The Fateful Heart 2

Evaline hummed the thought over. It was interesting to hear that last names served as a bit of history to their ancestry. It seemed fairly obvious to her that James's ancestry were keepers of hawks, but apparently not.

Still, she didn't seem to understand the point of it if he didn't know. It made more sense if she had a last name based on her magic instead, but that wasn't the case here.

"Is that the point of marriage in Nye then?" she asked. "To pass on your last name? And other tangible items?"

James took in a short breath before sighing. "Well, that's part of it," he said. "People obviously get married for other reasons."

Evaline waited for James to elaborate, be he didn't.

She knew why people on Earth got married. What was it in Nye?

"What... reasons?" she asked, because something told her it wasn't the same answer.

Were Earth and Nye really that different?

James blinked slowly. He decided he was going to explain this logically and ignore the part of his brain that worried about his answer making things awkward.

"Well. Normally people marry because they fall in love. It's only people who are in positions of power, really, who get tied into arranged marriages for political reasons, now that no one cares about preserving magical bloodlines."

It took some moments to fully register, but suddenly Evaline realized she made things awkward. At least... maybe she did. It was hard to gauge how either of them felt about this right now.

"Oh," she said casually, which was surprisingly easy to do when her mind was only partly awake. "I see."

It wasn't that different, then. At least, for the average person in Earth. She was a little different, for almost exactly the same reasons James said as the reason why arranged marriages happen.

She never really thought of what her future was like outside that context, though.

The thought disappeared as quick as it came, and she cleared her throat and decided to say something else to move on.

"I think—I think I've mentioned two of the three demands of the war," she said. "The third one is having full freedom for your mate. I mean, to mate. I mean, kids. Kids. Children. Not compatibility tests. And marriage. Not that I want..."

She wanted to facepalm herself from that mess of a thought. She could feel hushed embarrassment rising out of the back of her throat, but she suppressed it and kept going as a distraction.

"In Earth, marriage is like a compatibility test," she said, finally combing through what she was trying to say. "That's what I meant."

James stared at Evaline. His smile faded as his eyebrows drew together slightly in confusion. She wasn't making a lot of sense - or at least, it took James a moment to piece it together. But even then, he wasn't sure he fully understood.

"I think you said before that people marry based on their magic so they can have children with the same magic. Or powers, I mean. Is that what you're talking about? Compatability based on powers?"

"Yes!" Evaline said a little too excitedly, which strained her dry throat. She was just glad James could understand what she was saying, even though there were still pieces he was missing.

"Well... kind of," she kept going. "Our magic—powers—are prone to heavy mutation, even in a 'pure' bloodline, like me. It's even worse when two people of different powers try for a child, because that child's powers can be too unpredictable. So marriage is a compatibility test and document that proves your children won't be a danger to society."

She kept going, still trying to recover from the earlier trainwreck of a sentence.

"But it's not like you can just rebel against it. Marriage enables you to have kids, or at least the men, because they're the infertile ones. Some people treat it as a symbolic thing, but it's really just a formal way of saying you're physically able to produce a child with one particular person."

And still, she kept going.

"So in my case," she said, putting her hand on her chest, "I didn't have to be with Oliver. I just had to have a kid with him. So I could have, I don't know, married a woman if I wanted to—which I really did think about, because I—a kid? I can't even take care of myself, nevertheless... and I don't even like... and I can't even imagine being with..."

She loudly groaned, feeling herself unravel over such a stupid topic.

Evaline pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to hide behind her embarrassed face that she could no longer hold back. This was so exhausting to explain.

"I hope that answered your question," she mumbled.

James watched her stumble through her explanation (or whatever it was) with eyebrows slightly raised.

There was surprisingly a lot of information to take in. Powers could be unpredictable in children, and in order to even have them, there was a legal process. Men were apparently infertile? All of them? Was that a genetic thing too? But they became fertile after they could legally have children? He didn’t understand that.

And then there were the more personal confessions. Eve not being sure if she wanted children - or rather, sounding like she was afraid to have them. Her considering marriage with a woman. Her not even (so it seemed) liking Oliver in the first place.

He hadn't even really ask about half of that.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, blinking a few times.

He honestly wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t think Evaline would be talking to him about her thoughts about marriage and children.

"That sounds... quite different. From Nye."

Evaline had no idea what she was saying. She couldn't believe that she even said any of that out loud. It was an embarrassing moment, but somehow, it only felt mild. She was too exhausted to let this fluster her too much.

"I don't know why I said all of that," she openly admitted, sighing before dropping her hand back on the wall. She couldn't bring herself to look back at James and gauge his expression, but it didn't sound like he knew how to respond to that. She didn't blame him; she didn't know how, either.

"Anyways, let's not talk about this," she quickly added, wanting to switch subjects, but failing to think of one herself.

All of a sudden, talking became quite difficult to control.

"Alright," James said slowly, and carefully. She seemed like she was getting to the point of tiredness where her words were running away with her. He wanted to suggest she sleep again, but he didn't know if she wanted to. Maybe she also had something on her mind that she wanted to distract herself from?

He tried to think of something.

"Well... it's been a few days since I've braided your hair, and I know with the sand and all -- would you want me to comb through it and do a new one?"

Evaline nodded, a little too eagerly. She wanted to be hesitant and say maybe it wasn't the best idea since her hair was unwashed and grimy and only tied back for the week, but if he offered, she wasn't going to say no. Especially when it was being used as a distraction.

"Sure. Yes. If you don't mind. Any style works," she said, and James was already moving to get the comb.

She silently sighed a breath of relief and slid down the wall to sit, but then crawled forward and turned so that there was plenty of space for him to sit behind her.

