Since Esmera was abandoned on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, the only person who has looked out for her is herself.
Until a lark starts visiting her, leaving behind exotic flowers and iridescent pebbles that the internet doesn't recognise.
Esmera...
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For the first time, Esmera understood why the lark's flowers whispered in a foreign language, why the pebbles sparkled with light from another realm. Her familiar kept trying to contact her because of her link to a magical world she would've never imagined existed until today.
But there was something she still didn't understand.
"Why did my familiar only start visiting me on my 18th birthday if he has been bound to me since I was born?"
Lundas purred and licked Tauram's hand that dangled within his reach. Esmera glared at him.
She felt awful enough knowing there was a little bird who should've been to her what Lundas was to Tauram, that he kept reaching out to her because they had been kept separate for reasons beyond their control. She didn't need Lundas to remind her of that, to mock her for it.
Tauram absentmindedly rubbed Lundas's nose. "Familiars are bound from birth, but on the rare occasions when they're unclaimed, they seek out their sorcerers when they reach adulthood. That's when the bond between you becomes impossible to ignore, painful if they try." He met Esmera's eyes. "When you were born, your parents were concerned with the threat of the attack that finally took their lives. They never claimed your familiar on your behalf."
He gave a sad smile. "You and your familiar should've grown up together. You should've learnt how to take care of each other, how your powers work together." Tauram shook his head. "The bond between a familiar and their sorcerer is lifelong. Your lark would've been sent to a shelter for unclaimed and abandoned familiars. I have no idea how he has been slipping out of Milatanur to see you. Every day, you said?"
Esmera nodded. It didn't make any sense to her either that a little bird could—would—find a gap to sneak out of a heavily guarded fantastical land just to visit her.
She wished she had grown up with her lark. Maybe she'd have acquired his tenacity, his spirit. She'd have never been a girl who let the foster system toss her between homes where she was unwanted or a woman who let her fear keep her with a man who hurt her.
"What's it like having a familiar?" Esmera had to ask.
"It's like he completes you. He's your soulmate from a different species." Tauram smiled the softest smile Esmera had seen him wear. "There is no one you can trust more, who will be there for you through any challenge, obey your every demand and stand by you through every stupid decision you make. Your familiar will be the only being who's there for you when you have no one else."
There it was again, that wistfulness that told Esmera that Tauram was a man with a past hidden behind the words that would never betray it.
She tilted her head, studying him. "And do they feel the same way about us?"
Lundas gave his answer in a purr before he nuzzled Tauram's leg. Tauram grinned down at him, all traces of his thoughtful, remorseful self disappearing as he stroked a finger along Lundas's mottled gold and brown head.
