Forever After

“When two people love one another, when they commit to each other, their hearts and souls join, and so do their energies.” She waved her hand, and Gwen gasped as color swirled around it. “All people have their own energy,” the Preceptress explained. “And it joins as thoroughly as hearts and souls when true love occurs.” She paused. “However, your energies are separate, though you are joined by a cord of energy, as are most lovers.”

“We’re separate people,” Gwen pointed out. “Shouldn’t we have separate, um, energies?”

“When people form a commitment to one another, their energies comingle to a degree,” the Preceptor repeated from his seat. “The stronger and longer the commitment, the more the energies join.”

“Yours and Rhys’s have not done so at all, and that is why I called you here,” the Preceptress explained. “You will have his child, and that child will share both of your energies. Joining with him will reinforce your family, and your strength, individually and together. It will also provide you with some protection from those who would harm you.”

“So you don’t want us to get married. You want us to form some kind of amorphous energy blob.” Even though she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Rhys, and she’d already made that commitment to him, the thought of being bound to him by some sort of energy weirdness made her feel trapped.

“It is not a marriage as your culture knows it. It is the same commitment,” the Preceptress replied. “When two people marry, their energies join, although such joining occurs with any type of commitment, not merely marriage. And I believe your man brought papers from the court in your home so that what we do with you here will be counted a legal marriage.”

“I don’t understand,” Gwen said angrily. “Look, pretend I don’t know anything about energy, because, well, I don’t. Explain it to me like I don’t have a brain in my head.”

The Preceptor laughed. “Had you no brain, you wouldn’t understand no matter how we explained.” He walked over to them. “Gwen, you’re frightened. We know enough of your past to understand why. However, there is a failing between you and Rhys. Both of you leak energy where your fields should have joined. There are many, many reasons why this joining should occur. Perhaps most important among them, though, is that you and Rhys truly wish to be together all your days, and this ceremony will enable that.”