Millennial Mage

Chapter 485: Premarital Counseling

Tala and Rane sat in a beautiful, sequestered portion of the sanctum with Master Nadro.

It was common practice to ask the most powerful Archon well known to the couple to perform the ceremony, at least in traditional Archon weddings.

‘Known to the couple’ was meant to imply solid connection as well, not just passing acquaintance, and thankfully, Master Nadro qualified on all counts.

-Well, except that he’s not an Archon.- Alat teased.

Yeah, yeah. Tala amicably dismissed her alternate interface, but she appreciated the good-natured interaction, and Alat could obviously sense that.

All three were enjoying their beverages of choice, which Kit and Tala kept at the ideal fill-level and at the perfect temperature—both chosen by each drinker. The drink was, of course, drawn from large containers of pre-prepared beverages in the sanctum kitchen, but that was hardly pertinent.

The three were gathered for premarital counseling. Not only had Master Nadro insisted on it if he was to perform the ceremony, it was tradition. More than even that, however, it would be incredibly foolish for a couple to bind themselves together so tightly without having gone through such a basic process.

They’d already had deep soul-scans done—another prerequisite to a marriage done ‘correctly’—and Master Nadro was about to give them the results. Then, they simply had to talk through some requisite things, standard points of conflict that other couples had encountered, historically.

In this context, the discussions could be had with less tension and stress, and it would be easier for both parties to be heard out in full before the actual situations arose.

Master Nadro had a contemplative look as he took a long sip of his chamomile tea. “The results are back. I do apologize for the delays involved, but there were some irregularities.”

Tala squeezed Rane’s hand, suddenly nervous. “Such as?”

“For one, the unusual level of synchronicity that your souls already possess, despite no soulbond being in place.”

Tala frowned. “I believe Mistress Noelle mentioned something about that. She even did a few scans on us a few years back.”

Master Nadro nodded. “If you met her, that makes sense. She studies such things.” He chuckled. “Her ability to keep confidentiality hasn’t worsened either. When I consulted her about this, she made no mention of any previous encounters.”

“So… is it a problem?” Rane asked.

Master Nadro shook his head. “No, it just made the process different from the norm in yet another way.”

Rane grunted in understanding.

Tala gave a little smile. “Well, that aside. What else was found?”

Master Nadro smiled. “Your soul’s shape is also an oddity, Mistress Tala. I believe that Master Jevin told you that working with your bloodstars as you have been would create extensions of your soul reaching outward, yes?”

“He did.”

“Well, that isn’t usual.” He smiled reassuringly. “It isn’t bad by any means, but it is unusual. I will state up front, your souls are compatible from everything we can tell. You should be able to create a soulbond through physical intimacy, and the bond should be stable and secure. Both of you have a solid connection to the next world—even without taking your gates into account—though the nature of each has deviated from the norm.”

They glanced at each other then back to Master Nadro. Rane spoke this time. “What do you mean ‘deviated from the norm’?”

“Well, I should say that by ‘norm’ I mean human standard. Rane, your soul’s deviation is quite normal for your family line. The boon your ancestor was given to be passed down is woven into your very soul, and that is how offspring inherit it. It exists as an integral part from the moment of soul-genesis, before even fertilization, generally speaking.”

Rane frowned, but Master Nadro continued before he put together his thoughts sufficiently to ask a question.

“We know much of what we do about your line because one of your ancestors was a soul-specialist, and she made a pointed study of her family—your family. The boon is present even without a body, both before birth and after death, before the soul has passed on. She was able to induce true out of body experiences, and the boon stuck with the soul rather than the body. All told, this means that while your soul is non-standard, it is non-standard in an expected way.”

Tala glanced toward Rane, and he shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense. Any other means of granting such a boon would require an ongoing outpouring of power from the Sovereign, and from what I understand that is unlikely.”

“Indeed.”

Tala was frowning, “Wait… If every child has it, and it’s an ancient thing… How does humanity as a whole not have it yet?”

Master Nadro smiled. “Excellent question. Technically, most do, but it is faded to the point of uselessness. A soul is built by the mother and father, and even then a soul associates more with one than the other, and sometimes with neither. As we grow up, our soul matures, and we become who we eventually will be. That shifts our soul. Sometimes we draw closer to one parent over the other, sometimes we draw away from both. So, if descendents draw away from the source of the boon, it will manifest less strongly. The reverse is similarly true. Thus, as families become estranged over the generations and lines intermix, it becomes all but nonexistent in everyone but the direct line.”

“The Gredial line.”

“Precisely.”

“Master Grediv’s descendents.”

“Yes.”

“Was he the one who got the boon?”

