The Betrothed
for National Novel Writing Month
Day 17
Darrick understood what Abby meant as soon as he met Meredith. It wasn’t that she was on the prowl for a relationship; she was simply the kind of person almost everyone immediately likes, open and friendly. She and Abby flew into each other’s arms as soon as they caught a glimpse of each other, exclaiming that it had been too long for the both of them. Meredith immediately asked after Darrick, and upon introduction, made the customary obeisance, then greeted him as an old friend. The three of them did not get much chance to talk alone, however, for Meredith was almost instantly surrounded by a circle of friends, and he and Abby stepped back to allow the other greeters access.
“She’s very popular,” Darrick observed to Abby, sotto voce.
“More so than I,” Abby replied, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s what comes of being nice to everyone.”
“And you’re not?” Darrick feigned horror, and Abby smirked silently.
Watching, Darrick could see what Abby meant. If Meredith possessed Abby’s quick and somewhat sarcastic wit, she didn’t show it; she never made a comment at another’s expense and never appeared anything but genuinely delighted to talk with anyone who greeted her. After his experiences of the past few days, Darrick found it refreshing, but he thought it might get tedious to him in the long run. Meredith might be more pleasant, but in the long run, he felt Abby was much more fun.
Still, pleasant went a long way, and Darrick found himself still enjoying the company as he and Abby sat with a group of Meredith’s friends around a fireplace late that evening. The fire was going just enough to provide some light to the dark room, casting everyone in flickering shadow. Darrick was starting to recognize faces and names, and he recognized everyone in the group as being among those who had accepted him the most readily, treating him with nothing but respect. Meredith’s group was mostly unmarried, though most of them had paired off into bonded couples. The only exception were Tristan and Brianna, who were the technical chaperones for the group, though it was easy to forget that, as they blended easily with the rest of the group. They are newlyweds, Darrick remembered, realizing that it probably wasn’t that long ago that they had been just another unmarried but bonded pair.
Darrick wondered what it was like for these couples. They had grown up together, probably been friends or acquaintances for their whole lives, with never any doubt of with whom they would end up. He understood that situations like that still happened the world over, but here there was something more – the mystical bond. Not only did they know their future mate, but they knew that when the time was right, they would fall madly for each other. It wasn’t a question of if, but when. Darrick and Abby were the only ones in the group who were currently in that betwixt-and-between state of having a mature bond and yet remaining unmarried, but the others didn’t seem much less devoted than they. Maybe they just figure it’s inevitable, he thought. If you know any other relationship is ultimately doomed to failure, than why bother starting it? Might as well start getting a head start on the one you know will succeed. Even more surprising to Darrick was that none of them appeared to be a couple out of duty; they all acted genuinely fond of each other, without even any resentment over the fact that there had been no choice in the matter. But if that’s what you’re used to, and everyone around you is living the same way, I suppose you just accept it. Darrick had to acknowledge that the question of choice had seemed pretty unimportant to him as well once he had met Abby; there was no other option in his mind now but her. But he wasn’t about to surrender his free will for anything else.
The conversation ran from topic to topic, trivial to critical, as conversation often does amongst old friends. Eventually, inevitably, it wound up focused on Darrick and Abby’s upcoming nuptials. One thing Darrick noticed is that no one asked about the ceremony, the dress, the music – Atlantean weddings were proscribed by tradition, and so the topics that would have most interested friends in the outside world were here foregone conclusions. To Darrick’s great discomfort, the greatest unknown in this case was he himself, and he found himself describing his past life in great detail, which proved to be a topic of great interest to the assembled company, especially some of the younger members.
“Is it true,” asked Annie Jordan, blushing, “that outsiders are always going to . . . well, you know . . . sex parties?” Darrick didn’t know how to respond at first, not sure if she was being serious.
“What?” he finally managed to get out. “Why would you think that?”
“Well . . .” she began, looking embarrassed, “outsiders are always supposed to be having sex with each other. And taking drugs, too. I mean, that’s what my parents say. That I should be careful around outsider boys because they just want one thing.” She looked around at the others, seeking support. There were a few scattered chuckles, partially suppressed, but no one spoke up to correct her.
“Go ahead and tell her, Darrick,” Abby said. “Maybe she’ll believe you. I’ve never been able to get through to her.”
“I don’t disbelieve you, Abby,” Annie protested. “But maybe you just didn’t get invited to those kinds of things.” Her wide-eyed protestations looked completely innocent to Darrick. He realized then that, of everyone in the room, she was the only one without a companion. Darrick supposed it was possible that her bonded mate just happened to be elsewhere, but he suspected it was something else. She’s a younger sibling, he thought. A third or fourth child, or later. Someday soon, she’s going to be forced out into that wider world, with no preparation or knowledge, just so that the Houses can stay small enough to be secret. A sacrifice for the ‘greater good’. Looking, Darrick could see the deadly seriousness behind the question, and the fear.
