I don't know anything... and I was going to make tales tarot art but some groups already doing that so I might as well delete that shit because why bother when people have already done it and they're better artists

Yuri couldn't believe it, "You mean the Union doesn't mandate soulmates?"

Karol shrugged his shoulders as the walked along the way to Emhead hill. "Well, yeah. I mean, there's no real way to enforce it."

Yuri remembered though the way the knights would actually walk around checking their bands. He remembers the way there were necessary rewards to keep you fed if you proved you were properly wearing your band. He remembers so many little things that were just always there prodding at you to keep your band on. That if you didn't get a mark you needed to be corrected.

There was this one kid- he thinks her name was Delilah- who took off her band and refused to wear it beyond getting food or keeping the guards happy. She hated it, said she didn't want to be someone's wife. And then one day the knights caught her and lamented that she was too old to mark now. Yuri never saw her again and when he asked all he got were quiet looks and the statement from Hanks to keep his band on.

"People without marks... children... they won't grow up right. The mark doesn't just tell you who to love. It keeps us healthy and unless fate decides otherwise a person without a mark needs to be removed for the good of the community."

And when the three of them asked Karol of the matter he quirked an awkward brow. "It's just not that big of a deal in the Union. I mean, yeah most people have soulmates but it's all voluntary."

Yuri looked at the band glinting on Karol's wrist, "So you volunteered?"

Karol laughs nervously and rubs the back of his head. "Yeah… I just figured it be easier than trying to figure it all out."

"Should it be that easy?" Yuri blurted. "I mean, love is supposed to be the most complicated emotion you'll ever feel so why is it supposed to be simple?"

A silence falls and Rita snorts, "Wow, that is more profound than I ever thought you could be."

Yuri rolls his eyes and gives a deep heavy sigh because you know what he can be deep as fuck too, ya know. Karol carries himself awkwardly and mutters, "Everything else in life has been hard so what if I want things easy… Besides if I don't…"

And Yuri has been listening well enough to know that this has to do with a girl. There's a part of Yuri that is annoyed at the notion of making such an important decision in hopes luck will give you what you want but he also gets it. You want it to be easy and you want to be happy.

But soulmates have frankly made him miserable.

And here's this kid who actually gets to choose to be free of that… To just not be in love because of some little design on his wrist. To not need to see a person or else your brain starts to slowly collapse in itself. But it does leave him wondering…

"People without marks… they any different than us?"

"Um, not that I know of. A lot of people still get them at some point so I actually don't know a lot."

Rita is the one who stops, "Wait… they can get them past puberty?"

"Geez, what kind of system does the empire use? Of course, you can get them whenever. It's just better for you if you get it younger."

So that's it? It's as much of a lie as he thought it was… Flynn- he knows Flynn has to know this. Why the hell did life have to hand them all the shit cards? Always being told that there was no other way to live without soulmates and here Karol is saying that if they had been born in the Union Flynn wouldn't have nearly died from drug abuse or Yuri could have been left alone for not loving Flynn like he was told he should have.

"If you loved him more he wouldn't have taken all those pills."

Just the more he thinks about the more- the more- more-

His body drops to the ground and he can't move. He hears the yelps of concern and the fear for his safety but Yuri is familiar with this. He let it get too personal so now his mark is punishing him. Flynn will usually sob and say stuff while his body is content to stop all function and force him to think about Flynn and only Flynn.

God… They could have had the chance to be apart from this.