CHAPTER 3: A Binding of Spirits
Milo had thought the view was spectacular the first time he stood on top of a stone giant. With Atlantis restored to a former glory, his breath was taken away more than he would have thought feasible. On one side the lava moat glowed in its hues of ruby and gold, creating the early morning warmth along the fifth ring. He stood facing into the city, gazing at the subtle blues that night created, especially in the presence of the dimmed, moon-like Mother Crystal that created them. Lights shimmered in the distant inner city from lamps, torches and the like that had been left lit during the night. Milo did not need any of that. His love alone filled him with light. He felt Kida's back press against his chest as he had his arms around her.
"There is so much to explore…. Our home is so beautiful now…" Kida's tones denoted her disbelief.
"You don't think it was beautiful beforehand?"
Smiling, she nudged him playfully as if to say, "You know what I meant."
The man looked off, watching a flock of parrot lizards flying high after catching the thermals. Rising with them was a magnificent greater yeragos, gray in color, but with a body meant to soar. It craned its long neck as if to watch the couple. "I was unbelievably lucky to find this place." Milo sighed happily.
"Had you been unlucky?" his love inferred.
"No. I mean kinda. I mean…" It was then he realized he could not avoid it any longer. There wasn't any more time to plan his words, for there was no better time to tell her, or rather, there would be much worse times. He knew the longer he waited to tell her, the greater the chance she might lose faith in him for that reason. He hummed a course sigh. "It depends on how you look at it. You might want to sit down for this one."
"For what one?"
"Just sit."
The huntress looked back concernedly at him, but broke away and sat on one of the step-like formations of the stone giant's "hat." Milo sat beside her. "Kida… I gotta tell you something. I'm not the person you think I am. I wasn't revered for being some great scholar or anything. Not even close…" Thus was how he started.
"So, um… Here I am." He sighed, looking downward at the falls.
Kida put a hand on his shoulder. "Why did you not tell me?"
"I was afraid you might, well, think less of me? Not like keeping secrets would make you like me, but still…"
"I do not think any less of you, Milo."
"You're not disappointed?"
"No. It makes your deeds here all the greater as you proved yourself. If you wish to wait to become king, we may postpone the Binding of the Blood ceremony. You will not be of royal blood, making you a representative king. We may perform it when you believe you are experienced enough to take on the full role. That is what you read to me earlier when I showed you the library. These are different times. Though we will restore other traditions, the ritual does not need to be at marriage, as was supposedly traditional according to the scroll."
"You don't mind if we wait?"
"Of course I would not." She paused a moment, the comforting smile fading as she turned thoughtful, but worried.
"Kida?" He sat beside her.
"…A friend of mine, when speaking to an explorer, learned religion is a touchy subject in your culture…"
"It can be. So?"
"…I fear some fundamental points of our religions may clash. May we please speak of them before our marriage?"
"Of course! I want to learn about yours in the first place!"
"Good… I also need to tell you of my past. I was not always as I am today…" . . .
"You worried those things would make me love you less?"
"If in surface culture you feared your past might be so terrible to me, then what of my past?"
"What you would have done 1000 years ago isn't what you'd do now. Kida, you never did that. You weren't my first love, either, though, I'm not sure if realizing you loved someone after the fact entirely counts…"
"It does, I believe, but I was not your first?"
"Well, no. Second. But unlike Lisa McGrath-- The first girl… You… Kida, you understand me. You understand pursuing difficult dreams. And as for any religious difficulties, it's enough just to be with you. I wouldn't ask for anything else." The wanderer put his arm around her. "Just knowing I met you is so special."
A look of great relief and of being touched appeared on the visage of the restless warrior. "It is for me as well."
"Kida… Surely you know by now I didn't just stay here to be in the place I always dreamed of finding. We both belong here together…" Milo stood, her hand in his, and she got up as well.
Amorously she gazed into his eyes. "We are blessed, and nothing prevents us from treasuring it."
"I've been waiting all my life for you without knowing it. I didn't even know what I was missing."
The wind was hot and muggy as they stood atop the giant, but hey neither noticed, nor cared.
"The Home of my Spirit takes wing…!" she whispered to him.
"You… never explained that phrase." He adjusted his glasses to see her better, as she was the best in his eyes.
"It is a religious saying." Gently the queen lifted the hand she held and pressed the back of his hand to her torso, adding warmth by pacing her other hand on top of it. "…It is my heart," she whispered soothingly. Indeed, he could feel it beat powerfully.
Slowly he moved her hands to his chest. "Mine too…" . . .
Kida's eyes lit up in remembrance. "Before I forget, I wish to ask you something. By our traditions, the moment immediately after a couple is wed, they announce what they will do immediately after. What would you do in your world?"
"Well, um…" He smiled, suddenly shy. "As soon as they're pronounced 'man and wife'--"
"Why not 'husband and wife?'"
"I… Well they say either, actually, but I don't know why they say that as opposed to the other sometimes… But as soon as they are, and, well, after they formally exchange rings, and thus are officially wed, they… How do I put this? Look at each other tenderly and put their lips together… Kind of like you did when we were swimming except…"
He trailed off when he saw the amused look on Kida's face, one brow raised. She crossed her arms, having to laugh mentally. "Milo, do you think our culture so alien we do not know what a kiss is?"
"Well I-- You can never be completely sure. I thought you might, but…"
"Is marriage when you first kiss in your country?" She stepped closer to him.
"No."