“I don’t think there are a lot of sex parties going on,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Not since the Seventies, anyway. And no one’s going to force you into one if you don’t want.” He hoped that he had gotten through, but her serious expression didn’t change.
“And it’s not like Atlantean boys don’t also just want one thing,” Brianna said, looking up at Tristan from where she sat at his feet, leaning back on his leg. Snaking her arm around his calf, she pinched him playfully on the thigh; Tristan jumped and caught her hand and held it.
“And Atlantean girls are all too good about keeping it,” Tristan said. “Maybe I should have tried a few outsider girls first.” Brianna pinched him harder with her free hand. “Though I’m sure it’s better this way.” There was a bit of croak to his voice at the last.
“You see what I have to put up with,” Abby said to Darrick with an ostentatious wave at the others.
“Darrick, please understand,” Meredith said, “we don’t mean any insult. We all love Abby dearly; she’s our walking proof that the outside world couldn’t be as bad as rumors make it out to be. This is all just honest curiosity.”
“Parents think they are protecting you when they tell you all these stories,” Meredith’s younger brother Matthew said. He sat on the floor on the far side of the fireplace, his bondmate Brittany beside him. “I’m sure it’s the same way everywhere. The truth is never scary enough to keep kids in line, so they make up stories to keep you from getting into trouble.” He sounded almost angry.
“Yeah, that sounds familiar,” Darrick agreed. “My parents did the same thing, and so did all of my friends’.”
“See,” Meredith said with a comforting smile to Annie. “The same everywhere.” Annie did not look reassured.
Was my mother like that once? Darrick wondered. Terrified of the outside world, knowing she would eventually have to go out into it? What kind of childhood, of life, is that?
“It is nice to be accepted somewhere,” Darrick admitted. “After Patrick, I thought I was going to have to be constantly dodging attacks the entire time I was here.” The chorus of objections to that statement nearly knocked Darrick down with their emphaticness.
“Patrick’s horrid,” Brianna said with a shudder. Tristan nodded in agreement.
“It’s a shame that he’s got so many following his example,” Meredith said. “Though it’s not as though it’s all his doing. He didn’t have to work very hard to convince any of them that you were the potential death of our civilization.” She shook her head sadly.
“Their whole panic is ludicrous,” Tristan said emphatically. “All this fear of outside blood diluting us. Do they think this is the first time outsider blood has married into an Atlantean family?”
“First time it’s married into a noble family,” said one girl whose name Darrick couldn’t remember.
“Are we sure?” Tristan protested. “Thousands of years of history since Atlantis sank, and how much of it do we really know? There are scrolls in the Great Library no one’s looked at in decades, if not centuries. Do you think the noble line has continued completely unbroken that entire time? Do you think they would tell us the truth if it hadn’t?”
“I think Richard is honest,” Meredith said.
“He might not know, then,” Tristan went on, warming to his topic. “Think about it. Even if the noble line has remained completely intact until now, we know others haven’t. The very fact that we have procedures in place for this exact situation proves that it’s happened before. And it’s a good thing that it has.”
“Of course it’s a good thing,” Abby interjected, looking fondly at Darrick.
“Obviously good for you,” Tristan said, “but I’m talking about something bigger than that. I’m no geneticist, but I do know that ten families is an awfully small base from which to build an entire race. We might not have survived without outside genes.”
“In other words,” Abby said, “without people like Darrick, we would all have ended up drooling idiots?” She looked thoughtful. “Are you sure some of us haven’t already?”
“Joking aside, that’s the gist of it,” Tristan said. “It’s happened before.”
“Like the Hapsburgs,” Darrick said, glad to finally put his history training to some use.
“Exactly!” Tristan exclaimed, leaning back in his chair, obviously convinced his work was done.
“Who?” Annie asked, her question matched by several confused expressions from the others. Even Abby looked a bit lost. Time to show off, Darrick thought.
“The Hapsburgs were a family that ruled most of Europe a few centuries ago,” he started. “They kept their power through marriage, pairing off their children to most of the royal families around them. Eventually, it got to the point where their family was so pervasive that they were marrying cousins, just to keep the various thrones within the family. The inbreeding got so bad that they started to have deformed, mentally-deficient children, incapable of actually ruling. Their refusal to marry outside the family did them in.” Once he finished, he realized Abby was smiling widely, fit to burst with pride.
“You’re so sexy when you talk history,” she said, leaning in towards him. “Tell me about the French and Indian Wars, and you can ravish me however you want.”
“Not in front of the chaperones,” Brianna said. “At least wait until we can claim plausible deniability.”
