Gregory woke slowly, and warmth on either side of him had him smiling. He kissed Yukiko’s head, then turned to kiss Jenn, but found red hair and fox ears instead. Memory came back, and his smile grew as he lightly kissed one of the fox ears.
Mindie shivered, stirring as she looked up. “Hmm…? Husband?”
“Good morning, dear healer. Welcome to our family.”
“Thank you,” Mindie murmured.
“Yes, welcome,” Yukiko smiled, leaning over Gregory to plant a kiss on Mindie’s ear like Gregory had.
Mindie shivered again. “I had no idea it could be so wonderful… all of you were so gentle and loving with me.”
“We try,” Jenn murmured as she kissed Mindie’s back. “But as you saw, I prefer it differently. Thank you for indulging me last night.”
Mindie turned around and kissed Jenn. It was a simple kiss, but full on the lips. “You indulged me. It would be wrong to not return that. Thank you for showing me that I could accept what I desire.”
“Thank you for trusting us to do so,” Gregory said. “I worried that me being forceful with Jenn would have you bolt from the room, disgusted with me.”
“Or me wanting that would have you think less of me,” Jenn added.
“Not to mention my wanting to control others to bring Greg as much joy as possible,” Yukiko smiled. “We all have our own places and things we love. There’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t matter what others think. It only matters what we think.”
“Do…?” Mindie hesitated, then tried again. “Do you think the others will be accepting?”
“They will be,” Yukiko nodded. “That’s part of being accepted. If you can’t accept your fellow lovers’ needs and desires, then do you truly love them?”
Mindie fell silent for a moment, but as she did, the third bell began to chime. It was louder in the city than out at the encampment, but dim enough that most would sleep through it.
“By the way,” Yukiko giggled, “we share an anniversary with each other now, or close enough. Today’s my anniversary with our dear one.”
“Oh, right. It is,” Gregory said with a smile, kissing Yuki. “Happy year, my heart.”
Yuki kissed him back. “Happy year, dearest one.”
“Oh, I like being this close with you both,” Mindie smiled, kissing each in turn.
Jenn joined in, and the circle went around once more.
Yukiko sighed as she got out of bed. “We have to get back. The ceremony is at eight, and then the game begins. Our friends will be waiting for us, as well. I told Elsa that we’d get breakfast before we returned.”
“We’re all staying in camp?” Mindie asked.
“I wasn’t sure if you and Greg would,” Yukiko said. “Neither of you can be called into the game. You could sit in the stands and watch the game.”
“If he does that, someone might accuse him of cheating somehow,” Jenn snorted.
“True enough,” Gregory said. “I’d rather stay in the camp with you. You’ll only be pulled away if they take you into the game.”
“That’s true,” Yukiko nodded.
“I also have things to explain,” Gregory said as they all started to dress. “Lightshield gave me a ring before the wedding. It was how I had one ready for the ceremony.”
“He told me he would give you one, so I didn’t worry about it,” Yukiko said.
Gregory motioned them over to him, then unglamored the ring. Seeing their eyes widen, he shifted it back to look like it had. “I’m not sure what else it has in it, but…” He paused and focused on getting an identical ring to what he’d given Mindie. It appeared in his hand a moment later. “For you, Yuki.”
Yukiko took it, examining it. “It looks like Jenn’s.”
“And Mindie’s,” Jenn said, pointing at the one on Mindie’s hand.
“Lightshield said his family had collected them, and that he knows. He also told me not to say it, as he’s watched most of the time. He had a small window to give this to me, tell me he knew, and that his great-uncle walks as thin a line as he does.” Gregory made a sweeping motion instead of saying the name. “Thin enough that we have to be separated for our adept year, but that might be why the prize for this tournament is what it is.”
“Oh… That makes sense,” Yukiko said, her eyes distant. “Understood. We might need to wait for a moment of togetherness with our other wife to tell the big secret.”
Gregory nodded. “Which I feel bad about, because Mindie deserves to know.”
“I can wait,” Mindie said. “I’ve been accepted. My heart soars. It’s fine.”
“Aether, you’re right,” Jenn said, staring right at Gregory.
“Yes,” Yukiko nodded, looking at Mindie, then Gregory.
Mindie’s brow furrowed in confusion as she looked at Yukiko and Jenn, before finally stopping on Gregory. The slow realization transformed her confusion to shocked awe.
