Sunny banged her head on the rim of the windowsill when she turned to look up at Harmony. “He did?” A steady throb pulsed on the back of her head, but she had more important things to worry about. Like Harmony’s thin-lipped grimace.
“Cuz of their bond.” Harmony said, as if it were obvious. “Don’t your parents…ohshit, wait. Do your parents even have a…” Harmony tugged at the ring on her index finger, anxiously, “Never mind. Forget I said—”
“Slow down.” Sunny said. “What’re you saying?”
Harmony looked hesitant. Light from the overhead-light fixture bounced off her ring. It was still in steady rotation, buckling under the twists and turns guided by Harmony’s fingertips. “Your parents…they’re not together, right?”
Sunny balled her fists into the loose fabric of her blazer. “So?” she asked, harsher than she meant to. “What’s that gotta do with anything?”
“W-Wait,” Harmony’s face turned bright red, “no one gave you this talk?”
Sunny frowned. “No? What talk?”
Harmony turned and looked out the window. The blush had spread to her ears. “Y’know. The talk. About what happens when mage’s feel a strong, uh, attraction for each other?”
“Oh. Oh. You mean that.” Sunny let go of the fabric she’d been clutching and laughed. “That’s what you call it?”
Harmony lifted a green-glowing hand and flicked her middle finger at Sunny. A bundle of magic jumped off her poised finger and ripped through the air, shooting into Sunny’s side.
“Ye—ouch! The hell was that for?” Sunny rubbed the sore spot on her side. The spell was harmless—a grade school stinging hex—but the sporadic ripples persisted, adding to the discomfort.
“That’s for making me say it when you already knew what I was talking about.”
“I didn’t make you.” Sunny argued. “And I didn’t know. My mom’s told me about it before, but she never put a name to it. Says it’s something that can’t be summed up with just one word.”
Harmony didn’t look convinced.
“Bonding.” Sunny whispered, trying it out on her tongue. She decided that she liked the name for it. Although, she agreed with her mom. The bond mages formed was something that could never be boxed into just a single word.
From what she’s been told, magical bonds arose from romantic affairs, but platonic ones were prevalent as well. The parties implicated in a bond were subject to having their magic connect, morphing into a singular magic signature. A signature that was brought to life by an invisible link which tied the bonded together, indefinitely. It’s a pure form of magic, so powerful that, in the event a bond became broken, the loneliness could drive a mage to madness.
Mom never went crazy when dad left. Sunny shook the unpleasant thought away. She didn’t want to think about what that meant. Plus, there was a lot that could play into bonds. In a lot of ways, it was like the connection a mage formed with their familiar. Except, in the bonded scenario, the mage in question had no control over who or what their magic latched onto.
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