Mated

It’s hard to stay awake during the ritual. Sydney finds himself nodding in his seat, his head lilting to the side momentarily before he catches himself. This is his fourth time sitting through the yearly bonding ritual, where newly promoted Arc mages are matched with their future bond mates. He gets the point of the ritual. It’s an important part of balancing the Arc’s magic – too much magic left unchecked and unbalanced can burn out a mage. He just hates sitting through it.

The chanting reaches a crescendo. It wakes him a little as the steady hum of voices grows louder, more insistent, more purposeful. He shifts in his seat. It’s almost time for the bond mates to be chosen.

The first Arc mage steps up to the podium. He places his hand on the crystal globe affixed to the podium and a beam of light shoots out into the crowd. Cheering erupts and a blushing young woman steps forward, the beam tracking her every move. She takes the hand of the Arc mage and they move off to the side, smiling widely at each other.

Sydney yawns as the next candidate moves forward. Another beam of light. Another round of applause as a match is found.

Dust motes catch in the light coming in through the stained glass windows and Sydney gets distracted watching the motes dance in the air. He claps halfheartedly when the rest of the audience does. He wants to stir the water in the basins below to life, to let them dance with the dust in the air but he refrains. To do so would be blasphemy. He wonders what Cedric is doing now and whether they’ll have much time to see each other after the ceremony is over. The afterparty usually drags on for hours but Sydney just wants to get home to Cedric and spend those hours in bed.

Silence falls heavy over the audience and it takes him a moment to realize it. It’s too quiet. There should be applause but something’s interrupted the flow. He turns back to the ceremony only to find that everyone is staring at him. Panic hits him, making his chest tighten and his face grow hot. He looks down with growing horror to find the beam of light, that cursed beam of light, hitting him square in the chest.