pearls, and shells hung across her chest, each reflecting light and water according to its nature.Waves tugged at her hair, swirling around her waist, but otherwise she was still, watching him.
Bastion stepped into the water, heedless of his boots.Cold hit him, climbing his legs.There could have been a chasm in his path, and he wouldn’t have been able to take his eyes off her.
An arm’s length away, he stopped and took a deep breath.He didn’t know where to begin.
Her eyes had grown luminous as night descended, and he searched them, prepared for disgust and rejection.He’d been here before, as a child, with so many others.How many families had declined him when they found the ridges beneath his hair?How many children had run, thinking he would invade their minds?How often had hope been squashed, teaching him not to expect anything else?
Ulla dropped her gaze and reached for his hand.He let her take it, a tingle spreading up his arm as her claws grazed his palm.Choking down his fear, he laced his fingers with hers, desperate for more connection.His stomach swooped as her grip tightened.When her eyes met his again, he knew what to say.
“Whether we admit it or not, an orphan’s greatest desire is to belong,” Bastion said.The words came out hoarse, like his heart was trying to gobble them up.Bastion wanted the ocean to carry them away, but Ulla didn’t need to hear him.“Everyone I met spurned me as soon as they found out what I was.A half-breed.Less than, even.I don’t know how much.”
