Chapter 19

Part 3

“Good.” Yazadril nodded. “Now I’ll release the Illusion, and it will go back to white light.

“Theramin, I’ll send you the Reading I took of you watching me, while using it as the basis of the Illusion and the Light spell, and you will cast the sound of it, please.”

“Mark, you should next see a picture of me saying; shared Reading, first test, and clapping my hands, just as I did a moment ago, and you should hear me say it and the sound of the clapping, as well.

Theramin’s face set in firm concentration, matching Yazadril’s expression as they cast.

“It works! I can see it and hear it!” Mark told them excitedly.

“Good. It gives me a disorienting triple vision, but it will work” Yazadril stated, a little tensely.

“Well done.” Alilia was forced to admit.

“It gives me quadruple vision.” Theramin stated as he let his spells fade and shook his head a bit. “I see you, Yazadril, and I see you in the Reading, and I see the Illusion of you, and I see the Light projection of you. Thankfully, it will be less complex when we do Talia’s Reading.”

“Indeed.” Yazadril nodded as he turned to his daughter. “I will hold the first moment of the Reading until I have my four spells stabilized, and Theramin has his Sound casting ready. Try to be brave, my child. This will be very painful for all of us.”

“I... I know it will, Father.” Talia quietly agreed. “You should begin the Reading at the moment Bezedil arrived. And end it where Bezedil’s Reading began. You already know what happened after that.”

“But Mark does not.” Yazadril gently pointed out. Talia hesitated, then nodded, and Yazadril gave her a supportive embrace. “All right then. We begin.” With that, he placed his hands gently on the sides of her bowed head, and closed his eyed in concentration.

The light on the cloth changed to a view of the interior of Yazadril’s central room, as seen from the doorway into the kitchen. In it, Yazadril faced Bezedil, who was still holding his palm to the top of Alilia’s dark wood chest, beside Alilia, though the elves present knew it was only her Projection. Arrayed around them were Nemia and the rest of the senior wizards, not all of them close enough to see in the viewing. The moment was frozen, and none of the figures moved.

“Talia feels love at first sight for Bezedil.” Nemia stated quietly. “Her heart races, her throat is constricting so she can hardly breathe, and she thrills to the sight of him. She is aware of her sister Dalia standing to her left, who is leaning close to speak privately.”

“I am ready, Yazadril.” Theramin said.

The scene took on motion, and over the other sounds in the room, Dalia’s voice was heard speaking a melodic language Mark had never heard before. Nemia’s translation came a heartbeat after the spoken words, and with her commentary, Mark was given an understanding almost as complete as that of the elves as the scene unfolded.

“Look at him! He is delicious!” Dalia giggled.

“He is my destined love!” Talia quietly exclaimed her realization.

“Ha! There is no destined love, you silly squirrel, as I have told you many times before!” Dalia laughed. “Love is where you find it! Three times before you have thought that a cute new boy was your destined love! And all three times I have been a dutiful sister, and stood patiently aside when I could have been enjoying his pleasures, while you mooned over him for weeks! And then of course, you finally decide that he is not your destined love after all, though I know not how you could decide such a thing without even sharing your virgin body!

“Well, I am afraid I will not be so generous this time, dear Talia! This one is too scrumptious to pass up, and I will be enjoying him by this afternoon, you can be sure of it!”

“No, you do not understand!” Talia blurted excitedly. “Those other times I thought that those boys might be my destined love, but this time I am absolutely sure of it! More sure of it than I have ever been of anything in my life before! Bezedil is my destined love! I have seen him in my dreams, Dalia, I swear that I have, though I did not remember those dreams until now!”

“Well he is no virgin, I can tell that just by looking at him!” Dalia teased. “So I will not be despoiling him with my pleasure, and you can have him when I am done with him! Besides, the way my heart races to look upon him, I may fall in love with him myself!”

“No! Please, Dalia! I tell you he is truly my destined love!”

“Well then, just walk right over there and tell him so! If you cannot overcome your shyness to save him from my caresses, perhaps he is not your destined love after all!”

Talia gazed at Bezedil, overcome with longing for him, yet the thought of just walking over and speaking with him filled her with overwhelming timidness. “Please Dalia, just give me a few moments! You know how I am!”

“To the bold goes the prize then!” Dalia laughed. “I am sorry, sister of mine. You can go first the next time.”

A moment later Yazadril had finished introducing his wife and the wizards to Bezedil, and Dalia approached them, while Talia stood helplessly.

“You!” Bezedil exclaimed upon spying her.

“My fame precedes me!” Dalia laughed, performing a graceful curtsy.

As she rose, Bezedil gently took her hand, bowed low over it, and gently kissed it.

“Ahh, Bezedil, I present my daughter Dalia. Dalia, this is Alilia’s son Bezedil.” Yazadril said, a bit uncomfortable with the intensity with which the two were gazing into each other’s eyes.

“Come. I will show you my room.” Dalia said, her smile bright and her eyes glinting as she took his hand and led him away.

Talia could not help but discretely follow as far as the entrance to the hall, and once Dalia’s door shut behind them she could not help but move to it, her heart crushed within her. A few moments later she heard Dalia giggle through the door, then speak.

“My! You waste no time, do you, my handsome steed?” Dalia laughed.

“I have waited too long already!” Bezedil chuckled in return.

A few minutes later Talia heard her sister’s rising sounds of passion, and she collapsed to the floor and quietly cried.

Under the edge of the trees, her back to Mark and the elves monitoring the Reading, Talia gave a choked sob and tearfully spoke:

“I should not have eavesdropped. I knew it was wrong, but I could not help myself. I could hear them as they made love for the next forty-five minutes, and I assure you that nothing else happened or was said during that time. May we move the Reading ahead, past that time, please?”

“That would be best.” Alilia nodded, barely able to speak.

“All right.” Yazadril quietly agreed, and he let the light and the illusion fade. “I’ve already taken the entire Reading from Talia, so that I could have more concentration available to display it. I’ll quickly skip forward to the next actions or spoken words, and we’ll continue from there.”

He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed for a moment. “Ah. Here it is. If you are ready, Theramin, we will continue.”

At Theramin’s nod, the review of the Reading resumed.

It revealed that Talia lay curled on her side on the floor of the hallway, quietly weeping, and her heart felt like poisoned rot within her.

“Oh! Oh Bezedil, a pause, please, give me a pause!” Dalia was heard to gasp behind the closed bedroom door. “Your passion has exhausted me! I must recover before I can sustain even another moment of pleasure!”

“As you wish, my love, always.” Bezedil chuckled.

“My love.” Dalia said in wonder, and it was unclear whether she addressed Bezedil thusly, or merely repeated his words, marveling that he should speak them to her.