Obligations
by Wiebke Fesch

Same disclaimers and notes as Part 1.

-----CHAPTER 7-----

Gelaming or not, almost as soon as Tarra and Ashmael were out the door, Seel and Swift both collapsed in a fit of giggles. By the time they were through, Swift had arranged himself across the sofa with his head in Seel's lap.

"He didn't even say goodbye!" Seel burst out.

"Yes, and we might not see him again for days!" Swift smiled up at Seel. "I suppose I can't blame him, though."

Seel's expression became bit more serious, the amusement wearing off. "No, no, that must have been terrible. Abstinent -- for that long! Can you imagine that"

Swift rolled his eyes. "Well, just think, Seel, remember Imbrilim? I was really getting uncomfortable towards the end; they were keeping me so chaste. And that wasn't nearly as long."

"Ah, yes," Seel recalled, fingers running through Swift's hair. "Both of us were waiting for one another, although we didn't know it for the longest time."

Swift sighed. For a minute or so, he laid back remembering. It had been a long day of too much talking.

Finally Seel brought an end to the quiet and a start to yet more discussion. "So, Swift, now that we're alone, tell me more about this inception coming up. Are you nervous?"

Swift started to say "No," but then he stopped. Seel always knew when he was lying. They had been bonded in blood and shared the same soul. There was little inside Swift that Seel did not know.

"A little," Swift confessed. "As I said, I've never been called upon before. And despite everything we talked about earlier, there are just some things that make me feel funny about it."

"Funny?" Seel queried. "What do you mean? Someone is needed, you were suggested, you were accepted, you will do it. It's perfectly natural. What's funny about that?"

"Oh, you wouldn't understand." Swift swung his feet back onto the floor and sat up.

Sensing an attempt at creating distance, Seel reached out and took his partner's arm. "I wouldn't? What is it? If there's something that's bothering you, something you have a question about, of course you can tell me. I know you haven't done this before, but I have enough experience for both of us. We both know I'm old enough to be your father, maybe your grandfather."

"That's just the trouble, Seel. You're so much older..."

"This is a problem?" Seel asked.

Swift glared at him. Holding out was going to be impossible. "All right. Fine. But this is for your ears only: Just a couple of years ago, I was just a very young har. I was just Swift. And now, since then, I'm still Swift, but now I'm a great ruler, qualified to make decisions and fight battles and even father a pearl!"

"You went from childhood straight into adulthood, and not just adulthood, but a heavily responsible adulthood," Seel observed sympathetically.

"Yes, that's what I'm talking about. And with this inception, I'm moving onto another layer of responsibility and what's more, I'm wielding that responsibility -- directly, not just as a ruler -- over someone older than I am. Ranat is 14, Seel."

"Human years, Swift, human years." Seel smoothed his hand over Swift's arm. "He's still a child."

"Oh? And when will he become an adult?" Swift demanded. "A week from now, when he's har like us?"

"Oh, Swift. You're being difficult." Seel sighed. "That's not how it works. How it works is this: Ranat will be incepted. Shortly afterward, he will begin his caste training. In the training, he will learn the ways of Wraeththu. His mind and body will be schooled into adulthood and he will become mature -- mentally and physically. It will not take long -- in a year, most of the work will be done. Just as your early education with Swithe and Moswell made it easy for you to make the transition, so I suspect Ranat's having grown up with a full-grown har will have prepared him well for the disciplines of caste training. And think, too -- Tarra will certainly be an inspirational role model!"

"True enough," Swift admitted, "but what I worry about is... are hara like you and Ashmael -- older -- are you more 'adult' than I am? Do you look down on me?"

"Swift!" Seel exclaimed. "The notions that get into your head. Look down on you? Swift, we treasure you. You and your generation -- you are our first pure-born generation, our precious line of pearls. You may not have our long years, our battle scars, but you have other visions, other things to share, other kinds of knowledge to impart. And because of that, for all your youth, you are just as adult as I am."

Swift blushed. "Thanks. That's what I needed to hear."

They talked for a few more minutes and then, noticing the hour on the large clock on the fireplace mantle, decided it was high time for bed. Rounding the corner to the wing of bedrooms, Swift took hold of Seel's arm, slowing him down. "Third door to the left is Tarra's room," he said quietly.

He needn't have made the announcement, as the long-anticipated aruna made itself known, loud and clear, to the ears. "Perhaps we should have given Tarra our bedroom -- it's in the corner with thick walls," Seel whispered.

"Oh, really? And who's to say _we_ won't be needing the extra sound protection tonight?" Swift giggled and ran down the length of the hall, all his tension gone. He flung open the master bedroom door. "Come on!"

TBC...