Lillene

Enjoy!

“So when are you two going to actually get married? You’ve been together for years and you even have a child, why aren’t you married yet?” 

Serenity froze. That wasn’t a question to hear the first time in months that he was home when Rissa had company over. What was her friend’s name, Christine, maybe?

Rissa laughed softly at her friend’s question. “I’m not sure we will. It’s not important to me, and as for Serenity - well, I think he’s forgotten that we aren’t. It really doesn’t matter.”

“But … how do you know you’ll stay together if you aren’t married?” Christine sounded confused.

Rissa’s laugh this time was more like a surprised snort. “How do we know we’ll stay together if we aren’t married? How do you know you’ll stay together when you are married? It’s the same thing; you work at the relationship and deal with each others’ foibles. I know Serenity has my best interests at heart. If he’s wrong about how he expresses himself, I talk to him and we work it out. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but we make it work. He yields more than I do, and he doesn’t even think about it that way. So I try not to push too hard.”

“Then …” Christine sounded doubtful for a moment, then firmer. “Then you should get married for your childrens’ sake. Children do better in households with two married parents.”

Rissa sighed. Even though he couldn’t see her, Serenity knew her well enough to know that she had to be shaking her head. “Jenna and any other children we have will have a lot more than two parents. In any case, I can’t believe that a piece of paper matters to a child who doesn’t even know it exists. Why don’t we head to the theater?”

“I thought we were watching Sons of the Seven here? It’s not in theaters anymore.” Christine sounded just plain confused now.

“We are.” Just like the earlier headshake, Serenity didn’t have to see Rissa to know she had a sharp grin that was almost a smirk at her successful surprise. “We have a theater downstairs. Come on, follow me.”

Well, at least Serenity now knew why Rissa had pushed for adding a room with theater-quality sound and a projector. It was nice for Movie Night but not necessary; clearly, she wanted to share it with her friends. That was good; she didn’t have enough friends. 

It was almost the reverse of the past, really; these days, Serenity had more friends than Rissa did. He wasn’t sure what to think about that, but he definitely had to call Blaze and Raz and Kerr his friends. Russ, as well, and even Legion was closer to being a friend than just an acquaintance. He wasn’t certain how to classify his relationship with Ita; friend didn’t seem quite right but nothing else fit either.

Still, the question hung in the air. Why hadn’t they married, in a civil ceremony if nothing else? There had been enough time, even if he had been busy. It didn’t actually take that long to get married and Serenity knew Rissa would have handled the details for him. Heck, Janice would have been quite happy to handle it. Had he really just … not thought about it since he proposed to Rissa?

There didn’t seem to be another answer. It just hadn’t been important to him. He’d asked Rissa and she’d agreed; that was all that mattered. 

When he thought about it, it made sense. He didn’t care about the approval of a deity, so religious aspects of a marriage didn’t matter to him. His friends weren’t from Earth, so they didn’t even know the difference. Why else did people get married?

Well, there were tax implications. Serenity wasn’t certain how that would affect him; he was vaguely aware that Rissa and Janna had hired someone to handle the taxes, but that was all. If it was important, they’d probably tell him, but he suspected that even if it affected how much he had to pay in taxes it wouldn’t change enough for him to notice. Aide spent more than he did, and there was no shortage of people who wanted to buy Etherium at this point. Portals were simply so useful that even with as much Etherium as Earth’s delvers were pulling out of the dungeons, the price stayed high. Most airlines were even still in business, which was something Serenity hadn’t expected to be true at this point.

Marrying for access to health insurance was even more of a joke. Rissa effectively already had Serenity’s health insurance: Blaze. While it was true that she had to pay out of pocket to actually see an Earth-based physician, they could afford it when the rare need came up. At least, he thought Rissa was paying out of pocket; it was possible she’d picked up some health insurance and he just wasn’t aware of it. He didn’t really care, either.

No, the reason to marry was expectations - whether that was his and Rissa’s expectations, their families’ expectations, or the expectations of their friends. Serenity had just heard Rissa say that she didn’t either. Serenity had already dismissed his friends as not caring and the fact that neither of his parents had ever asked and neither had Russ made Serenity think they didn’t care. Phoebe was … sort of around sometimes but she tended to make herself scarce when Rissa or Serenity walked into the room, so she certainly hadn’t said anything either. It was only Rissa’s friends who might care and Rissa clearly wasn’t bothered by that fact.

That really only left one person who both might care and had any right to say anything about it at all: Serenity himself. So did he care?

He kind of felt like he ought to, but he couldn’t think of why.

“You look like someone with a lot on your mind,” Russ greeted Serenity as he walked into the front room. “Care to share?”

Serenity shook his head, then shrugged. “Rissa has a friend over, Christine. She asked Rissa why we hadn’t gotten married. Rissa didn’t seem to care, but it seems like I ought to care. Only I don’t, and I’m not sure why.”

