Bonding Conditions
Headmaster Wama called an Aardvark, Neulin. Bailong gave one look to the snout and dull eyes, gave a quick curt bow of acknowledgment, and looked back at the night street.
Kaizen’s cobbled streets had lights streaming from houses on both sides. These weren’t the houses one saw in a village, with solid mud walls surrounding a simple home, or a house in the city with large spaces within high walls for each person in the household. These houses were an oddity, a mix of mud, wood, bricks, and metal in various shapes, sizes, and designs. The most common thing about each of these houses was that their door opened right onto the street. Even the windows opened directly into the house as much as the doors did. The walls of the houses were the only boundary these houses had. It was effective living for a large number of people in a small space. However, they towered over everyone and everything, making the streets feel narrower than they were and dwellings smaller than usual. Security and privacy both were missing. Bailong felt Qinglong’s unease mingled with his own at the sight under the night sky.
“This a dump.” Qinglong carped half-heartedly. Bailong raised his hand and felt the pouch still resting within his lapels.
The first urgency in his mind was the scrolls. A weight he had never known before filled him up. After his aunt left, he resisted the itch to reach within his lapels. Her warning about Aides was still fresh. He glanced at Neulin once more. The young man was palish grey all over with a lanky figure, dull eyes staring intently at Headmaster Wama, absorbing instructions.
“I have a task for you. Night duty.” Headmaster Wama’s words brightened the downward eyes. Neulin nodded agreeably, looking behind the headmaster at Bailong. Bailong smiled. It was hard not to look at the snout. Neulin smiled back before turning to the Headmaster eagerly.
Headmaster Wama’s cultivation level was unknown. Bailong looked at the shoulders as wide as a man, the jut of hips like that of a woman, standing free, unlike the Headmaster image he had given off at the lake. He knew not Headmaster’s beast. No one did. Thus, Bailong did not know the headmaster’s sensory abilities. He needed to talk to Qinglong, but he couldn’t. At the very least, the headmaster was a Suzerain, if not a Supreme. Both his parents, the Dragon King and Queen, were Supremes. They were already Suzerain when he was born, which gave him an advantage over other beast and their abilities. So much so that he often surpassed other dragons in Aliferous, even as a snake.
“This is…” Headmaster Wama paused in the middle of assigning duties and turned to him.
“Aliferous does not follow the old customs, but it seems befitting to offer you a new name. There is no need to decide now. You have until the Qualifiers to think of one. More so, it is not safe to use your name for too long.”
Bailong looked away as Qinglong distractedly grunted an old saying, “With a good name comes good fortune, and with the name, it departs.”
Bailong had an idea to lighten his brother’s mood. “How about Ryuu?”
He smiled, feeling and hearing Qinglong’s indignation, “you did not say that. I was seven years old!”
“Everyone already knows about Prince Bailong’s presence,” Neulin interrupted slowly, his voice a deep, drawling grunt. Bailong sighed, “Let it be Bailong. I am from Aliferous, after all. We do not believe in the duality of spirits. I am the beast spirit, and beast spirit is me,” he repeated one of the Aliferous lessons.
Headmaster Wama turned to Neulin, “Show Prince Bailong to Aliferous quarters you prepared yesterday. Register him and help him with anything he needs.”
Neulin nodded and moved past the headmaster, but before reaching Bailong, he stopped as if in confusion, “wouldn’t you want a daytime beast to assist? I can only assist you at night.”
Bailong shook his head with another smile, trying to be as amiable as possible. “That is all the assistance I need. Tremendously grateful for helping me in troublesome times.”
Qinglong snickered at his words. However, his station on the outside did not match the inside. The urgency was going nowhere. Bailong looked away into the street again, unwilling to speak more. The aardvark started walking ahead. Despite the giant strides, Neulin’s pace was slow, his legs languid as if an ability to stretch at will existed in them, but Bailong didn’t bother to observe more. He curtsied to the headmaster and followed the aardvark. Qinglong quipped, “this headmaster’s head works like yours. He assigned you a slowpoke to keep anyone's nose out of our plans and a nighttime one.”
Bailong looked at the straight, lean figure, hunched, dragging his feet. He found the night beast uncomplicated and private. Or maybe he was too used to scheming and bullying in Aliferous. Yet, his aunt’s advice was fresh. He whispered a response, “a person is more than their looks.” Once on the street, he looked ahead in his vision and found Neulin continuing silently without a glance back. So, he risked pulling out the scrolls once there was some distance between him and the rotting inn.
