‘So we might not be related to humans or to any other animal…’ she mumbled, more to herself, and frowned.
‘Quite likely not. Although our bodies, oddly enough, seem to somehow match with those of humans. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. I guess we must have a similar development or perhaps our circular world was very much like this one with the same origin, born of the same sun and moon. Maybe we are able to mix because of our abilities. When we do a Heartmerge we do a Mindmerge?’ He shrugged his shoulders and looked uncertain. ‘Our home world might even be close but we know so little of the heavens other than that the stars are spheres of flame just like the sun but smaller, we spin and so does the sun.’ He sighed, looking up. Sula followed his gaze, thoughtfully, her mind all over the place.
How did we come to be here?
‘Have you…any children?’ she asked him after a lengthy silence, wanting to think about the future, not the past.
He looked down at his hands.
‘No, I told you, you and I are the last. There have been women but I knew it wouldn’t be wise to mate with them.’
‘Why not? I don’t understand.’
He looked sternly at her, remembering Fay all of a sudden, ‘If we mate with humans we risk our bloodline becoming thinner and not only that but also our unique traits and abilities will be lost eventually. Did no one tell you?’ He shook his head, realising that that wasn’t likely. He should not be angry with her.
‘Only after generations… I presumed we would be lost altogether; but how can we truly know? I am a halfling and I possess just as much magic as my full blood mother did,’ Sula responded strongly.
‘Magic?’ Shazar retorted raising his eyebrows, shaking his head, his eyes darting from side to side, thinking.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Of course, your mother mated with a human,’ he slapped himself on the forehead nearly forgetting. He had heard her say it but it hadn’t really sunken in. ‘You are a halfling,’ “One and a half”… If she is the half, who is ‘the one’ part of it? What about the child? She surely is… one quarter? But then again Shazar didn’t think the Truthstone would have been that technical about it. A sudden insight hit him. What if the stone had really meant one adult and a child? Shazar had always believed the answer referred to a full comyenti and a halfling, but with Sula technically speaking, having had a human father so being a halfling and Fay a quarterling, why had the stone not been more accurate? Ashanna did say that the stone could answer vaguely and it had been right about the location, so Shazar left it at that.
Sula nodded.
‘When my mother did not find any other comyenti male she had to give it a try to save our species and it worked. I think I can do as much as she could, skills wise. What about you?’
‘I am a true comyenti,’ he mumbled somewhat disappointed by the fact she wasn’t a full comyenti and had human blood running through her veins. He should have prepared himself for something like that. This felt like a blow to her and she narrowed her eyes to him and his comment.
‘I don’t feel human and I don’t feel comyenti and I envy you that you do!’ Sula raised her voice at him.
‘Ai! I am comyenti and know nothing else. I saw my family being assassinated by humans and my brother and I fled…until he too was killed.’ his voice became soft, almost a whisper. He left out the fact he and his brother visited many villages after the death of their parents and wiped out most of the human males out of revenge. Shazar had realised a long time ago that this perhaps had been their lesson; a hard one at that, but a lesson all the same: never to become like your enemy as it will only bring more hurt. And it never brought his loved ones back.
‘I am sorry for your loss.’
‘As you should be. They were your family as well. All comyentis are family.’
Does he mean as in ‘related’?
‘What does it feel like being a ‘true comyenti?’ she asked out loud somewhat sarcastically.
He stared long at her, trying to read her mind but of course he couldn’t; not until they had shared the special bond of mating. He wasn’t a close relative either; otherwise he would have known what she was thinking.
Shazar looked skywards again, at the glittering stars and the woods around him. Dew clung to the trees, grass and leaves, making the forest shimmer under the stars. He smiled alluringly.
‘One with my surroundings; the trees, the animals, we are all connected and part of the Great Spirit,’ he glanced at her, suddenly aware of her again, frowning. ‘But you are both, that must be hard for you. Knowing what they did to us and to the world around them without any respect.’ Shazar’s face showed pity for the woman. He himself would have hated his human part, perhaps she did too. If she was a true comyenti in her heart she would have.
‘Oh yes, at times it can be hard.’
‘Why have you stayed with this man?’
For a moment she thought she heard her mother speaking, he had the same judgemental tone in his voice as she had had at times or would have had if she had lived to see the day her daughter had married a human male, instead of running away with her full belly like she had done.
‘I married him after I was with child.’
‘Yes but why?’ he asked her in shock, realising she might have made the Comyenti Oath in marrying Felix; she would have had to promise certain things. Had she?
She could tell he didn’t fathom it and blinked.
Upset she flashed her eyes at him and her green irises changed from dark to light and back and specks of orange flashed from within. Shazar was delighted to see it and almost felt tears in his eyes at remembering the last time he had seen it in a person; his brother.
‘You ask me why? You who probably never loved anyone deeply enough to make you stay anywhere!’