“After all,” Meredith said, “we wouldn’t want this to degenerate into a sex party.”
for National Novel Writing Month
Day 17
Darrick understood what Abby meant as soon as he met Meredith. It wasn’t that she was on the prowl for a relationship; she was simply the kind of person almost everyone immediately likes, open and friendly. She and Abby flew into each other’s arms as soon as they caught a glimpse of each other, exclaiming that it had been too long for the both of them. Meredith immediately asked after Darrick, and upon introduction, made the customary obeisance, then greeted him as an old friend. The three of them did not get much chance to talk alone, however, for Meredith was almost instantly surrounded by a circle of friends, and he and Abby stepped back to allow the other greeters access.
“She’s very popular,” Darrick observed to Abby, sotto voce.
“More so than I,” Abby replied, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s what comes of being nice to everyone.”
“And you’re not?” Darrick feigned horror, and Abby smirked silently.
Watching, Darrick could see what Abby meant. If Meredith possessed Abby’s quick and somewhat sarcastic wit, she didn’t show it; she never made a comment at another’s expense and never appeared anything but genuinely delighted to talk with anyone who greeted her. After his experiences of the past few days, Darrick found it refreshing, but he thought it might get tedious to him in the long run. Meredith might be more pleasant, but in the long run, he felt Abby was much more fun.
Still, pleasant went a long way, and Darrick found himself still enjoying the company as he and Abby sat with a group of Meredith’s friends around a fireplace late that evening. The fire was going just enough to provide some light to the dark room, casting everyone in flickering shadow. Darrick was starting to recognize faces and names, and he recognized everyone in the group as being among those who had accepted him the most readily, treating him with nothing but respect. Meredith’s group was mostly unmarried, though most of them had paired off into bonded couples. The only exception were Tristan and Brianna, who were the technical chaperones for the group, though it was easy to forget that, as they blended easily with the rest of the group. They are newlyweds, Darrick remembered, realizing that it probably wasn’t that long ago that they had been just another unmarried but bonded pair.
Darrick wondered what it was like for these couples. They had grown up together, probably been friends or acquaintances for their whole lives, with never any doubt of with whom they would end up. He understood that situations like that still happened the world over, but here there was something more – the mystical bond. Not only did they know their future mate, but they knew that when the time was right, they would fall madly for each other. It wasn’t a question of if, but when. Darrick and Abby were the only ones in the group who were currently in that betwixt-and-between state of having a mature bond and yet remaining unmarried, but the others didn’t seem much less devoted than they. Maybe they just figure it’s inevitable, he thought. If you know any other relationship is ultimately doomed to failure, than why bother starting it? Might as well start getting a head start on the one you know will succeed. Even more surprising to Darrick was that none of them appeared to be a couple out of duty; they all acted genuinely fond of each other, without even any resentment over the fact that there had been no choice in the matter. But if that’s what you’re used to, and everyone around you is living the same way, I suppose you just accept it. Darrick had to acknowledge that the question of choice had seemed pretty unimportant to him as well once he had met Abby; there was no other option in his mind now but her. But he wasn’t about to surrender his free will for anything else.
The conversation ran from topic to topic, trivial to critical, as conversation often does amongst old friends. Eventually, inevitably, it wound up focused on Darrick and Abby’s upcoming nuptials. One thing Darrick noticed is that no one asked about the ceremony, the dress, the music – Atlantean weddings were proscribed by tradition, and so the topics that would have most interested friends in the outside world were here foregone conclusions. To Darrick’s great discomfort, the greatest unknown in this case was he himself, and he found himself describing his past life in great detail, which proved to be a topic of great interest to the assembled company, especially some of the younger members.
“Is it true,” asked Annie Jordan, blushing, “that outsiders are always going to . . . well, you know . . . sex parties?” Darrick didn’t know how to respond at first, not sure if she was being serious.
“What?” he finally managed to get out. “Why would you think that?”
“Well . . .” she began, looking embarrassed, “outsiders are always supposed to be having sex with each other. And taking drugs, too. I mean, that’s what my parents say. That I should be careful around outsider boys because they just want one thing.” She looked around at the others, seeking support. There were a few scattered chuckles, partially suppressed, but no one spoke up to correct her.
“Go ahead and tell her, Darrick,” Abby said. “Maybe she’ll believe you. I’ve never been able to get through to her.”
“I don’t disbelieve you, Abby,” Annie protested. “But maybe you just didn’t get invited to those kinds of things.” Her wide-eyed protestations looked completely innocent to Darrick. He realized then that, of everyone in the room, she was the only one without a companion. Darrick supposed it was possible that her bonded mate just happened to be elsewhere, but he suspected it was something else. She’s a younger sibling, he thought. A third or fourth child, or later. Someday soon, she’s going to be forced out into that wider world, with no preparation or knowledge, just so that the Houses can stay small enough to be secret. A sacrifice for the ‘greater good’. Looking, Darrick could see the deadly seriousness behind the question, and the fear.
