THEORIES: Why I think Aina will be bonded to Sorken and Himalia to Andraken
Aina —> Sorken
I think Sorken is also dealing with grief and since Aina had to deal with that this whole book, she has the experience and emotional intelligence to help Sorken deal with his sorrow. Also, Sorken needs someone to motivate and direct him a bit 😄. We see the god has an adventurous spirit but is easily sidetracked. He’s also way too laid back if the goal is to save the universe, I personally think Aina has the personality to get Sorken motivated.
ALSO, I do believe Sorken is a bit like Aina in they both have a lot of power within them, but can’t really control it well. (Or know how /what to do with that power)
This passage either helps this point OR is a Himalia-problem but:
This just reminded me of Aranel remarking that Aina would probably be the strongest out of all of them if she just had better control.
I think Aina knows what she wants to do, but she just can’t channel, so I can see Aina/Sorken duo being Aina making the calls and Sorken following through with the channeling.
Himalia —> Andraken
When I think of the word ‘undaunted’ (like Andraken the Undaunted), Himalia’s personality comes to mind. She’s the only character so far who had a specific goal (her research) and saw it through. She is also the only character not phased by Andraken and has a fascination with vandraghor:
Himalia seeks out knowledge of Andraken/vandraghor out of pure curiosity multiple times (a lot more unprompted than Aina).
Also, with Andraken’s hallucinations/visions and his power of warping time and space…I can see Himalia being the only character intelligent enough to fit with the planetary vandraghor. (Quote below expanding on this)
…BUT also here is the reverse theory because I must admit @bri-notthecheese and @arazan-universe your soul bonder picks have textual backing as well:
Aina —> Andraken
In Narakh (inside Andraken) Aina always hears her mother’s voice and Andraken has the ability to “warp time and space”. This quote might just be foreshadowing for the end of Book 2, but I can also see this as Aina/Andraken bond foreshadowing. In my mind “distorting reality” and “warping time and space” mean basically the same thing.
Andraken gave Aina forgotten memories that not only helped her process grief, but this passage makes me think there was some sort of message in the memories of her mother. Aina thinks this after receiving those memories:
(^When thinking about whether Himalia could bond to Andraken, I wondered if Himalia could piece together “the something important”—Aina needed/needs these moments for closure but Himalia wouldn’t)
*Back to the regularly scheduled program*
I also find the image of Aina bonding with Andraken to just be really badass so there’s that evidence for that part of the theory 😄
Himalia —> Sorken
I also love Himalia/Sorken just being chill nerds BUT I also think Sorken is important to Himalia’s gender questioning stuff that seems to be going on:
So yeah, I will not be mad at any of these bonding combos because there are great textual moments and dynamics for both!