A Melodious Warp

**Cahaya (POV) ** [Kaarmanet, The Castle of Legends] And here we have Frith, she is Jay’s mate, we cannot obviously forget our tiniest, cutest, the new member of our family: Kiah!” Vann finished his dramatic introduction, only for Dasha to gasp and fall to his knees, clutching his heart. “Dasha! What happened?” I rushed. “Dasha, my boy, are you alright? Talk to us.” Mom called out caressing his hair. “F… fa… fat… fate b… bo… bou… bound!” Dasha squeezed through his painful spasms. “Fate bound is another word for, mate!” Vira exclaimed. “But that’s not possible, he’s a kid and all girls here are mated!” Jay posed. “H… her!” Dasha tried but failed. “Not all are mated, Jay!” Vann said seriously. “No!” Jay all but screamed, “That’s not possible! She’s… she’s…” He broke down tears welling in his eyes. “Please, keep her close until this passes! O… Otherwise… I’ll die!” Dasha squirmed. “NO!” Jay screeched. “Come on, Jay, you don’t want the poor kid to die!” Vann tried to reason. “Look at him, he is in pain and we don’t know why! Just let him get better to answer our questions, then we can decide.” “But, she’s just a baby, Vann. My Kiah is just a baby! How should I just give her to this guy? Kid or not, he is from Dradnet, and what’s more the dark King’s son at that!” Jay spat hugging Kiah close to his chest like she was the most precious thing in the world, to him, she was. “Jay…” Frith began as she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, “He’ll die, please, just let Kiah be close to him until he’s better. Then, we can see what he has to say.” “But…” Jay looked up with tears in his eyes. “Oh gods, Jay! Dasha isn’t taking her away. Let them just be close, so he survives. He can’t harm her with all of us here and not to mention the armies around the castle right now.” Vann bellowed at him angrily. “She’s safe, Jay, I promise,” I told him sincerely. Reluctantly Jay, placed a crying Kiah in Dasha’s lap, as I held his withering body in place. To everyone’s surprise, Kiah’s cries stopped the moment Dasha patted her cheek. Her curious green eyes looked into Dasha’s icy blue eyes. After a few moments, Dasha regained himself and smiled down at Kiah who in turn babbled a giggle at him. I for one, have never been this confused in my life. But Dasha seemed to be a nice kid, he hugged her gently earning an agitated huff from Jay, and quietly passed Kiah to Frith. When Kiah started to protest, Jay bent down to kiss her forehead, which calmed her down and she stretched her tiny chubby arms for him to take her in his arms. As everyone got up and settled back around the table, I was well aware of what, the first line of discussion was going to be, but I also knew it was an essential discussion. “How old are you?” Uncle Brant asked raising a brow at Dasha. “I’m fourteen, sir,” Dasha answered politely. “Is it common in your world to find a mate, I mean ‘fatebound’ at such a young age?” Big bro jutted in gruffly. “No… not really. We were taught that every talented wizard is granted a fatebound, fatebounds are not essentially from the same species but their souls are crafted from the same thread of energy, making them two halves of one whole. We were also taught that when we find our fatebound, a part of the missing piece of our hearts clicks into place and the process often instigates a horrible pain in the chest as if our souls were being mended together. But as per what we were taught, that only happens after our powers have manifested from their dormant state during puberty. My powers, though, were awoken when I was five. So, nothing about me can be placed as normal.” Dasha explained sincerely. “Alright, Dasha, I’ve heard your side but don’t mind if I’m not readily going to accept this. You will be joining the academy soon and I’ll decide after I’ve taken my time observing you. I won’t send my daughter packing with just about anyone!” Jay said looking at Dasha sternly. “You can take your time, sir! I wasn’t intending to approach her before she turned 18 anyway. It is against the decorum of wizards. But you may be more concerned with that first!” Dasha answered trying hard to hide a smile when he pointed Kiah. We looked down to find Kiah’s tiny fingers wrapped around a pen that looked too huge for her and she was scribbling something. “That’s rune magic she’s performing. Not traditionally, but the same form of magic nonetheless. Her power lies in what she scribbles when she connects with them. It could be a drawing, a doodle, a couplet, a poem, a story, or even a traditional spell. It is a very rare power to possess, no one back in Dradnet has seen this in at least 2500 years.” Dasha smiled.