SciMusant

"If you are sufficiently refreshed, we should venture back outside. There is something I must show you."

They exited Soval's home, passing through the verdant garden again before taking to the streets. The sun was lower in the sky, the heat somewhat more tolerable, and Kirk found himself enjoying the greater number of passersby, their heads politely lowered so as not to make direct eye contact. As was the case in Soval's household, no one seemed particularly surprised at the sight of a Human in their midst.

They passed a number of shops and homes before the street widened into a plaza, at the far end of which was a low, elaborately decorated building. Soval nodded in its direction. "Our destination. The Temple of the Ancients."

They were ushered inside by a man who Kirk guessed could actually have been one of the Ancients as he pointed with an impressively gnarled hand toward a chamber off the main sanctuary. Once again, Kirk was surprised at the coolness of the temple's interior, and his mind skipped to the memory of a school field trip during which a weary museum docent asked the third graders to place their hands inside a giant termite mound. Only Jimmy had dared it, his mouth dropping in surprise at the chill of the interior relative to the outside, the other children shrieking at what they supposed to be his alarm at his hand being completely devoured by the ravenous occupants.

The light of several votive candles flickered off the antechamber's walls, illuminating the sandstone carvings that lined them just under the low ceiling. Some of the carvings depicted what seemed to Kirk to be Eden, or a place very like it; others comprised tableaux of battle, huge armies on either side of a valley like the one in which ShiKahr lay, large godlike figures descending from the sky to aid or demolish the combatants.

"Scenes from our history," murmured Soval, "before the Time of Awakening. Look, James, over here."

He was at the far wall, beneath a series of carvings that began with another battle scene. But instead of featuring gods of war, this one depicted two men leading an army to victory in the campaign for the valley; the next showed them standing together on a hillside, observing the growing and prosperous village below. Kirk scanned the next few engravings to find the same two men at worship in a temple, in the streets governing the populace, sharing a meal in a tent.

"Legend tells us that this city was founded by these two men. They were t'hy'la. The closest translation I know of is 'shieldmate,' but the connection runs much deeper than that of mere battle. They were brothers in arms, but also brothers. Closer than brothers." The candles shone in his eyes as he looked at Kirk. "This is what you and your t'hy'la share. A bond that transcends mere friendship or blood. It is the most intimate, most precious of personal relationships. A true pairing, equal partners in every realm of corporeal life, and, if legend is to be believed, life hereafter."

"'Most intimate'...? Do you mean...I mean, were they..."

Soval gestured at the last carving. "They share a tent. The implication is plain."

"Would they have been bonded like regular Vulcan mates are? In childhood, by their parents?"

Do it

do it

"Wait. There's something I don't understand. He told me we bonded through a mind meld he initiated to save my life. Are you saying that we were bonded before that? That he had nothing to do with setting it up?"

Soval glanced up at the last carving before turning back to meet Kirk's tense gaze. "He would have been no more able to create a bond with you than build a tower without bricks. He may have used the bond to help you when you needed help, but that bond already existed. You were both born into it. It was your destiny."


 

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