"Bonds tell me how people are connected. I've told you that, yes? When I was young and started to notice that I saw something no one else did, I thought bonds had all my answers. Who was my friend? Who would be my mentor? Who was loyal to me? But then I realized that bonds were more complicated than that.
"My village's black smith and the merchant's daughter loved each other while at the same time, they were enemies. The bonds told me that the merchant hated my mother but was her teacher. Those are only two cases in which bonds that seem to be directly opposing one another are shown to link two people together: the black smith to the merchant's daughter and the merchant to my mother."
"So did the black smith really love the merchant's daughter?" Max asked.
"Yes."
"But they're enemies," she said with a frown. "How is that possible?"
"The bond of the enemy includes the person who could expose your weakness and those who might oppose you," Chlorin said. "It is not only the one whom you might kill."669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLRPDkl5dkD
"A lover could do all those things yet still love," Tahlo mused.
"What did you see from Sparks?" Max demanded. "We understand that there are circumstances that can change the bond's meaning now. You could tell us."
Could he really tell them? Could he trust them to not overreact and assume that one of them is the spy?
Chlorin had to be honest with himself. There wasn't anyone else he could trust.
"Sparks...I see a black bond."
Max and Tahlo waited for Chlorin to continue and they gave him puzzled looks when he didn't.
"Is that all?"
"What is a black bond? It doesn't sound good."
"It's the bond of enemies. Now, don't go racing out of here," Chlorin said quickly when they looked alarmed.
Max thumped a fist to her knee. "Go on."
"Hart, the mage, also has a black bond to the captain, along with a light red bond of loyalty."
"What is the problem? Clearly Hart is loyal to some extent. At least, more than Sparks."
"Bonds don't tell the future, only what the person realizes, whether it is consciously or unconsciously. I am over simplifying it for you because it is just too deep and unexplored for neither you nor me to understand fully."
"You are talking in circles, bondseer. You're saying that Sparks might not realize that she's loyal to the captain, which is why you don't see the bond?" Tahlo asked.
Chlorin was shaking his head before Tahlo even finished speaking. "Oh, no. She's not loyal to the captain. I doubt she ever will be."
"Chlorin..." Max said in a tone warning him to make sense immediately.
"Trust me," Chlorin said. "I can't explain it, not until I am sure."
"Do you trust us?" Max asked.
"Excuse me?"
"We can tell that some part of you still thinks that we are enemies," she said. "It doesn't matter what the bond says. You only use it as a guide, not as the absolute truth. You don't believe that we are your friends."
Chlorin looked at Tahlo, who nodded in agreement. So they were able to see through his hesitation.
Max said, "You do not trust us."
Chlorin opened his mouth to answer but Tahlo raised a hand to stop him. "But we will trust you."
Alarmed, Chlorin pushed his legs until his hammock brought him further away from them. This was not what he was expecting. He would never trust someone after only meeting them for a day. None of Summer's warriors would have done so. None of them were that crazy.
Dear fallen Leaves, Autumn's warriors are more insane than we thought possible.
"Why would you trust me? I really want to know."
"One of us has to trust the other first," Max said with a shrug. "So, we will trust you."
They trusted too easily.
"We'll wait--" Max started to say when the ship rocked violently, throwing all three of them to one end of the room.
They tumbled and rammed into one another with Tahlo taking the worst of it, having been hit into the wall first.
Chlorin was the first on his feet again and he grabbed onto the handle attached to the wall as another wave slammed into them. "It's not storm season," he said to himself. "What is going on?"
"That's no storm," Max grounded out. "That's magic."
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