Qinglong called worriedly, “We should have asked Aunt Hiwaga about it.”
Bailong did not speak. How much did he trust Lady Hiwaga? She used to visit in the early days of their childhood even when their mother was exiled but the visits had become less frequent over time until they stopped. Mother said that her sister was busy but the rejected and tired look in her grave smile was apparent. Initially Qinglong said that she might have had matters to attend to and might return in a few years but she never did. And here she was, perhaps helping their mother behind the curtain. However the last thought agitated him. She just gave him instructions on what to do based on her vision and expected hjim to comply like everyone else.
“We should be cautious of her. Let us watch out if we can usher resources.”
His brother’s mind had already wandered afar, “if my body…”
Bailong shook his head hurriedly, mind a jumble suddenly. Everything that was happening revolved around forbidden cultivation. Headmaster Wama, his aunt, his mother, his uncle- everyone knew something. He wasn’t sure if they were all looking in the same direction or different directions. If all of them were looking at different forbidden cultivation paths, he had to work hard to disrupt his uncle’s plans and save his brother. However, the possibility of everyone looking at the same forbidden cultivation was scarier. It meant that not only did his mother know how to soul bond, but if his uncle was also after the same cultivation method. It gave his brother’s death a whole new meaning. He stole his heart to stop that train of thought and began fleeting through the scrolls.
Qinglong kept talking, “soul bond. Blessed fire. Crystal of Void. Blessed objects and Immortals. So many immortals. I thought there were just one or two immortals. Just what is happening?”
The anxiousness in his chest didn’t disperse, but Bailong shook his head, and Qinglong quietened. He unrolled the last few scrolls and started reading urgently, thankful for Neulin’s silent proceeding.
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Conditions for Soul Bonding
Mutual agreement between two beasts (always)
Without a mutual agreement, the bond is always volatile and will eventually kill one or both beasts. A soul bond with no conditions below met, but this one will last a long time. The beast will be volatile, and no benefits for either beast.
The lesser beast hosts the stronger beast (always)
A spirit beast can die outside the body during bonding, in many conditions. Thus, the lesser beast should always host the stronger beast to reduce the risk of soul death. A harmed, stronger beast's soul can recuperate within the weaker host and inhabit without dissolving. If the weaker soul beast in the harmed state lives within the stronger beast, it risks being dissolved or soul death. It can enhance or create new abilities for both beasts if done right.
Shared bloodline
Bloodline has a lot of power. People of the same bloodline usually have similar beasts. With mutual agreement, they can both reap each other’s abilities.
Same age (if possible)
Old customs required royalty to form soul bonds with other greater beasts in their family line for a few years, with a mutual agreement for greater benefits for both. A few royalties bonded with their newborn kin to dissolve their beasts, powers, or competition. This caused the cultivation practise to be forbidden.
A wide scale hunt for specific abilities that could enforce a soul bond also ensued, adding to the reason for its ban.
It is sometimes hard to determine the lesser beast because age and abilities do not always equate. Being of the same age, both sides can host each other’s beasts. Best observed between twins.
Same beast
The stability of this bond depends on the number of above conditions met in the soul bond. If all the other conditions are met and both sides have the same beast with the same abilities, soul bonding can jump cultivation levels for both sides.
Idealistic condition, outside of the twin soul bond.
Same element
Outside of the twin bond, if there are two identical beasts belonging to the same element; An idealistic, indefinite, soul bond is possible.
Sunbirds are the closest example of this bond. The only thing that makes soul-bonded sunbirds unstable is the difference in abilities and age.
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Qinglong’s voice rang in his head, “Unstable.”
The bond between him and his brother barely met any conditions. They knew a few twins, his mother knew many. As a pair of twins, their growth, their looks, even their beast marks should have been identical. And twins who had all that could soul bond as a general rule after a certain age, but he and Qinglong were unique among the twins' race. As twins, they should be able to soul bond, but they were the first pair of known twins who were not identical in any sense.
Apart from the disparity, the conditions answered a lot of questions: the wings, the eyes. Between him and Qinglong, Qinglong was the stronger beast, which meant he was doing well, but for how long, it was hard to say. Changing form was volatile for them.
