Page 83 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

He considered it for a moment and decided that Annani was much more pleasant company and having her with him would give him motivation to keep going even after his legs wanted to quit.

He pulled the walker toward him, gripped the handles, and heaved himself up.

"To the corridor." He waved his hand as if he were embarking on a long journey.

She laughed. "To the corridor and beyond."

She walked a step behind him, her hand hovering at the small of his back, not touching but ready to catch him if he fell backward.

The first round was easy, or rather, easier than yesterday.

Annani's phone rang during the third round.

She answered, and a big smile spread across her face. "That is wonderful. Thank you for letting me know and send my love to Turner and Bridget." She ended the call and returned the phone to a pocket hidden somewhere between the folds of her gown.

"That was Kian. Bridget had her baby, a big, healthy boy with her red hair."

"Good news." Khiann took the opportunity to rest a moment. "Are Turner and Bridget married?"

"They are mated."

"Is it not the same thing?"

"It used to be, but it is not now." She motioned for him to resume walking. "Mated means a truelove bond, a gift from the Fates. It is not a legal contract or binding, but it is stronger and more lasting than any document. Some mated couples also choose to marry, with a ceremony and a contractual agreement, but most do not bother. The bond is the true connection. The wedding is decoration."

Something about that explanation sounded familiar, like an echo of a memory. Since he knew the meaning of both words, he also knew what they represented, but they did not evoke different emotions in him.

"I do not remember how it was done back in the old times. I know what the word mate means, and what the words wife or husband mean, and they are interchangeable in my mind."

Annani was quiet for a long moment. "Your memories are not entirely gone, which gives me hope. You are right that in our time these words meant the same thing. A couple was wed before witnesses, and the terms of their wedding contract were negotiated in advance. Those who enjoyed each other without a legal agreement were called concubines or paramours. For those in power, this was particularly important because only children born to the official wife could inherit titles. That is why I was my father's successor even though my half-sister Areana was much older. She was born to a concubine, and I was born to the official wife."

He turned the walker around and headed back toward the living room. "Were your parents truelove mates?"

Annani smiled. "They most certainly were. After my mother seduced my father and forced him to marry her, he never looked at another female again, and she never looked at another male."

He remembered that Annani had promised to tell him that story, but they had been distracted, and she had never gotten to it.

"If they were truelove mates, why did your mother need to force your father to marry her?"

"Because he was the head of the council, a king of sorts, and she was a lowly nurse. She knew they were destined for each other, but she had to convince him of that." Annani smiled. "My father thought that a truelove mate was a myth, not something that happened in reality. That only tells you how rare that was."

"So, most marriages were arranged?"

She nodded. "Gods married for alliances and bloodlines, and if affection grew, that was fortunate. If it did not, that was expected. The gods were not known for being faithful to their partners. On the contrary."

His heart skipped a beat. "Were we faithful?"

Annani laughed. "We are truelove mates, Khiann. We could not stray even if we wanted to, and we did not wish to be with anyone else."

She had been with many despite the bond, and he had a hard time reconciling that. Was it because she had thought he was dead?

"Does the bond dissolve at death?" he asked in the most diplomatic way he could think of.

"The bond does not dissolve or fade just because one of the bonded pair has died, but the addiction weakens over time, so after many years of grief, taking paramours is possible."

He had asked a diplomatic question and received a diplomatic answer to the most personal of his questions, but he still had many others.

"Syssi and Kian are truelove mates, and so are Dalhu and Amanda, Alena and Orion, Geraldine and Shai, Toven and Mia, and all the other couples I have met so far. It seems that it is no longer as rare as it used to be."