Tethered

Chapter 8: Unexpected Bonds✔️

"What did she do to him?"

"I thought Nel took her magyk?"

Voices are whispering around me, my head is aching, like it's been beaten and cracked. I groan out.

My feelings are confused, mixing together with emotions that I do not think are mine. They are scared, they do not understand this.

"Petra, get Nel. The imp has awoken." It's that voice, the one that tickles my ears.

Footsteps leave, just one pair, but return with another.

I can tell its that bird witch by the way she touches me, examining me like I'm a science project.

"What is this, Nel? What did she do to me! That imp is in my head!" I flinch at the way he yells, grading my ears in its abruptness.

My lashes flutter and open. It is still dark, those floating lights are hanging in the room like stars and I'm mesmerized.

I've always loved the stars. They have such a calming affect on the mind, on the body. It almost makes me forget that I am not alone, right now, not alone amongst these people that I do not know.

"She did not do this, Rhovan. She is an elf, not a sorceress. Do calm yourself." At least Nel has one thing right. I did not do this. He did! His eyes drew me in and took my soul!

I can feel his anger in me as his eyes stare off into the distance. "What is this Nel? I've never seen something like this before." Petra is closing in on me too, blocking me in, nowhere to go even if I tried.

I'm on a bed, strapped down.

Do they fear me this much? Even with my magyk gone?

"What did he do to me? I can feel him inside me. He must have taken my soul!" I sound hysterical, but that's how I feel. My veins still glow and as I look to him I notice that his also do, except his seem to pulse and draw me closer to him as I look back into his eyes, my soul dragging even closer to his. "Stop it!" It's winding in me, twisting tight. I'm wailing as I thrash and he seems to be in just as much despair as he breaks our vision, as he covers his eyes.

"Tie something over her eyes!" His voice seems even more hypnotizing to my ears and they twitch. They can recognize something they like, but I can't seem to get passed the way his emotions are drugging me.

The bird witch is in my face, hands over my cheeks, chanting and staring and I feel her pushing through my mind.

Screaming. I feel the screeches leaving my mouth.

Pain is all I know as she quickly pulls away, clutching her own head.

"Nel! What's wrong? Are you okay?" Petra's voice is in her ear, whispering holding her steady.

She points between us and her next words only serve to confuse my boggled mind further.

"They're Tether-bound."

No one says a word, especially not me. I have no earthly idea what that means, but it doesn't sound good.

They didn't cover my eyes, and I'm glad as I look to Rhovan wide eyed in fear.

"That hasn't happened in centuries." His only words.

"Are you positive? Not a soul has seen a tethered pair in so long... How can we be sure?" Petra is worried and I find my body getting hit with jealousy. I don't understand it myself, but I feel as if I have a claim over this man.

"I have no doubt." Nel whispers and the room grows quiet again.

"We will leave you now."

Petra drags Nel away and we are left alone.

He doesn't say a thing, but I can feel the conflict he is fighting in himself transferred to me. I can feel the way he thinks as if he has a duty to me, but doesn't want any involvement with an imp.

"What is this?" I finally speak after a while. His raven black hair is loose and fans around his shoulders in an array of braids, beads and feathers. He's rubbing his temples. His head aches with my question.

"Do ya not know what it means to be tethered, Imp? They really teach you little to nothin' in your lands." He doesn't specify.

And my fear turns to anger quickly.

"Yes. I'm am an ignorant high-born imp who knows nothing of a magyk that has been gone for centuries, so sorry kind sir."
My sass has come back in an instant. I am just as frustrated in this as him, but he seems to think he is the only one affected.

"Watch the way ya speak to me."

"Are you not an imp yourself? Your ears have points, though not as long and beautiful as mine." I can't help the way I say these things to him. I can't seem to hold my tongue around this man. I feel as if I could tell him all my secrets, but I don't tell him that I find his ears quite lovely. He doesn't need to know that.

"I am a halfling, nothin' like you lot."

I don't quite know what the other half is. I stare blankly. "And what is the rest of your people. What are those rounded ear people? I've never seen one before." I'm digging for information.

He is growing frustrated with me. "Do ya know nothin' of the Arradiens?"

Blank stares ensue.

"Arhhhh. You are such an impudent lot! We are the exiled, banished from the elven courts thousands of years ago, banished to the Everforest. Now we reside in the land of Elendaer, The Land of the Exiled."

I've never heard a breath of the words he speaks. "What are the Arradiens?"

"Humans."

That is a word I recognize, a word that I have seen inside my father's old books, banned history books.

"Humans." I test the word, rolling it on my tongue. "They are the people who started a war with our kind."

"That is a lie." He doesn't explain anymore than this.

"Why are we tethered then? What does it mean to be tether-bound?" I look down to my glowing veins.

"Two souls that are a perfect match. Two souls that have found each other again and again through every cycle of lives they have been given, through every reincarnation."

I am the perfect match for this raven haired man? I am his souls other half? This is a lot of information to take in.

I can feel him warring as to whether he should tell me this next part, but he cracks when he looks to my eyes again.

"We must be blood-bound to tie off our bond, otherwise we are goin' against the gods and we will both be cursed for it."

It's funny how the very thing I was running from has caught me in its grasp again like a fly in a spiders trap.

And this time it's with a man i have no previous encounters with, no knowledge of his character, his people.

And this time there is nowhere to run.