Master Nadro looked to Rane, and Rane shook his head. “No, his youngest daughter. Her husband took the name Gredial when they married in honor of Master Grediv, and the boon was given after he died, when she was grief-stricken and fearful for her children. Master Grediv was… away at the time, mourning his wife.”

Tala sat back. “Wait, I thought you said the person who got the boon was a he?”

Rane shrugged. “Master Grediv only told me the true story after you were taken. I think it was intended as a…cautionary tale at the time.”

She frowned. There was… a lot to unpack there.

-My goodness. His son-in-law died while he was disconnected from the world, and his daughter couldn’t depend on him, so she chose to turn to a Sovereign, who betrayed them? Yeah, that’s a lot.-

Tala swallowed. “I see…”

“But!” Master Nadro clapped his hands together. “We should be moving on. As for you, Mistress Tala. Your soul bears the hallmarks of a Reality curse, likely due to your brushes with dasgannach, including your soulbond to one. You also have Void bound to your soul. With the Magical nature of the soul, you have somehow managed to create a rather firm tie to existence as a whole.”

Tala felt herself smiling, rather proud of her accomplishments. But she was also hesitant as she noticed Master Nadro wasn’t smiling. “What is it? Isn’t that a good thing?”

Master Nadro frowned. “We’re honestly not sure. It seems to be for you, but we don’t really know what the effect will be when inherited.”

Tala felt herself pale slightly. “What does that mean?”

The older man sighed. “From what we can tell, there may be difficulties in conception, but we have no basis for comparison as to what those might be. Obviously, as soon as the child is there, we have the knowledge and expertise to help him or her grow and develop, to stay alive and thrive, but we just don’t know. You are a rather unique case, as far as souls go.”

That created a long moment of stunned silence.

Rane took his hand from Tala’s before putting his arm around her shoulders and taking her hand with his other. “So… I still don’t understand.”

Master Nadro sighed, giving a sad smile. “We don’t exactly understand either. We are just giving you our best understanding. You might have as many children as you desire, or you might never be able to conceive a viable child. Honestly, both extremes seem unlikely from what little we know. Regardless, we simply want the two of you to be aware of the possibilities before proceeding.”

Rane gave Tala’s shoulders a squeeze. “Well, thank you for that, I suppose. It is better to know that there might be difficulty than to be blindsided.”

“Indeed.” The older man gave a heavy sigh. “I do have one question for you, Mistress Tala, and this is an important one.”

Tala stiffened slightly, feeling uncertain about what was to come. “Yes?”

“The iron in your babies’ bodies—when you have them—whose is it?”

Tala frowned. “Well, it’s theirs, of course. I’d be stewarding it for them, just like all other parts of their body, but that doesn’t make it mine.”

The man seemed to relax. “Oh, that’s wonderful. If that is genuinely your belief, then the children you do have should be safe. You will likely have to eat enough iron to provide for them dietarily, but that shouldn’t be an issue.”

She paled briefly. She hadn’t even considered that she might steal all the iron from her babies at birth, or if they ever left her aura. It had never occurred to her, as she genuinely didn’t see it as her iron. That did cause her to relax a bit. It was that exact attitude that seemed to have removed the issue.

“Regardless, the potential difficulties with your children should be the worst news you hear about your upcoming marriage, and we will be able to give far, far better information once you are married. After all, it is easier to analyze an existing bond than to theorize exactly how one will form, and what it will sire.” He smiled then. “And it does lead into the first thing that needs to be discussed.”

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Tala looked his way, curious. “Children?”

“Yes, children. Ideally, how many do you each want? On what sort of timeline?”

Rane gave the man an incredulous look. “Ideally?”

Master Nadro nodded. “Yes. Assuming it works exactly as you’d like.”

Rane sighed. “Alright.” He turned his head to regard Tala, even as he kept a comforting hold on her. “Are you up for discussing this?”

She hesitated, then nodded slowly. “I think so.”

He smiled. “Alright. I’ll go first, shall I? That way you have a bit more time to process and consider?”

She nodded again.

“Well, I think my ideal would be having children in a minimum of pairs, so that they would have a playmate in the house even as we moved around. I don’t know that I have an ideal number, and as we’re immortal, it might be that we have them in sets every so often. Maybe one set after another as soon as the first set leaves, or maybe with large gaps between. We’ll have to decide when the time comes. Regardless, don’t know that we’d ever say, ‘No more, ever.’”

Tala smiled at that. “Yeah, the last part makes sense, but I think I’d prefer to have most of our kids—relatively speaking—earlier rather than later, but that might be me thinking in line with a mortal.” She considered for a long moment. “You know, given our longevity, your ideal actually makes a lot of sense. You also didn’t really state a limit for any given ‘set’ so maybe they’ll be big sets?” She gave a little laugh. “I know that the best part of my childhood was how many siblings I had.”

Rane smiled at that. “Yeah, that might be really nice.”

