Today was the day. Akila of Tinja, the priestess of the Love Goddess Harika, had come to their home and announced that she had an important gift for Priya. This was the way of things: the priestess could not bring the gift to the home, instead, the child had to visit the temple and collect their gift. But they always knew what it meant when she came: she had made the gift with their hair and their tears and their soul, and she knew the name of their soulmate.

The idea of soulmates had been foreign to Will when he had first arrived in this world. But here, everyone knew that they had someone they were destined to meet sometime in their life, someone who they were meant to love with all their heart. It was a beautiful idea, one that Priya, like anyone else, cherished. She was surprised to find that people did not have this same belief in Will's world. The fact that she, Priya of Tinja, had a soulmate, was something as true as the air she breathed, to her. But in Will's world, that wasn't true. So she never mentioned it to her friends, who thought she was strange enough, because she was pale and smelled weird and would disappear for months at a time, stating only that her absence was for medical reasons.

But in her world, she could dance in the streets and praise Harika and give her many thanks to Seleniah and laugh with the other children who came to celebrate with her. She was about to learn the name of her soulmate!

The next day was the real day, the day that she would visit the temple. In the morning, she bathed with rose petals and dressed in her finest dress. She had Will put her hair up before she did her morning ritual of applying her lavender perfume and putting on her silver jewelry. Will kissed her forehead and she kissed his before she went off on her own to the temple.

The first time she asked Will about soulmates was a year after they first met. It was the day of the full moon, which meant she would spend the morning cleaning Seleniah's temple and prepare a feast afterward. These tasks were completed with the help of the two other priestesses in Tinja, Castillo and Maria. Will always offered to help, but the priestesses always shook their heads, insisting that this was a job meant for the goddess's priestesses and her priestesses alone.

But it was a boring and monotonous task, so Will did talk to Priya while she worked. She was dusting some statues in the entrance when she asked him.

"Will, do you know your soulmate's name?"

The question took him by surprise. Well, of course he knew his soulmate's name. But how could he tell her? How could he tell this girl that he had met his soulmate, but lost her? The idea of losing your soulmate was so awful to these people that her heart would break for him, and he couldn't do that to this girl who was like a daughter to him.

But he said "yes" anyway.

He wouldn't tell Priya what her name was.

The second time was a few months later. Every morning, Priya would tell Seleniah her wishes and burn a piece of paper like she did with her thanks each night. Now that she was old enough to want it, most mornings she would ask to know her soulmate's name.

One morning, after her ritual, she asked Will, "what's your soulmate's name?"

But he wouldn't tell.

So she kept asking, day after day, week after week, until two months later, he finally gave in.

"Her name is Lyra," he said. "Lyra Silvertongue."

She nodded her head. "That's a good name."

One day it occurred to Priya that in Will's world, he wouldn't have gotten a gift telling him what his soulmate's name was, so she had to ask. "How do you know her name?"

And he couldn't think of a reasonable explanation, so he just shook his head and told her it didn't matter. But to Priya, it mattered a great deal, because soulmates mattered a great deal to her, Will mattered a great deal to her, and so of course Will's soulmate mattered to her!

It took longer, four months maybe, to get three very important words out of him: I've met her.

Priya wanted to know so badly. If Will had met his soulmate, why wasn't she here, with him, with them? Will was like her father, and was her legal guardian, in his world. Knowing what happened to Will's soulmate was as important to her as if this girl, this Lyra Silvertongue, was her mother.

But Will would not give in. Not even after three whole months of begging, pleading, and bribing. Finally, she tried a new tactic. She would not speak to him or acknowledge him or even offer him a paper for wishes and thanks until he told her. Once she vowed this, she kept her promise. He was as good as invisible for a week before he finally caved and promised he'd tell the whole story, but she'd have to wait until tomorrow.

The next day, after wishes, they sat down together, each with a cup of tea, and Will began his story. "When I was thirteen, my mother, Elaine…"

He told the story of finding his way to Cittagazze, and of meeting Lyra, and of losing his fingers (which was something Priya had never dared ask about), and of meeting the witches, and of meeting and losing his father, and of losing Lyra for the first time ("was that how you lost her?" "No, hush up, I found her again"), and of saving her from her mother, and of saving the dead, and of the world of the Mulefa, and of falling in love, and then, abruptly, being torn away from that love.

