Maybe it's everything.
Iris
"I found it."
Petra's voice cracks with excitement as she bursts into the cottage kitchen, snow still clinging to her cloak. She's clutching a book so old the leather binding is cracked and flaking.
I set down the bread dough I was kneading. "Found what?"
"Why it's happening now. Why the bonds are weakening during this solstice specifically." She spreads the book open on the kitchen table, pages crackling. "Look at this."
Cadeon materializes at my shoulder. I'm getting used to that now, the way he appears when things are important. Through the bond, I feel his cautious hope mixed with dread.
The text is in Old Magespeak, but Petra translates as she reads: "'The Alignment of Stars occurs when winter's longest night coincides with the convergence of three celestial bodies: the Moon of Binding, the Star of Choice, and the Wanderer's Comet. This convergence happens once every two hundred and seventeen years.'"
My breath catches. "Two hundred and seventeen..."
"The last one was in 1808," Petra says, checking her notes. "Cadeon, when were you bound?"
His voice is tight. "1812."
"So you've never experienced one of these solstices," I breathe. "In all your time bound to my family, this has never happened before."
Petra nods, her finger tracing the ancient text. "'During the Alignment, the magic of familiar bonds is laid bare. Bonds forged in dominance will either strengthen through reaffirmation of control, or dissolve if the familiar refuses submission. Bonds forged in partnership will transform, not breaking, but becoming something new. Something chosen.'"
"What does that mean?" I ask. "Transform how?"
She flips to another marked page. "Here. The transformation requires three elements. First, the master must willingly relinquish all control, surrendering the right of dominance. Second, the familiar must choose freely to remain, not from compulsion but from desire. Third...'" She hesitates, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
"Third?" Cadeon prompts, his voice rough.
"'Third, the bond must be rekindled through intimacy: not of dominance, but of mutual vulnerability and desire. The old bond burns away in passion's fire. The new bond is forged in trust, freely given and freely received.'"
The kitchen goes very quiet except for the crackle of the fire.
"So," I say slowly, "the bonds aren't breaking because we're doing something wrong. They're being... evaluated. By magic itself."
"Exactly." Petra looks between us. "During a normal solstice, bonds just continue as they are. But during an Alignment, the magic essentially asks: 'Should this bond exist? And if so, in what form?' It's giving everyone a choice. A choice to change."
Through the bond, Cadeon's emotions are a tangled mess: hope and terror and something that might be relief.
"If the familiar doesn't choose to stay?" he asks carefully. There’s no way he doesn’t feel the clench in me at his statement, but I don’t say anything.
"Then the bond dissolves at solstice. Completely. Painlessly." Petra meets his eyes with unusual gentleness. "The familiar is freed. No ties, no obligation, no consequences."
"And if they both choose? If they want the transformation?" He continues.
"Then you get a partnership bond. Built on choice, not compulsion. Equal footing." She smiles softly. "It's beautiful, actually. The magic is giving you a chance to build something better. To change and grow."
I turn to look at Cadeon. His face is carefully blank, but I can feel everything through the bond: the terror of choosing wrong, the desperate hope that he could have something real, the fear that he doesn't deserve it.
"A week," I whisper. "We have less than a week until the solstice."
"Yes." His eyes meet mine, dark and intense.
Petra clears her throat. "I should... let you two process this. The book suggests that the transformation can be quite intense, so you'll want to prepare. Emotionally and..." Her blush deepens. "Otherwise."
After she leaves, Cadeon and I stand in the kitchen, the weight of discovery hanging between us.