Master Nadro smiled in turn. “Remember, this is just meant to let you discuss the topic a bit. We aren’t making contracts or final decisions here. The point is just to put the idea into your heads and help you establish a basis for discussion going forward.”

They both nodded in turn.

“Good. Now, in raising the children, do you want to raise them yourselves as much as possible? Hire someone to look after them? Or…?” The questions went on, and on like that.

Tala and Rane generally agreed on child rearing. Natural consequences were something that they both felt were important for learning and growing. Neither wanted corporal punishment to be a hallmark of their household, but they agreed that there could be cases when it was needed. Though, in truth, that was largely because they both realized just how much they didn’t know about being parents, and they were both loath to swear off of a tool that had seemingly been so useful historically, even if their own opinions were that it had been overused.

Thankfully, Rane’s berserker ‘boon’ hadn’t been set off by the physical punishment he’d received as a child, so that wasn’t a concern.

They both wanted their kids to know their cousins—at least on Tala’s side—and both were interested in having grandparents involved on Rane’s side, at least if Rane’s parents would respect their wishes for the children.

Speaking about the time when they did have a baby, they both expressed the desire to take as much time as possible to be with the children while not smothering them, if such was possible.

Master Nadro asked if that changed their ideal timing given the waning that they were intrinsically involved in at the moment.

They considered, talked about it, and agreed that now would be fine, as would the next five years or so, but after that, they’d likely not want any new children for at least a decade or two.

As for schooling, Tala really wanted the kids to go to the standard school system, even if that was whatever Irondale was doing for ‘standard’ schooling at the time.

Rane was more interested in going the route of private tutors.

That sparked quite the back and forth about the pros and cons of each, and they came to the agreement that they’d try to decide based on the temperment of each child and the circumstances of their family as a whole at the time. Regardless, even if the child did better in standard schooling, they’d most likely get tutors to help fill in any gaps and keep the kids moving forward at their own paces.

They were also both very interested in their children being free to choose the Mage life, or away from it. Though, they realized that they’d both prefer Mage children, as that meant they’d be longer lived, on average.

They both admitted that they’d likely want to be involved in the lives of any grandchildren and near descendants, but based on what they’d experienced, they both felt like they would lose connection with successive generations after a time. Neither seemed to mind the idea—if they were being honest—but both felt like that was something that they should mind.

Master Nadro took that as a cue to interject on the typical way immortals handled non-immortal descendants. “Generally speaking, human beings have trouble naturally relating to those more than a few generations removed from themselves in a familial sense.

“That can be overcome culturally. That is the approach that some Archons have taken, inculcating ties to—and respect for—ancestors into their family culture.

“As a society, we try to instill a respect for the elderly, the wise, and the powerful, but we don’t specifically try to bring about such to one's family tree, either before you or after.

“Of course, the parent-child—and even grandparent-grandchild—relationships are paramount to raising functional, well-adjusted members of society, but what we are discussing goes well beyond that. Master Grediv is an example of a Paragon you know who has kept loose contact with his descendants, but only really down a single family line.” Master Nadro gave a wry smile. “Though, I suspect that such is more due to that family clinging to him than his active investment in them.”

Tala grinned, and Rane chuckled.

“Regardless, some other Archons do the same or at least something similar. Others try to shepherd, protect, and provide as much as possible for their descendents. Others wash their hands of anyone after their grandchildren—though that extreme is much more rare. A more standard approach is a traditional relationship with children, then specific effort put into the grandchildren who mesh best with the Archon. Same with great-grandchildren and on down the chosen branches until a generation comes about in which no one seems to mesh well with the Archon. Keep in mind that many Archons are continuing to have children on and off during these times, so it isn’t like they are cut off from mortal family members entirely.”

There was a beat of silence before Rane asked a rather critical question. “How pervasive is this mindset? How many people does this even apply to?”

“Honestly? Not very many. Some of this applies to Bound and Fused, given they will significantly outlive the non-Archons in their family, but it really only comes into prominence in late-stage Fused, Refined, and those even more advanced. As humanity progresses, we are getting more Refined citizens. So overall, most Refined aren’t more than a few hundred years old at the moment. At that age, they are still operating much as a Fused might, for all intents and purposes. I would say less than sixty thousand people fall into this category, so much less than thirty thousand couples across the cities.”

Rane grunted understanding. “I see.”

Tala tilted her head to the side in consideration. “I hadn’t really considered it, but how long before you’re related to basically everyone?”

“Well,” Master Nadro smiled humorously, “you already are, but I get your point. How long until basically everyone is some derivation of your descendant? It’s shorter than you’d think, given current birth rates. After between seven and nine generations there is a good chance that your descendants will be genetically linked to everyone in the gated-human cities. There is obviously some variation in that, but that’s a reasonable approximation.”