James found the comb and the ribbon she’d gotten from the town and he sat himself down behind her. They were both grimey and covered in sand, and while there was only so much they could do at the moment, he hoped coming away some of the sand and frizz would at least make her feel a little more clean, and a little less anxious than she seemed at the moment.

He undid her ponytail and started working through knots from the bottom up. Little granules of sand would occasionally get caught in the comb’s teeth, and he would shake it out until it was clear before combing again.

He hair had always been long, but in their two month together, it seemed to have gotten much longer. It took time to comb if he wanted to be thorough. And he did.

Evaline sat in front of him in silence for a little bit, which he hoped she appreciated as much as he did. Though he was tired, and she was tired, he did miss the quite moments like this. Before the thieves. Before they were struggling to eat.

He finally finished coming through her long hair and parted it in half to begin two dutch braids, intending to conceal the grease with the style.

Maybe they would make their back to the river and bathe again sometime soon. That seemed like a good idea.

He started braiding one half of her head, focused on not missing any strands as he squinted in the dim light of the night.

Evaline normally didn't mind silence, but the minute of complete silence felt suffocating.

Her head was buzzing with thoughts, mostly because of her own stupid words earlier, and it wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried to suppress it or think of something else. Just a few minutes ago, she was too tired to hold a steady thought. Why was she focused on this topic? Of all things? The silence was not helping.

She had hoped that James would lead her into something else to distract her in this state, but it appeared he felt just as tense as she was. Maybe. She couldn't see him while he brushed through her hair and started to braid, but his silence was telling enough.

She wanted to say something to offset what she said and make things better.

"I've been thinking of what I said, and I think I should to clear things up," she finally said, blurting out the thoughts she couldn't hold back anymore. "It's not like I have strong opinions about these things. I don't know, I was just stating some facts, and what I thought about them."

Sort of. She didn't really explicitly said what she thought about it—did she? It was hard to exactly remember, but she moved on quickly before thinking about it.

"And it's not like I know what it's like, either. I never—I ran away before I could—Oliver and I never—anyways."

She had to repress the biggest frustrated groan since she didn't want James to think she was completely losing it.

"But in my case—and this isn't common at all in Earth—we didn't need to do a compatibility test. We were instantly approved, for whenever we—he—I don't know at this point—wanted to have... you know. And that's only because he was also a time mage, or whatever you want to call it."

Suddenly her mind shifted, latching on to this thought and the thought she had earlier when James woke up from the nightmare of her dying.

"But like I said, powers are hereditary and prone to mutation, even in pure blood lines. I'm the only person who can do what I do, to my knowledge. And Oliver..."

She paused for only a brief moment. She couldn't remember if she even brought up Oliver before. Was she throwing out names without him understanding the context? Well, at this point, James was smart enough to figure it out.

"He can go back in time too, but he's more limited. I guess, you can say, he only goes back during emergencies, like survival. I'm not sure if he can control it well—I never asked. But the reason why we were paired up and were 'compatible' is because he can peer into other timelines, and have memories of when other time mages undo something. He can call me out on it and tell me what could have happened, rather than me, telling him what will happen."

She didn't pause between her sentences, seemingly spilling everything going on in her head and giving James no time to respond if he wanted to.

"I bring this up because that's the closest explanation I can think of to why you might be having those dreams. This isn't normal. The only instance I can think of with someone recalling memories that only exist in my head, or telling me things that could happen past those memories—is of him, when he sent me those letters, and..."

At this point, she realized she was oversharing, and she tried to end the subject with attempted humor as she nervously chuckled.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, fate has a funny way of showing up sometimes, putting me in Nye with you who is basically a more likable Oliver. Purely speaking of powers, of course, and you say you're not a mage, but it's like you are, now, and it's strange. Aha, I guess we both could have also instantly passed the compat—"

Evaline snapped her mouth shut, not daring to finish that sentence out loud as soon as she realized what she was saying. She was so glad she couldn't face James right now. Her face was a mess of emotions, and frankly, so was her mind. This was going so terribly. Why did she continue with this subject?

"Anyways," she said quickly as she interrupted her own thought, trying to speak fast so James couldn't follow her own train of thought. "Like I was saying, maybe that explains why you've been having dreams. I don't know. That's the best I can come up with, even though we're in Nye."

James was used to Evaline talking sometimes when he braided, but this just seemed like her thoughts were spilling over before she had a chance to consider what she wss saying. He wasn’t sure why she was so worried about all of this... but then she started talking about Oliver and his powers. Comparing him and James. James was more likeable, whatever that meant.

He almost wanted to do her a favor and interject, cutting her off before she could said something she didn’t want to or mean to, but she didn’t leave any space for him to jump in. His stomach started twisting in knots.

His face started to burn when she almost said they would’ve passed the compatability test, but she cut herself off.

She... he didn’t want to overthink it, but he was starting to.

If she thought they were compatible based on her powers, did she even think of him in... that... way? Or was she just saying words?

He finished one braid, and tied it off. He had half of her head left.

“That could explain it,” he said quietly.

“Maybe you brought a little bit of your earth’s powers with you, and it rubbed off on me, or maybe I’ve always had this ability. We’ll never really know. But at least they’re only dreams.”

"Yeah. Maybe," Evaline said through an airy sigh. It weirdly felt good yet also terrible that she said all of those thoughts out loud. She wondered if she was going to regret this in the morning, but right now, she didn't care.

"I'm glad they're only dreams," she said, glad for the topic change. "I don't think you'd be able to handle it if it were more than dreams. It's hard enough as it is, for you, as dreams."