“I don’t think there are a lot of sex parties going on,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Not since the Seventies, anyway. And no one’s going to force you into one if you don’t want.” He hoped that he had gotten through, but her serious expression didn’t change.
“And it’s not like Atlantean boys don’t also just want one thing,” Brianna said, looking up at Tristan from where she sat at his feet, leaning back on his leg. Snaking her arm around his calf, she pinched him playfully on the thigh; Tristan jumped and caught her hand and held it.
“And Atlantean girls are all too good about keeping it,” Tristan said. “Maybe I should have tried a few outsider girls first.” Brianna pinched him harder with her free hand. “Though I’m sure it’s better this way.” There was a bit of croak to his voice at the last.
“You see what I have to put up with,” Abby said to Darrick with an ostentatious wave at the others.
“Darrick, please understand,” Meredith said, “we don’t mean any insult. We all love Abby dearly; she’s our walking proof that the outside world couldn’t be as bad as rumors make it out to be. This is all just honest curiosity.”
“Parents think they are protecting you when they tell you all these stories,” Meredith’s younger brother Matthew said. He sat on the floor on the far side of the fireplace, his bondmate Brittany beside him. “I’m sure it’s the same way everywhere. The truth is never scary enough to keep kids in line, so they make up stories to keep you from getting into trouble.” He sounded almost angry.
“Yeah, that sounds familiar,” Darrick agreed. “My parents did the same thing, and so did all of my friends’.”
“See,” Meredith said with a comforting smile to Annie. “The same everywhere.” Annie did not look reassured.
Was my mother like that once? Darrick wondered. Terrified of the outside world, knowing she would eventually have to go out into it? What kind of childhood, of life, is that?
“It is nice to be accepted somewhere,” Darrick admitted. “After Patrick, I thought I was going to have to be constantly dodging attacks the entire time I was here.” The chorus of objections to that statement nearly knocked Darrick down with their emphaticness.
“Patrick’s horrid,” Brianna said with a shudder. Tristan nodded in agreement.
“It’s a shame that he’s got so many following his example,” Meredith said. “Though it’s not as though it’s all his doing. He didn’t have to work very hard to convince any of them that you were the potential death of our civilization.” She shook her head sadly.
“Their whole panic is ludicrous,” Tristan said emphatically. “All this fear of outside blood diluting us. Do they think this is the first time outsider blood has married into an Atlantean family?”
“First time it’s married into a noble family,” said one girl whose name Darrick couldn’t remember.
“Are we sure?” Tristan protested. “Thousands of years of history since Atlantis sank, and how much of it do we really know? There are scrolls in the Great Library no one’s looked at in decades, if not centuries. Do you think the noble line has continued completely unbroken that entire time? Do you think they would tell us the truth if it hadn’t?”
“I think Richard is honest,” Meredith said.
“He might not know, then,” Tristan went on, warming to his topic. “Think about it. Even if the noble line has remained completely intact until now, we know others haven’t. The very fact that we have procedures in place for this exact situation proves that it’s happened before. And it’s a good thing that it has.”
“Of course it’s a good thing,” Abby interjected, looking fondly at Darrick.
“Obviously good for you,” Tristan said, “but I’m talking about something bigger than that. I’m no geneticist, but I do know that ten families is an awfully small base from which to build an entire race. We might not have survived without outside genes.”
“In other words,” Abby said, “without people like Darrick, we would all have ended up drooling idiots?” She looked thoughtful. “Are you sure some of us haven’t already?”
“Joking aside, that’s the gist of it,” Tristan said. “It’s happened before.”
“Like the Hapsburgs,” Darrick said, glad to finally put his history training to some use.
“Exactly!” Tristan exclaimed, leaning back in his chair, obviously convinced his work was done.
“Who?” Annie asked, her question matched by several confused expressions from the others. Even Abby looked a bit lost. Time to show off, Darrick thought.
“The Hapsburgs were a family that ruled most of Europe a few centuries ago,” he started. “They kept their power through marriage, pairing off their children to most of the royal families around them. Eventually, it got to the point where their family was so pervasive that they were marrying cousins, just to keep the various thrones within the family. The inbreeding got so bad that they started to have deformed, mentally-deficient children, incapable of actually ruling. Their refusal to marry outside the family did them in.” Once he finished, he realized Abby was smiling widely, fit to burst with pride.
“You’re so sexy when you talk history,” she said, leaning in towards him. “Tell me about the French and Indian Wars, and you can ravish me however you want.”
“Not in front of the chaperones,” Brianna said. “At least wait until we can claim plausible deniability.”
“After all,” Meredith said, “we wouldn’t want this to degenerate into a sex party.”
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