In every word Will spoke about Lyra, Priya could hear the love and the longing. She could see on his face and in his eyes that this girl was undoubtedly his soulmate, the love he'd been waiting for all his life. But really, he'd never been waiting for her. She'd come to him when he needed her, even if he hadn't wanted her. And now that she'd been taken away, he was doing the waiting. Somehow, this was a thousand times worse than spending all your life looking for your soulmate and only getting to spend a few years with them. Somehow, Will's story was a thousand times worse than any story she'd ever heard.

And so, at the end, the father and daughter who had chosen each other held each other tightly and cried. They wept and wept all through Priya's evening rituals, and salty tears still fell down their faces as they said their thanks. Priya thanked the goddess for Lyra Silvertongue, and Will finally thanked someone for the short time he'd had with her.

After that day, Will shared his most sacred tradition with her. Every year on Midsummer's Day, they would go to the Botanic Garden and sit on the bench from dawn to dusk. Will would reminisce about his adventures. Priya would daydream about what her soulmate might be like. And both would treasure this time they had with Lyra.

As she made her way to the temple, Priya prayed over and over, to Seleniah and to Harika, that she wouldn't lose her soulmate. She didn't care if she only got to spend an hour with her soulmate, so long as they died together, good and proper, like soulmates should.

(People in Will's world might disagree, but they could think what they like)

She walked up to the temple and bowed to the statue of Harika before facing the priestess. Akila smiled and walked up to Priya.

"Priya of Tinja," she said, holding out a carved box. "I give you this gift as my goddess cannot. If she could, she would descend from the heavens to give you this gift made of your own soul, but she cannot, and so I must stand in her place. Take good care of this."

Priya took the box with trembling fingers. "I will."

"Open it when you get home. Treasure it. The name is carved into it."

Priya nodded, bowed, and left the temple. She ran home as fast as her feet would carry her, rushing back to her and Will's little house that they had made themselves. She pushed through the door and twirled around, shouting "Will! Come here! It's time!"

Will rushed down the stairs holding the piece of leather that he sometimes carried with him. She knew it was from the sheath of the knife he'd used to cut between worlds, because she'd asked once, and she knew he only took it out when he was remembering. She looked into his eyes, asking a silent question: are you okay?

He nodded and smiled and said "Go on, open it!"

And so Priya grinned her widest grin and started to open the box.

The latch was made of gold, so she had to be careful with it. She didn't know what kind of wood the box was made of, but it was as precious to her as anything. She opened the box slowly, savoring the moment. Will stood behind her, leaning over her shoulder to see. They gasped at once when the box was open.

The gift was a pair of beautiful earrings. They were silver, and inlaid with tiny pieces of diamond, emerald, and sapphire, put together so that they each looked like miniature waterfalls. Dynamic. Moving. A rush. The flow of water. Priya was fascinated with them. How could something so small be so intricate and beautiful and perfect? How could Harika tell her so much with just this one gift? And also - they were silver! That meant she could wear them whenever she liked.

There was a top piece of each earring that was a solid surface, and Priya supposed that was where the name would be. She flipped over one earring, then the other, and there! In small, neat letters was a name: Penelope.

Priya stood in front of the mirror that Will had brought for her from his world. She looked the same as she had this morning. She took the earrings from their special box and fastened each one into its place dangling from her earlobe. She had other piercings higher up, but she would use those for the jewelry Seleniah had gifted her with. These needed to be prominent. She wanted to show off her waterfalls, and she wanted to show off her Penelope.

Penelope. The name made her smile and giggle. It was her little secret that she shared only with Will. No one would know that name until they knew the face that went with it. It was almost taboo to go around sharing the name of your soulmate. It was such a personal thing. Other people would find out eventually, when they had to. But for now, Penelope was hers and hers only.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! I know it's kind of short, but for now everything's just getting started, and I promise in a few chapters things will pick up pace and chapters will get a little longer.

3 Ivy