“And a generation is…?” Tala asked, letting the end of the question hang.

“Twenty to fifty years.”

She laughed. “So, one-hundred fifty to four-hundred fifty years?”

Master Nadro smiled. “Somewhere in there, yes. Though, I would highly doubt that it would be as quickly as one-hundred fifty years. That would take some fairly extreme circumstances which I don’t believe I’ve witnessed.”

Rane was nodding again. “That’s well within the expected natural lifespan of a Fused.”

The older man nodded once, decisively. “Precisely, yes. That’s why much of this advice and thinking actually comes into play with long-lived mortals too. The distinction between them and immortals only starts to become relevant after a point where it would be meaningless to be tracking every one of your descendents because that’s effectively everyone.”

Tala grunted. “That’s… that’s a really odd way to consider things.”

Master Nadro waited a moment then smiled. “But we should be moving on to the next topic. Holidays. Do you wish to celebrate them as a family? To what extent? Which holidays? What will that look like?”

Tala processed the series of interconnected questions before finally shrugging. “We do some things for our birthdays, but I feel like that will likely fall by the wayside once we’re married.”

Rane raised an eyebrow in clear question. “Oh?”

She smiled. “Yeah. If I want to do something nice for you, I’m not going to wait for a specific day of the year, and if I only show you that I care for, respect, and cherish you on a few days each years, then I’m not really doing a very good job as a wife, am I?”

He chuckled at that. “I suppose, but even so, I think that holding certain days as above the rest makes sense. I think celebrating our anniversary will be important, because doing so will communicate to our children that we see our marriage as important. That will help them do the same with their own in the future. Similarly with their birthdays. We will see them as important.”

Tala considered then shrugged. “I suppose I can see that.”

They continued the discussion of holidays for a bit longer before Master Nadro helped wind that discussion down so that they could move on.

“How will you two handle conflict?”

Tala looked straight at Rane. “I will tell you if I dislike anything you do, or that happens, and you do the same.”

Rane gave a half smile. “That works for me, but shouldn’t there be some threshold? I mean do we want to be bringing up every little thing all the time?”

They both turned to look at Master Nadro hoping he’d have a ready answer. He smiled. “If you’re asking me, all I can tell you is the information I know with regard to others. We have found that those with a lower threshold for bringing issues up tend to have better levels of communication and happier marriages.”

Tala scratched the side of her chin. “Lower, but not ‘tell everything’?”

Master Nadro shrugged. “We didn’t see a reversal of the trend at the extreme, but it is true that you most likely can’t ever tell everything that another person does that hits wrong. It would also be imperative that such things are brought up in love, rather than with an attitude of reprimand or correction.”

Rane smiled. “That makes sense, yeah.”

“So,” Tala put a capstone on it. “If it actually stands out as an issue, bring it up. Even if it’s something that the other has done a thousand times, and this time it’s irritating, let the other know. How does that sound, Rane?”

His smile grew. “That sounds excellent.”

Master Nadro smiled, interjecting. “Now, on the topic of money?”

They spoke almost as one. “Alat and Enar will handle that.”

They looked at each other and chuckled.

Then Rane flinched slightly, even as Alat spoke in Tala’s mind. -Presumptuous of you two, but yeah. We don’t want you two handling it either.-

Thank you, Alat. We’d love any suggestions or requests you have, too.

-I appreciate that—Enar too—but it’s a wedding for you two, not us. Ours will be a more private affair.-

Fair enough. Tala didn’t press, just happy that Alat wasn’t trying to pretend anymore.

Rane shook his head before adding, “But we will definitely have combined finances…” He hesitated a moment before glancing at Tala. “At least, that would be my preference.”

Tala nodded. “Absolutely. We’re in this together. Keeping such things separate would only add in the potential for strife and tension down the road.”

Master Nadro waited for a beat then moved on. “Then let’s discuss working. I assume that, as Archons, you both will continue to work and advance?”

They nodded.

“And when you have children, you already mentioned both of you pausing your work and advancement to engage with them, correct?”

Rane shrugged. “At least for the first set of children. I’m willing to figure out other options if that doesn’t work for whatever reason the first time around.”

Tala smiled. “Agreed.”

“How will you help each other advance? How will you both retain a good work-life balance?”

That didn’t take long to address. Neither had to work, so it wasn’t difficult to state that each was happy for the other to take any time they needed basically at any time.

Master Nadro grinned. “Now, the sometimes awkward topic of physical intimacy.”

Both Rane and Tala glanced at the other before coloring slightly and looking away.

“I gather that it hasn’t been discussed before. We aren’t going to cover anything explicit, but it does need to be addressed. Are you up for that?”

They hesitated for a moment before each of them nodded.

“Alright, let’s get into it.”