‘Love,’ he locked onto her eyes, shaking off his memories. ‘How can a comyenti love a human after all they did to us? They have our blood on their hands and are still riddled with prejudices and superstitions which will take decades to eradicate, if it’s even possible! They are narrow-minded, violent and ignorant. Humans are not to know we are still alive!’ We have to kill every human who does! He shook his head, rubbing his neck, trying to calm himself down. ‘Look, I know how awfully lonely it can get during The Search, so you mating… well I suppose it could be forgiven if you had taken the necessary precautions…and I even would have understood if you got yourself pregnant to continue the line this way, but to stay…’ He looked at her with slits for eyes. Sula was too stunned for words at being treated like this and she thought her mother had been judgemental!
‘Where do you live with this man, I hope not close to other humans?’
‘I live in the mountains near a lovely village with my family and warm and caring people for neighbours.’ she answered him in a neutral voice, gathering her thoughts and her temper, trying to stay aloof.
He let his head drop in his hands and grumbled.
~~~
‘You cannot be serious?’ Shazar asked.
Sula thought about Rosinhill and its people. They were simple farmers and craftspeople just living their lives like generations before them had with their hearts in the right place. They had welcomed Sula and made her feel special and needed. Felix’s twin sister Feline and their parents were also dear to her heart and they had made her feel very welcome and loved. That was what she needed as well, for she was an orphan. Even though she was an adult; she needed family. Even her mother had had her wolf pack for a long time and after that her daughter for company. Sula had been on the road for nearly twenty years on her own before she had met Felix, only in the company of animals, never people. She had been full of wrath and loathed people alright but Shazar was more extreme than she’d ever been and she had been able to change.
‘Talking of narrow-mindedness,’ she sighed, reflecting his words. ‘Felix and his people are not responsible for his entire species! He’s different and absolutely not a murderer or someone to worry about!
’
‘You have become weak, Sula, more human than comyenti.’ He narrowed his eyes which shone emerald under the starlight.
‘Who ever said that comyentis are supposed to hold grudges and live like cold hearted hermits on a mountain top? Where is that written or who has ever said that?!’
‘Hmm, I like your temper. It reminds me of myself. Yes, no, we are full of feelings and they are at times hard to control. Living like a hermit is certainly not the answer! It is easier to close our eyes and ears to things than to close our heart against feelings and the emotions that come with it; especially for us sentient beings. It is a gift and one we should use. We do not only hear; we listen, we do not only look; we see. But it is still a choice even for us. We can choose to feel or walk away. The love bond or Heartmerge, as you no doubt know we call it, is a very powerful one, but not impossible to undo. Speaking of feelings… already I have feelings for you Sula.’
She stood up, holding his gaze with angry eyes at his last words.
‘You do not! You only see a potential mate in me to bear your children.’
He looked up at her.
‘Of course that as well. But they will be ‘our children’, Sula. I have saved myself for you. All that time I was looking for you, you were already inside me. I feel it clearly now. Together we will make sure comyentis have a future. Please listen to me. Your little girl is not the answer, for her blood is now even thinner and weaker because of this feeble human and when she mates it will only thin out further. No, we together can produce many children and they will secure the future of the comyenti.’
She swallowed away her anger at his direct shallow words before she answered, shaking uncontrollably ‘Even if I could, for I have not conceived after Fay, I wouldn’t. I already have a family.’
’You still think like a human, Sula. You had Fay, what, four years ago? Comyenti women can have children until they are seventy and they are fertile again only four years after having had a child… not sooner. They can only get pregnant during that fourth year. When is Fay’s fifth birthday?’
She bit her lip at that, seventy? She had not known that. Absentmindedly she answered, ‘The first night of the waxing moon after the equinox in autumn.’
He stood up and moved to face her, gently taking and holding both her hands. She was too stunned to withdraw.
‘Think about it, Sula. I know you will need time. Just remember you and I have an obligation to fulfil and we cannot let our own personal feelings come between them. We are sentient beings but we are also intelligent and have to find the right balance and do what’s right. Do you want us to die out? We cannot keep mixing with humans until eternity. You know it! We will be gone, lost and our unique skill can never survive for three or four generations. It will be harder to master with every generation, trust me. I am a full comyenti and you half comyenti, our children will be whole again.’
Chapter 20 Decisions
After they had parted Sula lay under the stars for the remaining of the night just thinking. She no longer was the last one, she never again needed to feel misunderstood or lonely inside for even the bond she shared with Felix could not live up to the bond with another comyenti. After generations and decades of seeking, The Search finally was over…
Two hundred and fifty years…Never have I suspected it to be possible, a terrifying thought suddenly flashed through her like lightning with the bolt painfully striking her heart, I will outlive Felix by many years...
She stared at her husband, fast asleep, unaware of what had just occurred and what it meant to all of them now.
Her eyes moved towards Fay who lay stretched out on her back, cuddled up between them. She was too small to understand the burden of it all. They had chosen to wait until she was old enough to tell her she was not completely human. But of course she already knew she was different than other children and because of that Sula had asked her not to use her abilities in public nor mention it. Fay wouldn’t, for she had seen the fright in her mother’s eyes when she had asked it of her.