Russ chuckled. “You already are married, and I don’t mean just the fact that you’re living together. Look at it this way - there are two ways to get married, a civil ceremony and a religious ceremony, right? Either way, it has to be registered with the government to be treated as valid. There’s an old third way, as well, common law marriage. You meet all three, everything except registering it with the local government.”

Serenity blinked. That didn’t quite seem to follow, but he’d hear Russ out.

“Common law marriage is obvious. Maybe you two haven’t been together quite long enough yet, but that’s minor. Religious marriage is just as easy. You’re a god; you’re the head of your own religion. That means you can decide what ceremony is required. If you say you’re married, you already are in the eyes of your god.” A grin spread across Russ’s face as he spoke. This definitely suited Russ; he never seemed to quite have the same level of respect for institutions that Serenity was used to, even though he was part of one. 

“Okay, you have a point on those,” Serenity admitted. “But I’m not sure declaring myself a god really counts.”

Russ’s grin only grew wider. “You didn’t declare yourself a god, though. The Voice did. Wouldn’t it know?”

Serenity wasn’t sure how to answer that. He still wasn’t comfortable with calling himself a god, though it was starting to seem more natural. Ita’s nomenclature, calling him a Shameful One, still seemed far more appropriate sometimes even if his shame was in the past and not the present.

“And as for civil authority, well, you don’t have dominion over the people but you do over the planet and indirectly over people. You can set Earth’s foreign policy without consulting with anyone else, at least as far as choosing where portals can open to. That’s a government, even if it’s a particularly hands-off one that lets the lower organizations think they’re independent. Even if you don’t want to count Earth, there’s no doubt that you rule Tzintkra, Lyka, and Aeon.” The grin faded from Russ’s face. “The short version is that you’re married if you say you’re married, and you have. Rissa agreed with you. I’ve counted you two as married ever since I first heard you two say that. It’s what you decide, not what the government says, that matters for your relationship.”

Serenity thought about that. Russ seemed to have a point; Serenity had been acting like he and Rissa married, hadn’t he? Was that why it didn’t really seem to matter? He’d have to think about that; it would probably take some time to be certain.

“While you think, we should get to why I said I’d meet you here.” Russ winked.

Had Russ just read Serenity’s thoughts? He usually didn’t, but Serenity knew that was partly his habit of keeping his aura contained, partly his mental resistance, and partly Russ’s own politeness. Serenity had relaxed because he was at home; not only was his aura spread, he’d dropped all of his other defenses because this was Russ.

On the other hand, it was possible Russ hadn’t read his mind. Serenity knew he was predictable sometimes.

“No, your face is just an open book,” Russ told Serenity. “I didn’t read your mind, if that’s what you’re worried about. You’re still a blank to me; it’s nice. I can hear Christine from here.” Russ rolled his eyes. “She’s even more predictable than you are, and I can generally tell when you’re going to drift off into the inside of your head. Seriously, though, you said Legion finished the mapping?”

That was why he’d called Russ over, now that Russ mentioned it. “Yeah. I think I’ve worked out some of what the ritual does, too, but it’s strange. The layout is - well, I’ll show you.” Serenity led Russ into a side room, the one he’d asked Aki to grow so he’d have a place for the giant map he’d created with Legion’s results. He wasn’t certain what they’d do with the room once this was all over, but he was certain they’d find a use for it. Maybe it would become Jenna’s bedroom.

Russ stopped in the entrance and stared at the map. “This is what the ley lines were turned into?”

Serenity nodded.

Russ took a deep breath, then sighed. “You’re going to tell me that some of the symbols have to do with enhancement, magic, or power while others have to do with compression and release, aren’t you?”

Serenity frowned. How had Russ gotten that close at a guess? “None of them have to do with release or output, at least not that I’ve seen. The rest of it, though, you’re right. How did you guess?”

“The overall pattern you drew. It wasn’t obvious until you added the new houses; these lines…” Russ tapped the ones that connected the houses together. 

They weren’t part of the diagram Serenity was used to, but there were definitely minor ley lines connecting them. Oddly enough, all of the ones Russ tapped were ones Serenity had marked out as being special; they all ran underground and were especially difficult for Legion to trace. Serenity knew they were there for a reason, but he wasn’t certain what that reason was. “What are those lines?”

“If this diagram was a mage’s body, these lines would be the … well, to use the current popular term, the meridians. The lines power flows on. I know you don’t use that concept.” Russ frowned.

“Magic moves through the body in predetermined patterns, not on disconnected spaghetti-lines like that.” Serenity frowned at the diagram. Moving magic in a pattern like that would be horribly inefficient.

Russ chuckled. “That’s true with Voice-assisted magic, and probably true with all magic for you since you started with predefined spells, but that mess is closer to what it looks like naturally.”

Lillene

Rissa would tell you that having a father who happens to be telepathic means you never get away with anything unless he lets you. Of course, it also means he misunderstands you less often … which isn’t always a good thing to a teenager.