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The weight of his friend’s gaze bore down upon him. Because they’d been close friends since childhood, Kenhel would naturally be able to sense a change within him. His friend was worried. When Relian made the time to come out to the training grounds today, he hadn’t hidden his delight. Never mind that he teased Relian that the king had insisted Relian take the rest of the afternoon to “play.” Relian had given a small snort at this but complied because he longed for some physical exertion. He just found it distasteful when his father treated him like an errant child who needed permission to go about his day.
They finished their match—a draw. After he and Kenhel washed the dirt and sweat from their face and hands, they walked back toward the silver-stone palace to procure some food. The disquiet that’d afflicted him before slowly crept back like a bad dream. He hated the worry that ate away at him until he felt hollow.
Even the beauty of the grounds and buildings couldn’t soothe him as they usually did. He and Kenhel stepped into an arched doorway that led to a hallway partially open to the air. Trees grew among and into the architecture, blending nature with civilization. Still, the sight offered no pleasure.
Kenhel’s voice broke into his unwelcome thoughts. “Let’s take a short ride out to the fall. We haven’t been there in ages.”
His first thought was to escape back to his chambers. He’d only fall into introspection, though, and he’d done enough of that lately to last for centuries. So he forced that urge down and instead nodded to his friend. “I suppose if I don’t take this chance, we won’t be able to go for ages, either.”
“Wonderful,” Kenhel said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Relian removed his left vambrace from his forearm. The movement pulled up the sleeve of his green tunic above his wrist.
Shock flashing over his face, Kenhel reached a hand out to touch the binding. “What is this?”
Relian couldn’t help but give him an incredulous look and yanked down his sleeve. “You know what this is.”
His friend turned a perturbed stare on him and narrowed his eyes. “You know what I mean. Where did this come from, or should I say from whom?”
His evasiveness wouldn’t work for long, but he still turned a blank face to his friend. “I don’t know from where it came. At least not for sure.”
“What?” Kenhel practically exploded. “How can you not know? It can’t just”—he snapped his fingers—“appear like that.”
“Strange things have been happening. The veil has been busy.”
“We all know that.” Kenhel rolled his eyes. “Stop trying to sound like one of our cockamamie Mystics who say much but, in reality, nothing at all. Or better yet, stop sounding like an elf.”
Relian gave his friend a long-suffering glare that conveyed Kenhel was a fool for not understanding his vague explanation. “I mean the veil has been interfering in my life.”
“How so?”
Relian ripped his sleeve up again and shoved the binding under his friend’s nose. “This! With this.”
Kenhel shot him a doubtful look. “How can it be responsible for your binding? Such a thing has to be mutually agreed upon by both parties. The veil, to my knowledge, doesn’t toy with an individual’s fate.”
The blatant skepticism in his friend’s tone told Relian he had a long story ahead of him. He gave a tired, exasperated sigh. “I don’t know how or why, but the veil has exerted its influence here.”
“I fail to understand why the veil would want you to bond with an eivai so desperately. To be sure, such a bond is a very special thing, but it has never forced a binding between two people. That”—Kenhel pointed at the binding bracelet—“couldn’t have appeared on your wrist all by itself.”
“The binding was there a few days ago when I woke up.” The hardest part of the tale was yet to come. In spite of his self-confidence, he did something he rarely, if ever, did. He mumbled. “It is not an eivai from Eria or Vieria.” He waited to see how Kenhel would take that news. One, two, three...here it comes.
“Not an eivai from Eria or Vieria? Where are there other eivain, if not in these places? Unless the veil wants you to bond with someone from another fae species that’s here on New Earth, your choices are limited. ”
Relian groaned. Kenhel would fail to see the other possibilities. “It’s not an eivai or another fae species. It’s a human.”
“What?” Kenhel’s voice rose. “A human? It can’t be a human, at least a full-blooded one, for there are none here that aren’t bonded.”
“I said it was not a person of Eria.” Relian’s voice sounded weary to his own ears.
“Where else could....” Kenhel trailed off. “It’s a person from...Earth?” He whispered this idea as if it was a poisonous animal he had to handle carefully.
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“How do you know for sure? Is it a human or a faerin?”
“A human,” Relian said, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Woman?”
