Legend of Ransera

Kala laughed quietly, enjoying his wonder vicariously.

"It can," Kaus said. "Some wings are better equipped for rain and sleet and snow than others. But when you come to visit us in Starfall..." there was only the briefest of pauses, "...we can annoint your feathers with certain oils that will make it slip away easier, keep you dry. We have learned a few things from ducks and alchemists." Kala laughed again at the incongruity of that statement. Kaus grinned, continued. "Flying in a light snowfall is nothing, though. Flying through a blizzard, well, I'd use magic to see my way through it. I'd keep you safe."

He turned his face into the fabric between him and Raithen's belly, perhaps a mite embarrassed. Kala only smiled. They were the both of them infatuated with him, but young as they were, they weren't idiots either.

"There are parts of the mountains so high or so far north that they are always covered in snow and ice." Her wrist turned under his touch, allowing him access. "You really must visit. Kalzasi is fine. A jewel of a northern city, and our modest home in the middle of nowhere. You should see how other Avialæ live. Not that there is anything wrong with how you live, but you might find a few ideas you might want to keep."

A part of her that was just like any other woman soon turning one and twenty years of age and considered him wanting to keep her, or Kaus, or both, but she let it go like she let go of any thought when she was meditating. It wouldn't do to form the sort of attachments that would hurt, not without time and familiarity, and it had already occurred to her that she would outlive nearly everyone she had ever known. She had plans for Kaus, but she was going to have to learn to be comfortable with the transience of reality.

"If your mother will let you," she amended with a quiet smile, reaching out to pinch his nose.

Raithen's declaration was pleasing to both twins, and while Kala continued the conversation with him, Kaus took his hand and pulled it to cup his cheek and chin. It was nice.

"We understand," Kala said with true empathy. "We all have our responsibilities." Party boy Raithen might be, he was still someone his family depended upon. Cupbearer to Aværys, it was said. Dux, it was known. "In any case, you have an open invitation to Kalzasi and Starfall, at least."

Kala considered his question.

"Well, your servi might have been scandalized by Ceran and Indric." She paused, but perhaps a bit of cultural exchange that linked to extant social faux pas would be good. First, she smiled to let him know nothing was amiss. "I can't speak for our Kathar cousins, but among the Synnekar Avialæ, allowing someone to groom our wings is considered quite intimate. Not necessarily sexual or romantic, but... I suppose akin to a wild beast showing you her soft underbelly. Our wings are sturdy, but a grounded Avialæ is a vulnerable Avialæ. Even with servants who have served our family for as long as we can remember... well, Kaus and I tend to each other's wings more than anyone else.

"Family, close friends, lovers, sure... also bondmates..."

Her voice trailed off as she considered him, considered the bond between him and his mother. She supposed the woman would know anything she wanted from the time they spent with Raithen. Well, so be it. They lived too circumscribed a life at the moment anyway, trying to keep her secrets safe, and they needed this release of tension. She smiled.

"As for Kalzasi... 'tis a great sprawling city. Parts of it dig into the underground as well, but many of those places are dangerous. The Warrens, the Midden. The Avialæ do what they can to cap these dangers. Parts of it climb up the side of the mountain, and floating islands hold palaces and such." She spent some time describing the place, trying to put herself even into her younger shoes when she first arrived. She also described Starfall, its fortress, its mountain people with their ancient ways.

Sharing stories of Kalzasi and Starfall was pleasant. They tried to be gracious guests, but everything was so lavish—they were treated better here in some ways than they were anywhere in Karnor. Being able to share even stories of home to someone else's delight was gratifying.

The twins shared a glance at his last question, though. Kala, at least, had known it was coming, and so, on some level, Kaus had known too. But even knowing, one could hope otherwise. Neither of them wanted to be the one to tell him private things about his own life that might shift fundamental things under his feet. The volcano was the only thing that ought to affect tectonic changes in the Atraxian desert.

"Raithen..." Kala claimed his hand in hers, brought his fingertips up to her lips just to feel the warmth there. "With your consent, I could form the lightest of bonds with you so you can experience it, and then I can release it without harming you. It would open us up to each other a bit. We would be able to feel each other's surface emotions, exert some small influence upon each other. A drop of water in the sea compared to the core bond we were born with... We have to actively shut each other out of our minds if we want true privacy—such as we did last night." She smiled, and Kaus took one of her hands, though she held onto Raithen's as well. "Poets speak of soulmates. A core bond is as like to that as I can imagine. A light bond is, well, light. Would you like that?"