Neulin turned a corner ahead. Bailong used the moment the stuff the scroll back in. Qinglong was snide-less too, blown over by the new revelation. His heart was beating in his ears when they reached a strange street. It was like any other in Kaizen with a prominent Aliferous presence. All the structures on the street were moonlight reflecting white, thrown with other shades of color. His new abode was white with a silver design carved beautifully in the front.
“Welcome Prince Bailong. Suzerain has arranged everything for your comfort and need. Tomorrow, we can go for registration. It’s a simple process.”
Neulin walked over to a pair of the dragon carved metal doors. Neulin pressed the eyes of the dragons in combination, telling him how the doors worked. Bailong paid little attention as the mechanism was the same as back home. A deep ache boomed within. He didn’t know when he would be back home again. With everything that was going on, he knew saving his family wouldn’t be a simple matter.
“Do you need anything now?” Neulin asked, letting him enter first.
Bailong shook his head absently. It was a simple setup of bed, table, teapot, herbs, scrolls, ink, and a few pairs of white and brown clothes. Neulin gave him a quick nod and silently.
“I didn’t know slowpokes can be perspective too,” Qinglong spoke in his characteristic style, but it only made Bailong ache more.
“Aren’t you too?” Bailong asked, jabbing back.
“Who are you calling a slowpoke?” Qinglong snapped playfully. Bailong unruffled the rest of the scrolls to read.
It was another letter from Enya, widely different from the ones before.
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You have doomed me. You have doomed me, Hiraya.
Baolong is after my family. He couldn’t find a strong enough enforcer. He is looking for the Blessed Fire now. We don’t know for how long we can run.
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There was no start, or an end to it, scribbled in a rush. Qinglong burst through his chest, speaking in his head as the striking blue dragon eyes looked at him, “that traitor was looking to create soul bonds.”
It was just as he thought. The coup wasn't a coup; it was so much more. All of them were looking in one direction, which made the search for the Blessed Fire a race against the Black Dragon. However, his mother didn’t know the location, only suspicions. What was to say that Black Dragon did know the location? But the black dragon was looking for Blessed Fire long before today while his mother was in exiled confinement.
Bailong realised the scale of the problem. He pressed his lips together, holding back shivers that threatened his soul. Qinglong, in dragon form, bent his long neck to press his translucent spirit head against Bailong’s. Bailong felt the warmth, but nothing else. The many obstacles, unanswered question and formidable enemies were only mounting before him. He had no way to defeat them. Had the black dragon found the Blessed Fire? Was he soul bonded, or was he looking for someone to soul bond? The warmth against his head, his mother’s dagger in his brother’s chest, caused an ominous feeling. The more he thought about it, the more questions it raised. Their soul bond was not as simple as it looked.
He looked at the last letter, his words hurried, his fears had come true, “I suspected. Or else mother would have made you leave, not… this.”
It was too painful for either of them to speak the words. No matter how forgiving Qinglong was, his current state was a thorn in their common heart now. Bailong turned his attention to the letter.
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Hiraya
Protect my son. You owe it to me. Don’t let the blessed fire fall into the wrong hands, or else we are all doomed.
Enya
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“Son? Do you think her son knows something? How are we going to find him?” Qinglong asked thoughtfully, but Bailong felt his heart clench. Other letters sounded like farewell, but this letter spoke of her leaving forever. This was a letter predicting death.
Bailong shook with effort, trying not to shed more tears. Silence stretched in the room as Bailong breathed deeply. With each breath, the hands clutching onto the paper loosened. Eventually, he spoke. “even if she had a son, he might be young then and not know much. Let’s begin with what we know. First, we should accompany aunt back to Aliferous to help mother and father. We should learn all there is to learn about uncle’s plans. Then, let’s head to the old ruins.”
A knock rang on his door. It was Neulin with a book in hand. The title read, “Old Ruins.”
Qinglong quipped, “Headmaster Wama is pretty quick.”
Neulin gave him the book, eyes darting around the room. Bailong didn’t fail to notice that the unusually dull eyes were exceptionally sharp for a split second, wiggling his nose, smelling something. Qinglong was hiding in the corner, out of sight. Neulin paused for a moment, looking at him keenly before he turned and left without a word.
“Not as simple as I thought,” Qinglong muttered, making Bailong smile.