-Is it a taboo to get rid of your soulbound spouse?-Mei asked. All the lights in the room had been snuffed and they were in the bed, each on their own side of it, ready to sleep. As usual, Aridel took the side facing the entrance. Many guards and maids were outside patrolling but he had clearly taken that side as he felt it was his duty to protect her at all times. He had been facing the door and turned between the blankets to watch her laying there in the shadows.
-Why the question? Do you want to get rid of me?-
He is trying to dodge the issue. She knew right away.
-I want to understand the odds of our relationship...
Aridel sighed. She really was impatient.
-Yes, it is a great sin to get rid of your soulbound. And about a relationship between us, just where, how do you see yourself 100 years from now?-
She smiled in that mischiveous way she had and he understood she was thinking about perverted stuff, again...
-I think this is the main difference between men and women-he intoned in his no nonsense tone- Men pursuit long term goals, at least if they are intelligent-he said- while women tend to think more in terms of romance and family-
Here we go again, she thought.
-It may be true, but you know, the intelligent women of the world, see romance and family as the epithome of success. Can you really tell me that watching your children, your descendants be happy and thriving is not a long term goal?- Touché, she knew that he knew she had a good argument so she smiled- To build something like that, a strong base is needed and that is why I think romance, love, passion and care is important in a relationship-
He was silent for a while. She sighed and closed her eyes thinking that had been all for that night. But just before she fell asleep, she heard something that would keep her thinking over and over for centuries to come.
-Will love, romance, passion and care be able to hold our family together, us-he said- if in a hundred years you and me have to see our own children and grandchildren die off before ourselves?-
He had tried to lead her away from that reason before when he told her he wanted to end the engagement with the late Lady Mei, but she was relentless in her pursuit of his reasons to hold back from relationships . He knew telling her the real reason would mean creating a distance between them, but maybe that distance, slowing down the speed in their relationship was the right thing to do.
Cultivation to the degree he was pursuing was very much like jumping over a great rift. Really achieving more meant leaving a lot behind too and had serious life consequences. He wanted Mei to really think things through before she decided what she really wanted to do. She had just arrived to this new world and was a very strong headed person but getting tunnel vision on issues like these had been the cause of many tragedies in his world.
Mei did not open her eyes but visibly relaxed. Aridel would be the biggest liar if he said she did not look adorable, if he said she was not beautiful and that just having her there, safely sleeping by his side did not make him happy. She was his soulbound, the other person in the entire universe that could walk the same path he did.
-I see, thank you for your sincerity-was all she said.
Mei seemed to fall asleep easily, even after that. Aridel turned his back on her and tried to sleep too. Mei would be awake in exactly 6 hours and while she did her best to not wake him up, he always noticed when she was not sleeping anymore. As a cultivator soon to reach the immortal level, he needed barely 4 hours of sleep at night to rest his body and thus, her sleeping habits did not bother him.
When 2 hours had passed, Aridel understood their conversation had affected him a lot more than he wanted to let on. It was not the first time he lost sleep since he had decided to follow the path to immortality alone but it was definitely the first time he had told another person about his misgivings and worries. He turned on the bed to watch her sleep and while he did, the main thought on his mind was that he hoped she was not hurt by his reluctance.
-...hurts..-Mei was dreaming and it seemed a bad nightmare. Aridel touched a light cristal he had set in the carved bedhead, just above the pillows and in the dim brightness, noticed Mei was looking terrified and in pain. Her legs and one of her arms lay lifeless, as if she could not feel or move them. The other one was trembling and reached her left eye. Aridel understood she was reliving the past, perhaps the moment she had lost most of her body and without losing time, he gathered her in his arms and took the hand that had the ring on it. He was pulled into her memory and what he saw left him speechless. Her body was mangled beyond recognition, torn apart and burnt, what lay in his arms was just her blodied torso. He had seen men die of shock with less damage than this, but Mei kept on living against all odds. He knew she needed to wake up so he pushed a burst of his energy into her and commanded her to open her eyes. She woke up and both were pulled from the dream, with Mei clawing her way to try and get away from him.
-Mei, its over-he tried to calm her down and restrained her body in his arms- I am here, it was just a dream.
She ended up furrowing her face in his chest and breathing deeply to gain control of her emotions. He knew she was not faking a bad dream or to look pitiful to gain his attention, this episode was as real and dangerous as it seemed. Who knew just how many times she had been this hurt, scared and affected before, with no one to care for her. He rubbed her back softly and without her notice, used his own energy flow to help her recuperate. The episode left her qi flow very scrambled.
-Thank you Aridel-she said before falling asleep on his arms from exhaustion.