"Then why wait?" she half-whispered. Kida put her face close to his, his glasses enlarging his eyes to make him look younger, cuter. His pupils seemed impossibly large, and yet, if he felt the same way she did, she could believe it. The look of surprise on Milo's face melted to one of love. She closed her eyes, turning her face slightly. The sound of his breathing was accompanied by calls of birds native to her home. The romantic ruins in which she had lived had become just that: romantic. Kida could feel the warmth of his breath against her lips a mere second before they touched. A wonderful sensation went through her frame, rejuvenating, as the fatigue of having been a host seemed to dissipate, being replaced by the elation, the faith that was him. Their spirits could not soar higher.
Finally, their time had come to find true love, not one that ended quickly or painfully. Through the uncertainties they encountered, they moved through in the grace of love, seeing there was nothing to fear. On their own they had been strong for so long, but now, together, they would grow even stronger. . . .
Milo stood in front of the full-length mirror, putting on the royal robes. It had been a very long day filled with preparations for the wedding that was about to take place. Atlantean tailors had never been so busy.
The robes were perfectly clean, but Milo could not help but feel wrong somehow, since they once belonged to the late King. As a result of size-differences, the robes hung loosely and long on the linguist, his toes barely peeking out from the bottom. He put in the fez-like formal cap, and looked at himself, the hat falling over his eyes like his grandfather's pith helmet.
In addition to everything, he had found scrolls in the library about King Stone rituals. In any shred of spare time he read them, knowing how important it was to raise a stone in King Kashekim Nedak's honor. With luck, and with the work of every Atlantean stone carver, a stone might be raised within a week's time.
He found it somehow amazing he was not exhausted. He had not slept at all the previous night, spending every moment of it exploring with Kida.
Milo took a cloak into his hands and fastened it to his neck and wrists appropriately. With arms down, the cloak hid his robes perfectly.
The cloak was magnificent, the patterns like feathers of blue and gold. He readjusted his cap again and walked into the hall.
There Kida stood, newly ready. Though he knew Kida wore her royal gown beneath her white cloak, it was perfectly concealed as well by the feather-pattern. He also knew from her that the wedding cloak was once her mother's.
She held up the ring she was to give to him, and he did the same, smiling. The tattoo on the back of his left hand itched, and he rubbed it against his leg to relieve it.
"Are you ready?" "
My gosh, yes!" She took his hand and they left the softly lit palace, walking into the late evening together.
The air at the waterfront smelled sweet, a light breeze stirring both air and heart. As true love, it was a dream coming true for them both. The area was softly lit by firefly globes, and the people attending in their best attire and spread all the way to the water.
The couple faced each other in the presence of a priest, there to oversee the ceremony. Simultaneously Milo and Kida stretched forth an arm to the Heart of Atlantis, the sky's single star. They began their impromptu vows, words that came from the heart.
The cartographer swallowed hard before he started, holding the queen's free hand with fingers interlocked. "We promise to take each other's hands."
With the utmost affection Kida gazed into his soft brown eyes. "We promise to walk by each other's side."
"We promise to always be there for each other."
"Through our laughter and our sobs."
"In sickness and in health."
"Through the millennia, our love will outlast our bodies."
"To every undiscovered destination and through every exploration."
"Through every revelation."
"Every day together will be special."
"Every day our unity will become greater…"
The priest noted the pause and spoke. "Will you both go on with each other?"
Kida lowered her arm to place her hand on Milo's. "Yes."
Milo did the same. "I do."
Still smiling, the queen blinked. "You do what?" she whispered, leaning close for him to hear.
"Oh! I mean 'yes!' Yes!"
The cleric gave him an amused look, and then proceeded to the end. "Then may the Crystal call your spirits to each other." He bowed to the queen and the newly representative king.
Milo took Kida's hand and gently slipped the ring onto her finger. She tried to copy his movements, putting the ring on his finger as well. They glanced to their people, who awaited the announcement of what they would do. Wordlessly, they looked into each other's shining eyes as if they had never seen anything so marvelous in their lives. The meeting of their eyes was the meeting of their souls. The scholar king wrapped his arms around her and they tasted each other's breath. Kida nuzzled his nose with hers for a brief moment before their lips touched, filling themselves with strength and joy, and feeling as if they might take flight. After they broke away, Kida's smile turned more playful, her blue eyes glistening. She unfastened a part of her cloak, as did he, and in ceremony they sprinted down an isle instantly made by their people. The cloak flared like spreading white wings behind her as she caught the wind, and as he took her hand, his did as well, much like those of a majestic eagle's.
Milo's surprise was notable as she stopped at the waters edge. He had thought their actions had been an actual demonstration of their first act of marriage, and he wondered if Kida intended something else. She looked up sweetly into his earth-colored eyes. Looking back into her cerulean, he felt her hands against his chest, and she leaned close. Eyes half-closed in love, he began to put his arms around her, ready for another kiss. The king leaned toward her.
The sensation of falling backwards made his eyes fly open, Kida laughing as she pushed him into the water. Milo cried out as she dove beside him into the cold waters. He sputtered when he reached the surface, hearing laughter through the crowd. Kida surfaced beside him, quite a sight as her headdress crown drooped onto her face from the water. She brushed them aside, humming her laughter.
The king could not help but laugh either. She gave him a loving look, complete with a half-smile, and kicked in the water, submerging a moment before surfacing a few feet away, looking back.
It was a game now, and he followed, gladly participating. When he reached a hidden alcove, Milo stopped to look around, unable to find his wife in the water. It was not long before he found her waiting on a fallen pillar. Kida smiled to her husband as he climbed to sit next to her, and they embraced in the evening's crystallight.
That evening was the end of their old lives, making way for the new, dawning future. Every day, every mere moment was precious history, and each day they would build their lives, for their spirits had become one. Though it was not yet literal, their hearts beat together as the most beautiful of hymns.
It was a promise to cherish and keep for eternity, for love would be their journey, their destiny.