Sula started Fay’s training slowly just as her own mother had done with her from age five which Fay nearly was. Fay harmlessly linked with their animals; cats, goats, Feline’s horse and her grandfather’s dog which resulted in her communicating with them and behaving and feeling like them, thinking it was a game. They had become her closest friends and she already seemed fonder of animals than other children her age. They seemed years behind Fay and she felt it. Soon Sula would start teaching her to link minds with various animals properly; so she would be able to use and control their unique abilities and be able to communicate with them as well.
It was true that Fay would have a difficult life growing up amongst humans and she might experience a sense of alienation and loneliness when with them. She might even develop her human side and neglect her comyenti one, detesting it, as it would make her too different to ever be part of a human society. Sula would have to ask the girl to keep silent throughout her entire life just as she had had to among the villagers; as friendly as they may seem.
When it was time for her to leave her parents to find her own place in the world Sula would ask caution of her, since humans could never fully be trusted even if they did think that comyentis were extinct.
“We will be gone”…she suddenly heard Shazar’s words in her mind. All this time she thought that her child would secure the future of the comyenti species and now this man said it would only lead to them dying out? But how could he know? He didn’t know that for sure, did he? He certainly hadn’t known halflings before. As far as she knew she was the first. Sula painfully remembered however how her mother had worried about the time it had taken her to master flying. It might be even harder for Fay, perhaps dangerous if she lost the Mindmode whilst flying; she could fall to her death.
Mixing with humans could also result to in a better understanding and a chance for people to see comyentis in a different light.
It is the unknown that humans fear most.
Nevertheless, mankind could be cruel and unpredictable as Sula knew very well and Fay could expose herself to many dangers if she stayed amongst them.
Sula sighed. She couldn’t look into the future, but she hoped times would change for the better. And not just for us…
She let the thought cross her mind to build a comyenti village somewhere where no humans could ever come and start a large family with Shazar so that her kind; her new family, could live in safety. They would never again have to face another human and their problems. But she let that thought go just as easily, for that would be almost impossible. Not only for the fact that people had penetrated almost every corner of the world but the thought of losing Felix…and Feline.
She was dragged back into her thoughts again. She had come across rare remote uninhabited places, but they would be too harsh to endure because of extreme conditions. They would have to use the survival abilities of several species non-stop, giving them no rest. No, that wouldn’t do and it wasn’t the answer either, hiding away.
We could grow stronger and become a better opponent, she thought determinedly but then she looked at her sleeping husband and almost heard his voice in her head saying a familiar line: “I am not your enemy…” Not you, Sula thought defiantly. But many people would still try to kill us if they found out we’re alive. She had never stopped believing that. They would kill me as easily as they kill any animal, she therefore felt more related to animals and knew their fate lay close to hers. Only worse, she felt everything they felt; being sentient meant that their pain was hers. If only humans had this skill everything would be different.
Fay moved in her sleep and Sula looked at her as she tore herself away from her thoughts. What have I done? What burden have I put upon you? How could I have been so irrational, so…heartless? I should never have got pregnant in the first place, I should have left. I should have stayed away from humans rather than putting such a heavy burden on my offspring; to live in this barbaric world where there is
hardly any harmony or peace with Bhan’s children, But when she looked at her beloved sleeping child there were tears in her eyes. Then she looked at Felix and she knew she had never been happier, for he and the village they lived in were different. She couldn’t imagine a life without him, Fay, their cats and their goats. They had made her complete and given her so much in return. But that is selfish; to feel happiness while Fay will one day fathom the burden…I of all people should know that. I was angry with my mother, my people, the promise; all of it, even though I obeyed; I searched…and had a child. But by meeting Felix I changed. I learned, Sula hoped with all her heart that one day Fay would find understanding and love like she had. And moreover, knowing that their species might be lost if mixed further with humans, she wouldn’t have her make the comyenti promise, the oath, to continue the line.
It will stop it here and Fay will truly be free, something I never was. Shazar is our new hope.
Chapter 21 Thoughts
‘You’ve what?’ Felix said more than startled, staring at her with big eyes, his normally coloured cheeks suddenly pale.
Sula felt herself flush and stammering at his reaction. But then his eyes gleamed with tears of joy and he hugged her close, smiling. His voice was filled with happiness when he said, ‘But that is wonderful for you, my love, wonderful!’ He held her at arm’s length, gently cupping her face in his hands.
‘You’ve met another comyenti! Your dream, your life’s search has finally brought you a result!’ And again he hugged her with all his strength, almost choking her. She hugged him back, closing her eyes.
He does not yet fathom the meaning of this…
‘You must be thrilled!’
She smiled at him but concern was painted on her face and he saw it.
‘What ever is the matter?’
She shrugged and shook her head. ‘It’s so sudden. I didn’t expect it.’ She glanced up and looked at him in his eyes.
The Comyenti Series Book Bundle, Volume 1 and 2 (Epic Romantic Supernatural Fantasy) Page 17