The Word Walkers: Janoch: Liadan: No Choices

This entry is part 19 of 66 in the The World Walkers collection

They’d been together for as long as Liadan could remember. Most days she wished she could have chosen her own mate, but finding a bond mate early seemed the safest thing to do, as there were stories of magic users who had died due to their inability to find someone to bond with. Often it was the parents of daughters, like hers, who went searching for another child, usually a year or two older, to bond their child to, to keep her safe from any harm. It was understandable, even though it was frustrating, and something she didn’t think would ever change.

When choosing a mate gender didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered to the parents of newborns, and Liadan had seen it with her own eyes, apart from making sure their child had a mate. It didn’t really make a lot of sense, because his or her mate were always going to be more important to the child than anyone else, so she thought taking more time to find the right mate made more sense. Getting away from your mate was almost impossible, which meant being mated to someone who could also be a friend was essential, especially as having other friends could be difficult. Mates who didn’t get on were easy to distinguish and it seemed like there were more of those than mates who were friends.

Sighing, Liadan tapped her fingers on the table. Idris had always been a good friend and he’d told her he wanted more, but she knew she would never fall in love with him. She just didn’t want to tell him that. Being with someone else was never going to be an option, even if she travelled to one of the other worlds, because there would always be at least three people in the relationship. Under normal circumstances she knew it wouldn’t be a problem, but she had to think of Idris and she knew that it would hurt him if she chose someone else. There was a part of her, a part she ignored most of the time, that told her to break the bond and run. Breaking the bond would kill both of them, eventually, and she hated herself whenever she found herself thinking seriously about doing it. It was just hard, knowing she didn’t have any real choices.

Liadan couldn’t remember what it had been like on the day she had been bonded to Idris, although she knew the ceremony because she had been going to them ever since she was old enough to walk. Hers had been four days after her birth, and Idris had a few blurry memories, as he’d only been eighteen moons old. She knew that she was bonded to him from a young age, but she didn’t really understand what that meant until she was older. During their early years together they’d often accidentally ended up in the other’s mind, which had been strange enough, and once they had learnt how to control it they had agreed it was something they would only do in emergencies. Of course that didn’t stop the accidents from happening at night, because then neither of them was totally in control.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.