“You know,” Gregory murmured, pulling Mindie into his arms gently. “That’s our biggest secret, dear healer. That’s why our other wife can help us the way she does.”
“And you…? Me…? I…! But…!”
Gregory pulled back enough to kiss her gently. Mindie kissed him back firmly, wanting to prove her love, but Gregory eased back, making the kiss soft again. It lingered for minutes before he broke it.
“I know your love, Mindie. It’s the same love we had once before, ages in the past. It’s okay.”
“Just as we did and do,” Yukiko said. “Now, you’ll help protect our heart as we do.”
“Yes!” Mindie said firmly. “I’ll keep him safe.”
“We know,” Jenn said gently. “Come on. We have to get going.”
“Greg, meditate on the ring later. A storage item should tell you what’s inside if you do,” Yukiko told him.
“I will. You and Mindie need to, as well.”
“I’ll do it,” Mindie said as she got dressed quickly.
When they hurried downstairs, Hintle was there. “Breakfast for you. Good luck to your clan with the tournament.”
“Thank you, Hintle,” Gregory said, taking the sandwich. “Are they going to go watch?”
“Not today. Hao said the first day would be mostly positioning, and Lin agreed with him. I think they’re going to recover from the wedding. After today, yes, they will be there every day.”
“We’ll only join them to watch if we can’t be called in,” Yukiko said. “Let them know, please.”
“I believe your elder explained it to them last night, lit… er… Yuki, but I will tell them.”
“Have a good day,” Jenn said as she headed for the door.
~*~*~
The jog back to the encampment was peaceful, as hardly anyone was out. The guards on the gate gave them confused looks, but let them go. The bazaar was nearly empty, with only a couple of cooks out, preparing for the day, and a handful of people shuffling around, clearly hungover.
Lights were on inside their tent when they approached it. Gregory was the first one to go in, and he grinned at his friends and Elsa when he did. “We’re back.”
That got a flurry of people getting up from the table to come hug all of them. Even Elsa got hugs from them before she returned to the table.
“We weren’t sure when you’d be back,” Ling said.
“We knew it’d be before the tournament, though,” Clover was quick to add.
Roshana gave Mindie a small knowing smile. “Fairly sure, anyway.”
Mindie flushed, looking away. “They were very kind with me.”
A small sound of disappointment came from Clover. When everyone looked at her, she flushed and looked away. “Sorry. I… just want… the same…” She mumbled not fast and upbeat, but slow and shy.
“In time, if you can accept your resonance and show your devotion,” Yukiko said softly, going to Clover’s side.
Clover nodded slowly. “I know, Yuki. I’m sorry.”
Gregory’s lips pursed as he debated an idea— it was rash and might come back to bite him if any of them proved false. Taking a seat at the table, he lapsed into meditation and pulled on his resonance.
The others watched him, confused, but went to sit, as well. Magi Squares papers were already on the table, since the group had been working on them when they arrived.
Gregory pushed his resonance over the room, feeling the rightness of everyone around him. Opening foresight, he pushed the feeling of those around him into his magic. A cacophony of visions flashed past him, too fast to see and too muddied to even try making sense of. When it stopped, Gregory saw a single vision.
Seated at a grand table, he looked over those sitting with him. Yukiko was to his right and Jenn to his left, both older than they were now. Next to Jenn, Clover, Daciana, and Roshana sat, looking back his way with bright smiles. Nessa, Victoria, and Ling were on Yukiko’s side. They’d clearly been listening to something he must have just finished saying. Across from him, Mindie smiled gently as she played with the ring on her hand. That had him looking back at the others’ rings— identical rings adorned each of their hands.
Gregory pulled back from the vision, blinking as he came back to the here and now. He started to say something, but his vision swam and he face-planted onto the table. Confused sounds came from all around and he was pulled back in his seat. Yukiko stared into his face with worry. Mindie grabbed his head, and he felt the aether of her healing magic flood through him. More confused voices gave way to Jenn forcing something into his mouth. He swallowed on reflex, the raw ginger flavor punching him. Wheezing as his body heated and his mouth objected to the flavor, sound stabilized around him.
“Greg?!” Yukiko asked.
“Sorry!” he gasped. “Aether food, please… I pushed too hard.”