He wasn't a sembler, but she was, and she pushed a bit, allowing him to sense her sincerity and goodwill.

"M'lord," she murmured with a quiet smile.

The twins held his hands, or kept in physical contact even when he began to preen at his hair. They held him and held space for him.

"You wouldn't have to do anything except let me in," she explained. It was difficult to explain something that felt rather ineffable. "I suppose it is a bit like Semblance, or perhaps Mesmer, connecting thoughts, emotions, using aether as the bridge. And the lightest of bonds, yes, either of us could break. If you break it, you might suffer a bit of a headache, truly nothing terrible. But if you let me release it, there won't be any backlash. Well," her smile was a touch tremulous, "you might miss me a bit even when I'm touching you. I learned how to make and release bonds without ill effect when I... when I was in Atoria."

She didn't know if he would believe her or think it a fairy tale. It didn't matter, though. She was telling the truth and the truth would be in the bond.

"Bondmates aren't often Avialæ," she said. "And I suppose theoretically you could have as many as you want, although you might soon begin to feel pulled into too many directions at the same time." She was currently aware of Kaus, Ceran, Indric, and Asallon, though Marda was too far away for their light bond to amount to much but a faint absence, like a missing tooth. "You might feel a bit of Kaus through me, but I can't be certain. The bond wouldn't be terribly deep."

The Custodes Deorum and the potentates of Solunarium were not shy about their sembling, and so she was more forward about hers here than she was normally. Still and all, she didn't delve into the depths of his soul on a whim, and—at least when he was wearing only his skin—he wasn't wearing any protections. She supposed she could enact some espionage upon him, but she doubted so subtly that his mother wouldn't ken, and anyway, she had no desire to cause tensions between Kalzasi and Solunarium, herself and the Divine Twins. But she could sense the welter of his emotions. Perhaps that was the danger of enforcing emotional orthodoxy...

"Though you lost the Battle of the Oasis," she said with impressive gravitas, "I will yield unto you that story at a date of your choosing." She smiled, not pitying, but compassionate.

"I don't actually know about that," she said. "I was born core-bonded to Kaus. We have common bonds with Ceran and Indric, as well as with Asallon. Sometimes we spar and let down the barriers between us and it does almost seem as though our minds are one, but that is not a state we live in. The boys were bonded when we met them, and it has slowly deepened into a core bond. So, there are fewer barriers between Kaus and me, between Ceran and Indric, than there are between, say, Indric and me." She didn't go into the Coalescence yet. That wasn't common knowledge even among the Synnekar yet. "But if Kaus and I both formed a light bond with you than, yes... you could feel both of our emotions and... perhaps there might be more because some Kala would pass through Kaus to Raithen, and some Kaus through Kala to Raithen..." She paused, hoping she hadn't confused him or, worse, herself. She laughed slightly.

"Light bonds are tenuous. If you are more than a mile apart, you might be aware of its existence. You might have an idea in which direction your bonded was, but you wouldn't be able to feel them. We haven't quite tested that limit between us, though."

Kaus was quick to grouse, "I don't want to find out, really."

"Nor do I," she said, smiling fondly at her brother. Then to Raithen. They were more than a mile out from the city. Cithæra wouldn't feel them, but she wasn't truly worried. There was nothing she could garner of them through a light bond with Raithen that she couldn't pluck from their auras with her sembling.

"So, even if we kept the bond intact, you wouldn't feel us when we were gone home. But... you would as soon as you came to visit."

"Isn't she the most subtle of diplomats?" Kaus scoffed. Kala batted at his platinum head, and they laughed, they moved, not losing contact with Raithen, but finding new, comfortable ways to bookend him. Their hands slipped under his clothes, not reaching for his sex, but merely more of him.

"You are special, sweet dux," she said, the gravitas unfeigned then. "We would, of course, have been happy to meet an Avialæ abroad. But you..." Blue eyes that sparkled—the secret fire too far away to burn—peered into gray. "I am so very glad that you exist, and that our fates have crossed our paths and brought us here."