Elsa was out of the tent at a dead run, her skirts held up as she sprinted away. Clover was quick to hand over some bane jerky. Gregory accepted it, chewing slowly the way Bishop had taught him years before.
“What happened?” Yukiko asked. “Let’s all sit again… he’s fine now. We just need to make sure he eats well today.”
Looking over the worried faces of those around him, he bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I had a thought and tried it. I should’ve said something first. When I sat down, I pushed my resonance and foresight to look into the distant future. I had a specific question, and I wanted to see if it was true.”
He paused— his throat was dry and he needed some water. Ling was quick to hand over her tea, guessing at what he wanted.
“Thank you, Ling. I believe all of you will have your moment. All three of you will be accepted, as will our novice friends. I saw all of us seated together in the future. It felt right, like it was meant to be. There was a single thing that helped me know you’d all been accepted.” He touched Jenn’s hand, then raised it to show them her ring. “You were all wearing one of these rings.”
Yukiko inhaled slowly before nodding. “Very well, my heart. It’s a small gamble, but I believe you’re correct. It might encourage them to push harder, in fact.”
“Oh…” Mindie said. She touched her own ring, which got all eyes to look at it, then back to Jenn’s.
“Do you have enough?” Yukiko asked, putting her hand forward so they could see another identical ring on her hand.
They were simple mythrum bands without jewels, but the metal seemed to shimmer like another metal had been lightly mixed into it. Everyone looked from the ring to Gregory.
“I don’t know,” Gregory said simply. He focused on his own band, willing it to produce six more. The seconds seemed to stretch out for a long time, but then, he held six rings in his cupped hand. “Enough for our one-day wives, at least.”
Yukiko reached over and collected them from his palm. “Ladies, these are a promise. Gregory is promising that, if you stay true, you’ll be his wife… again. We entrust the extra rings to Ling. You will explain the meaning behind them and personally give them to those who wait.”
“As you wish, Yuki,” Ling bowed her head. “I shall listen to the first wife.”
“These are special,” Jenn said, picking up the topic. “They’re spatial storage and have a large space that can be used. You never need to take them off, not even to bathe. You will always have your things at hand, no matter what happens. But they also hold aether.”
“They’re mythrum,” Ling said. “I would have expected them to hold aether.”
“But storage, too?” Clover beamed. “I’ll be able to carry all my alchemy stuff?”
“Easily,” Jenn smiled.
“They can hold a lot of aether,” Yukiko said, pulling the topic back to important matters. “We charge Jenn’s to a magus’ level. You should never push more than that until your rank is beyond that.”
“Beyond…? How much can they hold?” Roshana asked.
“We don’t know,” Gregory said. “Hemet looked at Jenn’s ring months ago, and he thought they could hold an elder’s aether, but we think they might hold even more than that.”
The four who hadn’t known before were clearly shocked as they stared at the rings in Yukiko’s hands. He wasn’t just promising to honor their dreams if they were true to him; he was empowering them, too.
“Take your ring if you truly wish to stand as our equals in protecting our heart. You’ll still have to admit your resonances to all the others, and I will press you to see your devotions later. If those are met, you’ll be welcomed into our family.”
With shaky hands, the other three took their rings. Slipping them on, they looked back at Gregory with hope.
“This is me saying yes, if you do as Yuki asks,” Gregory said. “Our wife who can’t be here accepts you, as you walk the same paths as we do. I’m showing you now that I accept you. You just need to do as Yuki says, and then you’ll be welcomed with open arms.”
“But Da—”
“Stop,” Yukiko said softly but firmly, cutting Clover off. “We cannot say a few things anymore. Gregory has been told that some are being watched. We’ll start acting from today forward as if he is, as well. To protect our heart, we’ll do what we must.”
“Yes, Yuki,” Clover agreed.
“I doubt her name is known, not the name we use, but it’s for the best if we mitigate where we can,” Yukiko said. “Now, we should get training in while we can. Ling, these are for Nessa, Vicky, and Daciana. They’re in your care.”
Ling accepted them, pushing them into her new ring. “I will pass your words and Gregory’s gift to them. I won’t fail.”
“I know,” Yukiko smiled.
Elsa came rushing in with a covered bowl in her hands. “I have food!”
“Thank you, Elsa,” Gregory said softly. “I need it. Will you pour me some tea, too?”
“Right away!”
